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Forums - Sales Discussion - How seriously will the economic crisis affect this generation's sales?

I'm sure most of us ''videogame sale enthusiasts'' have at least had this question in our head in recent times.

I decided to post it here after reading Jacob's (The Source) recent article on the latest US weekly sales charts. In said article, he predicts that ''the holiday season should be massive, despite the deteriorating world economy''. I am not here to contradict The Source's prediction. I also think sales will be as good as they always are this time of the year.

Most will say: ''Duh, it's a no-brainer to say that this crisis, if it turns out to be as serious as it looks right now, with banks and companies collapsing and people losing their livelyhoods, will most definitely affect hardware and software sales.''

My question is: How exactly? What specific effects do you expect? If you can provide numerical answers to the question, so much better, like ''overall sales (or a specific console's sales) will go down X%''

My answer to my own question is as follows:

I think overall sales will be affected, no question in my mind about that. However, I think it will affect the HD consoles -particularly the PS3- more profoundly than it will affect the wii (I expect the portables to be affected less as well).

When people have to start saving their pennies, the first things to be cut are expensive and/or unnecessary items from their budget. In this case, if they want to keep videogame entertaintment in their budgets, they will surely give priority to the less costly alternatives.

So, in conclusion, if the crisis turns out to be as bad as some predict and videogame sales go down (I would say they'll go down between 10 and 20%), the wii's marketshare in current-generation home consoles will go up drastically, beyond the 50% that has seemed unnatainable to me up 'till now.

As far as portables go, even if sales go down or not, I would expect the marketshare to remain more or less the same, perhaps a modest 2 or 3% gain for the Nintendo systems, since they already have an absurd piece of the pie to begin with.

This question is speculative, so don't be afraid to give your best guess as to the exact effects you think this crisis might have.



Make sure the shadow you chase is not the one you cast.

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I think that due to the 'expanded market' opened up, for the most part, by Nintendo, this gen is getting a lot of new customers and players, of all ages, and that increase in people buying into the industry will counterbalance the loss of sales due to the economy - so sales will look about the same or slightly better than last gen thanks to market expansion, but they could have been even greater and more expanded without the crisis.



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I think it hurts sony the most, overall games do well because they are a from of entertainment that can be done in the home relatively cheap. a $50.00 game could last you months of fun



PS3, WII and 360 all great systems depends on what type of console player you are.

Currently playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Fallout 3, Halo ODST and Dragon Age Origins is next game

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My Prediction: Sales won't be as could as they could have been.

... This is all I can think of.....



4 ≈ One

I think the crisis may keep MS from starting the next gen as fast as it might of. If MS holds off, so will everyone else. Thus while the sales each year may be lower(than they could have been), the total sales for the gen may be higher (due to it being longer).



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Software sales will remain the same, or even go up a little. Hardware sales may not do as well over the holidays (as gifts), but should do well during regular periods.



No effect whatsoever. Okay, it could impact sales slightly, but recently the gaming industry has seen record revenues despite the economic downturn.



 

Enjoy

SW will go up and HW will go down. MSFT will be the best HD console sold and Wii will have a fierce competion with MSFT as moms want to keep more money for gas and food, etc. If it is cheaper more people will go for it.



everyone know that during a economic recession sorry economic downturn people don't want to hear the "R" word like people in harry potter dont want to hear lord voldermort. but anyways everyone knows that during a economic crisis people use form of entertainment to escape reality. in the depression movies were doing really well because it was a form of escape for people i can see video games will fill that void and plus u can play video games over and over again and i believe that used video games will sell a lot and plus nintendo has the wii and some of their games sell for 20-30's and that will help the consumer



The so called quotes, "Wii will outsell PS2" will contradict...

Also the so called quotes, "PS3 will outsell 360" will also be gone.