A turnaround could be on the horizon for the game’s industry, and it will likely be because of the arrival of GTA V, the PS4, and Xbox 720. Analysts have recently been weighing in on what to expect from the soon to be released games industry NPD data, and their outlook hasn’t been rosy. They’ve already made predictions of poor sales for major first-party franchises of Sony and Microsoft in March, though it’s not exactly breaking news that the industry has been in a bit of a funk in recent years.
Analysts have issued another negative outlook, this time from Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia, who figures that sales will once again see a slide of between 10-15 percent. Bahtia believes that the downward slide continues, that is until GTA V arrives in September and begins to turn things around. The analyst thinks that the release of GTA V in September will get the ball rolling in the right direction, and the release of next-gen consoles from Sony and Microsoft will continue this upward momentum for the industry.
While we won’t be able to see if Bahtia’s predictions are true for a few months here, the March NPD data will be released later today, where we’ll see if the games industry continues to slide once again. It’s worth noting that many companies are beginning to see a rise in digital sales though, so whatever these declines end up being, they’re likely not telling the whole story.
- This article was updated on February 20th, 2018
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