The simExchange launches predictions for monthly US console and game sales

Scottsdale, AZ, April 20, 2007 – The simExchange, the leading video game prediction market, has launched a new market for predicting the US console and game sales data reported by NPD Group each month. Video game industry watchers have long looked to analysts for their estimates of NPD Group’s monthly sales reports. The simExchange now offers additional insight by aggregating the information of thousands of gamers, developers, and analysts to form predictions on each month’s console sales. The simExchange also offers monthly predictions on select games that may be one of the month’s Top 10 sellers.

Recent trading of the simExchange’s virtual futures contracts point to the Nintendo Wii selling 382,000 units, the Xbox 360 selling 228,000 units, and the PlayStation 3 selling 142,000 units in the US in March 2007. Market trading is indicating the Nintendo DS handheld sold 491,000 units while the PlayStation Portable sold 178,000 units. The simExchange only included futures contracts for two games this month, Sony Corp’s God of War II and Microsoft Inc.’s Crackdown, predicting sales of 1.14 million and 218,000 copies respectively.

“US March 2007 sales are the first test run for this new product,” said Brian Shiau, founder of the simExchange, “We plan to offer a series of contracts extending months into the future to enable the industry to forecast a growth curve for console hardware sales.” The simExchange has been managing a virtual stock market for consoles and games since 2006. “This trading data has enabled industry watchers to observe trends across genres and game platforms and unit sales forecasts for each game on a global and lifetime basis. The addition of monthly futures provides a shorter-term, regional complement to the video game stock market.”

Like game stocks, futures on the simExchange are denominated in DKP, the exchange’s virtual currency. A futures contract expires when the NPD Group announces its monthly data and the contract pays 1 DKP for each 10,000 units sold of the underlying console or game.

The simExchange is the online prediction market for video games. Playing and participating in the simExchange is completely free and no real money is involved. The simExchange, LLC is not affiliated with the NPD Group.

The simExchange can be found at http://www.thesimexchange.com

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