Next-Gen Consoles Might Be Revealed Relatively Soon, GameStop Predicts

New consoles from Microsoft and Sony might be coming soon. Retailer GameStop today said on an earnings call that it expects new hardware sales to slow down in 2019 on account of people hearing about new consoles and waiting for them to arrive.

"With respect to new hardware, as we get closer to the end of the current console cycle for Xbox and PlayStation, we expect demand to decline as some customers choose to wait on the sidelines in anticipation of acquiring the next generation of innovative consoles," CFO Rob Lloyd said.

Lloyd was specifically talking about business elements that GameStop shared with analysts to "help provide context" for 2019. This suggests that new consoles from Microsoft and Sony may be announced and/or released this year.

Microsoft is rumoured to announce one or multiple new consoles at E3 in June, while Sony is known to be working on a new PlayStation console. Sony is not coming to E3 this year but that doesn't mean the company won't have news to share at other venues at some point. Nintendo, meanwhile, could announce multiple new Switch models at E3 and release them not long after.

Llyod specifically mentioned Xbox and PlayStation in his comments, but not Nintendo.

There have been numerous rumours and reports about Microsoft's new consoles, a lot more than the new systems from PlayStation and Nintendo. You can check out GameSpot's rundown of all the big rumours about Xbox hardware here.

In other news about GameStop, the retailer announced a $673 million full-year loss. Despite the downturn, the retailer is optimistic about its future, thanks in part to new cost-saving and profit-improving efforts to be implemented by incoming CEO George Sherman.