PS4 has sold through 35.9million units as of January 3rd!

[mjk45]

RolStoppable said:

mjk45 said:

CGI-Quality said:

One has to wonder why this wasn't called bogus. Consoles normally peak in their 2nd year? False. On top of that, a PlayStation won't peak before dropping to $299.99 (going by historic data). So, this should prove to be far off.

Exactly,  I was going to reply to that myth but you have answered it .

As a matter of fact the PS2's peak year was it's 3rd with 22million and the 4th was it's second best with 20million.

I wouldn't call it a myth when year 2 is the most common year for a console to peak. But it needs to be said that this is largely influenced by good third party support or the lack thereof; software sells hardware, and a higher quantity of software has a bigger chance to deliver quality software. The seventh generation aside, third parties picked the system that was selling at a faster rate than the competition. The result was that the winning system had a later peak and a more sustained one, meaning that there wasn't as sharp of a dropoff in sales after the peak year as it has been for losing systems. But since we've had a lot more losing systems than winning systems in video game history, the consoles with year 2 peaks outnumber the consoles with later peak years. Year 1 is generally rough because the price of the console is high and the game library small, hence why consoles usually don't peak this early.

If we now look specifically at the PS4 when taking the above into account, the likelyhood that year 3 will be the peak year is higher than for year 2. After all, the PS4 is a winning system and the direction of where third party support goes is evident.

There are of course factors that can alter a system's sales pattern, most famously the Gameboy revival on the back of Pokémon, but like this example should show, it takes something special to deviate from the pattern.

I stand corrected shouldn't have used such an immotive word, then again I'm insane and hyperbole is my game.

I should have made two things clear ,  (1) that what I saw as a myth in regards to the 2nd year was it being used in a way that makes it look like it happens 100% of the time  and  (2) by bringing it up that I wasn't implying that it never occured, just that it's not set in concrete.

By the way is this move away  becoming a trend .