Congratulations to Sokrates for placing first in the month of May 2008 with a 95.51% return. In second place was catkain followed in second with a 92.30% return. Satertek, Roffenn, and Rol83 closed out the top five again with 81.60%, 83.42%, and 79.09% gains respectively.

Check out the complete May rankings.

On the Community League competitions, Cheap Ass Gamer led with a 5.66% return. Evil Avatar came in second with a 4.86% return. NeoGAF came in third with a 4.86% return.

Console Futures for July and August 2008 will make their debut this week. Futures for the Xbox 360, PS3, and Nintendo Wii will begin Phase 1 IPO on May 28 for July Sales and on May 30 for August Sales. Futures for the Nintendo DS and the PSP will begin Phase 1 IPO on May 29 for July Sales and on May 31 for August Sales. Total Software Sales futures will also debut on May 29 for July and May 31 for August.

Remember, each future enters a 48-hour IPO Phase 1 in which there is no market maker providing prices. Advanced trading mode is required to place orders in IPO Phase 1. After IPO Phase 1, the futures contracts will enter IPO Phase 2 in which the bid and ask prices will be fixed all day.

The problem concerning players spamming bids on content and comments has been growing as of late. Abusing the bidding system is strictly prohibited. We have now instituted a new system that will automatically disable a player's ability to bid if they are caught spamming. All spam bids made by the player are automatically rolled back. Do not continue to spam bids or your ability to bid will be disabled permanently.

The following are upcoming GLS Stock IPOs. Remember, each stock enters a 48-hour IPO Phase 1 in which there is no market maker providing prices. Advanced trading mode is required to place orders in IPO Phase 1. After IPO Phase 1, the futures contracts will enter IPO Phase 2 in which the bid and ask prices will be fixed all day.

If you want a game listed for trading, be sure to bid for it in the Unlisted Games section.

• GLS Stock IPOs

  IPO Phase 1	IPO Phase 2	Title	Platform	Company	Submitter
  5/17	5/19	Battlefield: Bad Company	Xbox 360	ERTS	jayen
  5/17	5/19	Battlefield: Bad Company	PS3	ERTS	jayen
  5/18	5/20	Alone In The Dark	Xbox 360	Atari	royalfool
  5/19	5/21	Final Fantasy IV DS	DS	Square Enix	Bungalow_Bob
  5/20	5/22	Saints Row 2	Xbox 360	THQ	Joe80
  5/20	5/22	Saints Row 2	PS3	THQ	Joe80
  5/21	5/23	The Last Remnant	PS3	Square Enix	Joe80
  5/21	5/23	The Last Remnant	Xbox 360	Square Enix	Joe80
  5/22	5/24	de Blob	Wii	THQ	Inspecta
  5/23	5/25	Resistance: Fall of Man 2	PS3	Sony	kspraydad

Video game hardware sales in April were well below the market's expectations. Total hardware units came in at 1,969,800 units (excluding the PlayStation 2), 22.93% below the market's expected 2,201,500 units.

Nintendo Wii was the only console to sell in-line with market expcations, selling 714,200 units compared to an expected 688,100 units.

The Xbox 360 slid by the PS3 once again with 188,000 units sold against the PS3's 187,100 units. Both platforms underperformed the markets expectations. The market had likely expected Xbox 360 and PS3 sales to be higher from the release of Grand Theft Auto IV. It appears the massive title was not able to move more hardware units.

The Nintendo DS sold 414,800 units compared to the expected 600,100 units. The Sony PSP sold 192,700 units, compared to the expected 257,700 units.

Growth in video game sales were below expectations for April. Total video game software sales grew 68% from $389.4 million in April 2007 to $654.7 million. Traders on the simExchange prediction market expected $978.4 million. Much larger sales growth was expected due to the release of blockbusters Grand Theft Auto IV and Mario Kart. It appears these titles underperformed the market's expectations and also cannibalized sales of other games.

The following tables compare market expectations on the simExchange and actual results as reported by the NPD Group.

• US Hardware in April 2008

  Title	Actual units	Expected units	% From Expected
  Nintendo Wii	714,200	688,100	+3.79%
  Nintendo DS	414,800	600,100	-30.88%
  PlayStation Portable	192,700	257,700	-25.22%
  Xbox 360	188,000	335,000	-43.88%
  PLAYSTATION 3	187,100	320,600	-41.64%
  PlayStation 2	124,400	--	--
  Total Hardware Units	1,969,800	2,201,500	-22.93%

• US Software in April 2008

  Rank	Title	Actual units	Expected units	% From Expected
  1	Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360)	1,850,000	2,296,700	-19.45%
  2	Mario Kart (Wii)	1,120,000	1,117,000	-4.84%
  3	Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)	1,000,000	1,328,300	-24.72%
  4	Wii Play (Wii)	360,000	--	--
  5	Super Smash Bros Brawl (Wii)	326,000	567,000	-42.50%
  6	Gran Turismo 5: Prologue (PS3)	224,000	322,100	-30.46%
  7	Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (DS)	202,000	--	--
  8	Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (DS)	202,000	--	--
  9	Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii)	152,000	--	--
  10	Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360)	141,000	--	--
  NR	Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Xbox 360)	103,500	254,700	-59.36%
  NR	God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP)	64,000	90,000	-28.89%
  NR	The World Ends With You (DS)	43,000	73,800	-41.73%
  NR	Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (DS)	23,700	33,000	-28.18%
  	Total Tracked Software Units	4,754,200	6,142,600	-22.60%
  	Total Software Sales	$654.7M	$978.4M	-33.08%

How exactly does this work?

Gamers and developers sign up on the simExchange for a free trading account. Using virtual currency called DKP, players buy virtual futures contracts that are under-predicting sales and short sell futures that are over-predicting sales. This concept is widely known as "the Wisdom of the Crowd" and this system is known as a "prediction market."

About the predictions

Predictions on the simExchange should become more accurate over time as (1) the diversity of the pool of traders increases and as (2) more accurate players are rewarded with more virtual currency for their accuracy (thereby enabling them to form more predictions) and less accurate players lose virtual currency (thereby discounting their ability to form more predictions).

Congratulations to tyrile for placing first in the month of April 2008 with a 136.61% return. Tyrile was third place last month. In second place was Refreshment followed in second with a 117.57% return. SPBTooL, Neisan, and Rol83 closed out the top five with 90.42%, 83.42%, and 79.09% gains respectively.

Check out the complete April rankings.

On the Community League competitions, Cheap Ass Gamer unseated NeoGAF as the champion with a 7.98% return. Evil Avatar came in second with a close 7.74% return. NeoGAF fell to third with a 7.39% return.

The NPD Group has cut down the number of games we can list as Monthly Sales Futures. We can only list 5 games that will most likely appear in the Top 10.

NPD Futures debut in two-phase IPOs. IPO Phase 1 is a 48 hour period of trading without automated market making to determine the IPO Phase 2 price. Advanced trading mode is required to place orders in IPO Phase 1. After IPO Phase 1, the futures contracts will enter IPO Phase 2 in which the bid and ask prices will be fixed all day.

• April NPD Futures

  IPO Phase 1	IPO Phase 2	Title	Platform	Company	Release Date
  5/2	5/4	Grand Theft Auto 4	Xbox 360	TTWO	4/29
  5/2	5/4	Grand Theft Auto 4	PS3	TTWO	4/29
  5/3	5/5	Super Smash Bros Brawl	Wii	NTDOY	3/9
  5/3	5/5	Mario Kart	Wii	NTDOY	4/27
  5/4	5/6	Wii Fit	Wii	NTDOY	5/19

The following stocks are candidates for delisting. These stocks were chosen for delisting due to inactivity in the stock and/or lack of discussion for an extended period of time. Delisting stocks is necessary to unlock DKP for trading and concentrate DKP in the stocks people are trading.

All shares will cash out at the last traded price. This price is determined as the fair value as the market has not viewed the price as undervalued or overvalued for some time. These stocks will no longer appear when browsing the genres and platforms pages. You will still be able to view the stocks' pages by searching for the games.

If you feel any of the following should not be delisted due to an upcoming event, please make a case and post in this forum by 11PM on Friday April 25. A stock price that you are not happy with is not grounds for continued listing.

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)
Contra 4 (DS)
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PS3)
Gears of War (Xbox 360)
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Wii)
Mario Strikers Charged (Wii)
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii)
Motorstorm (PS3)
MySims (DS)
MySims (Wii)
Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (Wii)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (PS3)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (Xbox 360)
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008 (PSP)

Console Futures for May and June 2008 will make their debut this week. Futures for the Xbox 360, PS3, and Nintendo Wii will begin Phase 1 IPO on April 22 for May Sales and on April 24 for June Sales. Futures for the Nintendo DS and the PSP will begin Phase 1 IPO on April 23 for May Sales and on April 25 for June Sales. Total Software Sales futures will also debut on April 23 for May and April 25 for June. Note that June 2008 is a 5-week retail month.

Remember, each future enters a 48-hour IPO Phase 1 in which there is no market maker providing prices. Advanced trading mode is required to place orders in IPO Phase 1. After IPO Phase 1, the futures contracts will enter IPO Phase 2 in which the bid and ask prices will be fixed all day.

Correction: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (PS3) sold 154,700 units

Video game hardware sales in March were in line with the market's expectations. Total hardware units came in at 2.235 million units (excluding the PlayStation 2), 0.59% above the market's expected 2.222 million units.

Although the market accurately predicted the total market for hardware, Nintendo took significant market share from its competitors this month even beyond what was expected. The Nintendo DS sold 698,000 units compared to the expected 613,600 units. Nintendo Wii sold 721,000 units compared to an expected 642,200 units.

The Xbox 360 retook its lead over the PS3, sliding ahead with 262,000 units against the PS3's 257,000 units. Both platforms underperformed the markets expectations, leading us to believe that the Wii and DS had directly taken market share from these two consoles.

The Sony PSP sold a very respectable 297,000 units, 9.48% below the expected 328,000 units.

Growth in video game sales were well ahead of expectations for March. Total video game software sales grew 63% from $579.1 million in March 2007 to $945.6 million. The simExchange prediction market expected $842.7 million.

The month's big winner was Nintendo's Super Smash Bros Brawl with 2.7 million units, dethroning the reigning champion, Activision's Call of Duty 4, which came in 9th this month.

Sales of Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Xbox 360) beat out EA's competing Army of Two (Xbox 360) on the Xbox 360 platform; however, the PS3 version of Army of Two came ahead of Ubisoft's counterpart.

PSP hits God of War: Chains of Olympus and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 both sold beyond the market's expectations with very strong opening month results.

The following tables compare market expectations on the simExchange and actual results as reported by the NPD Group.

• US Hardware in March 2008

  Title	Actual units	Expected units	% From Expected
  Nintendo Wii	721,000	642,200	+12.27%
  Nintendo DS	698,000	613,600	+13.75%
  PlayStation Portable	297,000	328,100	-9.48%
  Xbox 360	262,000	307,600	-14.82%
  PLAYSTATION 3	257,000	330,400	-22.22%
  PlayStation 2	216,000	--	--
  Total Hardware Units	2,235,000	2,221,900	+0.59%

• US Software in March 2008

  Rank	Title	Actual units	Expected units	% From Expected
  1	Super Smash Bros Brawl (Wii)	2,700,000	2,314,800	+16.64%
  2	Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Xbox 360)	752,300	606,100	+48.21%
  3	Army of Two (Xbox 360)	606,100	407,900	+48.59%
  4	Wii Play (Wii)	409,800	--	--
  5	God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP)	340,500	252,700	+34.74%
  6	Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 (PSP)	301,600	202,900	+48.64%
  7	Guitar Hero: Legends of Rock (Wii)	264,100	--	--
  8	Major League Baseball 2K8	237,100	--	--
  9	Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360)	237,000	--	--
  10	Army of Two (PS3)	224,900	190,100	+18.31%
  NR	Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (PS3)	154,700	181,400	-14.72%
  NR	Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates	67,300	69,700	-3.44%
  NR	Bully: Scholarship Edition (Wii)	37,400	47,100	-20.59%
  NR	Hot Shots Golf (PS3)	36,200	49,900	-27.45%
  	Total Tracked Software Units	5,221,000	4,224,100	+23.60%
  	Total Software Sales	$945.6M	$842.7M	+12.21%

How exactly does this work?

Gamers and developers sign up on the simExchange for a free trading account. Using virtual currency called DKP, players buy virtual futures contracts that are under-predicting sales and short sell futures that are over-predicting sales. This concept is widely known as "the Wisdom of the Crowd" and this system is known as a "prediction market."

About the predictions

Predictions on the simExchange should become more accurate over time as (1) the diversity of the pool of traders increases and as (2) more accurate players are rewarded with more virtual currency for their accuracy (thereby enabling them to form more predictions) and less accurate players lose virtual currency (thereby discounting their ability to form more predictions).