Nintendo is gaming, Sony/Microsoft are questionable.

[Ail]

RolStoppable said:

Ail said:

bdbdbd said:
@caio: Wii isn't a different story, even if you wanted it to be. You can only talk about your personal preference, which also doesn't equal quality.

Quality of the games is a key factor in the success of Wii and the games. There's a reason why "Wii" titles are made by EAD instead of a random 5th tier team.

@Leo-j, Kantor, Khuutra: The games market is shrinking for a number of reasons: the household penetration of videogame consoles has been largely stagnant for a long while. Growth have come from new markets, so the demographic haven't expanded.
Most of western countries are going to be hit by a population decline, at the same time the birthrate is low, which means there are less and less new customers coming.
People are getting tired of playing the same games in a new wrap over and over again.

Where does everyone get this idea that the gaming market has been shrinking ?

Aside from Japan, the market has steadily been expanding both in Europe and in NA....

US Console & Handheld Total Sales
1997 - $5.1 billion
1998 - $6.2 billion
1999 - $6.9 billion
2000 - $6.6 billion
2001 - $9.4 billion
2002 - $10.3 billion
2003 - $10 billion
2004 - $9.9 billion
2005 - $10.3 billion
2006 - $12.5 billion

2008 : 21 billion$

 

And the Wii  launched at the end of 2006 so can't say it affected most of  those numbers...

The numbers make a big jump in 2001. Coincidently that was when the PS2 was finally readily available and three other systems launched (GBA, GC, Xbox), increasing the average price of purchased hardware drastically after the 5th gen systems were already really cheap to get. After that, the numbers are pretty much flat until the 360 launches and the DS starts to take off (which only happened in 2006). Also, there's an additional system on the market with the PSP.

Obviously the Wii and DS do make a difference which can easily be seen by the 2008 number. That one goes beyond a simple "hardware prices are higher on average now" explanation.

It's interesting that there was some growth from 1997-1999, despite the consoles getting more and more pricecuts. Although that could have been offset by the GBC and DC launches. On the other hand, during the 6th gen we see stagnation, possibly even a decline which is only offset by the wave of hardware launches from 2005 onwards.

 

The number make a big jump each time a new gen is introduced.

Once the gen is started they stagnate for a few years until the next gen ( as 2009 vs 2008 will demonstrate it) but overall, every gen they grow and the market doesn't look at all like it is shrinking