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Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

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41–49 of 49 posts

Re: Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

#41
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why people compare tablets and phones to console. It's like you have never played a console game before. Console gaming is about big screens, epic scenery. people having fun together. xbox is turning into the living room PC, eventually gaming will be a just feature. They have already announced IE for xbox. they are going to add more and more live tv options and apps in the future. It is backed by W…

Put a powerful cpu, gpu and an usb controller and there's no technical difference between a tablet and a console. Console games have only historically had different graphics and gameplay because of historical limitations of mobile hardware. Not because there's anything magically special about an xbox. You give mobile devices similar hardware and consoles become dumb pipes.

There is no technical difference between a laptop, console, desktop either. But who would want a tablet that is as thick as a laptop, with fans and 1 hour battery life. You can't just stick a i7 and quadcore GPU in a tablet. Your iPad is good for casual games. People are playing lots of casual games but those games are unrelated to games like COD, Battlefield, Elder Scrolls, GTA, FIFA, Madden. It's like comparing a TV show to a big blockbuster movie.

Re: Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

#42
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why people compare tablets and phones to console. It's like you have never played a console game before. Console gaming is about big screens, epic scenery. people having fun together. xbox is turning into the living room PC, eventually gaming will be a just feature. They have already announced IE for xbox. they are going to add more and more live tv options and apps in the future. It is backed by W…

This is already happening. Search for "android hd gameplay hdmi" on youtube and you see countless examples of connecting an android phone to a HD display through HDMI. Hell, there are examples of streaming Netflix on your HDTV. Phones already support bluetooth, so there is no reason why a couple of dualshocks cannot work with my android phone for team gaming. I daresay if Sony did not have its "sunken cost" pathology…

Tell me when a tablet can play the latest blockbuster AAA titles on max settings on a big screen. keep in mind that most laptops can't even do this. Your scenario might come true if game publishers stop developing AAA games that require very resource intensive games.

Re: Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

#43
post #17
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why people compare tablets and phones to console. It's like you have never played a console game before. Console gaming is about big screens, epic scenery. people having fun together. xbox is turning into the living room PC, eventually gaming will be a just feature. They have already announced IE for xbox. they are going to add more and more live tv options and apps in the future. It is backed by W…

Consoles was never just about big scenes/epic scenery or people having fun together. Starting from nintendo up to PS2 there was plenty of casual games (think tetris). If consoles are going to be limited to epic games then investing in consoles becomes a huge gamble. You have 200 million to spend, do you want to create 1000 games for the iphone or 1 big console game that if it gets below an 80 on metacritic will be co…

You are 100% correct. The big blockbuster games will become like movies and the casual games will be like tv shows. Blockbuster movies flop all the time like "John Carter". On the other hand we are going to have freemuim multiplayer games (WoW, Diablo3, COD)

Re: Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

#44
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why people compare tablets and phones to console. It's like you have never played a console game before. Console gaming is about big screens, epic scenery. people having fun together. xbox is turning into the living room PC, eventually gaming will be a just feature. They have already announced IE for xbox. they are going to add more and more live tv options and apps in the future. It is backed by W…

>I don't understand why people compare tablets and phones to console. Consoles were, and are, still dominant because the most time that the average person spent with a screen was a TV. However, the consumer's usage habits are adjusting. The primary screen they are beginning to use is the smartphone and, eventually, it will be the same for the tablet because it is so mobile. This is where gaming is going to have to go…

I agree that more time will be spent on casual games but the big blockbuster, multiplayer, RPG games will still have their market.

the IE for xbox is just part of the movement on Xbox to turn it into the entertainment center of the living room. It's sayign that it's not only for gaming. The fact that Xbox is used more as an entertainment center than gaming is just sign of things to come. It's pretty obvious that the next xbox is going to be marketed as an entertainment center rather than a console.

Re: Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

#45
post #8

It's clear that the console market is at a turning point. The Xbox360, PS3 and Wii have all (AFAIK) gone well beyond the lifespans of their predecessors. It's just taking longer and longer to recoup that investment. When they came out they were much better (in price-performance terms) than their PC equivalents. As expected, this lasts no longer than 6-12 months. Rumor has it that the next Playstation will be subpar c…

> The Xbox360, PS3 and Wii have all (AFAIK) gone well beyond the lifespans of their predecessors.

    PS1 (Dec 1994)
    PS2 (Nov 2000) = PS1 + 71 months
    PS3 (Nov 2006) = PS2 + 72 months
    today (Jun 2012) = PS3 + 67 months

    Gamecube (Sep 2001)
    Wii (Nov 2006) = GC + 62 months
    today (Jun 2012) = Wii + 67 months
    (Wii U already announced for later this year)

    Xbox (Nov 2001)
    Xbox360 (Nov 2005) = Xbox + 48 months
    today (Jun 2012) = Xbox360 + 79 months
Only one of these is significantly beyond the lifespan of its predecessors, and that's in large part because its predecessor had such a short lifespan, by industry standards.

Re: Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

#46
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is already happening. Search for "android hd gameplay hdmi" on youtube and you see countless examples of connecting an android phone to a HD display through HDMI. Hell, there are examples of streaming Netflix on your HDTV. Phones already support bluetooth, so there is no reason why a couple of dualshocks cannot work with my android phone for team gaming. I daresay if Sony did not have its "sunken cost" pathology…

Tell me when a tablet can play the latest blockbuster AAA titles on max settings on a big screen. keep in mind that most laptops can't even do this. Your scenario might come true if game publishers stop developing AAA games that require very resource intensive games.

neither can a console. We're not comparing a mobile to a high end desktop but to current generation consoles.

Re: Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

#47
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell me when a tablet can play the latest blockbuster AAA titles on max settings on a big screen. keep in mind that most laptops can't even do this. Your scenario might come true if game publishers stop developing AAA games that require very resource intensive games.

neither can a console. We're not comparing a mobile to a high end desktop but to current generation consoles.

You can play skyrim on xbox. anyway that is not the point. You have games on your laptop, you have games on your phone and you have games on your tv.

Re: Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

#48
post #8

It's clear that the console market is at a turning point. The Xbox360, PS3 and Wii have all (AFAIK) gone well beyond the lifespans of their predecessors. It's just taking longer and longer to recoup that investment. When they came out they were much better (in price-performance terms) than their PC equivalents. As expected, this lasts no longer than 6-12 months. Rumor has it that the next Playstation will be subpar c…

The Xbox360, PS3 and Wii have all (AFAIK) gone well beyond the lifespans of their predecessors. It's just taking longer and longer to recoup that investment.

The Wii was profitable from the first unit sold.

Re: Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

#49
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really surprised that people think consoles are currently a niche market for games, after an example like Call of Duty selling 8.4 million copies in the US in a month, with almost all of the copies on consoles, not PC. And if ever there was a PC-friendly genre, it's the first-person shooter. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/31995/Exclusive_Black_Ops...

I'm really surprised that people think consoles are currently a niche market for games http://boardgames.about.com/od/monopolyfaq/f/copies_sold.htm According to Hasbro, as of early 2008, more than 250 million copies of Monopoly have been sold worldwide. (As of early 2003, the estimate was "more than 200 million copies.") The company estimates that nearly 500 million people have played Monopoly. Anyone want to guess h…

There are some very big numbers for the oldest and most classic video games as well. Take a look at the estimated numbers for Super Mario Brothers. Or the entire Mario franchise.
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