2012 might have just started but analyst are ready to make some pretty bold predictions about how the industry will do in the coming year, with one industry watcher saying that Microsoft will surely announce the Xbox 360 successor at the E3 2012 trade event while Sony will miss that date and might make an official announcement about the PlayStation 4 a little later.
Billy Pidgeon, who is the analyst linked to the video game industry at M2 Research, told IndustryGamers that, “The next generation of consoles begins to arrive in 2012. We know that Wii U will launch in 2012. Microsoft will announce a successor to Xbox 360 at E3 2012. Sony will not announce PS4 in 2012. Nintendo will see all Wii U shipments sell through, and Microsoft should see similar performance in 2013 with the next Xbox. Next generation, however, we won't see a "Wii effect" where uptake is aggressive with sustained momentum and production can't meet demand within a year.”
He added, “Production and uptake will be more restrained, resulting in slower penetration. Console vendors should seek higher attach rates to smaller bases in the early launch stage. This will require vendors to provide more quality first party titles for both current and next generation consoles than seen in previous console launches, to sustain software performance and usage in current generation while slowly building a quality generation base.”
Rumors about follow-up home consoles from both Microsoft and
Sony have been appearing for some time but the two companies have said that they have 10 year plans for their current generation and that they are not ready to make any announcements.
Currently Nintendo is planning to get the Wii U out later during 2012, presumably at some point during the summer, offering the same hardware specs as the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.
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