we are reaching market saturation, but I think that's mostly in the bigger markets on Western Europe and Australia, I think Eastern Europe and the Middle East could still see some growth with a price cut, but its not going to have a massive effect long term for the hole EMEAA, sales are simply slowing down too fast, these new games are great, but most of them are for existing IP's, and if you want to play that game franchise, you would of probably already bought the system already

Are the current consoles priced about the same now as they were last gen at the same stage of their lives (taking exchange rates and maybe inflation into account)?

I haven't had the time to do any proper research but it seems to me that consoles are far more expensive this gen after almost 6yrs (x360) and approaching 5yrs for the other two, than they were at the same stage last gen.

The economic conditions in the biggest gaming markets in Europe are not exactly ideal..maybe apart from Germany.

Taking these two factors on board I will say that there is room for growth, not amazing growth but growth non-the-less.

Even if sales are down the EMEAA remains the biggest POTENTIAL market based on it's population and having some of the world's fastest growing economies.

Kowenicki, from what year are these figures taken  (PS2 XBOX GameCube = 76.43m).

It seems to me at a glance that these include figures for an eight year old PS2 which will be unfair to compare it with the current consoles that are younger.

If I am wrong about that I apologise.

Sequels can sell systems too. Look at UC2, CoD MW2, and to a lesser extent, KZ3. Perhaps it is not new ips, but rather when a large series hits that console for the first time? (GT5, Halo 3, KZ 2, GTAIV)

to be fair, they're quite large system sellers or big name franchises (bolded), but not all games do this for certain, LittleBigPlanet 2 didn't cause a big boost and there will be other examples, sequels can increase sales, but its against the norm

Poor Dreamcast. Everybody always ignores the Dreamcast.

Your point still stands, though. I think you're right too, the 7th generation has peaked. I think there's something more to it than just market saturation, though.

Somehow, software was down 25% last week YoY. If you look at the overall YoY sales for 7th generation machines from the start of February to now, these are the numbers.

2011:  25916k
2010:  29301k

So there's a 12% drop in software, and it's growing YoY. Considering the difference in YoY so far between consoles is at less than a million, that means that the already existing owners are buying less games than they did in 2010.

In other words, the 163 million existing owners of the in 2010 are buying less games than the existing owners of the 128 million did in 2010. (Existing owners as in, people who owned a machine at the beginning of the year).

So we've already approached the YoY drop for software sales in the EMEAA too, and it's going to come down quite quickly, it seems.

I don't think so. First, the Wii has expanded the audience beyond what it was last gen. Second, the MEAA market itself has grown a lot, and developing markets are more important than they used to. And third, there is more multiple console ownership than before, meaning the figure is probably below 77m. I am sure pricecuts will be coming soon for all consoles, and that will boost sales again. IMO EMEAA won't reach saturation point until 2014 or so.

Hmmm... 2011 could be on par or slightly above 2010 if sales are high enough during xmas time after price cuts I guess. After that, yes, it's all downhill. It's just that I don't think it will go down that fast, and most of the decline comes from the Wii really. I just think that sales can mantain a good level for the next two years, close to 2010 levels.

Agreed.  Market saturation is taking hold in Europe and it won't be long before new consoles are revealed and sent to production.  The wii did an excelent job of expanding the core market this gen and sony has done an excellent job of expanding it's territory to countries that usually don't purchase consoles.  Now will have to see if these new expanded bases will translate to more sales next gen.

Price cuts mean 2011>2010...

For PS3.

Not to Wii.

Maybe to 360.