Will traditional consoles ever go away?

I keep reading comments saying that the PS4 and XB1 will be the last traditional consoles and that the future will just be streaming services similar to Netflix. I don't agree with this for many reasons, but the one that stands out the most is how well the PS4 and XB1 are currently selling. The demand is still very high for traditional consoles and I just don't see that changing in the next 5 yrs or so. Sony will continue to offer the PSNow service, but I don't even think their intention was for that service to replace traditional consoles.

Also, I don't believe physical formats will truly go away either. Disc-Based media will go away, but flash memory could be an alternative and by the time the PS5/XB2 come out flash memory will be extremely cheap per gigabyte. Right now you can purchase 64GB SD cards for $20 and that is consumer level prices, so imagine how cheap it will be by 2018 in bulk form.

Not as long as Nintendo is around.

Sony and Microsoft are the ones keeping consoles relevant in the mainstream.

The only people aware of the Wii U are Nintendo fans.

@emgesp: Nintendo is keeping them relevant in the world. 3DS/Wii U baby, shes a nice seller no matter where she goes.

yeah, there was word that PS4 and Xbone would be the last traditional consoles.

But really, what were they talking about ? Cloud gaming ? Smartphone gaming ? Neither has replaced console gaming in what it does.

I don't think console gaming will ever go away. There'll always be a market for it.

First of all the 3DS is a handheld, not a console.

Also, stop trying to have the Wii U piggy back off the success of the 3DS. That isn't how it works.

The Wii U does not have any mind share in the mainstream market.

"The Nintendo 3DS (Japanese: ニンテンドー3DS Hepburn: Nintendō Surī Dī Esu?, abbreviated to 3DS) is a portable game console produced by Nintendo."

Straight from wiki. Both are traditional and provide very diverse traditional game experiences.

You know damn well what I meant by consoles. I'm specifically talking about traditional home consoles, not handhelds. Stop lumping them together.

@emgesp: Forgive me, i know these are hard times for Sony's Vita, but we must be civil. 3DS is the leading traditional console in the industry, this much is true. She has sold more traditional units then Xbox One, PS4, and Vita put together.

The 3DS is a handheld/portable, not a traditional home console. I can prove this by simply pointing out that there is no video out on the handheld.

At the end of the day the Wii U is still irrelevant to the mainstream.

As long as they keep selling like they are, I doubt it.

I hope the consoles go away. All we need is PC with all the games on it. No more exclusives and wasting money on shit consoles just to play exclusives.

I doubt it. Frankly, playing an AAA video game is different from watching a movie or downloading a game on a smartphone, where convenience is key. When someone buys a video game console these days, they specifically are seeking out advanced systems capable of playing advanced AAA titles. These games generally can't be reproduced on a Fire TV or an Apple TV for a number of reasons (pricing, technical requirements, etc). In addition, game streaming has proven to be very unpopular with core gamers so far for a variety of reasons. Gamers are much more accepting of digital purchases, which retain the convenience factor without sacrificing the ownership factor too significantly.

It is certainly possible that the mainstream/casual market will no longer see a need to buy traditional home consoles or gaming PCs someday. And certainly there will be no more Wiis. But as long as core gamers exist, game consoles will continue to exist.

I think consoles will be around for a long time yet. I mean thinking about it, we're only 4 major hardware changes in, so I think there will be a few more before any real shake up happens in terms of a major format / medium overhaul.

Nothing lasts forever.

2 more gens left.

Looking that way. Cant wait for the pc only days

I hope it lasts for 20 more years at least.

Yes. They will turn into much cheaper streaming machines once Gigabit Ethernet becomes the norm (i don't like it either).

When under developed countries reach the level of connectivity that developed countries have now.

Well eventually sure. Not for the foreseeable future though.

Ever, who knows?

Soon, I don't think so.

I want traditional console hardware to stay. I also want PC's to stay and flourish for those who want to go as powerful as they want, or simply prefer PC centric games. I like consoles, just like I like to put on a DVD from time to time. It's nothing weird, really.

Hm it is an interesting question. I think being able to sit down in your couch, in front of a large screen and play with a controller that is simple and intuitive, is important. It just makes the gaming experience so much more social (regardless of if you are playing a multiplayer or not). Of course, like SakusEnvoy also has said, if you want to play anything like a AAA or other demanding games you would have to need a machine to run this. Streaming also seems a bit unlikely just because of this. When it comes to physical copies of games, they are really cool to have, but in my circles you only really go for physcial if you are a hardcore fan, and then you usually get a special edition pack.

I really do hope that buying games won't go over into something similar to Netflix, because game developers wouldn't be able to sustain themselves this way. In the film industry Netflix is "where movies go to die".
Then again, you can never really know what will happen as things just evolve so quickly. It's really up to the generation after us. Who knows what kids might prefer when they have grown up with playing games as 1-year olds on iPads. Might just be us geezers playing consoles specifically created for old people in our retirement homes :P

They already have, except Wii U. Current consoles are closed box PCs, their only benefit anymore is the lack of compatibility issues you find on PC, and the fact that more buggy games are released on PC.

And that physical games aren't bricks after you install them.

emgesp is correct. Consoles and handhelds operate under completely different design models. Consoles are stationary devices that can only be played at home (and connected to an external display) whereas handhelds are for gaming on the go. And typically in compact designs with more limited hardware the two platforms rarely share the same library. Basically consoles and handhelds service vastly different gaming eco-systems.

@AdobeArtist: I can see some differences, but there are many similarities. A console is a console, and a Nintendo portable console is a very traditional console. Sure home consoles and portable consoles should be separated, but we shouldnt hide from them, they all be consoles.

Mainstream gaming sucks and is boring though. Assassin's Creed 32 and Call of Duty 67 will be super stale with nice cinematics and tired scenarios and similar gameplay.

Doubt it but I am interested on what would replace them.

The steam machine, if successful, will make traditional consoles irrelevant.

Not as long as they sell 80+ million.

No matter how console hipsters try to spin it, eventually gaming will be a streaming service. Sony already offers such a service. We are in the digital era. Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, etc. are a huge success. Smart tv's are common in households. Just a matter of time.

Also, can we admit that Nintendo will be going mobile after the failure of NX?

Ps4 and Xbox one aren't traditional consoles. There are plenty of online only games etc. Gaming consoles have always been growing and changing. The Dreamcast and everything after were drastically different from everything before.

Also I know Sony fans want to say handhelds don't count and that might be your opinion but a basic description of what a console is would basically be a system made to play games more or less, portable or not is just one subject, plenty of wiiu users essentially have a portable system also, it just doesn't leave the house. I think Sony fans don't want to recognize the difference in sales for their systems in comparison to the difference in sales including handhelds.

They're not going away because too many dudebros play video games and dudebros find pc gaming too difficult for them.

Traditional consoles already gone, they died when consoles started to need patches and use digital games...

Well really depends if you can connect it to your TV or not and what kind of games you get. Just sitting on your phone doesn't have the same social feel as consoles do and the games currently out on mobile aren't the large epic tales that you would usually play on console. This is largely down to the developers really. Right now people don't want to really pay for a mobile game and the market is extremely saturated. It's too difficult to earn money there with products that take years to develop. Things might change, but right now you have different types of developers for mobile and console and I don't see that changing for quite a while.

No. Every new gaming device or platform so far have found their own niches.

you mean the company that stated the Nintendo NX "will not be a traditional console" ... sounds legit.

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooope

@MBirdy88: Its true, Nintendo does always evolve with each console, but i think they will still make NX with traditional style controls.

I don't know what your definition of a "traditional console" is, but the PS4 and XB1 definitely are NOT traditional consoles.

Sitting through a half hour update before starting a game is not what a console is supposed to do.

With a traditional console, you insert the disc and immediately start playing the game. It was the main reason why I was both a console and PC gamer throughout the majority of my life. Now that the consoles are essentially closed-platform PC's, I have little desire to continue playing them.

It sucks how the only games offered on non-Nintendo consoles are Ass Creed and Call of Duty.

@jcrame10: Is that you, Cranler? If not, who were you before you got banned?

@Bigboi500: what?

Your posting style is very similar to someone else, but I can't put my finger on it. You're too familiar with SW lingo and behaviors to be a totally new member from 2014.

@Bigboi500: I've never had an account before February 2014. I remember making one to talk about Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, cuz I had just got that game

But how is this relevant to you claiming PS and Xbox only have CoD and Ass Creed? Pretty trollish or uninformed.

@jcrame10: Never made that claim, weirdo...

But it's erroneous to label handhelds as "consoles" as if they're the same class of device. There's a reason we use distinctive definitions, as they have distinctive properties; again that consoles are stationary devices whereas handhelds are compact and portable devices. And these differences in design models creates a notable difference in the user experience, both in how they interact with their product as well as the type of gaming experience being offered, the eco-system I brought up before.

Another reason for this separation (not hiding from handhelds) is that that they have their own separate generations, cycling through on timetables far removed from console generations.