GAME boss says 'consumers want new consoles'

January 20th, 2012, 01:54 Posted By: wraggster

GAME CEO Ian Shepherd is hopeful that new console hardware will contribute to a recovery in the games market following disappointing Christmas sales.
<FIGURE style="POSITION: relative; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255); TEXT-INDENT: 0px; MARGIN: 0px 0px 20px 20px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; WIDTH: 300px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; DISPLAY: block; FONT: ; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; FLOAT: right; BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; LETTER-SPACING: normal; COLOR: rgb(68,68,68); CLEAR: both; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; WORD-SPACING: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; border-image: initial; background-clip: initial; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-origin: initial" class="article-image article-image-alt article-image-300"></FIGURE>"The weakness in the overall numbers was partly driven by the economy and consumer confidence issues," he told MCV. "It was also driven by where we are in the hardware cycle."The hardware market was much more negative than the software market. That tells you the industry and the consumer is ready for more innovation there.
"Whether it is in the handheld space with 3DS and Vita or in the home space with Wii U - all of that will excite the consumer in coming back to the games market again," Shepherd added.
Earlier this month, GAME Group reported a year-over-year sales decline of 14.7 percent for the eight week Christmas period ended January 7.
Group sales fell 11.9 percent in the 49 weeks to January 7, slightly ahead of the overall games market, which declined 13.1 percent during the same period.
The PS Vita release date is just over one short month away now. Cast your eyes over our PS Vita review, if you haven't already.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...-new-consoles/

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