Don’t write off the video games console market just yet, despite the recent falling sales and the rise of mobile and social networking games, warns market watcher IDC.
Don’t write off the video games console market just yet, despite the recent falling sales and the rise of mobile and social networking games, warns market watcher IDC.
“Prognostications that consoles have peaked as a product category are premature,” said Lewis Ward, consumer markets, gaming, manager for IDC.
“I expect that the launch of the (Nintendo) Wii U, a revamped interactive entertainment console from Microsoft in the 2014 timeframe, and the arrival of Sony’s ‘PS4’ circa 2015 – along with more than a few exclusive, innovative games – will help drive a new wave of console-centric spending in the next several years.”
IDC forecasts direct global console hardware and disc software sale revenue will increase at a CAGR of 3.6 percent from 2010 to 2015, reaching US$39.7 billion in 2015.
The installed base of actively used game consoles won’t keep pace with the number of worldwide households, IDC admits. It predicts about 257 million active consoles worldwide by 2015, or 12.7 percent of households.
This is down about 1pc on the 2011 figure, thanks to the expected rise of smartphone and media tablet gaming as well as free-to-play online PC games.
