14 DAY TRIAL // Michael Pachter, an analyst who is watching the video game industry for Wedbush, has revealed that the market will continue to see a decline in the coming months and in early 2013, a trend that can only be reversed by the announcement and then the launch of new gaming hardware from Sony and Microsoft.
The analyst stated, “Nintendo will launch the Wii U on November 18, and, while neither Sony nor Microsoft has yet announced new hardware, we expect a PS4 no later than November 2013, and a next Xbox no later than March 2014.”
He added, “We believe that the publishers plan an unprecedented number of new games for launch in the first two years of the next generation, providing relief from the gamer fatigue we’ve seen over the last three years.”
Pachter has not talked about how he arrived at the two probable launch dates or why he sees the new PlayStation console from Sony as arriving about six months before Microsoft introduces its own next-generation device.
Video game linked sales in the United States have been steadily declining over the eight months for which the NPD Group has already offered figures and some analysts are expecting to see a slight increase in the overall value of both hardware and software for the crucial Christmas shopping season.
Sony and Microsoft have so far refused to offer any sort of official information linked to their next generation of devices.
Rumors suggest that it might include everything from digital distribution solutions to more motion tracking integration.
The Nintendo Wii U is the first next-gen device to be launched, on November 18 in the United States, November 30 in Europe and eight days later on the Japanese market.
The new platforms will include computing power comparable to the Xbox 360 and PS3 and a new GamePad controller.