Comments on: (Audio Post) Console games dying? Just caught up, interesting discussion. Everything goes in cycles and statements like "Console games are dying" are attention grabbing. Everything goes through cycles, though I am sure there is still some things that can be done with the current generation. It is hard to believe that the 360 launched without avatars, facebook, twitter, xbox live indies etc yet now these things are just standard. Kinect is bringing more people in to gaming and I expect the Move is helping the PS3 too. Consoles have a finite lifespan just like everything else - but as you say for a living room gaming experience nothing else so far has the horse power to cost ratio to beat them. It would be a safe bet that the next generation of consoles will be more accessible and social than ever before. What will be interesting is if mobile solves the visibilty problem for good apps, or if consoles figure out something first. With Amazon entering the app store market too it will be interesting to see if they solve the problem. Just caught up, interesting discussion. Everything goes in cycles and statements like “Console games are dying” are attention grabbing.

Everything goes through cycles, though I am sure there is still some things that can be done with the current generation. It is hard to believe that the 360 launched without avatars, facebook, twitter, xbox live indies etc yet now these things are just standard. Kinect is bringing more people in to gaming and I expect the Move is helping the PS3 too.

Consoles have a finite lifespan just like everything else – but as you say for a living room gaming experience nothing else so far has the horse power to cost ratio to beat them. It would be a safe bet that the next generation of consoles will be more accessible and social than ever before.

What will be interesting is if mobile solves the visibilty problem for good apps, or if consoles figure out something first. With Amazon entering the app store market too it will be interesting to see if they solve the problem.

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By: Rob Wyatt/2011/03/17/console-games-dying/#comment-1705 Rob Wyatt Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:18:53 +0000 @Rob Latency is still the main thing preventing cloud-based HD games from taking off, I think. I have OnLive at home, and I do enjoy it, but some games are simply unplayable. Borderlands is one of them. Though I agree that there are a lot of games that *can* tolerate longer latencies and could benefit greatly from a server-side render model. We'll see how that pans out. I think this particular question is less about technology and more about the market, the publishers and the developers and who decides to take the risks of specifically developing for that kind of environment sooner. (And how well they do initially.) @Rob Latency is still the main thing preventing cloud-based HD games from taking off, I think. I have OnLive at home, and I do enjoy it, but some games are simply unplayable. Borderlands is one of them. Though I agree that there are a lot of games that *can* tolerate longer latencies and could benefit greatly from a server-side render model. We’ll see how that pans out. I think this particular question is less about technology and more about the market, the publishers and the developers and who decides to take the risks of specifically developing for that kind of environment sooner. (And how well they do initially.)

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By: Mike Acton/2011/03/17/console-games-dying/#comment-1688 Mike Acton Fri, 18 Mar 2011 01:17:44 +0000 AAA games will always be there, its too big of a market to just disappear but I wholly disagree on the consoles because I don't think they are going to exist *at all*. If all you need is an ARM based thin client then why not build it in to TV, satellite boxe, cable boxes and everyplace you can already get Netflix, in addition to cell phones/ipads/laptops etc? Most of these devices already have the horsepower today to do the streaming/decoding. Given that none of this is going to happen for a couple of years most devices will be able to handle it with ease. I just cannot see a market for a new generation of consoles, especially if they cost as much as the current ones and games remain at $60-$100. I am sure there will be a new generation they are just going to become less and less relevant. As an aside, I also don't think downloadable games are going to really take off because the cloud kills the need for them too, who wants to download 30gb to play a game when you can play the same game instantly. Games are similar to movies in that they have little intrinsic value so why own them? For some reason I can't say the same about music. AAA games will always be there, its too big of a market to just disappear but I wholly disagree on the consoles because I don’t think they are going to exist *at all*. If all you need is an ARM based thin client then why not build it in to TV, satellite boxe, cable boxes and everyplace you can already get Netflix, in addition to cell phones/ipads/laptops etc? Most of these devices already have the horsepower today to do the streaming/decoding. Given that none of this is going to happen for a couple of years most devices will be able to handle it with ease.

I just cannot see a market for a new generation of consoles, especially if they cost as much as the current ones and games remain at $60-$100. I am sure there will be a new generation they are just going to become less and less relevant.

As an aside, I also don’t think downloadable games are going to really take off because the cloud kills the need for them too, who wants to download 30gb to play a game when you can play the same game instantly. Games are similar to movies in that they have little intrinsic value so why own them? For some reason I can’t say the same about music.

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By: Rob Wyatt/2011/03/17/console-games-dying/#comment-1677 Rob Wyatt Thu, 17 Mar 2011 19:25:14 +0000 @Rob I think we ended the podcast by saying everything was going to die. Because everything has to change and get redefined. And I suspect it will. I totally agree that consoles *as they exist* aren't going to last forever. Or even all that much longer. So I'm not exactly sure what you're disagreeing with? @Rob I think we ended the podcast by saying everything was going to die. Because everything has to change and get redefined. And I suspect it will. I totally agree that consoles *as they exist* aren’t going to last forever. Or even all that much longer. So I’m not exactly sure what you’re disagreeing with?

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By: Rob Wyatt/2011/03/17/console-games-dying/#comment-1675 Rob Wyatt Thu, 17 Mar 2011 18:45:51 +0000 I don't think AAA console games are going to die, but the market for them may get squeezed where people won't by many mid 80 metacritic games anymore because of cheap app games, but will still buy 95+ metacritic ones. Only the best will survive. What we are used to as a console maybe changing: <a href="http://bit.ly/fBhR0C" title="Is iPad2 a Gaming Console?" rel="nofollow">Is iPad2 a Gaming Console?</a> You will be able to stream the iPad2 content to your screen in your living room, which kinda is starting to merge the mobile and console realms. And an important forecast regarding the market size of mobile apps in near future: <a href="http://bit.ly/gVK3ns" title="Apps to Explode to $38 Billion Market by 2015" rel="nofollow">Apps to Explode to $38 Billion Market by 2015</a> I don’t think AAA console games are going to die, but the market for them may get squeezed where people won’t by many mid 80 metacritic games anymore because of cheap app games, but will still buy 95+ metacritic ones. Only the best will survive.

What we are used to as a console maybe changing: Is iPad2 a Gaming Console?

You will be able to stream the iPad2 content to your screen in your living room, which kinda is starting to merge the mobile and console realms.

And an important forecast regarding the market size of mobile apps in near future: Apps to Explode to $38 Billion Market by 2015

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By: snake5/2011/03/17/console-games-dying/#comment-1665 snake5 Thu, 17 Mar 2011 10:16:00 +0000