Sign of a upcoming crash?

[SoulBlazer]

In the wake of what we were just talking about on here -- could a crash be coming? -- I just saw this article on GameSpot:

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/news/news_6074609.html

I think it's overblown myself. Sales have continued to climb every year even if profits are not as high.

[Ikari Warrior]

This doesn't worry me at all. Sony has already sold over 50 million PS2's, and say they'll do another 20 mil next year. Eventually everyone who wants one are going to have one, it's only natural for sales to slow down, most people have bought one or more of the 3 consoles and won't need to buy more until the next generation of machines are out. It seems like common sense to me.

[lendelin]

Nah... :) there was another post recently which asked the same Q with a reference to a newspaper article; now Gamespot picked the non-sense up, you see how "news" get easily spread in the media? One takes the lead (NYT, CNN, FOX) and others follow, from national media to local ones :)

The historical analogy 83/84 - present is nonsense.

1. The present slow-down in game sales (already for some time in Japan) is cyclical, always was, always will be. Sales figures go up after new game systems are released, stagnate in the adulthood of game systems becasue we got spoiled and used to the exciting "new" games, and go slowly down when the hardware manufacturers prepare the funeral for the existent systems and the birth of the new ones. The slowdown has nothing to do with a crisis situation.

2. In 83/84 the setup was a diverse major power setting with lots of competing manufacturers which got greedy and, furthermore, misperceived the market like babes in the woods - a lack of professional market startegies and research. Todaythe extreme opposite is true - we have a concentration of 3 major power players, all with exceptional experience in marketing games, and from good to fantastic financial resources.

Don't get me wrong, all isn't well on the game front today. The market is overheated and saturated for two years now, it has to calm down; what we see nowadays aren't indicators of a big crash, it's a restructering of the market in which Microsoft tries to get ahead of Nintendo and in the long run wants the no.1 spot...and this results in a firce competition in which the market is overblown, smaller developers have some clout, and some major developer/publishers merge. All this doesn't happen because the market will crush, on the contrary, it happens becasue the game industry became so successful with profit margins which rival the movie industry, and the perceived and realistic prospects are even better.

For us gamers it's paradise, for the hardware manufacturers, developers and publsihers hell because the competition in a fast expanding market is fierce.

[maxlords]

I'd like to see a crash myself. I'm sick of ET quality games coming out for hte systems at $50 a shot. I'ts irritating. There are FAR too many shitty games hitting the market and selling poorly. Just my humble opinion. I don't see a crash coming, but I'd like to see some companies suffer for making crap.