zorg1000 said:
Not necessarily. Things like subscription services & DLC/season passes are good ways to increase revenue per customer. Also the huge increase in digital sales which are sold at a higher profit margin helps alot. Its also possible that they are selling hardware at a higher profit margin as well. For example, PS1 had reduced its price from $299 to $129 within 3 years, PS2 had reduced its price from $299 to $149 in about 3.5 years. In the same time frame PS4 has had its price reduced from $399 to $299. Thats a 25% price reduction for PS4 while PS1/PS2 prices were slashed by roughly 50% in the same time frame. Higher profits doesnt necessarily mean the number of consumers isnt declining. |
PS4 is matching the sales pace of the PS2 now almost four years in, which is the best selling game hardware of all time. Meanwhile XBox One is selling more than the XB or GameCube from that PS2 era and now you have Switch coming out with a record breaking launch. And these hardware systems are not getting the benefit of large price cuts, as you pointed out, making their sales even more impressive.
What more do you want? The market for core-driven game consoles is not declining at all. And you have plenty of casuals having their fun on smartphones, which is basically another multi-billion dollar industry on top of that.
We very well could be looking at a generation where it's 120-130 million PS4s (only because Sony will likely pull the PS4 before the PS2), 50-65 million XBox One/Scorpios, and who knows with Switch ... 75-90+ million? If that's not an incredibly healthy industry I don't know what is.
The industry is not shrinking guys, anad women and grandmas are not the only way for it to go anywhere. It's patently false alarmism by this point.
