Why Video Game Console Sales Are Plummeting

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Because kids are finally realizing a PC is all you need? :cool:

At a quick glance, it looks like it could be “game over” for the video-game-console business. Sales of consoles in the U.S. dropped 21% in 2012 to just over $4 billion, and figures from the manufacturers of the three top systems were lackluster over the crucial holiday season.
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I think the aging hardware, high cost of games without many showstopping titles, tight economy, and migration to mobile gaming are probably all factors. I think the consoles are going to have to get used to tiers of software like we have in PCs ($50-60 for AAA blockbusters, 20-40 for independent and smaller titles, and 5-20 for DLC and add-ons). If they do that and build some good games they should remain competitive ... but mobile is eating everyone's piece of the pie right now ;)
 
BARGES INTO ROOM WITH FOAMING MOUTH

"I NEED MOAR FARMVILLE"
 
I think people are finally getting tired of the nickle and diming. I also think the hardware has gone completely stale at this point. The PC has come a long way since the XBox 360 was released on November 21st, 2005.

Yes, the XBox 360 is EIGHT years old !

The new consoles need to be magnitudes more powerful when released. Anything else is pure laziness on the part of the MFR's.

Also, they need to stop screwing with people and their games, particularly the ability to resell old games. Personally I think they should be taken to court over this.
 
Market Saturations and the fact they have Milked the aging 32bit,dx9.0c titles... Time to pump out a PS4 and Xbox720 (64-bit,dx11) machines and see the sales exploded !!
 
Absolutely. The video game console business is just minutes away from total extinction. Never mind that there hasn't been a major console release in several years. Never mind that the economy is in a dire state and people are cutting back on their discretionary spending. Never mind that titles like Halo and Call of Duty are still breaking video game sales records. Just pay attention to raw number with no analysis whatsoever...and yeah, it's 1983 all over again. Aloha, video games.
 
Why buy games when they're all just more of the same stuff? Everyone's already played Call of Crysisfield 5: Final Halo Ragecraft with the DLC expansion that adds two new weapons and lets you pick what color your shoes you're wearing. There are far too few creative, original titles like Lollipop Chainsaw that bring interesting elements to gaming.
 
I wonder if the rumors since last year of the next xbox/ps4 coming in 2013 have anything to do with it... :rolleyes:
 
My 360/PS3 are older than my daughter... and she's in kindergarden.

/thread
 
pcjunkie said:
I wonder if the rumors since last year of the next xbox/ps4 coming in 2013 have anything to do with it... :rolleyes:
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The sad thing is that the article states that plainly, but most people will never read that far. :|

Analysts blame a lot of the slump on timing. “It is a cyclical market,” says Lewis Ward, research manager of gaming at IDC. “The usual lifespan is 10 to 12 years for a console, and we are in a trough right now.”
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He's sort of right though, the whole point of buying a console is to play games, and the games are just not there.

The rumors I hear about the next generation of consoles permanently tying games to a particular console or account (thus killing the used games market) should be the final nail in the coffin.

Either way, the last few games that I played from start to finish were all by indy devs on PC anyway and they all cost me less than $5.
 
most people that want one has one. and most ppl that doesnt one one sold it for cheaper to other ppl
 
nusse said:
Sorry but your entire statement lost all credibility when you used that game as basis for your argument.
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skribbelkat is a notorious troll, so maybe he was jking?

but yeah, i think this has more to do with the fact that everyone in the country who even might want a console has gotten all 3 of them by now. the wii and ps3 have been out for over 6 years, and the 360 for over 7. that means 6 christmases and 6 birthdays have passed for everyone who has any interest in one of these consoles. personally i cant figure out why sales arent completely stagnant. there is no reason to buy one of these dinosaurs unless you finally turned old enough for your parents to get you one, or you broke your old one.
 
The rumors I hear about the next generation of consoles permanently tying games to a particular console or account (thus killing the used games market) should be the final nail in the coffin.
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Completely over exagerated, though people might be angry at first they will deal with it. It will probably cause prices on new games to come down quicker (like steam) and bring more people to digital distribution.

What other choice do they have? As much as [H] basks in their own glory people are going to move over to PC gaming where they have to sit at a desk with a KB/M to play CoD. It just isn't going to happen.

The application of the alternatives far out weighs the benefits.
 
demingo said:
My 360/PS3 are older than my daughter... and she's in kindergarden.

/thread
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That pretty much sums it up. Substitute son for daugther and I could say the same thing. Well not exactly because my original fat PS3 died a few months ago, but it would have been older.

They've milked this generation for so long it isn't even funny.
 
Well, if all the developers of console games are just going to rehash their first-person shooters over and over again, I'm not surprised at the demise of game consoles.
 
It has to be more about stagnation in the market then anything else... These consoles have been out long enough where I can see sales slowing just because most everyone has one if they wanted it.

I wouldn't be surprised if current sales are mostly replacement units for out of warranty replacements.

I am not sure if there is enough news/info on the next generations to prevent common gamers to hold out on a (NEW) purchase by itself. I suppose Wii-U could be stealing some thunder...
 
Two problems with the market today, required DLC, and cost of the game as well as required DLC, I'm at the point of never buying another EA game ever, Ubisoft is kind of heading that way as well.
 
Galvin said:
Maybe market saturation?
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That's what I thought.

Nintendo is in an odd position though. The Wii-U launched for quite higher prices than the last couple it launched, where the premium is not supportable for the game selection (yet). The well-developed massive libraries, and sometimes cheaper hardware, of the competition puts Nintendo at a disadvantage.

Online PC gaming and multi-player on-/offline console gaming are probably shrinking the overall market too, never mind all the gamers who play on handhelds and enjoy massively cheaper titles. I'm finding myself being pulled more into the latter category, even though I have a gaming PC and a couple of consoles.
 
If people were running back to PC's from consoles ... wouldn't PC sales be up the same amount? So much for that theory.
 
Ididar said:
If people were running back to PC's from consoles ... wouldn't PC sales be up the same amount? So much for that theory.
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Sales of home PC's going up would not reflect the reality of the situation. Most people with consoles allready own a home computer. New Steam accounts, increased PC/Mac game sales, etc.. would be a more accurate way to determine things. The typical user doesn't need a powerful new rig to play the latest game on high settings. They are buying cheap and easy to run indie, or playing web-based games like farmville. A 15 year old machine can run farmville.

And as far as I was aware; PC game sales, and the popularity of Steam has been growing a shitload recently.
 
wait did this guy say consoles normally last 10-12 years per generation??? ok well he obviously doesnt know shit about consoles. based on PS1, PS2, N64, GC, Wii, and Xbox i would say 6 years is much more accurate. oh, and were in year 7 or 8 for this generation. yeah i think we all know the real reason sales are down.
 
Most important, the industry is in the nascent stages of a digital revolution. NPD says sales of digital games grew 16% over the past two years. If you compare the gaming industry to the music industry, right now it’s in a pre-iTunes, pre-Pandora era. Discs are still the primary way people consume this media. Ward says there are a host of technical reasons why people aren’t downloading games or playing them on a cloud-based service yet, but industry observers say it’s just a matter of time.
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Yeah, there's no cloud-based service that allows me to download & play games.

:rolleyes:
 
1st: Cloud based gaming is a flaming joke. We can't get the ISPs to all agree that unlimited bandwidth is good for video streaming and they want to stream a 22GB GAME? Not happening anytime soon.

2nd: Latency issues on the internet won't allow the experience to be good anytime soon.

3rd: Steam is singlehandedly handing the industry its ass. You can "GASP!" buy old games at really reasonable prices for a digital download! WHAT A CONCEPT!

4th: Yeah, the current consoles are older than hell. The 5th time you buy the same shooter for $60 that looks the same as the other 4 because it's the best your console can do that's where people are going to lose interest.

5th: Peak product penetration. With the exception of new people getting old enough to want a console everyone who wants a 360 has one.

I'd be darn interested to know how many 360 buyers are on their 2nd or 3rd unit just because the others got OLD!?!?!
 
10-12 years might reflect the console lifecycle. PS2 production just ended, which is a run of 12 years. PS1/PS One ran from 1994-2006. It's pretty likely that Sony will continue to make PS3s for the same time period, and if MS continues the 360 for even the short amount of time it continued with the first Xbox (2001-2007 in NA), the 360 should hit around 10 years of production 2 years after the next Xbox is released. Nintendo also has some long hardware support for certain models (and not for others).

Just keep in mind that previous generation consoles often remain in production after new ones are released. 10-12 years doesn't mean that's the gap between releases.
 
I think where the article indicated a migration to mobile gaming was probably correct ... on consoles and PCs the hardcore gamer community was always much smaller (10-20 million maybe) while the casual community outnumbered them greatly ... we can dismiss tablet and phone gaming for ourselves (although I think there are a handful of gems on both platforms) but for the casual gamer they are the promised land (lots of easily digested games for $1-2 or less) and I don't see them coming back to consoles in droves (even with new platforms) ;)
 
5 reasons:

1) console are definitely too old
2) cheap games on iOS and Android
3) console games had been the same old sequels
4) nintendo is still making games for kids when parents would probably like to spend less money on their children by buying games on iOS or Android (See #2)
5) the gaming generation has grown older and has other obligations like family and career
 
I've never bought the same EXACT console so many times lol. Literally the 360 is the first to make me buy more than once, twice, and three times. I have gotten a total of 4 brand spanking new 360s since launch. With the first 3, they kept promising no more RRODs but they kept coming lol. Only reason I kept buying is because I like to play games with friends. Still have my PS3 and wii though from the launch of those two consoles lol. Also the graphics these days on consoles and unoriginality is disgusting.
 
What everyone else has said.

Current gen consoles are 8 years old now. And the games are showing the age of the hardware.

Game replication/sequels/infinite sameness. FPS has been done TO DEATH.

I'm all for PC resurgence. But I also like to play on the big screen in the living room. And I don't know about your wives, but pulling in a full tower powerhouse PC into the living room is frowned upon in my house.
 
Apparently, a lot of people thought 2012 was a good year for video games. I however thought it was a terrible year. What game in 2012 was a must have? Very few games were a must have, and the ones that were weren't all that great.

I think a lot of people who were born in the mid to late 90's realized that there was a huge generation of games they missed. And a lot of these people are going back to play games from the 8-bit, 16-bit, and eventually 32-bit/64-bit era as well. AAA is a AAA game no matter what century it was made in. The games are either cheap or free, and can even be emulator on your modern day PC, with better graphics.

Then there's modern games, which all seem to get the EA treatment. How many game franchises does EA own anyway? Well I played Dead Space 3 and it totally lost it's appeal from the first game, or even second. I can now duck behind boxes, and now even fight humans?

#1 Ever game now seems to come out with a DLC. Nobody likes DLC's.
#2 Every game seems too easy and repetitive.
#3 Games shouldn't have a difficulty setting. Should just get harder as you progress.
 
Burticus said:
I'm all for PC resurgence. But I also like to play on the big screen in the living room. And I don't know about your wives, but pulling in a full tower powerhouse PC into the living room is frowned upon in my house.
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PC in living room is bad but Xbox 360 is OK? Your wife is concern about the wrong things. Also HTPC.
 
amddragonpc said:
Well, if all the developers of console games are just going to rehash their first-person shooters over and over again, I'm not surprised at the demise of game consoles.
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This happens on PC as well. There are many games that are well worth playing over the rehash games. But money talks and people rather buy Madden 2027, Call of Duty MXVI and Assassin’s Creed: Quest for more Money, then take a chance on something new and different.
 
pxc said:
10-12 years might reflect the console lifecycle. PS2 production just ended, which is a run of 12 years. PS1/PS One ran from 1994-2006. It's pretty likely that Sony will continue to make PS3s for the same time period, and if MS continues the 360 for even the short amount of time it continued with the first Xbox (2001-2007 in NA), the 360 should hit around 10 years of production 2 years after the next Xbox is released. Nintendo also has some long hardware support for certain models (and not for others).

Just keep in mind that previous generation consoles often remain in production after new ones are released. 10-12 years doesn't mean that's the gap between releases.
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WINNER! :D Almost every major system, except for Sega consoles, has been on the shelf for around 10 years or so.
 
Ashbringer said:
PC in living room is bad but Xbox 360 is OK? Your wife is concern about the wrong things. Also HTPC.
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The 360 and my tiny Shuttle HTPC (which is incapable of gaming) take up very little room on the shelf. If I could build a PC as powerful as my main rig the size of a 360 (under a grand) I probably would.
 
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