While the focus on console sales normally looks at how well one console is doing against the other, looking at the impact of the current generation consoles as a whole gets more interesting. With the userbase for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One combines looking to hit 50-51 million units by the end of the year, you can’t help but be impressed.
These are the figures predicted by Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen when he was talking at the UBS Global Technology Conference this week:
“Clearly, consoles have sold faster than everyone expected,” he said. “We’re ahead of the previous cycle in terms of the pace. We’re on track to see, industry-wide, about 50-51 million units by calendar year end. And typically, most of the consoles are sold in the last quarter of the year because a lot of it is around gift-giving.”
Highlighting the importance of bundles during the holiday season he said that buying a console during this period is a “great buy”. This is especially the case with big titles such as Fallout 4, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Halo 5: Guardians, and Star Wars Battlefront are strengthening sales.
Another aspect that is making the consoles even more attractive is the way developers are managing to leverage more power from the consoles too:
“The power of the new consoles is fantastic,” he said. “I think software makers are just now starting to truly harness the power. The first year, you had people testing and pushing, but now I think you’re starting to see, particuarly this fall and winter, a lot really exciting pieces of software in the industry that are taking the processing power of the console.”
So from these words, Electronic Arts are happy with the current generation consoles at the moment, and obviously have a view on emphasising the importance of them for current and future titles. It seems like this Christmas really is the time for us to finally upgrade our old consoles.
Are you impressed with the pace of sales for the current consoles? Let us know your thoughts below.
Source: GameSpot
