Japanese gaming giants Nintendo and Sony are heading into this year’s crucial holiday season with little to offer mass-market consumers — one relying on sales of a seven-year-old console and the other appealing only to hardcore players with a new premium offering that critics say is overpriced.
As Sony released the $700 PlayStation 5 Pro last week to mixed reviews, Nintendo put a damper on the industry’s biggest quarter, lowering its guidance on sales of its ageing Switch console from 13.5mn to 12.5mn for its fiscal year ending in March. Traditionally, Nintendo roughly doubles its revenues in the December quarter compared with its September one.
“It’s fairly grim this year,” said Gareth Sutcliffe, head of gaming at Enders Analysis. “It would be difficult to imagine a holiday season that is less exciting than this one when it comes to gaming hardware.”