Corsair blames disappointing financials on Grand Theft Auto VI not being out

Corsair's second-quarter for 2024 financial report has been released and it revealed the company is in a tough spot, with net revenue down more than $50 million compared to the previous year of the same period.

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During the financial call, Corsair informed investors of the reasons why Corsair is falling short of growth, with the company saying that refresh cycles of gaming components are lengthening, meaning buyers of gaming components aren't purchasing an upgraded component as quickly as they once were, leading to a declining demand for high-end gaming components. This lengthening of refresh cycles can be attributed to there being no games calling for an upgrade in hardware,

Corsair's CEO, Andy Paul, co-founder of the company, said during the earnings call that refresh cycles for high-end components used to be on a 3 to 5-year cadence, and now they are moving to a four to six-year cadence. Additionally, Corsair said its still feeling the "echo" of the COVID-19 surge, which was a period where people purchased a lot of products to enjoy at home. Corsair is now moving back to pre-COVID normalcy.

"We went through a surge of activity during the COVID lockdown, where third-party data showed that the demand for gaming headsets approximately tripled and the self-built PC market approximately doubled. 3 years on, having emerged from the lockdowns, the gaming headset market, which is the best indicator for peripherals, is now roughly double the size it was pre-COVID, while the While the self-built PC market, which we can see from third-party data on cases and power supplies, is roughly flat to pre-COVID levels.

Refresh cycles are clearly lengthening on high-priced items like $2,000 plus gaming PCs. We see GPU cards, which used to be on the 18 to 24 to 30 months and some highly anticipated more complex games like Grand Theft Auto 6 have been pushed to 2025 while others like Call of Duty Black Ops 6 are now expected to be released both soon this year. We think that our historical view of a 3 to 5-year refresh cycle may now be looking more like four to six years in these current economic conditions. Also weighing on the market is the fact consumers are acting with caution and are getting used to July Prime Day," said Corsair CEO Andy Paul