14 DAY TRIAL // With all the console war between Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, one could believe that we're talking about an ever growing industry that keeps bringing in thousands of new users per day. Well, as strange as it might sound, we are wrong, at least if we take a look at the US console market - which is stagnating and shows no real signs of growing (not as much as manufacturers would like it to).
According to a report posted on website mercurynews, out of the 25 million consoles purchased during the past two and a half years in the US, most of them were sold to households where other last gen consoles were found. In other words, to gamers who knew what they were buying and not newcomers to the addictive virtual worlds of games.
If you wish to know the numbers, here they are: 40 to 42 percent of US households owned at least one console last year. According to LA research team Centris, the numbers are exactly the same as in 2006 and just one percent higher than in 2005. Another research firm, Adams Media, puts last year's percentage to 40.9, compared to a 36.3 one in 2005. Still a very slow growth rate, which further means that console sales are stagnating and both manufacturers as well as game developers are doing something wrong. And that's a really interesting point of view!
"You can look at how much the console systems actually sell, but that doesn't account for duplicate households," Cole said. "If you look at most new console purchases today, they are going into households that already own a game system from a previous generation (yes, even Wii buyers)."
And we all thought that Nintendo's Wii is the console that would revolutionize gaming and turn us into game addicts! Or maybe so few people are starting to buy consoles because everybody understands that PCs are the future, just as the PC Gaming Alliance is trying to prove.