Videogame market significantly behind last generation

[Julius Seeker]

According to vgchartz, last week:
PS4 - 123K
XB1 - 67K
Wii U - 35K
3DS - 117K
Vita - 55K

Flashback to first week of March 2007
Wii - 200K
PS3 - 80K
360 - 80K
DS - 453K
PSP - 175K

The market today is significantly behind the market last generation. To put it into perspective, in 2007, the DS was outselling the entire lineup of current generation hardware by around 50K.

It's not a slower transitional case either, VG Chartz unfortunately didn't track PS2, but Sony did: https://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/data/b ... ale_e.html

13.7M PS2s sold in 2007, or an average of more than 1.1 million per month. Last generation's hardware - Wii, DS, PS3, PSP, and 360 combined - will sell 400-430K this month; even the Christmas bump is not likely to put them above 1 million units combined this year.

[Eric]

There's no cheap hardware out there at the moment. The PS4 and Xbox One are still pretty pricey, the PS4 is selling on hype alone. The Wii U is awful, the 3DS is half the system the DS was, and the Vita is 1/10 the system the PSP was, and the prices are higher across the board for all of them. The PSP was $99.99-129.99, the DS was around the same, if not cheaper, the Wii was $150-200, and the 360 and ps4 were still at the highest price point. It's no surprise people aren't throwing out money at these things when they can just buy a tablet that does far more, or just stick to their cell phones.

[Julius Seeker]

2007
Wii cost $250
360 cost $400
PS3 cost $500
2014
Wii U costs $250
PS4 costs $400
XB1 costs $500 and can be found for $400 bundled with Titanfall.

Price doesn't look like a factor as prices were the same. Take into account inflation and systems are actually cheaper all around today; Wii was $300, 360 was $465, and PS3 was $585.

[Eric]

I guess I agree with that.

Wii U is still $300, unless you get the basic, actually the entire system is awful, so it's not a fair comparison. Wii had a great gimmick and a low price point, everyone could get one. Wii U is awful and nobody wants one, you'd probably have a hard time giving it away @ $150.

PS3 gave you a blu-ray player for it's cost value back before blu-ray took off as a media format, 360 games looked the same and in a lot of cases better for a cheaper price, today PS4 does everything the Xbox One does but better, and it's cheaper, unless you want kinect, which again is awful.

[Julius Seeker]

You're right on the Wii U price. It's 300 - and at least here the basic model is no longer available. For some reason I had it in my head that it had a price drop to $250.

I agree that the industry is probably a lot less interesting than it was last generation, and that the Sony has handled PS4 better than Microsoft and Nintendo handled their systems. I disagree that interest in the PS4 is all that great though - it is significantly behind the Wii and PS2 from March in 2007, and not far ahead of PS3 and 360 also from March 07; given that the competition is doing so poorly, you would expect much better performance from a system doing everything right. While PS4 was supply constrained for a while, that hasn't been the case for about a month now - so that is not an explanation either.

There has been an overall significant slide in the industry as a whole. The industry in 2007 was much more healthy than it is today. Could it be that Sine was actually right about mobile taking over? =P

[Eric]

I'm agreeing with you for the most part. :o

While I actually do agree that mobile games are eating up the dedicated handheld market, I'm not as convinced it's having an effect on the console market.

I think the console market is just in a shitty place at the moment. Nintendo dropped the ball with the Wii U, Microsoft pulled a Sony hubris despite coming in last place last gen except in the US, and Sony is riding their hype train of basically messing up the least out of all 3 from last generation into this one.

[Don]

I really can't imagine the mobile games displacing what is normally thought of as a console/PC game. Maybe it can displace some of the ultra casual party-like games but I don't even think you can have a meaningful experience for say a Mario Kart game on a tiny screen.

I think overall people got tired of console/PC games costing so much. Sure, a lot of those mobile games you probably end up paying more due to their model, or that you're getting a product that's nowhere close in quality, but at least it seems cheaper.

[SineSwiper]

This generation is looking more and more like the domain of:

Indie games
Steambox
PC Gaming

There's still opportunity for Valve to fuck this up, but dominating here is like taking candy from a baby at this point. They need to capitalize on this fast, though.

[Eric]

This generation is looking more and more like the domain of:

Indie games
Steambox
PC Gaming

There's still opportunity for Valve to fuck this up, but dominating here is like taking candy from a baby at this point. They need to capitalize on this fast, though.

Yes
No
Maybe

Even if Steambox takes off, it'll take a generation to be a serious contender.

[Shrinweck]

Yeah Steambox is probably going to be more like them dipping their toe into the water for a while. I expect 5+ years for the splash to come.

[Zeus]

This generation is looking more and more like the domain of:

Indie games
Steambox
PC Gaming

There's still opportunity for Valve to fuck this up, but dominating here is like taking candy from a baby at this point. They need to capitalize on this fast, though.

*snicker*

[Julius Seeker]

The fastest growing gaming platform is the iOS app store - where top apps began generating million dollar days over a year ago: 2011 saw 4 billion in revenue, 2012 saw 7 billion, and 2013 surpassed 10 billion and is currently generating over a billion dollars per month.

I wouldn't argue that PC gaming will take over since the PC hardware market is dying off too, the market has been in decline since 2009. 2012 to 2013 saw a year over year decline of over 10%.