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Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

develop-online.net

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Re: Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

#31

Post by trimbo »

cletus wrote: 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…

> 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.

That may be true in price/performance, but in absolute price terms, those 6-7 year old consoles are still a better deal. The quality of experience you get from a $200 Xbox continues to be much higher than that of a $200 PC.

Re: Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

#32

Post by debacle »

CWIZO wrote: post #27
debacle wrote: post #21

The console market is already becoming a niche. They're for social games (like WiiSports) that you play with friends and family or story-driven games (RPGs, etc) that you don't need a PC to play. Honestly, I don't know how anyone plays FPS games on consoles. I play Halo 3 with my son now and the controls are infuriating.

I played many FPS on PCs, and was equally frustrated with my xbox when I first got it. But once I got used to it, I can really say that playing FPSs with a controller is better than with a mouse&keyboard.

To each his own, I guess. I find a good mouse to be the best aiming tool there is.

Re: Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

#33

Post by bad_user »

pwthornton wrote: post #29

Next year's iPad will most likely be more powerful than the XBOX 360 and PS3 (it already has more ram and supports a higher resolution). That will be a big deal. As it stands, it already does better graphics than last generation's consoles. Add in the really high resolution display, and you can see why console gaming will become more niche. People have limited money to spend on electronics, and as gaming on consoles…

It's rather interesting that contrary to the popular wisdom around here, general purpose computers are still preferred over locked-down electronic appliances. This is precisely the reason why iPads, iPhones and Androids are probably going to eat into the gaming consoles market.

The biggest problem of PCs is the fast evolution of hardware. When you buy a game for PS3, you know it will work well on your PS3. And when you buy a PS3, you know you'll keep finding games for it, even in 3 years from now. And I bet there are still titles released for PS2. That's the only advantage of console gaming and is quite a big one.

The fast evolution of mobile devices is actually a disadvantage for the kind of people that buy gaming consoles in the first place.

However, console gaming has been a niche for quite some time. This is not new. The exception was Nintendo's Wii, but that was just a fluke.

Re: Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

#34

Post by mccoyst »

bad_user wrote: post #33
pwthornton wrote: post #29

Next year's iPad will most likely be more powerful than the XBOX 360 and PS3 (it already has more ram and supports a higher resolution). That will be a big deal. As it stands, it already does better graphics than last generation's consoles. Add in the really high resolution display, and you can see why console gaming will become more niche. People have limited money to spend on electronics, and as gaming on consoles…

It's rather interesting that contrary to the popular wisdom around here, general purpose computers are still preferred over locked-down electronic appliances. This is precisely the reason why iPads, iPhones and Androids are probably going to eat into the gaming consoles market. The biggest problem of PCs is the fast evolution of hardware. When you buy a game for PS3, you know it will work well on your PS3. And when y…

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...

Re: Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

#35

Post by planetguy »

debacle wrote: post #21

The console market is already becoming a niche. They're for social games (like WiiSports) that you play with friends and family or story-driven games (RPGs, etc) that you don't need a PC to play. Honestly, I don't know how anyone plays FPS games on consoles. I play Halo 3 with my son now and the controls are infuriating.

The console market is already becoming a niche

Do you think so? I think most males in the 10-40 year old age group have at least one console sitting around at home. Many of them don't play them very often, but they got 'em.

I don't know anyone who plays games on an actual PC anymore. Just buying a PC game seems to require you to carry around an encyclopaedic knowledge of graphics cards in order to determine ahead of time whether it'll run.

Re: Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

#36

Post by ralfd »

pwthornton wrote: post #29

Next year's iPad will most likely be more powerful than the XBOX 360 and PS3 (it already has more ram and supports a higher resolution). That will be a big deal. As it stands, it already does better graphics than last generation's consoles. Add in the really high resolution display, and you can see why console gaming will become more niche. People have limited money to spend on electronics, and as gaming on consoles…

This is an interesting thought. The next Xbox3 and PS4 will be way more powerful again. But will they release a new model every year like the iPad/iPhone? I guess not. The momentum (and money) of mobile is incredible.

On the other side everyone expects Apple to make something interesting with their Apple TV like enabling Apps or selling their own TV. I am not sure they will do because Airplay works fine. But a standalone box has a few advantages to mobile devices which only stream to the TV: More internal room. Unlimited electricity. Better Controllers.

@Cloud Gaming This is really interesting and has potential for disruption. But OnLive is not available in Europe, so I can't try out how good/bad it is working. I can only speculate lag will always bother the die-hard fans?

Re: Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

#37

Post by seanalltogether »

cletus wrote: 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…

FYI, Nintendo is right on schedule with their console compared to their predecessors, and Nintendo doesn't sell their hardware at a loss, so I don't think it's fair to lump them in with PS3 and Xbox. In some ways Nintendo is a very innovative company, in others they are a very conservative company too.

Re: Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

#38

Post by sandGorgon »

rbn wrote: post #13
cletus wrote: 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…

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 about the playstation consoles, it could rule the gaming world - it already makes Playstation phones and it is one of the world's largest game publishers - it is just too scared to take the final leap. In one shot, it could come up with a phone and game library that could cannibalize its PS2 range.

Re: Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

#39

Post by GlennS »

mccoyst wrote: post #34
bad_user wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's rather interesting that contrary to the popular wisdom around here, general purpose computers are still preferred over locked-down electronic appliances. This is precisely the reason why iPads, iPhones and Androids are probably going to eat into the gaming consoles market. The biggest problem of PCs is the fast evolution of hardware. When you buy a game for PS3, you know it will work well on your PS3. And when y…

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...

The problem with your article is this sentence: "digital sales via outlets such as Steam not taken into account for this total"

Digital distribution dominates on the PC now, and if your figures don't take it into account, then your figures aren't very useful.

Re: Carmack: Consoles could become a niche

#40

Post by stonemetal »

mccoyst wrote: post #34
bad_user wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's rather interesting that contrary to the popular wisdom around here, general purpose computers are still preferred over locked-down electronic appliances. This is precisely the reason why iPads, iPhones and Androids are probably going to eat into the gaming consoles market. The biggest problem of PCs is the fast evolution of hardware. When you buy a game for PS3, you know it will work well on your PS3. And when y…

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 how many decks of playing cards, or chess sets have been sold?

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