As of late the gaming industry hasn’t been doing so well, compared to past trends and figures anyway. The main indicator of this is the fact Wall Street share prices for EA and other big game developers are reaching low levels and are generally struggling.
In a recent interview EA’s CEO, John Riccitiello, said that a new generation of consoles would help revive EA’s financial outlook as well as the outlook of other game related companies. If his comments are anything to go by, then surely both Microsoft and Sony are being lobbied persistently by video game developers to make sure that they get out the next generation of gaming consoles soon before the gaming industry falls flat on its backside.
Persistent “leaks” about the Sony PlayStation “Orbis” and Microsoft Xbox “8” or “720” seem to be indications that both the console giants are gearing up for the release of next-gen consoles soon. Announcements are expected at CES 2013 and/or E3 2013.
Sales figures on consoles and games haven’t been great recently. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have seen up to double digit losses in the console market for June’s figures.
Another key indicator that it is time for a new console is the massive support the OUYA console project has received, the $99 Android gaming console has so far received 42,000 backers and over $5.5 million in funding just from KickStarter alone.
If there ever was an optimal time to release a new generation of consoles, then now would be it. However, it looks like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo could all miss the Christmas 2012 buying season in favour of a 2013 launch. So it looks like you’ve got to make your Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 last another year still.
