And in case you’re wondering, a game that has neither manages to notch up less than 100,000 units. However, despite the revelations offered by the data, it is unsure whether game demo are actively discouraging sales. Then again, Call of Duty never has any game demos – these actually come out several months after the main game has made a killing in the market.

Schell perhaps summed it up best during his presentation at DICE 2013 when he stated that, “You mean we spent all this money making a demo and getting it out there, and it cut our sales in half? Yes, that’s exactly what happened to you.”

Source: CVG

“It’s never too little too late for Microsoft. They are the incumbent. Microsoft operates at its own pace and I don’t think the PS4 announcement has fundamentally changed their next-generation strategy.”

As for what he thinks we’ll see when Microsoft does reveal the next Xbox on May 21st, he stated that, “Well, we can bet that they will unveil their next home console and their top level strategy on why the next Xbox console is the future of gaming. Otherwise, it is difficult to predict what exactly will be shown.

“I’d imagine if we looked at the Sony press conference and take note of missing major publishers/developers/games, that some of them sustained any announcement and were waiting for Microsoft’s conference.”

Can you say Call of Duty? He also stated that the Microsoft unveil “will be a lead into E3 where they will provide greater detail on the console. It’s a solid strategy and it gives them some time to adjust their E3 presentation to reflect the sentiment coming out of the big unveil.”

Which we thought Sony would do – and which seemed sensible at the time. Regardless, we’ll reserve criticism till we have a chance to smell what the Big M is cooking.

Analysts are predicting the next-gen consoles to sell really well. EEDAR’s Jesse Divinch has said that PS4 and Xbox 720 will sell a lot of consoles in 2014.

“EEDAR is forecasting over 11 million consumers to transition to the next-generation by the end of 2014 (PS4 and Xbox),” he told GamesIndustry.

“By the end of 2017, this will balloon to over 50 million consumers, all willing to spend money to consume quality content. It’s a market that independent developers shouldn’t ignore and one that the console manufacturers must foster to gain independent support.

“Independent developers cannot afford to operate with blinders on. Independent developers should be looking across every platform while they think about new game development. Just like how the PC industry changed, consoles are changing too and there are more opportunities than ever before to make great games that can also make great money.”

Do you agree with these estimates? Let us know in the comments section below.

“Breakout successes of numerous games including Clash of Clans, Candy Crush Saga, and Angry Birds gathered strong interest from the large pool of developers who had found themselves out of traditional gaming jobs as a result of industry contraction.

“We will eventually be operating too far outside of supply and demand without consequence. Market shifts can be unpredictable, only in the sense of when they occur, not if. Independent developers must hedge themselves against market shifts by assessing all available platforms, both current and future.”

He states that independent developers especially cannot “afford to operate with blinders on” and “should be looking across every platform while they think about new game development. Just like how the PC industry changed, consoles are changing too and there are more opportunities than ever before to make great games that can also make great money.”