Analyst Pachter: Format wars will decide next-gen consoles’ success
A lot of conjecture has surrounded who will win the next console wars. Now we have Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter predicting that it will be decided by the movie studios and the ongoing format war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray.
While I don’t necessarily agree with his predictions, I do see how both factors could influence each console’s popularity on the market. Based on the assumption that the Blu-ray will actually win the console war, Pachter has declared that Sony‘s PlayStation 3 will be the dominant console next cycle.
While this is the case, he gave the other consoles (Wii for Nintendo and Xbox 360 for Microsoft) props, saying that each will actually earn money for their respective company. He also foresees Sony holding 36% of the market, with Nintendo at second (34%) and Microsoft coming in last (30%).
Another aspect of the equation he tackled was third-party games. He said that “In the upcoming cycle, we expect the playing field between Sony and Microsoft to be more level, and think that Nintendo will have the largest library of exclusives.”
This is surprising considering the fact that the PlayStation 2 actually banked on third-party game developers (like other gamers, Final Fantasy was the reason I got my PS2) supporting their system. Nintendo is more known for in-house developed games, so perhaps their releases such as Mario and Super Smash Bros., combined with exclusives from third-party developers, might really skew the exclusive games market in their favor.
Pachter has been giving a lot of suppositions the past few months. We’ll just have to wait and see if his predictions for the coming market holds true.
A lot of conjecture has surrounded who will win the next console wars. Now we have Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter predicting that it will be decided by the movie studios and the ongoing format war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray.
While I don’t necessarily agree with his predictions, I do see how both factors could influence each console’s popularity on the market. Based on the assumption that the Blu-ray will actually win the console war, Pachter has declared that Sony‘s PlayStation 3 will be the dominant console next cycle.
While this is the case, he gave the other consoles (Wii for Nintendo and Xbox 360 for Microsoft) props, saying that each will actually earn money for their respective company. He also foresees Sony holding 36% of the market, with Nintendo at second (34%) and Microsoft coming in last (30%).
Another aspect of the equation he tackled was third-party games. He said that “In the upcoming cycle, we expect the playing field between Sony and Microsoft to be more level, and think that Nintendo will have the largest library of exclusives.”
This is surprising considering the fact that the PlayStation 2 actually banked on third-party game developers (like other gamers, Final Fantasy was the reason I got my PS2) supporting their system. Nintendo is more known for in-house developed games, so perhaps their releases such as Mario and Super Smash Bros., combined with exclusives from third-party developers, might really skew the exclusive games market in their favor.
Pachter has been giving a lot of suppositions the past few months. We’ll just have to wait and see if his predictions for the coming market holds true.
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