Retailers that have endured a prolonged slump in video gaming sales are banking that Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One will brighten a tough Christmas shopping season.
It has been seven years since the previous successful video game console releases and retailers have suffered in the interim. From 2008 to 2012, annual sales in the US gaming market fell by 38 per cent to $13.2bn, said Paul Raines, chief executive of GameStop, a US-based video games chain whose sales dropped in each of the past nine quarters.
But Mr Raines is now expecting that to change, thanks to the new consoles. “It’s refreshing to get back to the growth business in the top line. We are pleased to have the last console cycle behind us.”