Pachter: PS3 battered 360 in the US last month

Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter has just issued a research note saying his firm expects PS3 to have significantly outsold Xbox 360 in the US in June.

"Our estimate reflects $561 million in sales contribution from new platforms (PS3, Wii, 360, PSP and DS) and current generation software sales of $84 million," he said. "We forecast that PS2 software sales will decline 34% year-over-year, and note that the rate of decline has averaged below 25% year-to-date.

"We estimate sell-through of 750,000 Wii, 235,000 Xbox 360 and 375,000 PS3 consoles. Our console sell-through forecasts reflect our belief that supplies for Wii hardware were steady this month, and our belief that PS3 hardware sales grew in the month due to the release of PS3 exclusive MGS 4 and a special Wal-Mart promotion."

The analyst said that he expects a good rise for June 2008 year-on-year.

"We forecast sales of $645 million, +19% compared to last year’s $542 million," he said.

The official June NPD results will release on Thursday.