Analyst: 'MotionPlus to sell 10 million'

Nintendo's Wii MotionPlus could sell more than 10 million units in the West by the end of the year, according to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter.

During an interview with Edge, Pachter anticipated strong sales for the peripheral based on the game bundles planned by EA and Nintendo.

"I think around 20% of Wii owners in the US and Europe will have bought Wii Sports Resort, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 or EA Sports’ Grand Slam Tennis," he said. "So that's around eight million."

"I think another two million will buy MotionPlus with new consoles."

Pachter went on to say that "at least one third" of the Wii's installed user based will purchase the peripheral.

Other analysts have been more cautious in their estimates. "At this time, we do know that pre-orders are relatively strong, compared to other Wii products," said EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich.

"By the end of the holidays, the Wii MotionPlus install base in North America and Europe should be well over three million. Of course, our forecast could be conservative... Yearly sales could balloon much higher."

Wii MotionPlus is released in Europe on June 12.