At least one industry analyst believes the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles may have reached market saturation.
Jesse Divnich of Entertainment Design and Research said the April NPD hardware sales showed that both consoles have hit a sales barrier at the their current price points.
In March, both sold more than 250,000 units, but in April, they sold less than 190,000 units – despite the massive sales of Grand Theft Auto IV. The Nintendo Wii, meanwhile, continued to blaze along with over 700,000 units sold.
The numbers provided backing for Divnich’s assertion last month that the consoles’ hardware sales might be in trouble, as they seemed stagnant despite the release of two popular shooter titles, Army of Two and Rainbow Six: Vegas 2.
“Of course, it might be a little too soon to speculate that we can expect a price drop in the coming weeks or additional hardware SKUs (an Xbox 360 with Blu-Ray capability) in the coming month,” Divnich said, “but if May’s hardware sales drop below the 50,000 units sold a week threshold, we can definitely expect something in terms of a change in strategy from both Microsoft and Sony.”
Source: Gamespot.com
Published: May 19, 2008 07:30 pm