Michael Pachter gets his own show on GameTrailers @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on January 24, 2010

News: The Pach continues to prove how irrelevant he is.

Investment analyst Michael Pachter has been dropping his pearls of wisdom about the video game industry for years now. And we gamers have constantly sat back and laughed at the man as he doesn't seem to understand the game industry at all. He is without a doubt one of the many reasons why Wall Street just doesn't get it when it comes to game publishers (Want further proof? After Modern Warfare 2 sold a bazillion copies, Activision's stock dropped 10%).

But on to "The Pach". The man has a new show on GameTrailers dubbed "Pach-Attack" where he discusses the winners and losers of 2009. And of course, he gets it painfully wrong.

In the losers column, Pachter cites the music genre and the casual game genre as the biggest flops of the year.

For music games, the Pach is shocked that Guitar Hero: Metallica and Guitar Hero: Van Halen flopped. Which is amazing considering the fact that Activision didn't even believe in those titles. Also, Van Halen was basically a broken game that wasn't realeased until December 22. Who's going to buy a subpar game featuring a band that hasn't had a hit in almost two decades three days before Christmas? It's madness to expect it to sell well.

As for casual games, Pachter chastised the casual gamer for abandoning the game industry in 2009 after they helped it reach new heights in 2008. Except, the casual gamer didn't abandon the industry last year, they were just more discriminating in the games they did buy. Wii Sports Resort, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Wii Fit and EA Sports Active all sold in huge numbers last year. And all are definitely casual games. Strike two for Mr. Pachter.

As for winners, Pachter talked about Batman: Arkham Asylum, which he says lead the way for a great year in hardcore games. Except, he also said it "came out of nowhere." But as we all know, it didn't. Arkham Asylum was actually the most hyped game of the Summer and was guaranteed to sell well, especially after Eidos released an above average demo for the game. Strike three Mr. Pachter.

Even though he has already struck out, the Pach did get one thing right. He praised Microsoft for all the value they added to Xbox Live Gold in 2009. Between Netflix and 1 vs 100 and Twitter and Facebook and last.fm, gamers do get a lot for their $50 and Pachter was right to recognize that.

If you want to watch the first episode of Pach-Attack, you can check it out right here. Be warned though, Pachter is in full-on Conan O'Brian/Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert "I'm old, but I'm hip" mode. And it doesn't suit him. Also, he's not wearing a suit...