RolStoppable said:
Fact is that the troubling economy didn't have an effect on video game sales until 2009. Analysts used to declare that the video game industry is recession-proof up until it was hit by it as well. What the 360 sold in comparison to the PS3 doesn't really matter, because the point of relevance is the question if a $400 with almost no exclusive games can sell well. Since both of the aforementioned consoles struggled at $400+ price points during a good economy, there's no reason whatsoever to believe that new consoles at these price points won't struggle in this day and age. What games will be available that will make people say that they absolutely have to own these consoles? |
Well, if the economy hit the consoles in 2009, I guess that didn't apply to the PS3, as it sold 2.8M more than it did the previous year. And in 2010, it sold 900K more than in 2009. In 2011, it sold 220K more than it did in 2010. Only in 2012, thanks to the natural decline of the market at the end of the gen, did it start to see a decline YOY. I think your problem is that you're looking at this from a Nintendo centric point of view. I guess you think the decline of the Wii in 2009, even though it's always been cheaper, by 2.9M YOY had to do with the economy? Nope. It had to do with people starting to lose interest in the Wii. Which is why when PS3 was still climbing in 2010, the Wii dropped another 4M YOY.
The Wii U's problem has to do with interest in the HW, not the economy. Interest is a 50/50 split between the attractiveness of the HW and the SW. People may be interested in Nintendo's SW offerings, but like the N64 and Gamecube have shown us before, it takes more than that to make people buy your system.
