Hi, gamers! Were you having a good day today? If so, I apologize for bumming you out, but here's a chart from a statistical analysis of the sales of Nintendo and Sony console and hardware sales.
The chart is one of a batch crafted by Asymco researcher and former Nokia analyst Horace Dediu, who, sadly, calls this study Game Over. You should read the whole thing and stare sorrowfully at all of his charts. I mean, it was one thing to think that Nintendo might be in trouble... but Sony, too? And he's saying that the only reason Microsoft isn't in here is because they don't report sales with this level of specificity?
Ugh.
Bright spot! —> He doesn't have numbers in here for the end of 2013, mostly because the end of 2013 hasn't happened yet and he's no soothsayer. Sales tend to be way bigger in the final few months of the year, so the slopes on these charts probably won't be that bad once the holiday sales are counted. I mean, we're about to see a 3DS surge just from the first real Pokémon games coming out on the system next month, right? That dark blue line's going to get thicker, yeah?
Dediu's deeming that it's not just the previous generation that has fizzled out but that, as his other charts show, the Wii U, 3DS, 3DS XL and Vita are all not doing as hot as their predecessors. He's not too hopeful that the PS4 and Xbox One will do better, either.
OK, I've bummed myself out now as well. Sorry.
Game Over [Asymco, via Twitter]
To contact the author of this post, write to stephentotilo@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @stephentotilo.