Sony, Microsoft Squabble Over Console Features, But the Real Opponent Is Apple 315
Nerval's Lobster writes "Now that Microsoft and Sony have unveiled their respective next-generation gaming consoles, the two companies have cheerfully resorted to firing broadsides at each other. Whether the current brouhaha has any effect on sales of the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 (if hardcore gamers keep complaining, they may even convince Microsoft to knock $100 off the new Xbox and bring its pricing down to the PS4's level), it's also drowning out what many perceive as the real issue: gaming consoles face an existential threat from mobile devices, most notably those running iOS (with some threat from Android). First, there are signs that the hardcore gamer market is soft: console sales in the United States dropped 21 percent in 2012, and sales of new video-game cartridges haven't fared much better. Second, PC/console games such as X-Com have begun appearing on iOS; if that trend continues, the console companies will have more rivals to fight against. Third, Apple is developing a game controller for iOS which could make it an even more dedicated opponent — and convince other tech companies to follow in its footsteps. But don't tell any of that to Microsoft and Sony, which seem content to fire at each other."
One of these things is not like the other (Score:2, Insightful)
EOM
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:One of these things is not like the other (Score:5, Insightful)
q: how many girl console gamers do you know?
How many games do the girls you know have on their phone?
My answers are: 2 and if my ex is anything to go by, 50+. Every single smartphone owning girl I know have many games on their smartphone. The mobile gaming market is many many times larger than the console market.
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And that's irrelevant if they're not the same markets, which was GPs assertion. You seem to have missed that.
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Cartridges? (Score:5, Insightful)
Cartridge sales are extremely low, but that has nothing to do with PS3/4 or the Xbox family.
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Let me guess: You have no handheld with buttons (Score:2)
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I'm still buying cartridges, but that's because I have a Vita and a 3DS...
Vaporware... (Score:5, Insightful)
We can talk about the mythical Apple TV with new console generation level graphics(which will make it expensive) when I see it.
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Actually it's not. You can stream the output from the iPhone display directly to a TV via WiFi and Airplay, meaning any game you put on an iOS device can be displayed via an Apple TV. Combine that with a game controller, and you in essence have a digital delivery game console, that fits in your pocket.
It will be interesting to see what kind of lag that WiFi streaming introduces, but the basics are all there.
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the lag isn't that bad.. it's just that the gpu and cpu in the pad just aren't on the same level. they can beat the wii but that was last gen even on the day the wii came out.
Re:Vaporware... (Score:5, Interesting)
Three things to consider. New hardware releases for these iOS devices hit every 12-18 months, with moderate to substantial gains in processing and graphics power. Couple that with cheap digital games costing a fraction of console prices, and simple portability from one iOS device to the next, even when going to an entirely new device, or even from a phone to a pad, and the appeal could definitely be there.
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Re:Vaporware... (Score:5, Interesting)
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Good enough is always good enough (Score:2)
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Thing is, that's the nerd in you speaking.
The average casual gamer doesn't care. Example: wii being best selling current generation console: worst graphics.
The current iphone/appletv/android hardware is more than good enough and it is CHEAP. The games are CHEAP.
They work across devices - your tablet, smartphone and maybe TV set top box.
Top level graphics may matter to you (and me), but the average casual gamer just doesn't care so long as it is "good enough" and cheap. The new Xbox and PS4 are
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But looking at how Apple behaved these last few years, they will not allow violent or adult oriented games. You can buy games only through iTunes. Succesful games will be cloned by Apple, removing the original from the appstore. And Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony will be sued into oblivion for violating Apple's IP.
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Succesful games will be cloned by Apple, removing the original from the appstore.
Really? Apple cloned Angry Birds?! Where can I get my Apple-branded Angry Birds? Quick! Before it becomes cool!
Re: Vaporware... (Score:3, Insightful)
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Google Maps was included with the initial release of the iPhone, before Android. Try again.
And just in case someone thinks otherwise, it was Apple, not Google, that wrote the original iPhone Maps app. They just used Google APIs like any 3rd party developer was allowed to.
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I've got an AppleTV that does 1080P and looks pretty good. Throw in Airplay and video push from iPad/iphone/mac and you've got a pretty capable "console."
"new console generation level graphics".
it just can't compete in power. it's pretty capable if you count against wii(not even wii u).
I've yet to meet the person who actually plays anything through airplay except as a parlor trick. "it's cool! I can use motion controls from the iphone!", yet people who play 4h+ sessions still play them on pc's or consoles.
the new powermac makes a nice console too but costs a shitload - and you can't just fit the hw into the ipad form factor. if you could, then you could fit
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What will compete with XBOX and PS/4 is a whole new class of games, proved by #ingress. Those being engaging games that get you off the computer and out in the real world meeting people and seeing things you'd never would have met or seen any other way.
I mean, how many FPS can you play before all the elements start to resemble each other? How many RPGs can you place before you've can predict the decision tree ending long before reaching it?
This is a new class of games that has nearly as many possibilities a
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Yeah I totally play video games because I want to be out in the real world meeting people. Good call.
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Well, the AppleTV is just mobile SoC with less power restrictions. Mobile SoCs are advancing at a rapid rate, and Apple is generally pretty good at keeping at the leading edge of the curve. Their stuff tends to offer class-leading performance when released, but then quickly gets surpassed by other mobile products since the entire industry is rushing forward at an incredible rate.
Consider, however, that one of the next-gen consoles (the WiiU) has similar performance characteristics to consoles released 8 yea
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Yes, you need variable levels of detail, but again, how is that different from PC? The iOS platforms have a relatively limited set of targets that each update roughly once a year (PCs have an enormous set of potential variables), and you don't have to support them that far back. For the iPhone, it's pointless supporting anything older than the 3GS today, for example, meaning you have only four iOS smartphone targets to worry about, and you can usually get away with just doing a low/med/high or even low/high
Control after you tap the app (Score:3, Insightful)
And it's vastly easier and simpler to pick up an iOS device and simply tap an app to start playing.
But once you tap the app, how do you control the character in the game? A flat sheet of glass gives the thumbs no tactile feedback as to where the on-screen action buttons are. Swipes on the left third of the screen can substitute for an analog stick, as first seen in Super Mario 64 DS and Metroid Prime Hunters First Hunt, but how can the player make sure he doesn't miss the jump, fire main weapon, and fire secondary weapon buttons? What's the uptake for clip-on Bluetooth gamepads?
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The success of the Wii is a red herring. It was a novelty that ended up being relegated to the back of the TV cabinet, which is reflected by no one being impressed with the WiiU and its complete lack of good games a la the original Wii.
Hand held touch devices are not competing with the consoles. No one that wants to play the games on consoles is going to rethink their decision because of the games that are released on tablets & smart phones.
I'm sick of hearing about games on smart phones being a threat
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Just because the consoles can do hardcore graphics doesn't mean it has to. That's up to the publishers, but goddamnit, sometimes I want some "woah" inspiring graphics, so I at least want my hardware to be able to do it.
... sales of new video-game cartridges haven't.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Carts.....
So this was written by someone who understands the gaming market well then? In 1995 maybe.
Mobile is the future. (Score:5, Funny)
Really, go visit an airport, library, park bench, McDs, waiting room, etc. People are playing games on their mobile phones or tablets.
If you still need high power, play it on your desktop. Consoles are throw-away electronics and their time in the sun is diminishing.
Now, if you'll excuse me I need to get a jump on early Christmas shopping... I need an Angry Birds bed set, Angry Birds jacket, Angry Birds underwear, Angry Birds bicycle, Angry Birds weed whacker, Angry Birds can opener, Ford Focus Angry Birds Limited Edition, Angry Birds home pregnancy kit, ...
Re:Mobile is the future. (Score:5, Insightful)
Nope. Wrong. People play games on phones because you can, but there's no direct correlation between this and console game sales. Totally different demographic. I couldn't give two rips about video games but I'll play a game every now and then at the airport because it beats watching the guy sitting across from me pick his nose. It's a convenient time killer. Of course there are phone based games that are addictively fun to some, but they tend to be very short lived. Console and PC gamers want immersive games that a 4 to 6 inch screen cannot deliver on. They want extremely granular control that a few soft buttons cannot offer. You're premis is quite simply wrong. You're comparing apples to oranges.
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Use headphones (Score:2)
Re:Mobile is the future. (Score:5, Informative)
There's a difference between killing time while waiting for something better to come along and making a deliberate investment of time in gaming. I'd say that most mobile games qualify as the former while most console and PC games qualify as the latter. At this point, mobile games don't seem like much a threat to console games. Sure, my kids like Angry Birds as much as anyone else. They'll play it when they're riding in the car, at a family BBQ, waiting for the bus, or some other place they'd rather not be. I've never seen them dropped off by the school bus only to burst in the front door, plop down on the couch, and try to tackle the next level of Angry Birds. I've seen them try to do that many a time with games like Fallout or Bioshock. I say "try" only because I typically won't let them veg out on video games prior to completion of homework and chores.
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People are forgetting the DS. Kids still play with portable Nintento consoles. If you aren't seeing this then you are choosing to have tunnel vision.
The Apple hype machine (news media included) is trying to hype things into something that they realy aren't.
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People are forgetting the DS. Kids still play with portable Nintento consoles. If you aren't seeing this then you are choosing to have tunnel vision.
The Apple hype machine (news media included) is trying to hype things into something that they realy aren't.
My old Sega still works and I have a PS2 laying around somewhere, too. I don't play those games much these days as my hand-to-eye coordination isn't what it once was and I'm leaning more to tactical or strategy games after burning my synapses like magnesium flares on MMO games for a few years.
Re:Mobile is the future. (Score:5, Insightful)
As a game developer do you: Risk a multi million dollar budget making a high def AAA title for the big consoles or spend 10% of that for higher potential return at lower per-sale price in the mobile market. Given the cost to develop, are you more willing to risk trying something original (that may flop) in the console market, or mobile?
It's a no brainer, and why the console market is the same old stale recycled garbage, and the mobile market has some of the most original game ideas seen in decades.
This whole "must be 1080p!" is what is killing the gaming industry. Because the games now cost so much to develop, no one wants any risk, and thus nothing original is attempted as it is risky. So we end up with "Call of duty 14" or "need for speed 25", which are mostly just re-skinned versions of the same old shit we've been playing since 1991.
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Cartridge? (Score:5, Insightful)
console sales in the United States dropped 21 percent in 2012, and sales of new video-game cartridges haven't fared much better.
What the hell would be considered a "new video-game cartridge"?
I know jargon in certain industries gets weird. I mean, I deal with tables, floors, clouds, nets, webs, pipes, and none of those are physical objects. But whoever is using the term "cartridge", in the game industry, in this year, deserves to be ignored as they are obviously stuck in the last century. Seriously, while you're back there warn them about 9/11 and Bush.
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It would. If the article were not about Xbox and Playstation.
An article focused on Vita and DS sales vs IOS would be more relevant. Given these are all mobile devices competing for space in the backpack.
The real problem is that a locked down consumption device the size and cost of a comparably specced gaming machine simply is not relevent to todays world.
10 Years (Score:2)
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It's been 10ish years since we have seen a new console.....maybe that had a little to do with the drop in console purchases, everybody has one?
For a while they were the best bet for playing your games on. PCs were OK at it, but expensive and geared to the Office or Home Office. Now even the most humble PC can play pretty good 3D games (not talking 120 fps here, but good enough for the masses) Mobile devices are catching up in performance, but are likely held back by battery life.
You can play games on your dedicated hardware and use it to watch movies on, but the actual need for a dedicated game device is passing by.
Games with friends (Score:2)
the actual need for a dedicated game device is passing by.
Unless you want to play games with house guests who happen not to have brought a gaming laptop. In theory a home theater PC could serve this use, but in practice there are more consoles than home theater PCs.
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Not 10 years..... just under 7 years....the PS3 came out in late 2006 you know.
Apple, no fucking chance (Score:5, Insightful)
People playing 99 cent time wasters aren't the same demographic as those spending $400 on a console to buy $60 games. If Apple come up with a PC type small box that runs games, and give billions to several devlopers, they will enter the gamers' market, their twee stuff on their iStuff is not taking a single cent away from xbox, ps3 or nintendo, other then child titles and all that useless fitness stuff women buy.
two reasons (Score:2)
Lol wut? (Score:5, Insightful)
I suppose someone will chime in suggesting they mean the Apple TV which could be a valid point, except the market penetration of those are MUCH smaller, and the fact that they do not have any AAA titles that rival the competitors.
Controller or not, there are no Apple devices that compete directly with xbox and ps.
Re:Lol wut? (Score:4, Interesting)
They don't compete directly; the point is the future may be 10-20 million "hardcore gamers" and a billion on phones and tablets. Especially outside the first world. Game companies follow the money/customers. Apple is selling over a half billion dollars of games every month.
I think I saw a gamasutra article listing market sizes as mobile > console > social > PC
If you are not a multinational company, if you are funding / developing a new game, it is increasing going to be Mobile. Regardless of how the ranking of XB, PS4 and PC turn out, they will all be trailing mobile.
Re:Lol wut? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Lol wut? (Score:5, Insightful)
No. It's like comparing tablets to PCs.
Everyone thinks that Apple products are going to displace both PCs and game consoles when in truth the Apple products are very limited. As soon as you want to "get serious", you will likely want a better and more specialized device.
This goes in general for any number of things that phones are supposed to be killing right now.
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And less than 20% really need to "get serious"
Re: Lol wut? (Score:2)
Re: Lol wut? (Score:2)
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More like comparing cars to trucks. (movie guy voice) In a world where the car was never invented and everyone had trucks, then someone came along and said lets just invent a truck that has limited cargo space but is smaller more convenient to just drive around.
Sure there are still people that will need trucks and people who don't need them but buy them anyway. Doesn't mean the car isn't displacing truck purchases.
Re:Lol wut? (Score:4, Interesting)
The market penetration is low because, right now, it's just a vehicle to play iTunes content on your television. They do not have any AAA titles because Apple hasn't opened up the SDK yet. Apple TVs run iOS internally and are roughly as powerful as their mobile devices.
Now that officially-blessed game controllers are coming to iOS 7, all Apple really have to do is open up the SDK, which will be very similar to the current iOS SDK, add internal storage, and put an App Store application on the Apple TV. Suddenly there's a ~$199 console on the market with a horde of iOS developers able to port their existing games very easily. The App Store is far easier to publish on than traditional games consoles and there's a lot of iOS developers who are champing at the bit to put their games on Apple's new game console.
Is it as powerful as the next-gen consoles? No. Can it play lots of enjoyable, cheap games with decent graphics? Yes. It doesn't have to be the most powerful console to be the most profitable console.
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They may not compete in the sense of high end gaming, but they compete in the sense of Water Parks vs Movie theaters. Sure die hard movie viewers would say there is no way a Water Park competes, same for someone that likes to spend time swiming in other peoples urine, but both are competing for your time. If someone spends 3 hours a day playing an iPad game that's 3 hours they are not playing an Xbox. They may not even consider getting a new Xbox.
Not yet... (Score:5, Insightful)
18 months ago, Apple as a serious threat to the established console makers looked plausible. It looks a lot less so now.
iOS is becoming a much less credible gaming proposition with every day that passes. Why? Shovelware IAP-laden crap which barely even qualifies as "games". Ok, occasionally you get games like X-Com or Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition which try to swim against the tide; but even there, they're never anything more than slightly inferior ports of games available on other platforms.
Finding anything worth playing on iOS is getting harder and harder. Square-Enix and Cave put out a few titles worth a look - but even Square-Enix have gone down the route recently of pay-to-win shovelware.
At the same time, the low-priced offerings on the consoles - and on the Playstation Store in particular - have soared in quality. If you want a mobile device right now that can play high quality indie games, sold at a reasonable price, then you don't want an iPhone or iPad, you want a Vita.
Indeed, though the Vita's failure as a "PS3 in your pocket" is now almost complete (barring the occasional decent game such as Littlebigplanet Vita or Soul Sacrifice) the machine's sales seem to be trending upwards on the back of a decently priced but rigorously quality-controlled low-budged and indie scene.
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Mobile games just aren't involving. Most of them are just shallow time wasters. There's never any real story, the gameplay can be mastered in about 5 minutes, and worst of all (to me, anyway) is that there is no immersion. You're never presented a world where you can just lose yourself in. Kind of how you can lose yourself in a book or a movie. The only mobile game that I ever found myself getting lost in was Survival Craft, and that's just because it's Minecraft on your mobile device (Note, S
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I believe the Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo parlance for that is "DLC".
And you can bet that as DLC has exploded, that both the Xbox One and PS4 will be having this business model.
PC games are, as well - everyone seems to be moving to the freemium-type business model
Re:Not yet... (Score:5, Insightful)
No, DLC is not the same as "pay to win", at least, not as it's usually used.
There's a lot of DLC out there that's perfectly good value. Look at the Borderlands 2 DLC packs, or some of the Bioware DLC packs. DLC done right is basically what was, in ye olde days, called an "expansion pack", but split up into a few chunks. So rather than pay $25 for a single expansion, you pay $5 five times for roughly the same amount of content, delivered episodically. The value to the player is the same, but the publishers have decided that keeping a faster cycle of expansions to the core game makes people more likely to buy their content. I have bought every non-cosmetic piece of DLC for Borderlands 2 and Mass Effect 2 and do not regret a penny of it.
See, without that DLC, I still had a full sized game to play. The DLC for each game amounted to an old-style expansion pack, for about the same price. It's extra content that fleshes out the game and extends the play experience.
Pay-to-win is very different. With pay-to-win, the entire game is, in theory, available to you - often for free. The problem is that unless you fork over money, most of the game will require utterly implausible amounts of time to access. That might be time spent running in circles doing random encounter battles or the like. Or, even more cynically, it might be "real world time elapsed" - an entirely artificial time constraint where it doesn't even matter whether your device is switched on. That time has to pass - unless you press the "pay now" button.
What this means is that the game mechanics are redesigned to strip out "skill" and "fun" and replace them with "pay or suffer". The game is no longer designed to make the player enjoy it (in the hopes he'll pay for future games from the same publisher), it's designed to get him to pay more to accelerate his progress.
The freemium/pay-to-win bubble is already bursting. Expect to see a lot of companies who have invested in it go to the wall over the next year or so. Some of the smarter ones are already getting out.
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The biggest limitation is the controller, or rather the lack of one. A touch screen is no substitute for a gamepad in any kind of action game.
X-Com and Baldur's Gate are both ports. Ditto all the Square stuff. No-one is willing to invest money in original AAA titles for mobile platforms.
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Ain't that the truth.
And again, this is why the Vita is quietly turning from a horrible disaster (which is what it looked like at launch) into a bit of a stealth success story. It can cope with twin-stick, motion and touch-screen controls (and both at once where merited) and now that the initial pressure from Sony to use every kind of control in every game has passed (thank god... touch-controls didn't quite ruin Uncharted on the Vita, but they tried hard), devs targetting the Vita can pick and choose the c
No kidding (Score:3)
It has amazed me how hard it is to find good games for mobile devices. I'm a big-time gamer, I'd much rather play a game than watch TV for entertainment. It is my primary goof-off activity. So I have a nice powerful smartphone (Android in this case), and it would be nice to have some portable games for it.
Some I want just for quick things, like waiting in the doctor's office or the like. Those are reasonably easy to find, I have a small collection of simplistic titles that do the trick for that. Still thoug
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However I also wanted some with more substance, for if I'm traveling or something like that.
You could try going for proper old school ports, like Angband [google.com] and variants [google.com].
I've not actually tried these, but they look pretty faithful, and are free. Close to 1/4 a century old, now.
Not the same market (Score:5, Insightful)
How many times will people think that the iOS gaming and the HD console gaming is the same market? this is bullshit. yes there is some overlap, yes there is a bit of cannibalisation because time is a limited ressource, but no one can compare the experience of a AAA game on a PC or next gen console with what you can get on even an iPad.
even if it's streamed on a TV, even with a controller. the hardware is incomparable, the promise of the experience is completely different.
let's stop with this "new apples are disrupting oranges!" please.
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but it's just sprites on the screen! same thing! it's just that the carts are virtual in the ipad!.. ..yeah, this type of shit article comes up at least once in a quarter for the past 5 years..
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I do agree with your assertions that we can't really compare the games that have come out up to now in most cases, but I think it's dangerous to suggest that the iOS and HD markets are as disconnected as you think. iOS and Android have already eaten Nintendo's lunch by stealing away almost all of the casual gaming market, but casual gaming and dumbed-down ports that bear no resemblance to the actual game were just the low-hanging fruit. There's no reason to believe that they'll stop there, and X-COM and the
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Just like Television and Gardening are not the same market, but it's difficult to do both at the same time and doing one means you are not doing the other.
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It should be incredibly obvious based on the relative size of the smart phone market versus the console market. If there were a bunch of people ditching their consoles for Angry Birds, why is it that the drop in console sales is nowhere near as big as the Angry Birds sales figures?
Because, duh, some people play both.
The real issue is that console gamers mostly bought the console because 'it just works', so now the console makers are loading up the consoles with all kinds of DRM crap to ensure 'it just doesn't work', they're screwing over their core market. The tablet or phone is more likely to 'just work' in the future.
dedicated gaming consoles is a niche market (Score:3)
Just like PCs became faster and replaced Unix workstations at many places, the low end devices are becoming faster and are threatening the dedicated gaming consoles. Mostly all you need is a good quality controller and you can fairly use high end PC to replace your gaming console. Newer Wi-Fi standards are becoming faster by the day (to easily connect controller to PC) and also virtual controllers like Kinect can easily be ported to PC, so that shouldn't be a bottleneck. The game publishers will be more than willing to support open (relatively speaking) platforms as they don't have to invest huge amount upfront and don't have to pay per game commission to console makers. As of now, I am not planning to upgrade my gaming console. I will wait and watch whether it is worth or not.
FFS: Mobile is not everything (Score:2)
I keep seeing everywhere how mobile is going to take over every industry, everywhere. Each and every time I see it, I marvel at the ignorance that stance engenders. Don't get me wrong, I think mobile is great, but there are limitations to the format that make the idea of an all mobile computing environment ridiculous to consider.
It boils down to the physical format; small screens with touch input are great for some tasks, but who really wants to sit down and fiddle with their phone/tablets, when their 50"
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Oh it's the same jackasses claiming the PC is dead. They have this micro world view and an expansive ego and can't help but think they know everything.
And all they know is apple sold more IOS devices than there were PC's sold last year and their sales have been going up every year. Ergo everything will be an IOS device in a few years. Because every trend continues forever.
The year of mobile gaming (Score:3)
humana what? (Score:2)
This article makes no sense, the console market was expected to have a drop off in anticipation of the next generation consoles. Console sales and game sales typically drop.
A controller for iOS this sounds about as good as the Ouya or how ever you spell it. It's a great idea but adoption is far and long off and it's not going to replace the console market any time soon. Don't get me wrong the idea behind this and the Ouya are good concepts but the developers aren't there for AAA titles, the quality doesn'
Apple? Really? (Score:4, Insightful)
"console sales in the United States dropped 21%" (Score:3)
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Mobile games are popular (Score:2)
Let's put this in perspective: Has anyone ever accused Nintendo of sabotaging their console market with their Game Boy/DS products? No?
Wel
Hardcore Console (Score:2)
First, there are signs that the hardcore gamer market is soft: console sales in the United States dropped 21 percent in 2012
No troll intended, but since when were consoles, with their meagre amount of buttons and auto-targeting, considered hardcore gaming?
Give it 5 years and we'll be seeing stories about how the causal iWatch gamers are eating into the hardcore tablet gaming market.
On an iPad? (Score:2)
Is this marketing? (Score:3)
The content may indeed be factual, but the tone makes me suspicious, and somewhat mistrustful of anything reported.
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Hardcore gamers are not on consoles, they're on PCs. Consoles have always had fairly dumbed down gaming experiences compared to what is available on PCs [youtube.com].
When consoles became a "big thing", it was the non-hardcore gamers who went there, and the hardcore types that stayed on the PC. Consoles didn't have the right kinds of controllers, the games were more dumbed down, etc.
So, about this:
First, there are signs that the hardcore gamer market is soft: console sales in the United States dropped 21 percent in 2012,
... those are not the hardcore gamers, those are the "middle-core" gamers.
Consoles succeeded in a vacuum. When your Apple or PC couldn't really play like the glorious dedicated devices in arcades you needed a console. Now you don't. Computer hardware, even the cheapest, can do pretty well for MMO, 3D experience (not great, but good enough for most and bet on it most don't shell for an $800 video card.)
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I left PC gaming over 10 years ago when I switched to my first Mac. There wasn't a lot of titles and I was working mostly in Perl and later standard LAMP or LAPP stack stuff deployed on *iux servers.
A few years ago I wanted to get back into gaming and the GMA 950 in my MacBook at the time was fine for running XP for work stuff, but was never going to be for gaming.
So I ended up getting a 360 about the time Halo Reach came out. Part of it was the titles I wanted to play were on 360, not PC, the other part
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Consoles have always had fairly dumbed down gaming experiences compared to what is available on PCs
Dumbed down?
There are console games with plenty of complexity, you just don't realize they exist because most PC gamers know diddly squat about what's out there. They only see Halo and Madden and don't see anything else.
Oh sure, they don't make crazy ass flight sims that you have to have to be an aeronautical engineer or have an actual fucking rating in the aircraft in the game to actually play for consoles. But how many people actually play stuff like that these days....the market for that grows ever smal
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Oh sure, they don't make crazy ass flight sims that you have to have to be an aeronautical engineer or have an actual fucking rating in the aircraft in the game to actually play for consoles.
You don't see that as a problem?
But how many people actually play stuff like that these days....
Dunno, ask the guys who make X-Plane.
the market for that grows ever smaller as the obsession of the niche bearded Janes-reading engineers for ever more hardcore detail and complexity drives away new players.
No way. Those are the kind of players who want to play realistic combat flight simulators to begin with. Anyone else would rather play something like Crimson Skies, or at worst, Aces High; realistic physics but you don't have to actually know how to go through all the motions of flying a plane.
What would be awesome would be if you could use additional consoles to power additional displays, and maybe weather processing or other reasonably n
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When consoles became a "big thing", it was the non-hardcore gamers who went there, and the hardcore types that stayed on the PC.
Consoles became a big thing in 1977, when Atari debuted the 2600. And this was incidentally the same year, when the first computer, which called itself "PC", was available.
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One of the main things game publishers look for are analytics and Apple neither has the expertise nor the patents for that.
half of every iOS apps traffic is analytics. it's not through apple, but it's there. put your phone to a wlan ap you control once and watch the magic of your every press on the apps being sent for evaluation to make them more captivating...
analytics isn't the problem. the fact that they're different markets is the problem. iOS as a gaming platform is competing with playstation vita.. not playstation 4.
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