Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has issued a research note which made a couple of predictions regarding the video game industry in March.

Noted in the list were some estimated sales of every console as well as sales figures showing that the video game retailers are making much more money than they did last year.

Pachter and the other analysts from Wedbush Morgan have estimated sales of US$ 705 million for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation Portable, and DS combined.

Their research also detailed how many units of each console (but not handhelds) were sold during the time frame:

• Wii: 700,000 units
• PlayStation 3: 365,000 units
• Xbox 360: 310,000 units

The analysts also spoke about retail video game console software sales which they expect to be at around US$ 850 million as compared to last year's March sales which were at US$ 579 million. If the estimate proves accurate, that's a rise of 47% compared to last year's sales.

While it may seem that the growth of the video game industry has reached phenomenal levels, Wedbush Morgan is confident that the numbers will rise even higher in the next few months. Reflecting this assessment is the company's recommendations that investors start picking up Activision, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, THQ, and Ubisoft shares.