The lineup of next-gen consoles, Sony's PlayStation 4 "Orbis," Microsoft's Xbox 720 and Nintendo's Wii U, may not beat their predecessors' sales records.
Analysts Michael J. Olson and Andrew D. Connor of market research firm Piper Jaffray believe that the next-gen consoles will see an average software sales decline of 53 percent compared to PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii throughout their first 14 months.
According to a report by Gamasutra, the analysts expect the Wii U to be priced at $299.They predict that the Nintendo Wii U's sales will reach 35 percent of its volume, while Sony's PS4 will sell about 50, and the Xbox 720 of Microsoft may sell only 55 percent in its first fourteen months.
Sony's next console which will be launched in 2013 will only sell 50 percent of the volume that the PlayStation 3 managed. The report also added that Microsoft's next Xbox, which will be launched in 2014, will sell only 55 percent of the volume that the Xbox 360 has before it.
With players looking out for easier ways of gaming, analysts, believes the predicted drop is console software sales maybe due to mobile games and social games.
"We believe console gaming will continue to be a time-share donor to social networks, mobile games and tablets. We therefore favor companies with increasing exposure to social/mobile gaming, including Zynga and EA," according to the Piper Jaffray analysts Michael Olson and Andrew Connor.
"With these newfangled options undercutting console games (which, in the past, undercut sales of PC games), it is likely sales may decline drastically despite the hype bestowed upon each company's next-gen release", reports Eastern Morning Herald.
With stiff competition coming from tablets and smartphones, one would have to wait and watch how far the launching of the next-gen consoles would go and whether analysts' predictions will come true.
READ MORE:
Crysis 3 Crying for Xbox 720, PlayStation 4 with DirectX 11 Graphics
Xbox 720, What Can a 16-Core CPU Do?
Nintendo Wii $300 Price Tag Stirs Up Xbox 720, PS4 Competitors
Gaming Trending to Entertainment, PlayStation and Xbox Battle for Top Spot
PlayStation 4 Orbis Strikes First, Launch Before Xbox 720 and Concept Designs