GameStop, the world’s largest videogame retailer, expects declines in sales of the PS4 and Xbox One during the fiscal year of 2016.
The company’s executive team indicated that much during a conference call with their shareholders. The retailer expects new game sales to decline between 5 to 10 percent, while hardware sales of home consoles are expected to drop around 10 percent year-over-year.
GameStop has an impressively large share of the console section of the worldwide gaming market. However, a significant portion of the total revenue being spent out of the videogame annual market value of $99.3 billion is going towards mobile and free-to-play games on PC.
Because of this reason, the drop in sales are expected. It is one of the reason the PlayStation 4.5 and Xbox One upgrades rumors have gained traction the past few weeks.
Regardless of the reliability of the rumors, it is evident that both Sony and Microsoft realize they are selling consoles to a relatively smaller audience when compared to previous fiscal years. Upgrades to their flagship platforms could slightly improve overall hardware sales.
At the same time, both Microsoft and Sony are also attempting to take advantage of the rapidly growing mobile gaming market, with Sony opening a new smartphone-focused division on April 1 and Microsoft already pushing towards PC and mobile gaming with their Universal Windows Platform.
Other reasons for the predicted decline in GameStop sales is coming from the ongoing forced drag of previous console such as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Yet despite the questionable state of console gaming, GameStop is looking towards the ‘bigger picture’ in its ongoing profit and revenue diversification.
Source VentureBeat
