The End Of Gaming Consoles

I came across this video from Fox News declaring that gaming consoles will quickly go the way of the dinosaur.

The reasoning is that mobile devices (smart phones) are taking over. The reasoning for this, according to the guy in the video, is because mobile game development is quick and cheap and there is a huge market for very shallow mobile gaming.

I thought this was interesting because of all the discussion here whenever there is an article about how PC gaming is dead because of consoles… with this article we now have a 'console gaming is dead' because of mobile phones.

I happen to think the analysis by the guy in the video is sorely lacking. There may in fact be a 'huge' market for mobile gaming apps, but that doesn't necessarily negate the market for much deeper and complex games that can only run on machines with substantially greater horsepower (CPU, RAM, Video Processing etc.). My dad used to tell me that back in his day when televisions were becoming popular there was a lot of chatter about how TVs marked the end of the cinema… we all know that is not the case.

Even when the day comes where a small mobile device has the horsepower that is 1000x greater than the most tricked out PC of today, there is still something to be said about playing on a couch (or comfortable desk) with some kind of hand-oriented input device and a very large screen to look at.

Yep, he's missing that thing about a big screen and decent controls.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Yep, he's missing that thing about a big screen and decent controls.

Well there's phones now that can do HDMI out to larger screen and also ones that have a built in gamepad controller that slide out.

That kinda makes it a gaming console, though, doesn't it

That said, a bigger box will always mean more powerful hardware.

I don't foresee any point in the immediate future, where a Smartphone will represent enough power to challenge an up-to-date console in terms of processing/graphics power - and deep inside, most gamers are gfx whores

However, it might mean we can get rid of a large portion of those pesky casual gamers who prefer Tetris and Puzzle Quest.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
That kinda makes it a gaming console, though, doesn't it

That said, a bigger box will always mean more powerful hardware.

Not necessarily. Nvidia has grand plans for their Tegra series chips and the Tegra 2 which is in some phones now is pretty decent. Also consider that the larger consoles are hindered by the fact that people are willing to upgrade them very infrequently. The current generation is getting pretty moldy. People change phones much more frequently than they change consoles so it's an opportunity to keep up with advances more.

Originally Posted by Motoki
Not necessarily. Nvidia has grand plans for their Tegra series chips and the Tegra 2 which is in some phones now is pretty decent. Also consider that the larger consoles are hindered by the fact that people are willing to upgrade them very infrequently. The current generation is getting pretty moldy. People change phones much more frequently than they change consoles so it's an opportunity to keep up with advances more.

I obviously can't predict how the market evolves, but logically - bigger will always mean more powerful. Presumably, at some point in the future, we'll have so much power that size won't matter - but I think we're FAR from that stage as of yet.

But, definitely, Smartphones are packing some serious power already - and I can see it becoming a more and more popular gaming platform.

That said, there's just something inside me that conflicts when thinking about Smartphones becoming THE platform for dedicated gamers.

Originally Posted by Motoki
Well there's phones now that can do HDMI out to larger screen and also ones that have a built in gamepad controller that slide out.

I can be entertained by some of the gaming apps on my phone when I'm traveling. But when I'm home, I never play gaming apps on my phone - it's without question that when I'm home, if I have time to play a game, it's going to be on the PC or one of my consoles.

My phone does not have an HDMI out, but even if it did, there are no games that I would choose to play on my phone when I have so many better (and deeper and more complex) games that I can play on my PC and consoles.

The key points in the video article are that mobile phones are 'quick and cheap' to produce. Quick and Cheap will never produce games like Gothic, Oblivion, Crysis, or any other AAA game available on PCs and consoles.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
However, it might mean we can get rid of a large portion of those pesky casual gamers who prefer Tetris and Puzzle Quest.

I was thinking the same thing. But even if mobile devices don't do it, perhaps the Wii and Wii U will

Originally Posted by TheMadGamer
I was thinking the same thing. But even if mobile devices don't do it, perhaps the Wii and Wii U will

Hope springs eternal

Well of course now the games are relatively simple (though I'm starting to see the odd more complex one here and there) but as the hardware develops I think we will see more complex games. Also the two major smartphone OSes are shared with tablets so there's that too.

Don't knock Puzzle Quest, it's a great, fun game. However, for me , the bigger the screen the better. I can't read stuff on small phone screens.

More likely, I think we'll see some form of Cloud-based game rental implementation. If a user wants a permanent copy (which would be rare given the era of 6-10 hour games), they can purchase it via a digital library and it would become a permanent fixture in their 'library'.

As for a Blackberry or Iphone replacing a physical unit, that's incredibly unlikely given the insatiable craving for more graphics horespower.

Pachter covered this in one of his weekly vids (4 minutes in), though it's not talking about Fox News.

I would love for the death of consoles to be true. Mobiles get all the 'unwashed masses' (aka casuals) while the more hardcore console players finally dump the cheap boxes and get something serious to play on. I just can't see it happening, though.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
That kinda makes it a gaming console, though, doesn't it

That said, a bigger box will always mean more powerful hardware.

I don't foresee any point in the immediate future, where a Smartphone will represent enough power to challenge an up-to-date console in terms of processing/graphics power - and deep inside, most gamers are gfx whores

However, it might mean we can get rid of a large portion of those pesky casual gamers who prefer Tetris and Puzzle Quest.

I don't foresee any point in the immediate future, where a console will represent enough power to challenge an up-to-date pc in terms of processing/graphics power - and deep inside, most gamers are gfx whores

Never say never.

In the past we had "The Death of PC Gaming" and now "The Death of Console Gaming" and sometime in the future "The Death of Mobile Gaming".
Curiously I still play PC games….How odd?!?! Shouldn't my computer have died by now?

If anything, what Drithius says is true - gaming on the systems is going nowhere, either PC or Console or I-whatever systems. There's just too much money tied up in all that stuff. We soon just simply wont personally own any software, everything will be clouded and you'll be charged accordingly. That's more likely than anything.

Well, you guys wont own software. I'll be hunkered down in my bunker w/ mine and a bunch of old refurbished pcs, and yes my nintendo, playstation, xbox &360. I think we inherited a ps2 somewhere around here too,,,

The end is nigh! Fox news says so, this must be truth! This is a tv program of high trust, no one may say they are full of bullshit!

Originally Posted by xSamhainx
gaming on the systems is going nowhere, either PC or Console or I-whatever systems.

Commercially maybe not but there are tons of indy games every year ….not to mention new stuff in sourceforge or community projects . For as long as people like to play games on the PC gaming will be alive.

Originally Posted by Tragos
For as long as people like to play games on the PC gaming will be alive.

To me, what you wrote is really the crux of it - and it goes for any other platform as well.

Since the 80s I've been reading articles that 'PC Gaming is Dead' and that has yet to happen.

Markets do change, and sometimes new technology can wipe out old technology (typewriter anyone?) - but not all new technologies spell extinction for older technologies.

In the case of gaming consoles and PCs, while mobile devices allow people to game on the go, there are numerous things that mobile device gaming cannot provide (namely deep, complex games, a hand controller of some kind, and a large screen to look at).

Originally Posted by xSamhainx
We soon just simply wont personally own any software, everything will be clouded and you'll be charged accordingly. That's more likely than anything.

It's pretty obvious that the market wants to go to the business model you describe. I personally loathe the concept of never owning my own games and will resist that to the bitter end. I love my collection of games, dating all the way back to the 1970s.

For now, there are also big problems with 'cloud computing.' The biggest is security. Can't seem to go even one week these days without some major hack taking place. This year alone my wife and I have received two letters on two different occassions from two entirely different businesses (one a major department store and the other our bank) about parts of our identity being stolen. Then there was the PS3 hack - of which I do have an account.

The entire situation makes me very careful about 'cloud-anything' and I limit my exposure every way I can which is a problem for the cloud computing cheerleaders who want you to be embracing the idea.

Another problem I have with cloud computing is that it's very unclear what happens to your purchases should a company go out of business (sites that sell digital games). This is a big problem for me because I would hate to wake up one day and find out that XYZ company has gone out of business and then find out there is no remedy for customers to obtain what they purchased.