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Looking good for the gaming giants…

If you were worrying that the recent recession issues plaguing high streets and businesses across the country would finally hit the portable gaming market then fear not.  According to a report released by the market analyst iSuppli the coming months won’t be painful for the gamers as had originally been thought.

iSuppli claims that although the recession is settling in for a tough number of months ahead, the portable gaming market isn’t going to experience a slow down - in fact consoles like the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP will actually experience around a 4.9 per cent rise in unit sales between now and 2013.

The news will obviously be keenly taken with a pinch of salt by the guys over at Nintendo who recently recorded staggeringly high profits but who themselves claimed would experience a drop over the coming year.

Evolving consoles behind the good fortune

According to iSuppli, the stability through the recession is being put down to the two gaming companies evolving their units - Nintendo having recently upgrading their popular DS console to the DSi and Sony having recently updated their PSP.

“Sony in October 2008 updated its PlayStation Portable (PSP) device and Nintendo in November did the same for its DS device, now called the DSi,” said iSuppli’s report.

However iSuppli is slamming the gaming developers for not doing enough to push their gaming experiences to the next level, claiming that they clearly didn’t evolve their consoles as much as they could and should have done.

“If both companies had introduced true next-generation platforms, the level of growth in 2009 and beyond would have been much higher,” continued the report.

Are you sure?

According to iSuppli’s report, portable gaming sales are set to rise from last year’s 49.4 million units to 63.5 million by 2013 - however the projected figures are being questioned as both developers will surely have brand new consoles on the market by then.

However, despite the rumours that Sony are planning on delivering their PSP2 by Christmas this year, the projected figures are based on both Sony and Nintendo not introducing another console until 2011.

“While the long-term growth rate is not staggering by any means, Nintendo’s and Sony’s platform revisions should keep their portable game console shipments growing until they are able to roll out next-generation handheld platforms,” claimed an analyst of consumer electronics at iSuppli, Pamela Tufegdzic.

“However, if both companies had introduced true next-generation platforms, the level of growth in 2009 and beyond would have been much higher. Most consumers will hold off on any purchase or upgrade until a next-generation handheld gaming device is available, said iSuppli, adding that it believes Sony and Nintendo will not introduce next-generation handheld video game consoles until 2011, at the earliest,” continued Tufegdzic.

Good times for Nintendo and Sony?

Can you believe the projected sales for Sony and Nintendo?  Do you think that they haven’t really been thought through properly?  Let us know what you think the future has in store for the gaming giants…

This entry was posted on Monday, May 18th, 2009 at 10:03 pm and is filed under Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi, PSP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.