Nick Parker, Piers Harding-Rolls, Steve Bailey / Published - 19 May 09

Hardware sales exhibit zero year-on-year growth in Q1 2009, hovering at 16.5m units. Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360 pick up the slack from Nintendo's GBA and Sony's PS2, which are entering their twilight years. Sales of Nintendo's DS are beginning to dip, both cause and effect of its introduction of the DSi, whose swift journey to market is well-timed. Sales volumes of Sony's PS3 are flat, but expectations of a Q2 09 price drop in tandem with a slate of pillar titles toward year-end should enliven sales.