It's true.
Microsoft and Sony's consoles will not continue to exist. Their place will be taken by the much cheaper OnLive as fast, uncapped broadband proliferates to more areas and OnLive's service grows in terms of game selection and hardware availability. The MS/Sony definition of a console will be this awkward middle child that's much more expensive than OnLive without really looking much better if you have a good connection (which urban centers will). For a bit more you can get a PC, which provides a meaningfully superior experience to both on all counts.
Then there's the tablets. Nvidia's Tegra 3 tablet platform is almost as powerful as current gen consoles (look up Shadowgun THD) and Apple's latest iPad is roughly on par with Tegra 3. Android OS already has functionality to hook up to an HDTV via HDMI dock and output 1080P while using a wireless controller. The next tablet generation is going to surpass the consoles in terms of power, all they need is AAA software libraries.
Why buy a console if you can buy something just about as good for less assuming good internet? Why buy a console if you can buy something that's also portable and very useful day to day like a tablet? Why buy a console if you need something better quality than those two and can afford extra expense? Consoles just don't have a place in the future. Everyone is going to be a Hermit or an OnLive / Tablet gamer.
And you know what? It's a good thing. Consoles as closed platforms run by megacorps are actually toxic to the industry. Sony has a history of thretening journalists with press event bans and refusal to send review copies of first party titles if the journalists do things like publish bad revies of Sony-backed titles (like the Kane & Lynch incident -- I wonder if mentioning this is against the rules on Gamespot?). Microsoft openly bribes publishers to delay/cancel content on other platforms and publicly fellate them. See: Bethesda. Both of them pre-approve everything and charge fees for everything a dev does. Both of them have withheld free DLC so they can make money forcing the devs to charge money for it. We're really better off without MS and Sony. OnLive probably wouldn't be a better replacement (closed platform and all -- same goes for iOS), but Android would be a great one for gamer / developer freedom.
Nintendo? I think they can stay successful. Worst come to worst I can picture Nintendo releasing an official tablet designed to dock to TVs via HDMI and use wireless controllers that runs a fork of Android's source code and has a "Nintendo Store" (think Kindle Fire here) built in. Knowing Nintendo each game would have "traditional mode" where you play with a controller and a "portable mode" that either lets you play the real game with altered controls or mini-games. It'd have strong multiplayer too. One person could play on the TV while another player in the same room does something else with their own Nintendo tablet (like spawn enemies and try to kill them). It would let Nintendo have a single platform that fulfills both portable and home. In fact, the Wii U controller might be testing these very waters.
My 2 cents on the future and consoles.
Log in to comment