280: The Crystal Ball of Michael Pachter

[Tracey John]

The Crystal Ball of Michael Pachter

The most well-known industry analyst (who else can you name?) tells us how he uses the press to get more money, shrugs off fanboys, and predicts the future of the videogame business.

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[paketep]

COME ON, Escapist!.

It's bad enough that you and everybody publish whatever drivel Pachter says in a given week as news. But now, a puff article?. Everybody already knows how much of a tool this guy is.

Please, please, please, stop wasting our bandwidth with Pachter and his pulled-out-of-his-ass predictions. Enough is enough.

 

[Bloodeye]

An article on Pachter? Yuck. Poor form escapist.

 

[DTWolfwood]

"Because I'm fearless, that means I'm not as cautious as I probably should be, and I say things that upset people. I'll say things like, 'The PSP Go is a rip-off,' and it hurts Sony's feelings. I didn't mean to hurt their feelings, but it was pretty expensive!"

I changed my mind about this guy! He is alright by me! XD

In all fairness he is right, that he is the only analyst I can name and that is something to his credit. Sometimes I don't see the trends he sees but in all honesty I can see where it comes from.

Also like the fact he was candid about y he does what he does

"...I use the press to promote myself so that more investors want to talk to me. That helps me get paid more money."

p.s. yall really should read it, remember never judge a book by its cover

 

[Worgen]

well I suppose he had to be right about something, guessing game sales seems like about it tho

 

[Tharticus]

While most of the gaming community loathes or calls Michael Pachter insane (even me), Mr. Pachter has an impressive record. His brutal honesty pretty much shows.

The hardest truth of all, the fan boys who said that Mr. Pachter should kill himself for having to recommend charging subscriptions for Call of Duty games, this is what he does for a living. He isn't a fan boy, he's a analyst for the gaming industry and see if any games is successful in relation to the publisher as well as satisfy his clients who invested money into the publishers.

After all, video games industry is growing. Should the media become bored and see a murder simulator, Mr. Pachter would say "This game would not perform well unless it's Grand Theft Auto" to his clients.

 

[Explorator Vimes]

Huh, I hadn't heard much about this guy until this article and then did some digging. Seems like an interesting fellow all told, and yea I don't have to agree with him to tip my hat to someone speaking his mind and saying to heck with the opinion polls. He really doesn't have to care what any of us think, we're not his target audience, demographic, whatever. So kudos Mr. Pachter on making money, being productive, and occasionally giving me a laugh with some of the old stuff I looked up that you wrote.

 

[jackanderson]

An interesting article that made me only slightly realise that this whole "predicting stuff that may or may not happen" is harder than it seems.

Still hate the man, mind. And I think I would love you forever, Escapist, if you never publish an article on the latest bullshit spewed out of his mouth ever again.

 

[veloper]

I never understood all the pachter hate.
He's often wrong about games, but he's an amiable guy.

 

[Imp Poster]

I write for investors because my client base cares if Nintendo is launching a new console ... I try to be as honest, thoughtful and logical as I can. I don't say stuff to get a reaction. I say it because I think it's going to happen or it's right.

Because he works for "the other side", I may not like what he says on certain issues, but
I do respect him.

 

[Susan Arendt]

An article on Pachter? Yuck. Poor form escapist.

Did you read it?

 

[beddo]

Michael Pachter is a Market Analyst. He advises people on what he thinks.

He's not behind pricing decisions, investment decisions, market changes and so on. He's just a guy doing a job and he helps validate the importance of the gaming market to non-gamers.

I like Pachter, he is sometimes off but it's not easy to make these predictions. He's a well educated man and I enjoy hearing his insights, a lot of which are quite accurate.

 

[beddo]

COME ON, Escapist!.

It's bad enough that you and everybody publish whatever drivel Pachter says in a given week as news. But now, a puff article?. Everybody already knows how much of a tool this guy is.

Please, please, please, stop wasting our bandwidth with Pachter and his pulled-out-of-his-ass predictions. Enough is enough.

What has he done that you disagree with so much!?

He's just a Market Analyst doing his job and a lot of the time he's pretty close, his main errors occur when he predicts a big change which would be tough for anyone.

 

[beddo]

An article on Pachter? Yuck. Poor form escapist.

What is your issue with him or this article? If you can't explain your reasoning then why bother to post a flippant comment?

 

[Kermi]

That's amazing. I can't believe Pachter works a 70 hour week to be wrong most of the time. All Pachter does is state the obvious (e.g.: Xbox 360 will have a price drop at some point in the future). Any time he tries to be more specific (e.g.: Xbox 360 will have a $50 price cut THIS MONTH) he's almost always completely wrong. Kotaku did an analyst roundup last year, summarising a handful of predictions from four or five different analysts to how on the money they were. I believe Pachter had about a 50% hit-rate, and a couple of his guesses were really only half-right but they gave him the benefit of the doubt. Other analysts were more around the 75%-80% mark. So why is Pachter so well known? Is it because he's the most vocal?
I wish someone would give me a fat paycheque to do this professionally, especially if you don't seem to give a damn about actual results. I can usually spot which of Pachter's predictions are going to be wrong, maybe I could do that for a living.

I quite liked the article because I'm interested in what goes on in the life of a market analyst. But Pachter irritates me. I never take a word he says seriously and it amazes me that others still do. That others make important financial decisions on what he says.

 

[phxprovost]

i hate pachter and i hate those that write about him even more. I dont have anything against the guy, i just hate how everyone takes his word as god. He is nothing more then a weather man of the game industry, he is either stating the obvious or he is talking out of his ass.

 

[xscoot]

Pachter does one of two things:

States something that gamers already knew for months, or
States something so mindboggingly wrong that we call him out on it.

He really is just useless as a journalist.

 

[Susan Arendt]

i hate pachter and i hate those that write about him even more. I dont have anything against the guy, i just hate how everyone takes his word as god. He is nothing more then a weather man of the game industry, he is either stating the obvious or he is talking out of his ass.

Putting aside the irony of someone following up "I hate pachter" with "I don't have anything against the guy," for just a moment, you've actually touched on exactly why we did this article. Lots of people know of him, and know that people do take his word as gospel, but few people actually know anything about him - his credentials, how and why he does what he does, and if he's aware of the fact that people hate him like poison.