I don't know, how strong was the console business last year? Wasn't sales down each month year over year? The current gen peaked a couple of years ago?
Contrast that with the end of the generation when the PS2 reigned and it was on an upsurge when new consoles launched.
Consoles and mobile devices aren't direct competitors but the latter are eating up a huge amount of the discretionary income people are spending on electronics. That has to have an impact sooner or later.
And there's no reason to believe mobile devices will slow down soon, because the road map for mobile processors and other technologies still have a way to go.
But this just proves my point.
Last gen was what 5-6 years before the Xbox 360 launched, beginning the current gen. Last gen hadn't had time to peak before MS jumped the gun.
This gen has been what 8 years? And the next-gen boxes have still not been officially annouced. So 6 years till the current gen peaked at the end of 2011 as you say (less than a couple of years in fact, just over a year). People are simply tired of what current gen has had to offer, and anticipating the announcment and release of next-gen systems.
It's got nothing to do with phones and tablets, and frankly I find the entire notion that the two are somehow related rather bizzarre.
In the above bolded you say that tablet and mobiles gaming is eating up discretionary income, but I ask you how? Most people get mobile phones on contract and thus always have a monthly running contract charge for their mobile phone. This hasn't changed in the last 10 years. Also mobile app & game costs are mostly insignificant $0.99 purchases compared to the $60 people will spend on console video games. Many popular mobile games are also F2P, and speak to any mobile platform dev or publisher and they'll tell you that 90% of their revenue comes from a very small fraction of their userbase spending inordinate amounts. The latter even bodes well for consoles as it means that the majority of social and casual gamers on mobile are paying very little if anything for their games, thus have more discretionary income available for console games.
If you were referring to mobile and tablet HW, then I strongly disagree as even the most expensive mobile HW are one-time purchases that would be made at most once a year (and then only by the most rabid hardcore apple fanboys). Most tablet users will buy HW on average once every 2-3 years, and again phone users will usually get 12-24 month contracts. I see nothing that precludes these customers having available discretionary income for a monthly AAA console game (and the average console gamers makes gaming purchases at a much lower rate than that).
If you were refering to media content, then i would strongly challenge that idea, as it has again little to do with the surge in mobile platforms, and more to do with a shift in the way people consume such media content. E.g. prior to smartphones and tablets, people would watch movies in cinema, on TV networks like Sky and Cable, and on VHS/DVD media formats etc. Now people consume video content in cinema, on TV networks, on portable media formats and now online via streaming platforms, through digital download platforms on PC, tablet, settop box and smartphone devices. The balance of platforms has changed, but the total global dollars spent on media content would most likely be the same.
So in essence, mobile platforms are not even having a significant negative effect on consumer's discretionary income. Rather they have in most cases found a way to provide the majority of users a free lunch, whilst exploiting the small number of idiots willing to spend obscene amounts of money on microtransactions and in-app purchases.
The issue in totality is over-inflated.
