Global video-game shipments will advance in 2013, ending a four-year slide, as new consoles from Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. go on sale this holiday season.
Game console bundles shipped worldwide in 2013 will be “marginally higher” than the 2012 total of about 33 million, according to a report by IDC, a Framingham, Mass., researcher.
The lower price on Sony’s PlayStation 4 will help it outsell Microsoft Xbox One, IDC said.
Sony’s first new console in seven years and the Xbox One will reach U.S. stores next month, sparking consumer appetite and giving the video-game industry a boost. The companies are betting that faster machines with new features will draw gamers in a marketplace that has shifted toward mobile games played on tablets and smartphones like Apple Inc.’s iPhone.
IDC said that the Chinese government’s decision to lift the ban on consoles will boost sales in the millions for Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo Co., the maker of the Wii U.
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