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The story
Gaming industry analysts have found that the home console market plateaus at roughly 200 million people per generation, with Gen Z and Gen Alpha gravitating toward mobile, PC, and platforms like Roblox instead of consoles. Xbox, which is trying to rebuild its brand, reportedly has only about 100 million daily active users. The report sparked a split debate on 5ch’s gaming industry board over whether rising hardware costs threaten the survival of home consoles. Data showing global smartphone shipments fell 20% year-over-year due to surging memory prices was also brought into the mix, fueling an argument over whether phones or consoles are actually worse off.
Industry analysts pointed out that “the biggest challenge companies face is rising hardware costs.”
Other analysts further noted that the home console market has plateaued at around 200 million people per generation, and that Gen Z and Gen Alpha tend to choose mobile, PC, and platforms like Roblox over home consoles. They laid out the tough spot Xbox is in as it tries to revive its brand, with daily active users currently stuck at around 100 million.
Source: gamespark.jp / Original article here
What people said
So it was cheaper than the Switch Lite.
iPhonebeo: "Oh, is that so?" (riffing on comedian Seyarokaman's catchphrase, used here sarcastically)
According to preliminary data released October 12 by market research firm Counterpoint Research, global smartphone shipments for July-September 2026 fell 20% year-over-year, the lowest Q3 level since 2012. Tight memory chip supply and rising costs are weighing heavily on the market.
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/148445eb420cfd5169626f5fd5ad8f5f453269c2
That's because they're daily necessities.
That's exactly why phones and PCs are holding strong 😁
Everyone's probably just holding off on upgrading, praying their phone doesn't break, and squeezing years more out of it.
PlayStation would drop dead instantly.
Right now Microsoft's the one with the strongest IP lineup, though.
Consoles will lose their reason to exist and Steam will scoop up everything.
Nintendo's probably the only one that survives — though it won't move big numbers.
Even Nintendo's probably done for.
Even now, only about a third of my class owns a Switch 2.
IP assets.
What's left of Sony Interactive Entertainment once you strip away home consoles?
Sony itself would remain.
What, are you gonna print Mario on hanafuda cards and sell those? (Nintendo's original business was hanafuda playing cards)
Are we only talking about Japan here?
The Switch 2 runs the equivalent of ¥79,000 in the US and ¥89,000 in the UK.
Oh, so the currency in the US and UK is yen now, is it?
People this dumb really exist, huh.
Too embarrassing to even live with yourself.
Where's your proof?
LOL, Japan's apparently projected to get massively sick of it.
Can't you tell that's just been converted for easier reading?
Even calling it a "benchmark," that's the other-language version, right? Prices don't change between language versions.
Not denying Microsoft's foolish, but gamers are even more foolish than that.
These guys always argue from pure emotion.
No, we're the ones getting left behind by the rest of the world.
This is an era where you can't run a business on Japan alone, what with the shrinking, aging population.
That "growing worldwide" thing is just a rough guess like "the market's expanding so it'll probably grow about this much," right?
There's no actual title-level milestone data, you're just writing whatever.
No, that's data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications?
What part of that is "rough"?
No, actually the Switch market is smaller than not just mobile games but even PC gaming.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Both smartphones and game consoles are grappling with the same root cause of rising prices — a tight supply of DRAM and NAND memory chips — so consoles aren’t being singled out. Counterpoint Research’s “20% shipment decline” figure is a global number, and it’s easy to misread slowing domestic replacement demand as proof the whole market is shrinking. In the thread, one poster misread overseas Switch 2 prices listed in dollars and pounds as if they were yen and claimed the console was “expensive,” only to get called out for confusing currencies — the mix-up between exchange rates and pricing became one of the thread’s talking points. Note that this article omits a later exchange of personal attacks and insults between two posters in the thread, since it had nothing to do with the main topic.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Hardware/Industry [Geha]) thread “Home Game Consoles, Notice of Termination….”
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