"Last year at this time, you could make an argument that there were three relevant consoles - Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, and Nintendo's Wii - but this year the Xbox 360 and PS3 are far and away generating the most software revenue."
"In the past 12 months, for every $50 that the Wii generated in software sales, the PS3 generated $66 and the Xbox 360 generated over $100. For the sake of comparison, had we done the same measure a year ago, we would have said that for every $50 at retail in Wii software, the PS3 was moving less than $45 in software while the Xbox 360 shifted around $65."
"What's going on here? The primary challenge facing the traditional video game industry today is that it is losing active consumers faster than it is adding new ones. This is an idea we've heard before, but most recently from Michael Olson and Andrew Connor of Piper Jaffray, who wrote that casual console gamers "are not actively using their consoles anymore and are therefore no longer included in the total addressable market for future console-based video game sales."
"[Wii] Software and accessory bundles, like Wii Fit, Wii Play, and Guitar Hero, helped fuel these sales, but eventually consumer demand was sated. If anything, Wii systems appear to have become popular as Netflix clients if not gaming systems, and it will finally crawl across the 40 million system line just as the Wii U launches later this year."
"The remaining systems, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, now appear to be on a similar trajectory. Hardware sales are falling, and have been for several months. For example, the Xbox 360 has shown year-over-year declines in hardware sales for nine of the last twelve months. The same is true for the PlayStation 3, although the specific weak months are different."
"I've been advocating for a while now that Sony and Microsoft drop the entry level price for their consoles, and attract new consumers. Microsoft, in particular, hasn't budged from its $200 baseline system since it announced that price back in September 2008. Sony just reached $250 in August 2011, which means the PS3 has only dropped $50 in 22 months."
For reference, here are the current hardware sales in the US.
Wii -- 39 million 360 -- 34 million PS3 -- 21 million
Yeah, the systems being old are definitely part of it. Another part is that prices on these systems are still high, especially for their age. 360 is $300, PS3 is $250--both should be closer to the $200 level. People are certainly ready for new systems, the response from E3 was a good indication of that.
And while the system prices are high, they aren't as high as they were, which means that they generate less revenue. As a product ages, elasticity continues to increase, and they haven't lowered the hardware prices enough to compensate for that. So it's like they are losing twice.
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http://img.imgcake.com/nio/bokbokbokpngur.png Mr Caffeine? He was awesome. - Ayuyu
Yeah, the main thing - aside from the recession, obviously - is that these systems are just too damn old. Not only that, but if you don't have the systems already, it's a bad idea to invest in them at this point.
Last gen, by the time each system had been out for 4 years or so, they were already dirt cheap. Nintendo was practically giving GameCubes away, the PS2 was around... $130, I think, and I'm pretty sure the Xbox was cheap towards the end too. This gen, though? The 7-year-old 360 is still $200, and the 6-year-old PS3 is $250. That's bat-**** insane, and nobody should pay that much for ancient hardware.
The Wii, of course, is an exception. $150 with a full-price Mario game is pretty good. But y'know, the Wii U is only a couple months away, right? >_> And it's received very minimal support these past two years or so, and thus, the system just doesn't seem... fresh, at all.
-- Hey, you ever coming back? You kidding? I am Queens Boulevard.
Yeah, the main thing - aside from the recession, obviously - is that these systems are just too damn old. Not only that, but if you don't have the systems already, it's a bad idea to invest in them at this point.
I still don't have a 360 or PS3 yet and that's mainly because I don't have an HDTV yet. The PS3 is the only other system from this generation that I would even consider getting (besides the Wii, which I have), especially if the PS4 ends up not having backwards compatibility for the PS3.
-- Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~ Popular at school, but not as cool as SuperNiceDog, Guru Champ!