The Switch “continues to remain steady”, though.
Sales of both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in the US are declining faster than expected, says an industry report.
In a report by market analysts NPD Group (thanks, VGC), US hardware spending was down 35 per cent in January 2020 when compared with the same period a year ago. Total spending across gaming as a whole – including hardware, software, accessories and game cards – was also lower year-over-year, dropping 26 per cent.
“An interesting takeaway from the US NPD report is that PS4 and XB1 hardware sales in Jan 2020 are considerably lower than PS3 and 360 were in Jan 2013,” posited Niko Partners analyst, Daniel Ahmad. “Next-gen consoles are around the corner but both are declining sharper than expected. Switch continues to remain steady.”
It’s a combination of multiple factors.
PS4 and XB1 have both held at current price points for a number of years.
Impact of early announcements for PS5/XSX with BC.
Shift to HD gaming across multiple devices.
Delays in key titles planned for 2020.
etc…
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) February 14, 2020
Ahmad attributes the decline to “a combination of multiple factors”, including the fact that both the PS4 and the XB1 have “held at current price points for a number of years”, as well as the “impact of early announcements for PS5/XSX with [backward compatability]”. He also cited a shift to HD gaming across multiple devices might also be to blame, along with a number of high-profile triple-A delays, including Cyberpunk 2077, The Last of Us 2, and a number of Ubisoft titles.
2020 will see PlayStation launch PS5 and Microsoft launch Xbox Series X – but it won’t see Nintendo release a new Switch model. As Tom reported a few weeks ago, the company will instead focus on further extolling the virtues of Nintendo Switch Lite, its handheld-only Switch model which launched last year and is off to a strong start.
Of course, Nintendo said the same thing just before it announced the new, updated base model Switch a week later.
