You may notice thesimexchange.com is now just simexchange.com. After many years, we were able to get the simpler domain name. This is also the reason for the brief outages recently. The site should now run smoothly.

• September 2009 Top 5 Traders

  Rank	Name	% Change
  1	argon	+47.24%
  2	idanodou	+15.89%
  3	hedoe	+15.27%
  4	marcinkonmn	+15.23%
  5	JNoah13	+15.21%

Check out the complete September 2009 rankings.

November Monthly Sales Futures for hardware and software are making their debut Saturday. We have tweaked the IPO system so that when IPOs close and begin normal trading, they will do so at a random hour of the day. This change is made to address complaints by many players that people who are able to access the web site exactly at 11AM Pacific time have an unfair advantage. This should also reduce the orders for the stock at the moment the IPO is released for normal trading.

Also remember, for Monthly Software Futures of games that do not finish in NPD Group's Top 10, the game will cash out at the sales of the #10 title.

You will be able to buy or short sell the Futures and GLS stock at a fixed price for 48 hours. This allows all players equal access to the future's IPO regardless of the time they log on. After 48 hours, the futures will trade as normal. All players, regardless of Basic or Advanced trading mode, will be able to participate in the IPO. All players are limited to 250,000 DKP positions in the IPO phase.

New Super Mario Bros Wii was suggested by PhilHarrison. Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City was suggested by Joe80.

A special thanks to Joe80, Apujanata, and Jonman for putting together a list of games for this month's futures.

• November Console Futures

  IPO Date	Title	Company	IPO Price
  10/3	Xbox 360	Microsoft	75 DKP
  10/4	PLAYSTATION 3	Sony	75 DKP
  10/5	Wii	Nintendo	100 DKP
  10/6	Nintendo DS	Nintendo	100 DKP
  10/7	PlayStation Portable	Sony	35 DKP
  10/8	Total Software Sales	ALL	140 DKP

• November Monthly Sales Futures

  IPO Date	Title	Platform	Company	MSF IPO Price	GLS IPO Price
  10/3	Wii Sports Resort	Wii	Nintendo	65 DKP	N/A
  10/4	Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games	Wii	Nintendo	60 DKP	N/A
  10/5	DJ Hero	Xbox 360	Activision Blizzard	40 DKP	N/A
  10/6	Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City	Xbox 360	Take-Two	30 DKP	150 DKP
  10/7	Modern Warfare 2	Xbox 360	Activision Blizzard	150 DKP	N/A
  10/8	Modern Warfare 2	PS3	Activision Blizzard	70 DKP	N/A
  10/9	New Super Mario Bros Wii	Wii	Nintendo	150 DKP	700 DKP
  10/10	Assassin's Creed 2	PS3	Ubisoft	50 DKP	N/A
  10/11	Assassin's Creed 2	Xbox 360	Ubisoft	70 DKP	N/A
  10/12	Left 4 Dead 2	PS3	Valve	40 DKP	N/A

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 (such as the game has not yet been released in all regions), please make a case and post in this forum by 11AM PT on Monday, September 28. A stock price that you are not happy with is not grounds for continued listing.

GLS Stocks pending delisting:
Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii)
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: The Sealed Grimoire (DS)
Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360)
Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)
Guitar Hero World Tour (PS3)
Guitar Hero World Tour (Xbox 360)
Guitar Hero World Tour (Wii)
Mirror's Edge (Xbox 360)
Mirror's Edge (PS3)
Motorstorm: Pacific Rim (PS3)
Need for Speed: Undercover (Xbox 360)
Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village (DS)
Soul Calibur IV (Xbox 360)
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Wii)
The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (PC)
Wii Music (Wii)

• August 2009 Top 5 Traders

  Rank	Name	% Change
  1	murphjp	+46.85%
  2	Sanzee	+43.08%
  3	idanodou	+29.48%
  4	jayscott	+25.70%
  5	Vijaz	+24.60%

Check out the complete August 2009 rankings.

Video game hardware sales in August 2009 were inline with market expectations. Total hardware units (excluding PS2) sold were 1.4 million, about 3.5% worse than the market's expectation for 1.35 million units sold. Sales figures this past month were likely buoyed by price custs. Anita Frazier of NPD Group comments that "The price cuts implemented on the PS3 and 360 hardware already made an impact on unit sales, despite having been executed fairly late in the month.  It will be interesting to see the full impact of the new price points on September sales."

"The industry realized its sixth consecutive month-over-month decline, and while improved over the last several months, it's still a notable decline.  The back four months of the year would have to be up 14% in aggregate for 2009 to come in flat in comparison to 2008 sales."

Sales of new releases Madden NFL 10 (Xbox 360) and Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360) inline with traders' expectations.

The market also tracked the sales of Wii Play (Wii), G.I. JOE: The Rise of the Cobra (Xbox 360), and Wolfenstein (Xbox 360) which did not make the top 10. The Monthly Sales Futures will cash out at 9.20 DKP.

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

• US Hardware in August 2009

  Title	Actual units	Expected units	% From Expected
  Nintendo DS	552,900	548,300	+0.84%
  Nintendo Wii	277,400	251,600	+10.25%
  Xbox 360	215,400	223,900	-3.80%
  PLAYSTATION 3	210,000	183,100	+14.69%
  PlayStation Portable	140,300	142,200	-6.40%
  PlayStation 2	105,900	--	--
  Total Hardware Units (excludes PS2)	1,396,000	1,349,100	+3.48%

• US Software in August 2009

  Rank	Title	Actual units	Expected units	% From Expected
  1	Madden NFL 10 (Xbox 360)	928,000	903,500	+2.71%
  2	Wii Sports Resort (Wii)	754,000	--	--
  3	Madden NFL 10 (PS3)	665,000	582,900	+14.08%
  4	Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360)	303,000	290,800	+4.20%
  5	Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3)	290,000	--	--
  6	Madden NFL 10 (PS2)	160,000	--	--
  7	Dissidia: Final Fantasy (DS)	130,000	--	--
  8	Wii Fit (Wii)	128,000	167,500	-23.58%
  9	Mario Kart (Wii)	120,000	--	--
  10	Fossil Fighters	92,000	--	--
  	Total Software Sales	$470.32M	$535.4M	-12.16%

Where do the expected sales numbers come from?

The simExchange is the video game stock market. Gamers and developers sign up on the simExchange for a free trading account. Using fantasy money, players buy virtual stocks in video games they believe are under-predicting sales and short sell stocks they believe are over-predicting sales. This concept is widely known as "the Wisdom of the Crowd" and this system is known as a "prediction market." Sign up and play today.

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).

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 (such as the game has not yet been released in all regions), please make a case and post in this forum by 11AM on Friday, August 21. A stock price that you are not happy with is not grounds for continued listing.

GLS Stocks pending delisting:
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (Xbox 360)
Fallout 3 (PC)
Fallout 3 (PS3)
Far Cry 2 (PC)
Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360)
Lego Indiana Jones (Xbox 360)
Mario Super Sluggers (Wii)
Rock Band 2 (Xbox 360)
Rock Band 2 (PS3)
Rock Band 2 (Wii)
Tomb Raider (Xbox 360)
Too Human (Xbox 360)
The Last Remnant (Xbox 360)
Viva Pinata DS (DS)

Video game hardware sales in July 2009 underperformed market expectations. Total hardware units (excluding PS2) sold were 1.24 million, about 8% worse than the market's expectation for 1.35 million units sold. Every console underperformed their respective expected sales except for the Xbox 360. Anita Frazier of the NPD Group notes that "the Xbox 360 is the only console system showing a unit sales increase year-to-date."

"The U.S. video games industry declined for the fifth consecutive month, bringing year-to-date sales to $8.16 billion, down 14% from the same time period last year," says Frazier. July software sales were significantly worse than expected, coming in at $436.99 million compared to the market's forecasted $554.1 million.

Sales of new releases Wii Sports Resort (Wii), NCAA Football 10 (Xbox 360), and NCAA Football 10 (PS3) were nearly spot on with traders' predictions, with single digit errors. However, Fight Night Round 4 (Xbox 360) significantly underperformed, selling 35% below expectations.

Sales of Nintendo's Wii Fit (Wii) and Wii Play (Wii) both sold well below expectations, possibly cannibalized by the new Wii Sports Resort.

The market also tracked the sales of Wii Play (Wii), which did not make the top 10. The Monthly Sales Future will cash out at 9.68 DKP.

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

• US Hardware in July 2009

  Title	Actual units	Expected units	% From Expected
  Nintendo DS	538,900	557,700	-3.37%
  Nintendo Wii	252,500	314,000	-19.59%
  Xbox 360	202,900	199,500	+1.70%
  PLAYSTATION 3	121,800	142,600	-14.59%
  PlayStation Portable	122,800	131,200	-6.40%
  PlayStation 2	108,000	--	--
  Total Hardware Units (excludes PS2)	1,238,900	1,345,000	-7.89%

• US Software in July 2009

  Rank	Title	Actual units	Expected units	% From Expected
  1	Wii Sports Resort (Wii)	508,200	526,600	-3.49%
  2	NCAA Football 10 (Xbox 360)	376,500	409,300	-8.01%
  3	NCAA Football 10 (PS3)	237,400	250,800	-5.34%
  4	Wii Fit (Wii)	164,300	237,600	-30.85%
  5	Mario Kart (Wii)	156,600	--	--
  6	Mario Kart DS (DS)	132,200	--	--
  7	Pokemon Platinum (DS)	116,400	--	--
  8	Fight Night Round 4 (Xbox 360)	116,400	177,400	-34.39%
  9	New Super Mario Bros (DS)	101,800	--	--
  10	EA Sports Active (Wii)	96,800	--	--
  	Total Software Sales	$436.99M	$554.1M	-21.14%
  	Total Tracked Software Units	1,402,800	1,601,700	-12.42%

Where do the expected sales numbers come from?

The simExchange is the video game stock market. Gamers and developers sign up on the simExchange for a free trading account. Using fantasy money, players buy virtual stocks in video games they believe are under-predicting sales and short sell stocks they believe are over-predicting sales. This concept is widely known as "the Wisdom of the Crowd" and this system is known as a "prediction market." Sign up and play today.

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).

October Monthly Sales Futures for hardware and software are making their debut tomorrow. Please note that the October retail month is 4 weeks long.

Also remember, there are new rules regarding Monthly Software Futures. If a game does not finish in NPD Group's Top 10, the game will cash out at the sales of the #10 title.

You will be able to buy or short sell the Futures and GLS stock at a fixed price for 48 hours. This allows all players equal access to the future's IPO regardless of the time they log on. After 48 hours, the futures will trade as normal. All players, regardless of Basic or Advanced trading mode, will be able to participate in the IPO. All players are limited to 250,000 DKP positions in the IPO phase.

Gran Turismo Mobile PSP (suggested by Joe80), Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Wii) (suggested by shrimpjuice), and DJ Hero (Xbox 360) (suggested by SNOX07) will have GLS stocks IPOing on the same days as the futures.

A special thanks to Joe80 for putting together a list of games for this month's futures.

• October Console Futures

  IPO Date	Title	Company	IPO Price
  8/11	Xbox 360	Microsoft	25 DKP
  8/12	PLAYSTATION 3	Sony	16 DKP
  8/13	Wii	Nintendo	42 DKP
  8/14	Nintendo DS	Nintendo	50 DKP
  8/15	PlayStation Portable	Sony	15 DKP
  8/16	Total Software Sales	ALL	70 DKP

• October Monthly Sales Futures

  IPO Date	Title	Platform	Company	IPO Price
  8/11	Gran Turismo Mobile PSP	PSP	Sony	20 DKP
  8/12	Brutal Legend	Xbox 360	Electronic Arts	25 DKP
  8/13	Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games	Wii	Nintendo	30 DKP
  8/14	Uncharted 2: Among Thieves	PS3	Sony	25 DKP
  8/15	Tekken 6	PS3	Namco	20 DKP
  8/16	DJ Hero	Xbox 360	Activision	20 DKP

September Monthly Sales Futures for hardware and software are making their debut tomorrow. Please note that the September retail month is 5 weeks long.

Also remember, there are new rules regarding Monthly Software Futures. If a game does not finish in NPD Group's Top 10, the game will cash out at the sales of the #10 title.

You will be able to buy or short sell the Futures and GLS stock at a fixed price for 48 hours. This allows all players equal access to the future's IPO regardless of the time they log on. After 48 hours, the futures will trade as normal. All players, regardless of Basic or Advanced trading mode, will be able to participate in the IPO. All players are limited to 250,000 DKP positions in the IPO phase.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (Xbox 360) and Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (PS3) will have GLS stocks IPOing on the same days as the futures. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (Xbox 360) GLS stock was suggested by Laoldar. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (PS3) GLS stock was suggested by PhilHarrision. A special thanks to Joe80 for putting together a list of games for this month's futures.

• September Console Futures

  IPO Date	Title	Company	IPO Price
  8/4	Xbox 360	Microsoft	28 DKP
  8/5	PLAYSTATION 3	Sony	16 DKP
  8/6	Wii	Nintendo	48 DKP
  8/7	Nintendo DS	Nintendo	62 DKP
  8/8	PlayStation Portable	Sony	18 DKP
  8/9	Total Software Sales	ALL	78 DKP

• September Monthly Sales Futures

  IPO Date	Title	Platform	Company	IPO Price
  8/4	Guitar Hero 5	Xbox 360	Activision Blizzard	35 DKP
  8/4	Guitar Hero 5	PS3	Activision Blizzard	25 DKP
  8/4	Guitar Hero 5	Wii	Activision Blizzard	40 DKP
  8/5	The Beatles: Rock Band	Xbox 360	Electronic Arts	30 DKP
  8/5	The Beatles: Rock Band	PS3	Electronic Arts	20 DKP
  8/5	The Beatles: Rock Band	Wii	Electronic Arts	25 DKP
  8/6	Halo 3: ODST	Xbox 360	Microsoft	200 DKP
  8/7	Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2	Xbox 360	Activision Blizzard	20 DKP
  8/8	Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2	PS3	Tecmo	20 DKP