Analysts at
In-Stat/MDR have confirmed the widely held belief that the current generation of consoles have already begun a cyclical downturn in demand, with 2003 world-wide shipments excepted to be down by more than 2 million units, compared to 2002.
However this drop is so far only being attributed to the PlayStation 2 with demand for the GameCube and Xbox still on the rise – largely due to their hitting the market a year later. Console revenues are expected to fall across the board though by $2 billion, due to price-cutting.
The most controversial element of the company’s statement is their assertion that the Xbox is still leading the GameCube in total world-wide sales – despite several other reports to the contrary.
