are console sales dwindling so much we get no more physical home consoles?

Just read this intersting article : http://techland.time.com/2013/01/30/are-weak-wii-u-sales-a-bellwether-of-shifting-game-demographics/

The WiiU is said to have sold 3 million from end november to end december worldwide, but Nintendo lowered their prediction of 5.5 M at end of march to 4 M, meaning about 1 M for 3 months!

I'm getting anxious that, with the help of casual gaming (smartphones, tablets, Wii) a big majority of people don't care about home consoles anymore and won't spend 100s $ when they can have fun with a 5$ game on their tablet.

With Sony buying Gaikai tahy can sell all casual games and people can play them on the cloud, so maybe no PS4 at all? or a gimped console that can just run Gaikai?

Tablets certainly have something to do with it. For example my GF really liked the casual games on the Wii but since the ipad she hardly ever mentioned console gaming. She only plays dance central every once in a while but that's only because I have a Xbox and kinect anyway. She would never afford one herself.

She really likes games like unblock me and Dragonvale on the ipad and iphone though and I can't blame her. An Ipad is much more user friendly and if she's bored of a game she's on youtube in 2 clicks.

Um nope..  Wii U is failing for various reasons and hardware based consoles dying out isn't one of them.   For one;

- Non-gamer casuals such as teh grannies, the grandads, the soccer moms,  and basically every game/tech-shy person out there are not jumping onboard this time like they where with the Wii.  Nintendo have come to the realization that these types of gamers don't buy new consoles every 5-10 years and are really not in it for the long haul like core gamers are.  Now they basically have nothing left but to rely on the hardcore Nintendo fanbase.   Not good.  Microsoft is also trying to play catch up with the Wii with all these Kinect games but they will soon come to the same realization. 

- The Wii U name is a marketing disaster.   Whilst core gamers would be able to tell the difference.  A casual however would percieve this title as mere extension to the Wii.  In other words,  the Wii U is just a Wii with a new controller.   

- Lack of games.  Obvious one but it's the truth and probably the strongest reason at this point why it's not selling very well. 

- The price..  People are asking for a price drop already?  LOL.  Nintendo might just be forced into it.  Worked for the 3DS..

- Lack of an achievement/trophy system?   Some people might say this is completely stupid but believe it or not some people like those things.  Like them enough to even base their entire game purchase on whether they are actually in the game or not.   Very minor issue but still Nintendo needs to get with the times and add features that people want. 

So there you have it.  Wii U was destined to fail because of poor decision making on Nintendo's part.    This does seem like a very system war-ish post but then again it is relevent to the topic. 

Also, no PS4?  You know PS4 is getting announced officially in like 5 days from now right?  Hardware based devkits exist and developers are making games on them as we speak.  A cloud based Gaikai only console would fall flat on it's face just like OnLive did.  It was a complete failure for various reasons.  I wont babble on about them.    They'd be pretty much alienating entire countires who don't have the internet speeds to support it, which would be akin to Sony shooting themselves in the foot.  The world just isn't ready for global cloud based gaming as of yet.

The Wii U just launched on Novenber 18th so on Feb 18th it will only be 3 Months old. The Wii U doesn't count. The original Wii sold 98.3 million. The Xbox 360 has 76 million consoles out in the world. Playstation 3 has 77 million out in the world. So 7th generation consoles are fine? The 7th gen is ending. So the 8th is currently unknown if Xbox 720, PS4, and Wii U can top the 7th gen numbers.

Remember the world economy is not great. So the launch of 8th generation is going to be brutal. There will always be home consoles.

Sites just write articles like that to get page hits.  I remember not too long ago when they were all doing their very best to convince us that physical media was dead and that next gen consoles would be download only.

Nope. PS4 is all but confirmed. Eventually, the traditional "video game console" probably will go the way of the do-do bird. But right now the market is still there. Maybe not quite for another 100 million unit seller like PS2, but if they do it right I don't see a massive dropoff from last gen. There is room for a hit system. Wii-U is failing because Nintendo did not "do it right". 2Chalupas

I don't see a drop-off at all. I think Sony will gain some of the market Nintendo has lost as well reclaim some the market share they lost to Microsoft.

NO! The Wii U is not an indication of what Playstation's will do. 

Just read this intersting article : http://techland.time.com/2013/01/30/are-weak-wii-u-sales-a-bellwether-of-shifting-game-demographics/

The WiiU is said to have sold 3 million from end november to end december worldwide, but Nintendo lowered their prediction of 5.5 M at end of march to 4 M, meaning about 1 M for 3 months!

I'm getting anxious that, with the help of casual gaming (smartphones, tablets, Wii) a big majority of people don't care about home consoles anymore and won't spend 100s $ when they can have fun with a 5$ game on their tablet.

With Sony buying Gaikai tahy can sell all casual games and people can play them on the cloud, so maybe no PS4 at all? or a gimped console that can just run Gaikai?

TheTenth10