Pachter: Console Death Will Take Decades, GameStop Has at Least 20 Years - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 30 September 2015 / 5,400 Views
Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter expects the death of video game consoles to be prolonged and to last several decades.
"I think the console death will take decades," Pachter told MCVUK. "That means that GameStop has at least another 20 years to sell DVDs. I think that the decline in physical game sales hurts GameStop the least, as Amazon and Best Buy customers are far more inclined to buy online than GameStop customers, due to the latter’s predominant position in the used games business."
Pachter noted that music CD sales are down 80 percent from their peak 18 years ago, however record labels still manufacture CDs. Similarly, DVD and Blu-ray disc sales are down 50 percent from their peak but they're still released. So while physical game sales might decline in the coming years there will be an audience to sell physical games to for many years to come.
Pachter also discussed the closure of RadioShack and Blockbuster, and argued that GameStop is in a different position.
"RadioShack was put out of business by crushing debt (GameStop has none) and very slowly declining sales due to their irrelevancy," he said. "Blockbuster was put out of business not by digital downloads or streaming video, but by lower-priced Redbox, whose sole business is renting physical DVDs. There is no analogy for GameStop."
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A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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So console death is imminent and GameStop has 5 years, gotcha
Whelp that's it consoles are dead, thanks a lot Patcher.
I think Patcher has brain damage from eating his own ejaculation.
It certainly tastes pretty bad.
What I get from this news and the precedent about the GameStop statement: GameStop is domed, everyone praise holly Amazon
180 much?
Why do the media keep giving this troll attention?
Oh Patcher.... you never cease to amuze me.
This guy typically has no idea what he's talking about.
actually this is the most sense full thing I have read from him in years. He at least recognizes its an apples to orange comparison when comparing game sales to movie sales.
I think his comparison of CD Music and DVD/BR comparison to games is a bit far fetched. I think the average gamer is better technically informed. So I can see the numbers going digital a lot quicker than music or movies. However many gamers are also hoarders so there will always be a small demand at least for some disc or physical format. Same reason why there are still Record stores in most places but they are few and far between.
According to NPD, about 75% of core gamers use physical media. So, I don't know about this technically informed stuff. Unless you mean, of course, that they know it's better to own games physically.
Consoles will die, but physical games will leave another 20 years? Is Patcher changing his prediction since Yoshi tipped him the right way?
Enjoy the last consoles gen. We had a good run.
Stop feeding this leech!
was last week
