Over the past few days, we’ve seen a lot of content come in from gaming company’s financial reports and earnings conference calls with investors. Activision’s CEO Bobby Kotick recently spoke to investors, stating that the PlayStation 4 and the next Xbox could face the same challenges that Nintendo has faced so far in the console market. Many assume Wii U sales are low because of a lack of games, which may be partially true, but Kotick attributes the low sales to the influx of low-cost tablets and smartphones.
“There are still many unknown factors, such as pricing, launch dates and quantities, the level of first-party support and, importantly, consumer purchase intent in a world where consoles are no longer just competing with each other, but also with new platforms, such as smartphones and tablets.”
From all the statements we’ve seen from third-party CEOs so far, this one makes the most sense. It seems Kotick understands that the way people game are changing and that smartphones and tablets are more competition than companion devices, these days. Whether hardcore gamers from any camp agree with this statement, it’s true. I guess we’ll see how well Microsoft and Sony’s consoles do at launch to determine of Kotick’s statement was true.
