I see people making statements like "The Playstation Brand is Shrinking" and references to how even though the PS4 is doing well compared to the XB1 and WiiU sales are way down this gen. That is true, hardware sales are down there are plenty of reasons for that, but it does not mean console gaming is dying. In fact I believe in the end the lower sales will not have too bad of an effect on the health of home consoles and gaming in general.

I am going to list a two huge reasons why console sales are down. They are just based on common sense and most of you already know this.

1. The Wii. This is too obvious. Last gen, Nintendo worked a miracle and had people in the nursing home bowling on the Wii. They had people who did not give a shit about gaming getting caught up in the hype and buy one. It sold some software too, Nintendo made a ton of money. WiiFit, WiiSports, Mario Kart, and the rest all benefitted fromt he userbase. No one else did really unless they were making Cooking Mama 6. (Activision with Guitar Hero was the big exception early in the GEN).    Now, Grandma who was in the nursing home is dead. Those people who did not care about gaming still dont and the Wii is in a closet somewhere. A huge chunk of those lost sales are the difference between the Wii and the Wii U, and Nintendo is left holding the bag. They tried to go after the same audience, but that audience had moved on to the next big thing.

2. This is the 1st GEN since GEN freaking 4 that people are not buying consoles as an alternative to another media device. Back in 1995 the Playstation doubling as a CD player was a big deal. PS2 being a DVD player (cheaper than a standalone DVD for a few years) sold a ton of them, and most recently PS3 had the same scenario with blu-ray.  There is no logical reason to buy and XB1 or a PS4 unless you are interested in games, most of the media services offered (Netflix, Hulu, etc) can be had with most modern TVs or a 40 dollar blu-ray player.

In my opinion neither of these major reasons why hardware is down hurts gaming in the long run, software sales are excellant. Sony saw this trend coming, they saw this GEN was going to be about games and are reaping the benefits, MS tried to continue with Kinect 2 and it set them back but they have recovered very nicely and have clearly adopted an "Its about the games stupid" approach. Attach rates are through the roof.

Another reason I feel good about where gaming is heading is the resurgence of genres that aren't FPS. Maybe its in my head but I feel the variety of games we are getting this GEN of the AAA quality is just wonderful. I think a prime example with GG's Zero Horizon, we have a studio doing nothing but FPS for close to a decade getting greenlit for a huge budget ARPG. You have MS and Sony using games likes Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy, Dark Souls, Shenmue as the big draw to their system, is it just me or does that list send you back in time to the year 2000 or what.

Oh ya and PC gaming is thriving as well.

You forgot to mention mobile being the second coming of Christ.

Well I kinda agree handhelds are a little doomed. There will still be a market, but it will be much smaller than in the past.

Oh yeah... I remember jamming out to CDs on my PS1. At least it didn't ruin/scratch CDs like some cheap boomboxes at the time did. Too bad I had a defective overheating launch that required 70 dollars to get a 2nd generation.

I actually think in the end, this generation is going to put consoles in more homes than any previous generation, and by quite a large margin.

PlayStation Vue and Sling TV are going to be huge reasons for people to jump over to consoles once they are more fleashed out.

Then there is the great expansion of capabilities coming, with MS putting Windows 10 on XBO. This means we will be seeing a lot of software typically only on Macs and PC coming to XBO, and this will push Sony to open the PS4 to more of this as well.

Finally, Morpheus and Hololens are going to be bigger than motion was for Wii. Not only is it a revolution in the play games, but it is going to change the entire entertainment industry. Sony, MS, Oculus, and HTC/Valve are working with the movie industry, the music industry, museums, car manufactures, nasa, and many many more industries. Next year VR is changing the world, and PS4 and XBO are the right their holding the door open to a completly new world of entertainment.

I disagree.

However I might agree to this Gen selling more software than any in the past.

I agree with you that consoles industry is in deep crysis and it will be only worse. Btw crowdfouding and +/live subscriptions can very much mean that investors money are going out of this business. Leaving it in pre-playstation condition in the end - small, niche industry for enthusiasts.

I still feel sad for handhelds, I love them so much. Also, Ninty's & Xbox's home consoles.

Consoles are selling very well actually.

http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/playing-games-on-the-pc-is-making-a-comeback/

I think having 3 different consoles is too many just like having 2 handheld is too much with current mobile competition. Splitting a shrinking audience is just bad.