It may sound a little backwards, but whenever new video game hardware is released, the last-generation consoles typically continue selling well.

There are a number of reasons for this: the older consoles are cheaper, they're home to a larger library of games and they're almost always easier to find. Despite the fact that they're no longer the shiny new machine, the lifespan of older hardware doesn't end just because its successor has been released.

Or, that's how it used to be, because according to GameStop, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 just aren't selling as well as anyone thought they would.

Is it a sign that GameStop just isn't as popular as it used to be? Far from it - if anything, the gaming retailer is doing better than ever.

During the early days of the previous console generation, older consoles like the original Xbox and the PlayStation 2 continued to sell extremely well. Huge releases late in the consoles' life cycle, such as God of War II, stopped a lot of people from immediately trading their older consoles in - so, why hasn't the same happened with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One?

There are a lot of possible reasons: the newer consoles aren't backwards compatible with older games, so those who wish to play their existing library can't just trade in a console for a newer device. There's also the price factor - there are still plenty of games coming out for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and there are plenty of people willing to take a graphical downgrade in order to save $350.

However, GameStop itself (via IGN) cited that the main reason for the previous generation's decline is the faster adoption of the new hardware. Sales of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 were more than enough to counter the lower-than-expected sales of the old consoles, as more people are buying the new hardware sooner. In fact, GameStop predicted it would make $3.8 billion off of the latest consoles - instead, the company raked in $4.5 billion on the PS4 and Xbox One alone.

So, are the old consoles officially dead and gone? Not quite yet...though that time may come sooner than previously expected. There's still a market for the older machines out there, that's for sure, but the time of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 is quickly coming to an end. As they say: out with the old, in with the new.

Photo: Mike Mozart | Flickr

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