It’s clear that Xbox 360 sales are being spurred by Minecraft. Minecraft is beating EVERYTHING except football (which it probably would beat if it wasn’t counting both PS3 and Xbox 360 platforms for football. Yet, that is a seasonal game, and Minecraft will keep selling). Minecraft is this generation’s Tetris.
Retail sales, of course, keep going down year over year. 3DS is doing *better* but is still below DS numbers. Wii U sales are worse than Japan’s, and it is in the toilet in Japan.
I think it is a very tough economic market out there. Generation 8 sales will be slashed because of the economic environment, no doubt about that. But we only have three Gen 8 systems out: Vita, which is dead, Wii U, which is dying, and the 3DS, which isn’t that impressive. While we can pin problems on each individual system, I think we can’t rule out the big picture of the economy. PS4 and Xbone sales will be very interesting to watch. I contend that the ONLY way a Gen 8 console will outperform its Gen 7 predecessor is by cannibalizing a competitor. Doing the same thing as before will result in no growth. The macro-economics, which once grew the Game Industry with population growth, new markets, and more disposable income in the First World, are now running against it.
Gaming needs another Wii console. Badly. A Wii type success today wouldn’t be sold out, but it would be a ‘healthy’ success unlike these sick consoles that will be parading before us in Generation 8.
And we need more games like Minecraft, games that get back to the ‘Classic Coke’ feeling of video game purity.
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