I'll be surprised if consoles survive the generation after the PS4 and X-Box One. Microsoft is pushing people towards the PS4 and PCs with their X-Box Live fees and DRM, since the PS4 is not doing the DRM thing (
On the PS4, at least). The WiiU's gimmick wasn't gimmicky enough and is doing terribly, and probably won't make a good recovery. Barring any more stupid decisions or a major change in the market, we'll see a PS5, but anything else Nintendo or Microsoft releases will be overshadowed by Sony's system, PCs, and tablets, which are all providing comparable features at a better deal to their respective audiences. After the PS5, consoles will have too much to compete with to be successful.
Tablets appeal to casual gamers, are cheap, mobile, and can come in the form of a phone. Save the dedicated fan base of Zelda and Mario fans, this is going to suck most of Nintendo's casual base right up. Unless Nintendo makes another success on the level of the original Wii, they're going to be losing market shares over the next decade. Tablets also have the added benefit of appealing to online socialites, since all you have to to is stick a keyboard on one and you have a cheaper laptop that does Facebook and YouTube, so they'll even start taking a chunk out of the PC market, particularly laptop users. Heck, even TVs are headed in the direction of being over sized tablets, so there goes another chunk of the casual market out of Nintendo's hands. Once their processing and graphics capability get even to the point of the N64, Nintendo's finished making consoles.
I can already plug my computer into a 50' TV, grab a USB controller, and play it like a normal console. The only downside is that PCs cost more, but you get can get a
lot more out of them. The console's main audience are teenagers and young adults, all of whom need PCs to do homework. Instead of dropping the cash for a console and an okay PC, you can get a good PC and still have some pocket change left. All the console games, besides Halo, Final Fantasy, and a few others, are released on PC anyways, so there's even less of a reason to get a console for gaming.
The one thing that fans could legitimately say that X-Boxes had over computers, the ability to rent and/or bring a disk over to a friend's house and play without a problem, is gone. Their stomping ground as a gaming-centric console is slowly being overshadowed by versatile tablets and powerful
and versatile PCs, and only dedicated fans will stick with them through the bitter end.
The crazy thing is, I think Microsoft sees it coming. With Windows 8 designed to work on both PCs and tablets, and
Xbox One's OS being very similar to Windows 8, complete with
Internet Explorer, it makes me think that they're just grabbing some of that cash while they can. Sony and Nintendo? They don't appear to have any plans to branch out, so probably not.
Author
Topic: If you hate consoles... Xone love hate? (Read 44200 times)