Just in case you needed another reminder that the hardware scenario looks rather bleak for the gaming industry (and past) as things stand, Floor covering Piscatella of analyst company Circana is right here to place a bow on it for us!
At the end of recently, Piscatella reported that Xbox equipment unit sales were down 33 % in 2026 (covering the duration approximately August) compared to the very same time in 2025, while PlayStation sales were down by 25 %.
This located Xbox hardware system sales “at an all-time low” in the US in regards to year-to-date tracking, and PlayStation was at its cheapest considering that 2013
Right here’s precisely what he had to state about this:
He after that took place to highlight that the ordinary rate paid for an Xbox console in 2026 is 26 % more than it was in 2025, while PlayStation is 20 % greater. These are all-time highs for both brands – mainly the outcome of a “part situation” that’s caused lots of cost surges throughout the gaming market over the previous couple of years.
So, with every one of that in mind, Piscatella specifies that “the United States hardware market has actually not been in an extra precarious position since the early 80 s”. For those who aren’t mindful, the video gaming industry endured a massive market accident in 1983 due to different elements consisting of poor-quality video games and a flood of competing gaming consoles.
The market wound up recouping a couple of years later on, of course, headed by the arrival of the Nintendo Amusement System in the mid- 80 s. Simply put, allow’s not get too doom-and-gloom about what’s taking place in the hardware space now, yet it does raise the question again of whether Xbox ought to be holding back on Project Helix and waiting until the part crisis hopefully wanes in a number of years’ time.
Nobody recognizes what the future holds though, and perhaps they simply require to obtain Helix out the door ASAP.
