Polygon: Console Gaming Needs to Die

I just read this and still don't get it so I come here to ask for your opinions folks.

https://archive.is/EBnsy

The console needs to die and Nintendo should be the one to pull the trigger

The home video game console, a dedicated machine designed specifically to bring video games into the home, is a stubbornly resilient thing of the past, a limiting anachronism that does much more harm to the gaming industry than it does good.

During an age when games can be played on smartphones, tablets, computers, calculators, watches and just about any other device with silicon in it, having something that sits under your television so you can play games at home is not just unnecessary, it's wasteful.

That the dedicated home console has survived so deep into this blossoming age of cheap, ubiquitous tech can only be blamed on a sort of blind spot created by nostalgia.

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A LITTLE HISTORY

While electronic gaming had been around since the '50s, it wasn't until the early '70s and the release of the Magnavox Odyssey that video games become both relatively affordable and an at-home pastime. The late '70s brought with it the Atari 2600 and an explosion of home gaming.

In the '80s there was the video game crash, caused by an abundance of bad games, and then the rebirth of home gaming with the Nintendo Entertainment System. Single-handedly, Nintendo and its NES revitalized home gaming and the game console. But the NES brought with it a new sort of third-party licensing that included strict anti-competition rules and licensing fees. While some of that was tossed out following an FTC investigation, it set the tone for all future major game consoles.

Development is still typically the most expensive part of releasing a new video game creation, but the licensing fee or royalties paid to any platform holder (Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony) remains a high cost of entry.

This fee is one of the reasons indie development, which blossoms so easily on the personal computer and mobile, still lags behind on console. And that despite recent push by console makers to pull in more indies.

The cost of developing and manufacturing consoles, which are almost always sold at a loss, is also a big part of why platform holders like Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony are often so risk-averse when it comes to their first-party titles. As in the razor and razor blade business, the money a platform holder makes doesn't come from the console typically, it comes from the games.

Then there's the cost of shipping, of retail space, of required buybacks when a game doesn't sell. All of these things are in some way tied to the current home console business. And none of them are necessary.

First-party publishers are increasingly becoming an unnecessary and costly partner in the creation of games. Platforms are just as well known for their restrictive practices as they are for their massive hits and the cost both to the consumer and the platform holder continues to rise.

What once helped buoy the industry, now anchors it.

NX

Recently, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced that the company was working on a new sort of gaming system codenamed NX. The description of the NX as a "dedicated gaming system" seems deliberately vague. Iwata later said he only mentioned the system, which the company won't share more details about until 2016, to assure people that Nintendo wasn't giving up on the console business and jumping feet-first into smartphone games.

One can assume, one can hope, that after three straight years of losing money because Nintendo misjudged the gaming audience and the design of the Wii U, that Nintendo is once more reconsidering how it should sell games.

Nintendo has long shown an ability to think outside the box when approaching the game industry and its longterm ups and downs. When the NES was released to stores with no interest in game consoles anymore, Nintendo included a robot and called the console a toy. When Nintendo saw it was being outpaced by the graphics and processor chips war going on in the game industry in 2006, it headed out into the "blue ocean" with an approachable, casual, massively successful console: the Wii.

Now, faced with the possibility of another off-cycle, not-quite-enough-next-gen console, Nintendo's brilliant minds must realize that it's becoming time to shed the console as we know it and the contentious business model it created, to once more reshape the game industry.

For Nintendo to succeed and to help free the video game industry from the shackles of console segregation, the NX should be a service, not an expensive box.

What that solution is — streaming to televisions, cable boxes or other devices; platform-centric operating systems on a computer; etc. — remains to be seen.

But it was Nintendo that helped create today's concept of game publishing, forced platform exclusivity and royalties, and it would be fitting for Nintendo to be the one that kills it and the console, too.

So why exactly do you think that consoles need to die?

They shouldn't. Polygon, once again, is full of it.

Whats Polygon? never heard of it

Among the many reasons this is a shit article

>Polygon
>Brian Crescente
>It's titled "x needs to die"
>Solution being streaming video games

You can pick which ever one bugs you most.

I wouldn't say consoles need to die. It is true however that their main purpose, gaming, can be achieved by pretty much anything these days. BUT aside from a gaming PC, tablets and smartphones and the rest simply don't offer the same experience and don't have the GPU power to offer console-quality games. The huge problem with PC is the countless number of configurations, drivers, operating systems etc, which seemingly make it harder for developers to make games for it.

I still think consoles have their place. At least until other devices can deliver a comparable experience, which in my opinion they cannot. Aside from PC of course.

The console doesn't need to die. That guy just has an axe to grind.

Lolygon has been Nintendoom for a while now. I'm shocked that they are trying to target all consoles in a broader sense, but them singling out Nintendo is classic Lolygon.

Site needs clicks, nuff said. :P

If that's the case then I guess I'll stop gaming.

lolPolygon

But he's right.

PCs can now do everything a console can and more. Console only exist for exclusives, and if they die, there'll be no ned to waste 400 bucks on an outdated wannabe computer.

Streaming sucks though. He's wrong about that

No. I don't want "gaming as a service" and a damn sure don't want to stream games. I like having a dedicated gaming machine sitting under my TV.

But who hasn't been Nintendoom as of late? GAF? GS (staff and users)? ScrewAttack? Too many YouTube users?

You already have. We haven't games in weeks. :(

Screw them

Console gaming has draw backs but I don't think they should die. Sony and M$ just need to change their current direction. They should remember the difference between Consoles and Computers.

EDIT:

Streaming won't become mainstream anytime soon and the idea alone sounds terrible.

EDIT 2:

Lol Polygon.

LOL yea man I'm sorry the new baby has been taking up most of my time. I've been mostly on the Vita lately.

lol I hear you. There is a lot of Nintendoom out in the gaming world these days. That is most likely why its not considered all that sensationalized anymore. I doubt there will be anything that tops McShea's 'Nintendo's plan to quietly kill the Wii U' article. I'm desensitized to almost all of it now.

Its funny to see a company posting profits but gaming media is proclaiming them dead.

Didn't read the article, but I kinda agree. PC Gaming has been gaining a lot more popular lately and making your own Rig is really just as simple as going to a couple of websites and checking to see if they're compatible and putting them together like a jigsaw puzzle.

You can't get it any easier now that it has ever been.

and With PS4 and X1 sharing a lot of games with PC services like GOG, Steam, or Origin with sometimes the Same if not Better Resolutions, Frame rates and Graphics, you may have to ask yourself the same question. WTF is the Console even here still?

It's kind of Ironic to find the Weakest of the Big 3, The WiiU, is actually the most relevant Console on the Market with it's High Rated Exclusives that you can't find anywhere else, While Sony and Microsoft's exclusives you can probably skip or wait for the Publisher to port it over a year later.

Polygon needs to die, they are by far the worst game site

Sensationalist click-bait articles from attention starved websites need to die.

Lolygon carrying on with their bs.

Well shoot me a message when you want to game!

@deadline-zero0: pc could always do what consoles could do. As a gamer of both console and pc I have always known this. Some of you act like a gaming pc was crap back in the day.

What you don't realize is they are two different audiences, two styles of play. I play both console and pc... why do some of you think pc has to be the only way? There is room for both, always been that way.

Consoles are more popular than ever and Polygon sucks

Console gaming needs to be here as long as there is still an audience that wants them.

Change the focus on the systems would be great, because as of now, they are pretty much a poor man's PC.

That said, I wouldnt mind if Nintendo stopped making consoles. But only because that would mean I could possibly play them on PC and mod the hell out of them.

Yeah, the article is dumb, but I'm pretty much in agreement with this... though honestly I'd like the whole thing to be over and even have Nintendo exclusives shift to the PC. I get what you're saying though, at least Nintendo managed to carve out a small library of good games that won't be going elsewhere.

Just one? That's a damn tough choice.

Yeah I'd like for Nintendo games to go PC too. Some of them look mad brilliant on there already and after playing some games on PC and going to play some Mario Kart 8, I find Mario Kart 8 a bit blurry. :\

You fight Polygons in Super Smash Bros. FFS, get with the times man.

Seriously though, that article is utter crap. Show me a calculator or watch that can play Bloodborne or Bayonetta 2.

Consoles die, so does multiplat AAA development. MOBAs and F2P games will rule. No thanks.

implying that PC gaming Only has MOBAs and F2P games.

You would liike to think that, i bet it would make you all fuzzy and warm inside,but the reality is it wouldn't, its funny that you think console games with over infllated budgets that are all mostly "me too" Fps and Tps games are all that AAA development is, AAA exclusives exist on the PC but they do not fit you self appointed criteria i bet, so they don't "count" right??.........sad.

Also you are saying the platform with the MOST genres of games and most choices and variation in the type of games it has will become only full of Mobas and F2P games?...lol

Currently in consoles First person shooters and Third person action games rule and they are all mostly the same as each other........is that all that there is on consoles.....oh thats right no it's just not true, and the same applies for PC.

Maybe try some none biased fanboy thoughts sometime? it will work wonders for you.

@naz99: dude that's all big publishers are putting out on pc though. I have said this in so many threads and you guys either cover your ears yelling "Nanna I can't hear you" or refute with how great mobas and f2p are (my most disliked games imo).

The reality is besides indies and kickstarter indies , mmos and strategy games (which are awesome btw) there is almost no exclusive AAA budget speed publisher funded exclusives. That's all console ports, and it has been since half way through last gen. When ms killed all their pc devs and other devs moved to console (some out of greed aka crysis guys) or died completely.

Pre 2007-8 you seen exclusive pc AAA games, or if they were multiplat with consoles, the consoles had different versions. Remember battlefield 2 and consoles battlefield modern combat, or far cry vs far cry instincts, etc... now all the games are the same, besides resolution and AA

I just don't see where you guys are seeing triple a games on pc.

PC's certainly can be the best, if you have even a modest custom built. But this guy that wrote the article even thinks a "console" that sits under the TV is wasteful - so what would he think of a giant PC tower with high end graphics cards sitting under (or next to) a TV? It seems his angle is that games can be played on smartphones, tablets, watches... so we don't need consoles... or PC.

That idea is laughable, because it completely ignores the gaming experiences of those other devices. Certainly gamers need one or the other, if not both. Most people that choose a console do it because they don't feel like building a PC, and many people these days don't even purchase PC's anymore. So console is kind of the easiest way to have a decent gaming experience on a larger than tablet screen.

"The reality is besides indies and kickstarter indies , mmos and strategy games" - why is it always MMOS's and STRATEGY games don't count??

Besides FPS and TPS action games there are almost no big exclusiives on consoles..... <--- i'm using your argument here

See i can do that too.....l like you can discount hugely popular genres just because i say so right?

But PC's have to sit under a monitor just like consoles do so PC's apparently need to die too according to Polygon

Polygon needs to die/shut down/cease existing. Awful, AWFUL site.

So who is worse Kotaku or Polygon?

More clickbait from Polygon?

What a joke article from Polygon.

polygon needs to die

Well, I think Sony alone debunks there entire article. Sony had one of the best console launches in history with the PS4 and Playstation is one of the only departments Sony has that is profitable, and that profit can't be coming from games because it has none, so the hardware must be making them money.

If anything needs to die it's Polygon and there trollish click-bait articles that they make up because they can't attract people to there site any other way.

Polygon because Kotaku actually hired some good writers/journos recently.

Brian Crecente is a fucking joke and I am almost personally offended he gets a paycheck out of writing bottom of the barrel clickbait shit

nailed it!

i like my fps on pc and my fighting games on console

Fuzzy and warm inside? Bro, get a grip.

On PC, F2P/MOBA's/Any Valve game rules. On consoles, multiplats rule. The only multiplats that PC win out on sales wise are games by Blizzard or some other 90's born PC dev.

My main point at the end of the day was that AAA multiplat development would decrease rapidly. Without the reassurance of the console sales.

Also bro, I don't give a flying **** if you think I'm a fanboy or not. Try not to get offended by every comment that you disagree with. It will work wonders for you.

Fuckin' hermits. :P

Who else would they target? Its a Microsoft sponsored site and the PS4 is fucking over the Xbone in sales and popularity.

Plus, Nintendoom articles attract a lot of traffic. This shit is as transparent as it gets.

interesting indeed, now that MS tries to put their focus more on w10

hmmmm

PC brigade is already coming out of the woodwork.

The general population DOES NOT want a PC hooked up to their televisions. Its not gonna happen, ever.

The most you could hope for is a PC-based game box with a streamlined dedicated game OS and controller, that also offers physical retail support with as little barriers as possible. Oh wait... thats a fucking console innit? lol

So you're suggesting that Microsoft payed for or 'influenced' this article in some way? So because they are loosing the console war, they are downplaying the console market in general to perhaps disillusion gamers? And push people towards the vastly more successful Windows platform? Seens legit to me.