Re:The Game Console Is Dead. What Will Replace It?
by jiggy2011 on Sunday October 28, 2012 @04:06PM
(#4709830)
It's difficult to say that mobile evolution is faster until we have seen the next gen consoles. It will be difficult to beat a console in terms of price/performance since there is no portability/battery power tradeoff for consoles and console makers seem happy to subsidise the console in order to sell more games (compared to Apple who make big profits per iPad sold).
A PC resurgence doesn't have to mean the death of consoles, we go through this cycle many times.
In the mid 90s consoles had an edge because PCs were expensive and difficult. In the late 90s/early 2000s PCs had an edge because of better graphics , more internet gaming options as well as the modding scene. Late 2000s it began to swing back in the consoles favour again because of Xbox live etc as well as HDTV.
There's no reason that next gen consoles cannot include plenty of indie games via a digital download marketplace, Xbox already has this to an extent.
This is actually what will make it really hard for the traditional video game consoles. Mobile hardware evolution is way faster than video game hardware evolution. It won't take long for it to catch up to the video game consoles in the next cycle. Moreover, the app stores in general just have a lot more variety from indie developers.
With the resurgence of PC gaming from Steam and others, it doesn't look too great for consoles.
I don't feel that traditional video game consoles will completely die given the innovative stuff that both MS and Nintendo have been able to do, but it will be a lot harder for them to reap the same profits as they did in the past.