Analyst: Core Games Best Investment For Publishers As Wii 'Bubble' Deflates

Despite broadening audiences and casual platforms, core games remain the best investment for video game publishers, says Cowen Group analyst Doug Creutz -- who says "the Wii bubble could be deflating."

Revealing the results of a broad fall-holiday survey, Creutz says Wii owners are buying fewer games now than they did a year ago -- while Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 plan to buy more.

On the other hand, Creutz says, the PlayStation 3 looks poised for a strong holiday -- 21 percent of survey respondents who don't currently own one plan to buy one this season.

That's slightly below the Wii's 26 percent intent figure, but nearly double the Xbox 360's 12 percent purchase intent, according to Cowen's survey. And Sony's long-held faith in brand loyalty may finally bear fruit: the data also shows that 32 percent of PlayStation 2 owners who haven't yet bought a current generation plan to buy a PS3, versus 19 percent for the Wii and just 9 percent for the Xbox 360.

[danthegardner]

That's fun

[Zedux]

Santa has ordered thousands of PS3s for Xmas!!!

[PS3PCFTW]

exclusives
functions
price
reliability
free online
unrivaled graphics leading home consoles into UNCHARTED territories

IT ONLY DOES EVERYTHING

[presto717]

Mr Captain Obvious

[Anon1974]

I mean, think about it. Since the PS3 was released worldwide it has outsold the 360 head to head, and that was at double to the price of the 360. Now that the PS3 is down to a more affordable level guess what! It'll most likely still continue to outsell the 360.

[Domenikos]

PS3 deserves that and more...

[Dragun619]

I'm gonna say that PS3 will do a lot better than it has the previous holiday seasons. And it well may possibly sell more consoles this holiday season than the other competitors.

Hell, PS3 owns Japan this holiday season just because of Final Fantasy XIII.

You just can't deny that the PS3 is becoming a force to be reckoned with.

[Saaking]

Of COURSE it will. It ONLY does everything.

[ThanatosDMC]

What happened to the 3:1 thing? http://www.n4g.com/industry...

[UltraNova]

although not by a large margin unless MS drops the price again...

[rtonaey]

it only does sales?

[Sunny_D]

Well that's one of the things it does. Because It only does EVERYTHING!

[chase167]

who care

[skewit]

So now it's PS3's turn and no one suppose to care?

[Bilbo65]

"and 2012 is the end of the world" whenever anyone says this i think they are an idiot. So annoying hearing this s#!t everywhere

[presto717]

Didn't the world already end in 2000.

Oh wait...

yeah...

[SoapShoes]

2012 is the new Y2k...

[mal_tez92]

You've got high hopes. My calander ends this year. So because the calander ends that will mean the world will end /s

[RememberThe357]

Q: What is the origin of the prediction that the world will end in 2012?
A: The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012. Then these two fables were linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012 -- hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012.

Q: Does the Mayan calendar end in December 2012?
A: Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then -- just as your calendar begins again on January 1 -- another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar.

Read more: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/...

[-Alpha]

The irony is funny.

When sales promote the 360, 360 fans will praise the 360 since sales are usually dominated by MS.

PS3 fans will say sales don't matter.

When sales promote the PS3, 360 fans will say so what?

PS3 fans will say (like you did) that sales matter all of a sudden because it benefits you.

It's a simple switch of roles and is hypocrisy/double standards from both groups.

[insomnium]

However we (the ps3 owners) always told the x360 owners this would happen and they just laughed. This is nothing more than a I told you so. So you see it isn't exactly like you said.

The better x360 sales didn't matter then because WE KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN. It's totally irrelevant to win in the first few kilometers with a headstart if yoy're running a marathon against a pro runner. Even worse is to be all co*ky about it. LOL!

[RockmanII7]

2012 is the Y2Ks evil twin brother, who's out to get revenge.

[skewit]

are the key and you know it!

[4point7BillionLoss]

checkout the mature PS3 gayemers on PSN

http://www.break.com/index/...

[lh_swe]

Are you ever going to shut up? Your not exactly being original nor constructive to any topic at hand.

[sunil]

Didnt i read an article saying 360 will outsell the ps3 3 to 1? :)

Next up - Nintendo Wii to outsell everything :)

[SoapShoes]

A horribly incorrect article at that by a site with no real means of estimating other than a wild guess.

[Shotgun_Roamer]

it's so unfortunate that thats most likely true. I don't care what you buy as long as it's not a wii.

[skewit]

wake up, it's ok. PS3 does well, and 360 has done well. IT's ok. Really.

[SoapShoes]

I just don't see what that has to do with the article mentioned.

[skewit]

Well you said the site does not have proof. Maybe you forgot to click on the link to see where they're coming from.

From what I read, a Survey was done by an Analyst, not the website, so I see no need to bash the website...

But whatever

[Bot Smasha]

While the 360 will dominate failure rates.

[kahlop]

Actually, I don't know if it will *dominate* (except in Japan, we all know that), but we can all agree that it will have a damn good holiday season.

[skewit]

just watch and taste

[kahlop]

I hope it will dominate! That would be great for Sony!

[MajesticBeast]

What you expect it has the best games free bluray player and everything there are games for any gamer which is what i love about Sony.

[Bigpappy]

I don't know this new guy. Did he buy his crystal ball from the same gypsy?

[gumgum99]

lmao

[Chet Faliszek 360]

i stop read in ----------> "Analyst": PS3 will dominate holiday season

lol

[rtonaey]

did you stop reading? Heh.

[lh_swe]

You could actually learn something if you read an article once in a while, instead of using the default fanboy mentality of; teh PoS tUrD SuXoRZ! And it can be any other way because then my fragile little world would collapse!

[Tewi-Inaba]

bread will outsell butter this up comming year

:V
these analyst news truely do come in dozens don't they ~_~

[Advari]

Its tough to say who gets the holiday season xbox because of xbl and the games, or the ps3 wich has built in wireless, with blu-ray and free online plus the great exclusives. With a tanked economy people might just go for the ps2 with its price and library it might dominate again. And if ff13 gets released in japan well we know who will dominate over there *cough ps3*

[AKS]

It's not going to "dominate," but it will do quite well. It would have dominated if they released GT5 before Christmas, but that didn't happen.

[ultimolu]

It's going to kick ass.

[FuckinUsername]

Pretty much every kid has a 360 and a Wiii, now they'll be like Mum buy me a PS3!
And the mothers will be like Fine son because i love you.

[robotnik]

lol :)

[deshon09]

so she can leave my 60 gig now 500 gig alone and got a wii for 99 bucks from rhinos games in my town so i got both for under 500 bucks that good deal

[rextyrann]

@AKS:
on which source is that based? as far as i know sony aka ps3 already "dominates" xbox in japan since its not supported in any kind over there. sony is on its hometurf. and i guess the japanese are very protective over their homecountry companys i guess...

imo though it will be intresting to see HOW big of an impact ff13 is going to have on hardware sales this christmas in japan compared to last christmas and then following march-may worldwide in combination with GT5/GoW/BFBC2/MAG.
whoever thinks that this not a killer line-up which will surely have a great influence on hardware sales first half of 2010 is either a real fanboy or just too stubborn to use their brain.
i dont have anything against the xbox in particular. even considered it getting one the past 2 years before sony finally decided to drop their prices. but the economics are quite clear and obvious in this case...

its rather frustrating how slow analyst these days are >_<

[DaTruth]

Analysts got burned not predicting the whole "BIGGEST RECESSION IN 50 YRS" thing, so now they wait for a sure thing to start the predictions.

There is little chance of lost credibility when anyone with ears could make the prediction.... Which I guess is kind of a lost credibility in itself!

[lizard81288]

the Super Nintendo is going to sell the most this holiday season!

:D

[RockmanII7]

You do realise that the PS2 was just released in Brazil last week, right? That will sell like crazy.

http://news.absolute-playst...

[Shnazzyone]

Analyst looking for job after being horribly wrong and discrediting himself across the internet. Hopes sony will pay him for new analysis in the future.

While unemployed analyst also states 2010 will be the year of the wii merely to cover his own ass.

BTW... who is this guy again? and is he aware of the ludicrous AAA lineup wii has coming in 2010? If anything wii is going to see a massive up surge from gamers who sold their wiis having to rebuy it next year.

[Truth4You]

n4g.com = All I Want for X-Mas Viral x1000