Jones said: “I think it's safe to say that we're just about done with transition. Retail will show strong growth with the investment of GAME into the [Australian] market, and it bodes well for the future having two strong specialists in the market, as they tend to hold pricing and discount less to drive sales. On that point though, we do see next-gen pricing drifting down to $99 [£40 / €61] by the end of the calendar year for all premium new releases.”
Jones also forecast that Nintendo might face sterner third-party competition for software sales on its consoles than it did in 2006, but that DS would continue to drive sales forward.
“In the hand-held space, we see the DS continuing its strong growth, which is very encouraging and will become a strong bet for a number of third-party publishers," he added. “We might see Nintendo's dominance on their own platforms challenged for the first time.”
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