There will always be a market for pre-built HTPC's running their own proprietary "entertainment" schemes.

Right now the market's oversaturated, there's isnt really room for 3 console manufacturers and they're all bleeding money (except Ninty, I guess because all they do is consoles.)

Xbox is just a convoluted scheme to charge PC gamers for online gaming.

360 -> Windows 8 -> Make Xbox games available on Windows Live for $60/year -> Windows Live becomes the next Steam -> Windows/Live continues to print money for Microsoft for the next 10 years.

The console market is much too small for a company like Microsoft.

It's just a stepping stone. Their agenda isn't simply to sell Xboxes, it's to expand Windows.

LazySloth718

The pushing windows agenda is a really good point. ( Kinda scary) But I disagree with the console market being too small for Microsoft. To quote Wikipedia:

"video game consoles represent 25% of the world's general-purpose computational power. "

Microsoft is simply making money. The hardcore and majority of the gaming community already own one. So now it's time to appeal to mom and dad, and Grandma. There is nothing wrong with this because the money they make is going towards a better future for the next generation of consoles. Maybe we can get a system that works when it's released this time.

As for the Sony Vita comments, they seem pretty premature. I always see a lot of 3DS praise on this site but it's usually followed by "mario this " or " Remake that". IMO, the psp was the preffered handheld because the library of games and the xmb. Sure the DS and it's four incantations sold more, but the Jersey Shore had a viewership through the roof. So please stop pairing sales and quality.

Uhm.. no one?

The consoles are done. 1 MAYBE, MAYBE 2 gens left and I doubt that even.

Server side and mobile gaming are the future.

In 10 years, everyone will be playing games from their smart TV's rendered in the cloud, or on their smartphones/tablets.

The only people with dedicated gaming hardware will be crazy old hermits like me.

Kinthalis

You're referring to the evolution of the gaming console, and what you're saying makes sense. Kinda. There still has to be some kind of unit that connects everything from your house to the server. Of course speculation like this could go on and on, ( Just think if comcast cable boxes came with built in xbox 720 hardware, or DirectTV boxes with blu ray and ps4 capabilities)

But evolution aside, there has to be another player. Even if say Apple bought out Sony or the someone pulled up a lawsuit against Microsoft for monopolizing again. Hell we haven't gone more than two generations without a new player.

As for consoles being dead in the near future, well the Wii is sitting in over 90 million homes as we speak, if anything I think consoles may not have even peaked.

None of them.

Gamingclone

While it's understandable to have doubts, and think that none of the manufactures on the list will produce a console, it's going to happen. Of course there is no way to know which company will do it next. I remember reading EGM a long time ago and finding out about a project between Nintendo and Microsoft. " Holy crap!" I thought. And I remember the first time I saw the Playstation by .....wait Sony? I thought they made VCR's?

With this logic we'd all be playing atari or commodore 64.

I'm sorry you mean the best gimmick. What surprises me is that people pay for a rehash of a computer java/flash game. Angry birds = Castle Clout, words with friends = Scrabble. What IOS banks on is the millions of people who haven't played flash games on the internet for the past ten years. However if you are in the slightest tech savvy, the notion seems absurd.

FFVII ( Completely changed things, if you didn't play Final Fantasy before this I can understand how you're not as fond of it as I am)

FFVI ( FF III when I first played it, the first FF to bring a great storyline and Kefka was an awesome antagonist)

FFX ( I think the best storyline for a FF game yet)

FFI ( I struggled a lot with this game when I was young and it managed to put you in some tight spots. However this really paved the way for every console RPG)

FFIX ( A simple devised game and great fun through out)

FFXII (While the storyline had a lot of potential I felt it failed on delivery. The battle system however was great fun and for it's time a beautiful game.

FFV ( The introduction of the job system made the game fresh enough to play. The story was pretty lame)

FFVIII ( If you were a FF fan and played them from the beginning than this one didn't stack up to FFVII, but if this was one of your first people generally adored it. The theme of this FF was love ( every FF game has a theme) and to me it felt like a serious knock off of VII. The battle system and storyline where bleh. I'm going to go play this now just to see if my opinion has changed)

FF II,III,IV ( I enjoyed these ones enough to finish them, but to be honest they all mesh together in my head.)

FFT ( Is actually my favorite of the series but I doubt people will think it fits on the list. If you haven't played this game, do so. The battle system is simply amazing, created by the great folks who brought you Ogre Tactics, as well as the music and the storyline is so deep it takes two playthroughs to grasp it all.)

I bought a system from HP two years ago that I could plug into my t.v. and play games right away. It cost like $400 and yeah there where much better computers out at the time but the little computer did it's job. HP is the leading computer manufacturer.

While I do understand Apple wanting to jump in the fray, their products tend to be a conglomerationof the best of the best from other manufactureswhile also designed to such detail that it costs quite a bit more than the competitors.

Google is a software giant which partnered up with a computer manufacturer could make things happen.

My opinion is simply based off the fact that you could pick up an HP tower that blows all the current systems away for under $500 dollars. You add on purchasable apps in the Android and Apple store that let's your tablet or ipad work as a controller to top it off. The company can use a combination of cloud and networking to share and run movies on the tablets and wifi accessibletvs in the house. ( A lot of tvs now can use externals) Anyone with any kind of phone or tab would have a working controller, and access to the media you have on your 'console'. How cool would it be to play split screen with 3 different screens?

Hp and all the other computer companies are already letting you do this, it's just not marketed as such. It's just lacking a unified platform. The creation of a software medium( Google makes one every two weeks), a marketing campaign( Google Ads is themost popular advertising network), and a handful of contracts with some gaming manufacturers and you would have a new console.

[QUOTE="ChubbyGuy40"]

No one because they're all smart enough to know it'd be suicide to try it.

Bahamutmega

Gaming consoles are not what they used to be. In fact they are so close to modern computers now it wouldn't take much for a company that normally makes pc's to box it in a pretty new box and label it a video game system. The only thing they would need would be an OS.

Also all the companies up there are part of the Blu Ray Disc Association.

[QUOTE="Bahamutmega"]

[QUOTE="Tikeio"]

There's no such thing as "Zelda 64." That, and there was more than one Zelda game on the N64.

princemarth23

No really, just type it in Google, Wikipedia, Yahoo or Gamespot. Hell there is a fansite called Zelda 64. In 1998 people didn't go around saying " Have you played Zelda Ocarina of Time? "

This is true. I remember Nintendo Power calling it Zelda 64 quite a bit.

Nintendo Power was awesome. I should get a subscription.

No one because they're all smart enough to know it'd be suicide to try it.

ChubbyGuy40

Gaming consoles are not what they used to be. In fact they are so close to modern computers now it wouldn't take much for a company that normally makes pc's to box it in a pretty new box and label it a video game system. The only thing they would need would be an OS.