The Future of the Console

[Wolf Kanno]

This was a topic I discussed with a gamer friend of mine. Basically we spoke about the rise of iOS and Browser style games, not to mention the Phoenix like resurrection of the PC market in the last couple of years, as well as the decline of notable console exclusives. This got us to wondering what will happen to the console in the next year, as each generation since 2000, it seems like consoles are becoming more and more like PCs, gaming stores are in decline as online markets take over, and honestly this generation has not been as ZOMG AMAZING like previous console generations.

My questions are simply this, what does a console offer that a PC cannot provide? Do you think iOS and PC gaming will eventually drive the console as we know it extinct? Do you think the PC is basically the evolutionary end of the console? Do you think part of this might be due to the rise of the West in gaming since PC has always been dominated by Western developers whereas consoles have are more dominated by the Japanese market?

[Quindiana Jones]

If the cost of a PC decreased, then consoles might decline slightly. As it is, consoles have simpler multiplayer capacity whilst retaining a significantly lower cost than a PC.

I, for one, intend to leave the console market and get into PC gaming because I hate everything about the companies in control of console gaming and believe that they are destroying it.

Mobile games will likely remain a niche, no matter how pretty they get.

[Jiro]

I'm gonna have to shift to PC because I can't afford to keep up with smurfing $600 consoles and $110 games. Pirate everything until I smurfing die.

[Pete for President]

Lately I've seen articles on gaming sites titled like 'where are the next gen consoles', '10 reasons why we need the next gen consoles' etcetera. I laugh at those, because this generation has brought little else than shinier graphics.

That's why I have high hopes for the next two years, as console-developers will need to focus more on gameplay than graphics (the latter already being sort of 'maxed out') until the next gen arrives. If this turns out the way I think it will, consoles will return to more of a niche state while all the graphics-fanatics switch to PC. And that might just be what I want: less triple-AAA crowd-pleasing-fireworks console games, and more depth and gameplay-focussed console titles. Maybe new IP's will become the standard again, rather than the exception.

[Pike]

All we really need is for Gaben to have Valve release a console (as he has hinted at doing) and hook Steam up to it and it is Game Freaking Over.

[GhandiOwnsYou]

Lately I've seen articles on gaming sites titled like 'where are the next gen consoles', '10 reasons why we need the next gen consoles' etcetera. I laugh at those, because this generation has brought little else than shinier graphics.

eh... True media hub potential, indie developer support and promotion from PSN and live arcade, online play becoming standard and a necessity, the massive push for creation and user generated content, and as much as I personally hate it, motion gaming? I feel like we've probably taken the biggest jump in the history of consoles this generation, other than the advent of 3D environments in the PS1/N64 era.

I don't think consoles are going anywhere. It's a matter of comfort and convenience. My consoles are where I'm comfortable, where I entertain, and where my family is. A desk is nowhere near as comfortable as a couch or lovesac (amazing, highly recommended, buns in comfort forever) sitting in front of a big screen TV. I feel like I'm hiding from the rest of the house in a computer room. Yeah, I know I could hook a tower up to a TV, but I like the division. Most things I do at a computer, but when it comes time to relax and game or watch movies, I want to move over to a giant sac of foam. To me it's like arguing that TV's are going to disappear because monitors have better resolution and you can stream most anything now.

[Del Murder]

I'm console 4 life. I just can't get into mobile or PC gaming. Consoles keep everything wrapped in a tight little package, while PCs require constant upgrading unless you spend a ton of money up front. I also prefer to play games on my HDTV, and while I can hook a PC up to that as well, it's just an extra step as I'd probably want to unhook it to browse online/look at porn.

Consoles will become more like PCs, but I don't think they will go away. There will always be a spot for a Sony or Nintendo device on my self.

[Rocket Edge]

Pretty much what Del Murder said.

I do the odd spot of PC gaming but my PS3 provides a much simpler format when it comes to any kind of gaming whether it be in my room or wherever. Plus, I think the online multiplayer side of it is great & there is much room for improvement. Also not to forget the local multiplayer side of it. I often have friends over and we could go 2 on 2 in games like Fifa, among others.

[Pike]

I have been a largely PC gamer ever since I was a wee tyke and we had a Commodore 64. Most of my favorite video game genres (strategy, sim, etc.) work best with keyboard and mouse. So I will always be doing a lot of gaming on the computer.

That said, I love my Xbox 360, it runs several million times better than my old clunker computer does. I like how it's just plug and play.

[Sephex]

I grew up on consoles, but ever since I got my high endish laptop in May of 2011, I have been mainly gaming on that, be it emulated stuff, games from Steam, etc. I'll probably get the next slew on consoles, but I agree that they are in trouble. That said, if consoles go the way of the dinosaur, it won't happen as quickly as people think.

[Slothy]

I'm console 4 life. I just can't get into mobile or PC gaming. Consoles keep everything wrapped in a tight little package, while PCs require constant upgrading unless you spend a ton of money up front.

I might just go to my grave maintaining that this notion is incorrect these days. It really hasn't been true that PC's are vastly more expensive for years, nor that you have to go about upgrading them constantly.

I built my computer for about $1,000-1,100 about five years ago. That was with some parts which were pretty near top of the line, easily chewed through everything I threw at it during that time period, and with the exception of a new graphics card when the original died back in October, has had no real upgrading to speak of save adding another 1TB hard drive to it, which isn't really an issue since most people have at least one extra drive anyway, even if just external. And it's worth noting that the hardware I bought still vastly outclasses what's in a console today.

And I'd like to point out that I paid that for a fairly top of the line Core 2 Duo, top of the line graphics card, 8GB's of RAM, an exceptionally well built case, power supply, and a great quality motherboard. I could have easily built something with slightly lesser parts and saved a few hundred more dollars while still having a machine that would toss any current console on the ground and kick its teeth in.

When you consider most people who own a console are probably going to own a PC as well, the cost difference between buying a good PC which will last for years like mine, and buying a middle of the road PC and a console is negligible. Particularly if you buy the console closer to release. The reality is that a decent PC can last for years, and isn't as expensive as many people seem to either be convinced of or are trying to convince people of.

And it's worth noting that that graphics card I had which died lasted longer than my PS3 did, and I replaced it for not much more than it would have cost to have my out of warranty PS3 replaced. The difference being that in replacing my graphics card I got something which was quite powerful, and far more powerful than my old one. Not the current top of the line, but at about the price level where you start getting diminishing returns in the price to performance ratio.

Anyway, PC cost rant over. I agree with Pike on the idea of a Steam console. It would be kind of strange, yet completely awesome and probably would massively shake up the market.

That said, I don't see consoles going away despite them becoming more and more like PC's. While I may have just ranted about the cost of gaming on a PC being entirely overblown, he reality is that most people are idiots when it comes to buying PC's, let alone not doing stupid tit on them and ending up with 30 viruses from downloading a bunch of porn and clicking shady links in their emails and on websites. Consoles are simpler and give more of a feeling of stability, whereas the PC market is fairly divided amongst manufacturers, software, etc, and for those with no knowledge is a hell of a landscape to navigate.

Though I wouldn't be surprised to see more manufacturers probably trying to go the Nintendo route of cheaper consoles, smaller power jumps and lower development costs. It'd be awesome if we see them implementing better development kits and tools as well, though I'm not holding my breath. I think the Android box being talked about now may be a step in that direction. Let's face it, $600 launch prices are stupid, developers are having a hard time using the power these machines have anyway, and there's a years long growing period in working out the kinks in the whole process which just needs to be dialed back frankly. I kind of wonder how much opening up the machine a lot more might help that though, since I think a lot of problems in making development faster and more accessible likely lie in how closed off the development environments are.

As for me personally, I've gone through a rather seamless transition over the years from a largely console gamer in my youth with some PC games here and there to now playing almost nothing on consoles. There was a time when I'd be buying 20 games a year on consoles and playing them, now, aside from buying fewer games in general due to time and money constraints, a much smaller percentage of them are console games. In fact, since Christmas I think I bought 2 or 3 games on my PS3. On my PC I've bought easily 2-3 times that thanks in part to Steam sales, but honestly, there haven't been any other PS3 titles I wanted. The PC seems to be where all of the interesting stuff is happening for me these days.

As it is, I expect I'll probably skip the next console generation, or at least the first few years of it, which I've never done before.

[Del Murder]

Well, I'm a simple man with simple tastes. I want to sit in my recliner, push a button on a wireless controller, and be playing Xenoblade Chronicles on my HDTV within 1 minute. When I'm done I want to turn it off from my seat, flip to something on TV, and go online, also within a minute. You can't do that on a PC yet that I know of.

$1,100 is still more than 3 times what I paid for my PS3. While I agree that PCs can be a lot more powerful than consoles, that's been the case for ages. It's not about power it's about the games and the experience. I just don't get the same experience sitting at a desk playing on a PC.

[Pete for President]

Lately I've seen articles on gaming sites titled like 'where are the next gen consoles', '10 reasons why we need the next gen consoles' etcetera. I laugh at those, because this generation has brought little else than shinier graphics.

eh... True media hub potential, indie developer support and promotion from PSN and live arcade, online play becoming standard and a necessity, the massive push for creation and user generated content, and as much as I personally hate it, motion gaming? I feel like we've probably taken the biggest jump in the history of consoles this generation, other than the advent of 3D environments in the PS1/N64 era.

Point taken. I think what I was trying to say was to me it feels like gameplay wise there weren't as many surprises as previous generations. No new genre rose to the surface. We got more sequels than we could ask for. Of course there is motion controls like you said, but it got no love for good reason. Online play a necessity? I think there are a lot of gamers not specifically interested in this. Let's hope someone proves me wrong again, it means something has been flying under my radar.

Also, just throwing this out there:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...o-game-console

[Slothy]

$1,100 is still more than 3 times what I paid for my PS3.

Again, this is a non issue. As I said, you can get a computer that's more than powerful enough for $800-900. When you consider most people own both a console and a $400-500 PC, the price difference is negligible.

As for your other comments I also disagree with you there. Many console ports have full controller support these days, and since few people I know even turn their PC's off, the idea that you couldn't be playing a game within a minute, turn it off and quickly switch to watching TV simply has no basis in truth. I know several of people who do just that.

[DMKA]

I have always, and will always, be a console gamer, unless PCs find a more layman-friendly approach to gaming. I just hate that whenever I buy a new PC game, it's going to take advantage of the highest end hardware available, so I'll either have to upgrade my hardware or it won't work right. I like being able to just buy a game, pop it in, and then sit back on my couch and play with a controller. Plus, local multi-player isn't exactly ideal with a PC, whereas consoles are designed for it, and local multi-player is about the only multi-player I take part in anymore. I'm not knocking PC gaming by any means, these are just my personal preferences.

As far as consoles dying? No, I don't think so. I think we will see consoles mutate into something radically different than they are now (hell, think about what they were before this gen? First they were strictly game boxes, then game boxes with CD playing capabilities, then game boxes with CD and DVD playing capabilities, now they're full on entertainment centers complete with Netflix and web browsers), but I don't see them going away.

I just don't see PC gaming ever becoming mainstream, and handheld gaming will always have it's market, but I don't see it replacing a sit down big screen experience. I don't see all the Halo fratboy tournaments on XBOX that regularly took place in my dorm hall being replaced by PCs.

If consoles were to die, I think we'd see a huge decline in the video game industry altogether. Like it or not, consoles made video games the medium to be reckoned with it is today. In the same token, it also brought it to the state of shameless capitalistic rape that it's currently at right now, too.