Based on available data leaked by the subscribers of market researcher NPD on the sales of consoles in North America, it would appear that the console market is experiencing a substantial decline, TechCrunch reported.
The reliance on leaked data from the subscribers is due to the seeming hesitance that console makers now have when it comes to releasing official numbers, something that the TechCrunch report said was "rather telling." After the last generation of flagship consoles rolled out in the holiday shopping season of 2006, NPD official data for the console market on January 2007 showed that there were nearly 2 million consoles sold.
For January 2014, however, the equivalent list based on the leaked data showed that there were only about 700,000 consoles sold. Even if the figures for the current year are underestimates, the difference of 2 million to 700,000 still represents "a very big market contraction," the report said.
News about the market's poor reception of the Wii U was widely known. However, the figures indicate that the entire console market has not been shipping the number of units it once did. For example, there were 294,000 units sold of the previous generation Xbox 360 but the newer Xbox One sold only 141,000 units. The PS2 even sold 299,000 in the official figures of January 2007 but the PS4 was only able to attract sales of 271,000 units in the same period this year, the report said.
The shrinking of the console market is significant because it will have a detrimental effect on the gaming industry. The report said, "The big games studios don't exclusively develop for a single platform, after all, so the health of the entire market is key to keeping games studios in business."
With the rising cost of developing flagship console games titles, selling only fewer consoles will mean tougher times ahead for games studios. As a result, a number of studios, even big name ones like Irrational Games, have closed shop. Contraction is certainly a problem faced by the console market, the report said.
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