Regardless of the cause; there will be a decline in the home console market as well as a massive one in the handheld market and that's my whole point. The 7th gen saw 235-240 million handhelds and had three consoles ending up in the 85-100 million region in lifetime sales, that is unprecedented in console history and was the peak of the console market. Gaming has branched out and splintered into several chunks so even if the total revenue is still growing in gaming; the share going towards consoles will be shrinking a great deal.

And that is called a market contraction and people are actually arguing against the fact that there will be one, some have even claimed there will be growth. At this point, and since long ago; there is absolutely no basis for such claims but a whole lot for the opposite.

Besides; it is still to soon to say anything about MS and Sony consoles, I don't think the One will sell 90 million and I'm not so sure that the PS4 will beat the PS3 either, and if it does; it won't be by much.

The argument was; "look, there has been growth in the past generations, there is no decline". My answer is; past growth is in no way indicative of future and continued growth but there is ample data to support the opposite stance.

As for being concerned; well, neither am I for now, PC gaming has gotten a huge vitamin shot in the past 4-5 years and has actually grown and there are still studios that produce quality software for me to enjoy. What does concern me is companies like Capcom, Bioware and Dice shitting on their legacy and IP's though, and the likes of Dungeon Keeper and other classics being diluted and shredded on mobile platforms. The overall focus on glitz and glamour over actual worthwhile content and good writing and gameplay also worries me. I don't feel that gaming has changed for the better and the majority rules, which means that Angry Bird and the like are setting the bar for profitability and appeal; in turn making less studios (and lesser studios...) go for cheap and simple fare rather than living out ambitions.

All things aside though; the console market is facing a big decline and that was the main point I wanted to come across.

You are forgetting this is not a sprint and but a race nobody knows how this generation is gonna play out so if playstation 4 does not sell more than the playstation3 that would be three straight generations off the playstation brand declining ..will I  be be able to say its a trend and that the playstaion brand is fading lol..people forget that each generation is different and that sometimes you win sometimes you don't lol it's as simple as that ...people forget nintendo has won 3 out of seven generations and has beat "every" console it's been against at least once(Atari,sega,Sony,xbox,Neo geo ,colecovison etc )that's a huge feat ...

enjoyed reading the comments. from MKart - overtracked - doom - fads
summer sales = boorrinng :/

Yeah and over 1 billion people watched Gangnam Styles on Youtube, I suppose that wasn't a fad either. If the original iPhone had solled 200 million units but subsequent iPhones failed to sell more than 50 million units would iPhone not be considered a fad? Was Blackberry not a fad in the grand scheme of things? I say yes, Blackberry was a fad because it captured the attention of the market for a few years then fell into irrelevance. Nintendo was heading towards irrelevance in home consoles, it captured a new and untapped market for a brief time and now it is heading back towards irrelevance in home consoles.

4 years is a moment for consoles. Your timescales are just not adjusted right.

Erm PS2 was the follow on from PS1 which was 104 million (the most successful home console of all time at the time, and still number 2)-->157 million, if you wanna call 50% growth then 50% decline across 3 generations a fad by all means do so. In some respects it was and I say 150 million home console sales will be the permanent record for all time home console sales and assuming DS really did just fall short (I have my doubts) PS2 may well forever be the highest selling gaming console. But 376% growth (GC-->Wii) followed by potentially 80% decline (Wii-->WiiU if Wii U only manages GC numbers) across 3 generations most assuredly is fad territory. 3/4 of one generation of phenomenal sales bracketed on either side by 2 generations of dismal sales, in the context of consoles, is a fad.

You still not getting the point...so was the playstation 2 a fad with it sales because it had a built in DVD player and the new DVD trend at the time  and then next generation the sales went from 154,000,000 to 80 million ..explain that please ...like I said you win some generations you lose some ....shrugs 

The definition of fad differs based on the context of the discussion. The fact that people only cared about motion controls for a single generation, and that motion controls are not helping to drive sales the following generation pretty much puts Wii in particular and motion controls in general into the fad category.

Technically the Wii phenomenon didn't really last an entire generation. It lasted 4 years, and then rapidly tailed off to make Wii the worst selling console of on an anual basis for it's final 2 years of being the current Nintendo home console.

PlayStation dropped gen over gen once not 2 times. While Nintendo dropped gen over gen every single generation until the Wii came. Tell me, if the Wii wasn't a fad then why didn't those people buy a Wii U? To go from 20 million in a year (2009) all the way down to 4 for the next generation is unheard of. It shows that the Wii was another popular trend that faded away like every trend does. 

Definition of fad: an intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something, especially one that is short-lived; a craze

Wii was a fad, end of.

Whatyou call a fad  I call innovation ....the iPhone was not a fad it was a new product of its kind (innovation)and till this day still sells well ...just because it's sells is not where it was when it first came outdoesnt make it a fad and blackberry wasn't a fad it just didn't evolve as  a product with time.....

Nintendo can blame the inability to sell Wii U systems due to lack of brand differentiation, poor advertising, and of course the lack of games that shift software. They have made mistakes and the reason things are looking so up right now, is because they were so low. I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo releases a new console in the next 3 years, (2016ish). XBone has the boost due to the pseudo-price drop and good amount of quality games out and on the horizon. PS4 sold so well initially due to lower price than XBone at the beginning and a Marketing campaign that somewhat resembled the "Droid does what I doesn't". The thing is both the PS4 and XBone have really great lineups of nearly identical games coming out, large third party support and should both start selling like hot-cakes around the holiday season, the second holiday is always a great measure of the system. Ninty dropped the ball. The thing I don't understand is why they just don't make HD ds type games, like a Nintendogs U or something cheap that could move systems. And tell third parties if they can just port games without using the gamepad, extra time, extra cost and lower sales combine to Nintendo losing all that initial great third party support and greater flocking to the Big Dogs.