Just before the recession was officially announced, many thought that the games industry was recession proof. Not a great deal has changed since then, sales have remained high, consoles are being sold in there millions and the Wii is still out of stock.

As the recession progresses, what will be the first platform to go?

Although the Playstation 3 hasn’t lived up to the projected sales following the Playstation 2, Sony will still continue to pour money into the system in order to improve the UI, the PSN and ultimately to shift consoles. Although Sony did announce a 1.04 billion dollar loss, sighting “factors including the slowdown of the global economy, the appreciation of the yen and the decline in the Japanese stock market” to be the cause of this. They have and will continue to put time, money and resources into the top line console.

Along with the Playstation 3 the other ‘hardcore’ gamers console is the Xbox 360. Microsoft’s big hitting console has been fairly consistently selling more systems than its HD counterpart. With already a huge install base and online gaming thriving it’s difficult to see this change anytime soon. The Xbox 360 is enriched with hardcore gamers who have a passion for gaming and no matter how harsh the environment will still go out and buy games. It’s sensible to suggest that these two consoles will be the last to go due to their hardcore fan base.

As for the Wii, its fan base is made up of mainly ‘casual’ gamers. Gaming for the ‘casual’ is more of a luxury than a passion, therefore when harder economic times come they are more likely drop the hobby as its not an essential product, and thus resulting in decreasing sales of games and hardware. With more and more shovel-ware made everyday for the Wii, the hardcore Nintendo fans (or what’s left of them) are becoming evermore frustrated with Nintendo’s lack of ambition to provide games for the hardcore. Obviously this would take harsh economic times to reach these extremes, but it could be assumed that the first console to go this generation will be the Wii.

http://www.sanctuary4gamers.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=646:which-console-would-be-the-first-to-go&catid=14:general-gaming&Itemid=80

this has been posted already, I think Rafichamp posted it

Edit: yep, here is the link http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=73053

um ok i understand the trail of logic but it still seems HIGHLY unrealistic to me. But to each his own

"With more and more shovel-ware made everyday for the Wii, the hardcore Nintendo fans (or what’s left of them) are becoming evermore frustrated with Nintendo’s lack of ambition to provide games for the hardcore."

Don't you tell me how I feel! I love Nintendo and I only wish university wasn't sapping so much of my time, so I could buy and play more of the awesome games on the Wii