what you are perceiving as falling sales are just due to the introduction of new consoles.
People stop buying the previous gen because they are either wanting to buy the new gen or because they are waiting for that inevitable price drop.
You cannot lump all consoles together for a year and count that as an average statistic. Of course 2012 would be lower than 2011, the DS, PSP and Wii saw a massive sales drop off, and new gen console sales take a while to pickup due to cost and new game experiences.
The fact is that the new generation, 3DS VITA XBONE, PS4 and Wii U, are steadily growing and i advise you compare the 2013 EOY hardware totals to the 2007 EOY hardware totals.
Simply put, you cannot compare the end of a generation to the start of a generation. You need similar data sets.
Current Game Machines: 3DS, Wii U, PC.
Currently Playing: X-Com(PC), Smash Bros(WiiU), Banner Saga(PC), Guild Wars 2(PC), Project X Zone(3DS), Luigis Mansion 2(3DS), DayZ(PC)
