Analysts: Next Generation Sales to Drop due to Tablets and Smartphones - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 23 April 2012 / 6,706 Views
Analysts Michael J. Olson and Andrew D. Connor at Piper Jaffray have made predictions about the next generation of consoles. Hardware sales for each console are expected to be down compared to the current generation consoles, while software sales are expected to decline 53 percent in the first 14 months. The decline in sales is due to competition from tablets and smartphones.
Olson and Connor expect the Wii U to ship in the fall of this year with a price tag of $299 or greater and is expected to sell just 35 percent of the original Wii in its first 14 months on sale. Sony's next generation console is predicted to launch during the 2013 holiday season and to sell 50 percent of what the PlayStation 3 has managed. They expect Microsoft to be the last to launch their next generation console, with a release date in 2014. They expect it to sell 55 percent the volume of the Xbox 360.
"Unfortunately, we do not expect a console refresh to fully offset the secular declines in console gaming," the firm said. "We believe console gaming will continue to be a time-share donor to social networks, mobile games and tablets. We, therefore, favor companies with increasing exposure to social/mobile gaming, including Zynga and EA."