It is at odds when we view the console market as predominantly made up of "core gamers" and we remove Nintendo out of the picture. Traditionally the PS audience for example wasn't consisting only of core gamers. It's appeal was wide to all kinds of demographics. Otherwise it is a biased statistical analysis of the console market to interpret PS and XBOX solely as core. At best what this perspective describes, it's Sony's and MS's ability or inability to grow their market. But then you have to dive in and see who is exiting, who is maintained and who is entering, and whoever is exiting where is he going and why. Is there a large chunk of the market that Sony was attracting moving to Switch, PC and/or mobile gaming? It is not different from just picking XBOX sales to derive conclusions about the console market while ignoring that other platforms may be growing. In addition if someone wants to conclude about the interest of gamers growing, stalling or shrinking, someone needs to measure how many software units are moving, and the consumer's propensity to buy at each console price level. There is a chance that interest is there, but the console price is the major barrier of growth. The PS1 and PS2 were perfect because they could reduce their console price and thus could attract more and more people who could buy a AA title and be super happy like Crash Team Racing, Parappa The Rapper, Klonoa, SingStar, Buzz or Kula Quest. All titles that we assume to find on Switch.I don't think that's at odds with what's been said. 'Core console gaming' isn't growing. Nintendo doing their thing has managed to keep a certain section of the gaming market healthy. If Nintendo succeed, or fail, that doesn't change the landscape for 'core console' games and how much money can be made there.
Ton of casuals were buying PSOne and PS2 Slim for their casual gaming needs. And Sony could support lower budget titles for them.
Now these same needs are covered better by Nintendo.
But the PS5 and Series are stuck at the same price points since launch and selling quite well considering that, but exhausting how much they can sell at this price point.
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