Pachter on why consoles are becoming obsolete

[Gamerforlife]

Consoles have, and always will = video games no matter how many other platforms you can play them on.

When consoles die, so does the gaming industry. When people think of video games they don't think of PCs and mobile devices. They think of Nintendos, Xboxes and Playstations.

[Tanooki]

I hate myself for this as I despise rumors.

Did you see the post that got mirrored over at droidgamers that came from the reputable news leaking japanese site Nikkei??

Nintendo NX is supposedly an Android OS based console.
http://www.droidgamers.com/index.php/ga ... qus_thread

Think about that for a moment. Fits doesn't it? Konami and their comments even with their shady backstepping on it a bit. Square-Enix on how mobile is their future. Nintendo desperate with their 2 bomb (gamer wise, finance on the latest) consoles, handhelds being eroded by android/ios stuff and it being their bread and butter for profit. The talks and contracts now with DENA for a network. Their merging of console and handheld development teams like a half decade ago and making a system from paper to shelf takes years. The talking about the merging of the two also in development to ease costs and barriers.

NX going Android fits all that all too well. What if NX displaces both the WiiU and the New3DS in holiday 2017 as a portable/console based scaled hardware device with an Android core? At that point you have something that's damn powerful, can put up very respectable games and solid audio and visuals to back it. IT will have the whole tools of Android and then whatever Nintendo layers to it too. Good bye would the barrier fall that plague them now with the painful to code for backwards wiiU and the 3DS not being really compatible with anything either by its own nature. In the end anyone making Android games could get a Nintendo license and port their tablet/shield (etc) console/phone games to the NX. The end game of that would be third parties who have a personal issue with Nintendo would be more or less the only ones not making games for them just being childish other than maybe someone being a PS5 holdout needing something that insanely nice. Even then those hold outs still make games for Android too. Open up a Nintendo console/handheld system to the world of android OS and anything would be possible for support. It's an interesting idea at the least.

[fastbilly1]

Consoles have, and always will = video games no matter how many other platforms you can play them on.

When consoles die, so does the gaming industry. When people think of video games they don't think of PCs and mobile devices. They think of Nintendos, Xboxes and Playstations.

Except in Europe where PCs have always been primary gaming devices? Specifically things like the Spectrum ZX and Amiga 400.

It is really just a game of branding. Instead of thinking of Nintendos, you think of Marios. Not insurmountable.

[noiseredux]

When consoles die, so does the gaming industry. When people think of video games they don't think of PCs and mobile devices. They think of Nintendos, Xboxes and Playstations.

I don't know. Have you paid much attention to the younger generation? I see an awful lot of Minecrafting and Angry Birding going on there.

It is really just a game of branding. Instead of thinking of Nintendos, you think of Marios. Not insurmountable.

Crazy talk! That would be like if Sega got out of the hardware biz and started making Sonic games on PC. The industry would fall apart!

[marlowe221]

And you can see Japanese companies going down that route with Nintendo, Konami, Capcom focusing on lower development cost.

It's where the money is. Square-Enix has a bit of focus there too, but it's easy to see why. Check out their investor slide show here, on slides 17 and 18. Mobile is bringing in about twice the revenue per quarter that their undoubtedly-more-expensive-to-make console/PC MMOs are.

It's where the money has ALWAYS pretty much been. It's just that AAA developers seem to have forgotten that in recent years. That's why we have seen games that sell 3 million copies go on to be called financial failures by their publishers.

To paraphrase the philosopher Jim(quisition), every game is not Call of Duty and will not sell like Call of Duty does/has, and cannot really justify the development $$$ that is put into Call of Duty. Development costs MUST come down at some point to be sustainable.

Another technological development pushing all of this is the advent of decent on-chip graphics. Integrated graphics systems have really come a long way since they were first introduced - hell, the Xbox One and PS4 are using them! You can really get some decent graphics out of integrated hardware these days in a way that wasn't really possible a few years ago.

[isiolia]

Well, the consoles are using custom stuff that is basically putting what would be a discrete GPU in a PC on-die. Intel GPUs have come a long way, but they're still significantly less powerful than other options.

[Ack]

Crazy talk! That would be like if Sega got out of the hardware biz and started making Sonic games on PC.

They did that. It was called the Dreamcast.

[marlowe221]

Well, the consoles are using custom stuff that is basically putting what would be a discrete GPU in a PC on-die. Intel GPUs have come a long way, but they're still significantly less powerful than other options.

Yeah, it's custom but it's a little less custom than consoles used to be. The PS4 and Xbone are using AMD integrated chips that are not available on the consumer market. But AMD is selling similar tech to consumers these days. Have you seen some of the graphics that AMD's Kaveri integrated chip can put out, particularly the A10-7850K? It's actually pretty impressive for a CPU/GPU combo.

It's not hard to find reliable youtube videos of people playing Battlefield 4 at respectable, playable frame rates on an A10-7850K. They are not always at 1080p (I think some are though) but, hey - the PS4 and Xbox One aren't doing stuff at 1080p most of the time either!

Granted you do need higher than standard speed RAM to really push it (2133 mhz I believe) but that is only marginally more expensive than the usual stuff.

[Forlorn Drifter]

I'm not saying he's wrong, but I really hope things don't go down that road. Honestly, it one of those things that sounds good to those who have jumped into download only stuff, have the internet for it, have jumped into mobile, are already PC gamers, etc. People who are already in these markets are all for it. But when I see something like this pop up on a big name gaming site, or various other places, anybody who is a dedicated console gamer gets upset. For good reason. You have crappy internet? No games. Have physical issues that make PC gaming/mobile gaming a problem? Controllers are being created, but that's extra cost on you. Want to be competitive online with a controller? Lol, PC master race uses M/KB m8, quit being a plebian. And, y'know, have a screwup with your account on gaming services or some such, buy all that crap again. You only owned it when the account was good.

Its one of those deals where some people are trying to push it, and they seem to be winning, but its bad for everyone against it, whatever reasons they might have.

[Damm64]

Now i have a somewhat diferent view. I really believe that consoles will be less popular. Yes the sales are going to decline, yes the user base will get more smaller, but in the end i think it will go back to be a somewhat of a niche hobby instead of the huge beast it is now.

I now it's not a good point of comparison but other entertainment medias still have their phisical releases despite digital being strong. Books are still around, comics too, Blurays too, everything still sell but in a smaller quantity and with the budget ajusted to said quantity.