As somebody who would benefit immensely from the PS4 failing, it is indeed a hilarious statement to make. But them, the OP has never been known for his deep thoughts or even evidence of any thought at all.
Classy attacking a posters intelligence.
Maybe you missed the BBC News at 6 tonight that ran a feature on how the PS4 had launched but the future may be in tablet gaming. They even interviewed a few industry people who agreed.
Maybe you missed the BBC News at 6 tonight that ran a feature on how the PS4 had launched but the future may be in tablet gaming. They even interviewed a few industry people who agreed.
I don't live in the UK and I like to have my own opinions which I think are fairly well informed, thanks very much.
Right now there's a bit of a bandwagon going on with respects to tablet gaming. But there are a lot of issues to overcome before tablet gaming gets close to consoles and hand held consoles before they can become anything close to the main focus of gaming.
For a start, not every game is good for motion or touch controls. Sometimes, a controller is really needed. But how are you going to hold that controller on the move?
Then there's processing power. Tablets by their very nature are very weak, because of power consumption. Don't get me wrong, they're pretty good for portable devices and there's a lot you can do with them, but they're pretty lacking when compared to even the Wii's capabilities.
These things happen in cycles. First off, smart phones were going to kill the console industry. When that didn't happen, it started to become tablets that were going to do it.
The few industry people who talk about the end of console gaming, tend to be the ones who have a vested interest in producing mobile games. So you'll have to forgive me if I don't take their views at face value.
The people most likely being into tablet gaming are the people that like doing crosswords and other types of similar games. Tablet gaming is nothing like console or PC gaming.
While the tablet market is huge and is growing there is always going to be people that want a story and gameplay that is more deeper than the quick fix game to kill a spare 10 minutes. I don't see a huge amount of gamers jumping ship to tablets it's more like a totally different industry growing.
Also the problem with tablets is there is so many and there seems to be a new one available every 10 minutes. So lets just imagine for a moment they do get has powerful as consoles to play games on, I really don't think people would want to be forking out £300 or £400 every year because they found out that the tablet they own doesn't play the latest games like the new Samsung tab 2000 or that their iPad100 wont play a certain game unless you jail break it because it's a Android exclusive. Console and even PC gaming is far more constant and less hassle.
I don't even own a tablet and I don't want a tablet, I certainly don't want to play my games on a tablet. Tablets sucks. Tablets are not the future.
Playing games on my iPod bores the shit out of me in less than a minute.
Angry Birds FTW - shotgun to head, trigger pulled...
Indeed. I own a tablet, but I wouldn't dream of playing games on it. Give me a full-blooded console with a proper pad (kinect is a turn-off for me) and some high horse-power games.
As for the forthcoming generation, I think we have seen the end of the 'tech wars' based on how many gigabytes and terraflops they can do. The tech is now advanced enough to be roughly comparable, each of the major contenders easily capable of excellent results.
The war is now between fearures and goodies.
Okay. There are a number of things to note about Sony's new PS4 and some of the things that have been said in this thread.
Tablet gaming is a different market with a different type of game. They are casual gaming devices. It's a market for relatively simple games that are not graphically demanding, that can be just 'picked up' and 'put down'. Sony's PS4 is mainly targeted at the established console market with advanced graphics and power demands.
At first sight the hardware spec of the PS4 looks unspectacular. That's because Sony is building this console to a price, so that they don't start out by making a loss on it as they did the on the PS3. Remember that they are learning from all the mistakes that plagued the PS3 which was late to market, too expensive, uptake was slow and it was difficult to develop for.
This time round they have an almost off-the-shelf hardware solution from AMD. I say off-the-shelf because while that 8 core processor itself is custom made for Sony, it is 'cobbled togther' from established x86-64 and GPU designs. It achieves it's power through having multiple cores, not through clock speed which will make it easier to design a reasonably simple cooling solution. That means better reliability (so fewer returns), lower fabrication costs and the x86-64 architecture is easy to code for resulting in lower software development costs.
In fact, Sony have gone as far as admitting that the PS4 is more-or-less a glorified PC. And while it may not be leading edge spec, it's not far off and bear in mind that it is a platform with a rigidly defined standardized architecture with a lean O/S. That means developers can code pretty much 'on the metal' and push the hardware as far as it can go with minimal overheads. Compare that to PC in which any game has to work through Windows, through DirectX and through device drivers. All that middleman software incurs performance overheads and soaks up some of the available processing cycles.
So I'd say you can expect that you can expect the PS4 to be pitched at a lower and more competitive initial price than the PS3. It may not be spectacular. But it is a solid product.
Maybe you missed the BBC News at 6 tonight that ran a feature on how the PS4 had launched but the future may be in tablet gaming. They even interviewed a few industry people who agreed.
Yeah normally the guys making tablet games, and getting out of consoles... strange that!
I do not think that tablet devices will ever replace the idea of a 'console'. As others have pointed out in this thread the type of games on tablets and consoles are very different in scope, concept and target market. As mentioned, tablet gaming is aimed at a more casual gamer, which the 'gimic' of touchscreen control caters to. Whilst there has been a casualisation in the console market with the Wii, Kinnect and Move, the core of the machine still seems to lie with classic controller based gaming - albeit a little bit First Person Shooter heavy of late.
I think the main challenge of consoles will be the hybridisation of PC/Consoles and games on demand. Valve's new console, the 'Steambox' is quite an interesting idea, having a console that allows you to play Steam games downloaded to your box, displayed in glorious HD on your television. However, I think that there will still be your classic consoles out there for at least another 5 years.
Is the PS4 announcement a little underwhelming? Sure it is. Personally, it will be awhile before I go for it - even if it is launched at a £300 pricepoint simply because there is still many PS3 games I have yet to complete. As improvements in graphics processing see diminishing returns, there is less and less reason to be an early adopter of a newly released console.
Right now there's a bit of a bandwagon going on with respects to tablet gaming. But there are a lot of issues to overcome before tablet gaming gets close to consoles and hand held consoles before they can become anything close to the main focus of gaming.
...
The few industry people who talk about the end of console gaming, tend to be the ones who have a vested interest in producing mobile games. So you'll have to forgive me if I don't take their views at face value.
Not sure Gabe Newell has much of a direct interest in producing mobile games, and he sees Apple as a direct threat to the console industry. Many view him as a very respectable opinion on the gaming industry.
I think you're viewing things from the wrong perspective. You're taking a product, ie, a console game, and you're trying to suggest a tablet is not compatible with that experience. And you may well be right about that. But then you can't get an arcade racer experience in your living room either.
The point behind tablet/mobile gaming making serious inroads into the console gaming market is the following:
- A larger demographic of people are buying and playing games on tablets/phones than on consoles. This larger demographic covers a larger age range of people.. people who typically wouldn't be gamers.
- This large demographic naturally comes with a much larger target audience.
- The games themselves are a fraction of the cost of a console game and in some cases provide just as many hours of entertainment.
- The living room space is becoming more of a technology friendly environment where families will soon be sharing TV shows, movies, music and games on entertainment systems.
- Mobile devices are far far far easier to develop for and anyone can get their game out there.
Now sure.. are you going to be able to play Call of Duty 15 on a tablet? Not really. But then does that really matter? Does the market (remember the larger demographic here.. we're no longer just talking about gamers) really require such an experience and want to keep spending £40+ for those games? Or are they happy to play smaller games with less advanced graphics but games that are still fun.
In effect you split the market, you have the "old school" gamers who want huge graphics, big story lines and the 10th version of the same game at a price of £40+ for a few hours game play.... and then you have a slice of the market that is getting bigger and bigger every single month who just want a casual gaming experience, don't care too much for huge titles etc. Don't under estimate that market. It's growing at a rate that will see tablets exceed PC sales this year.
And throw into the mix the theory that Apple may produce a new AppleTV style box that plugs into your HD TV and allows you to play iOS games on your TV... and imagine if they released a gamer friendly controller to go with it... and a motion sensor... and oh oh... every household that has brand association with Apple (A LOT) are suddenly going to be playing iOS games on their TV.. which guess what.. cost a fraction of console games.. and will allow friends/family to play simple games together.
End result? Consoles are suddenly looking aged.
I don't mind if you disagree.. that's fine. But personally I think the potential is just waiting to be tapped into.
The living room is about to turn into a battle ground.
I'm not too sure I go along with that. The sector of gamers you're talking about - the ones who prefer Angry Birds to Halo - aren't the ones buying consoles. They're the wives, children, brothers of the people who are buying the consoles. Yes, you'll see those people move to tabs and the like for their gaming, but the console buyers are there for the AAAs not the little tower defence games.
As for the Apple TV set up, you've essentially just described a console. Kind of backfires on your argument that it'll kill the console.
I'm not too sure I go along with that. The sector of gamers you're talking about - the ones who prefer Angry Birds to Halo - aren't the ones buying consoles. They're the wives, children, brothers of the people who are buying the consoles. Yes, you'll see those people move to tabs and the like for their gaming, but the console buyers are there for the AAAs not the little tower defence games.
As for the Apple TV set up, you've essentially just described a console. Kind of backfires on your argument that it'll kill the console.
Well personally I think the AAA's are losing their value. They all seem to be sequels of the same games. I walked past Game the other day and every single game poster on the window was advertising a sequel. They're running out of ideas and the games are developed by the same old developers. It's no coincidence that game shops are going out of business.
Yes.. you will still have your console players. I'm not suggesting they're about to vanish like the dinosaurs. But if the market becomes dominate by games on mobile devices/non console formats.. it suddenly becomes less attractive to develop for consoles. You're trusting that there is a loyal console player base out there who will stick with consoles regardless of what's happening around them and i'm not so sure it's like that.
Well when I say "Console" I mean a piece of hardware that won't change for years, is a nightmare to develop for and the games cost £40. An Apple TV box would certainly not be that.
Maybe you missed the BBC News at 6 tonight that ran a feature on how the PS4 had launched but the future may be in tablet gaming. They even interviewed a few industry people who agreed.
I wouldn't take much heed of a report on gaming by a BBC tech reporter, he'd have had his own ideas and will have run comments which back that up, probably from fellow tech reporters who have spent a decade being wooed by Apple.
Tablet / phone gaming has its place. They are great for certain types of games, and I play these myself. But they can't beat a traditional console experience, due to controls, capabilities, storage etc. As long as that remains the case, I will keep buying consoles.
Tablet / phone gaming has its place. They are great for certain types of games, and I play these myself. But they can't beat a traditional console experience, due to controls, capabilities, storage etc. As long as that remains the case, I will keep buying consoles.
Yep.
Give me a tablet or phone game any time of the day when I'm bored and need a quick five minute fix and not in front of my TV.
That is the trouble with the 'rise' of mobile gaming.
Yeah the numbers are going through the roof, but these people aren't traditional console owners.
How many mothers playing games like Candy Crush or women playing Diamond Dash do you think would have otherwise bought a console if gaming on phones didn't exist?
Not many. Maybe they'd buy the Wii Fit to get rid of their fat arses, but other than that, they're not into COD and FIFA and probably never will be.
It has increased the gaming market, but isn't a direct competitor, I don't think. It is more the Wii crowd.
I think the OP thinks everything is going to flop. Just look at his thread in the Nintendo section. I don't think anyone needs to worry about any console failing.
I think the OP thinks everything is going to flop. Just look at his thread in the Nintendo section. I don't think anyone needs to worry about any console failing.
The Wii U isn't exactly doing well so the OP is kinda right.
The Wii U isn't exactly doing well so the OP is kinda right.
At the moment it isn't doing well but it's only been out for a few months and as we know you can't judge how well a console is going to sell that early in its life cycle. I expect the sales will pick up when the games start coming.
Not sure Gabe Newell has much of a direct interest in producing mobile games, and he sees Apple as a direct threat to the console industry. Many view him as a very respectable opinion on the gaming industry.
Gabe Newell has his own agenda. Apple can barely keep its market share in the mobile device market. What makes you or anybody else think it can move into the home console market, and kill it off?
I think you're viewing things from the wrong perspective. You're taking a product, ie, a console game, and you're trying to suggest a tablet is not compatible with that experience. And you may well be right about that. But then you can't get an arcade racer experience in your living room either.
I dunno about that. I'm pretty sure I played Outrun 2 at the arcades and then, played it on exactly the same hardware (with a bigger screen and better sound system) at home.
You could be right. I can have an experience that is BETTER than an arcade racer at home.
The point behind tablet/mobile gaming making serious inroads into the console gaming market is the following:
- A larger demographic of people are buying and playing games on tablets/phones than on consoles. This larger demographic covers a larger age range of people.. people who typically wouldn't be gamers.
- This large demographic naturally comes with a much larger target audience.
You're making the assumption that people are giving up consoles for mobile devices. The truth is, the two live side by side and cater for very different needs.
- The games themselves are a fraction of the cost of a console game and in some cases provide just as many hours of entertainment.
And this is the big problem with the mobile market. It's seriously devalued. It's very difficult for small developers to make a profit there.
- The living room space is becoming more of a technology friendly environment where families will soon be sharing TV shows, movies, music and games on entertainment systems.
So errr....rather like I use my PS3 or laptop to rent, buy and watch video on. To play music. To play games. It sounds to me like you're talking about games consoles, which have had a lot of this functionality for around four or five years now.
- Mobile devices are far far far easier to develop for and anyone can get their game out there.
I can tell you that you're very wrong. If anything, mobile devices are much more difficult to work with, Even on iPhone, you have varied hardware that you have to deal with and getting decent performance out of the devices is a real problem.
Not only is the hardware very weak, but as a developer, you get no documentation as to what the hardware actually is. You can't optimise properly and have to do a great deal of benchmarks.
Even for 2d games, this is really, really important.
At least on console platforms, developer have masses of documentation, profiling tools and here's the best bit; something more than a support forum that may or may not get answers for help.
No. Mobile devices are no more easier than consoles.
I've cut the next meandering, contracting part of your post. I wanted to get to the meaty part, because it's so full of assumptions.
And throw into the mix the theory that Apple may produce a new AppleTV style box that plugs into your HD TV and allows you to play iOS games on your TV... and imagine if they released a gamer friendly controller to go with it... and a motion sensor... and oh oh...
And? So they make their own console. They become a console manufacturer. The games industry continues on, much the same way that Sony did when they released the PS1 and all those little developers that you seem to think all make such amazingly fun games, get pushed out by the big money players.
And the cycle continues.
every household that has brand association with Apple (A LOT) ..
Maybe. Perhaps not in the positive manner that you would like though. For many households, that association is "overpriced" and "pretentious".
are suddenly going to be playing iOS games on their TV.. which guess what.. cost a fraction of console games
Which are going to look and, unless they are somehow re-written to use a controller, a bit difficult to play. And what makes so many games fun to play on these devices, can't easily be replaced by a controller.
and will allow friends/family to play simple games together.
Which consoles do already.
End result? Consoles are suddenly looking aged.
I don't mind if you disagree.. that's fine. But personally I think the potential is just waiting to be tapped into.
The living room is about to turn into a battle ground.
No, the end result is that Apple just become another console manufacturer. And that means in order to cater for the larger resolutions, they have to produce hardware that can deal with it. And as far as games go, even for some 2D stuff, mobile hardware just barely manages to deal with it.
So Apple have to start producing hardware that can more than "just about fill the screen twice at 30hz". And that's going to cost. They become yet another expensive console manufacturer, with the same old problems.
Tablets are fine for web browsing, watching video in bed, playing bubble shooter (if you're my missus) but I'd rather tear my own eyes out than see them become the future of gaming.
However as I see you're from Germany, here's Cavat Yerli from Crytek predicting the next PS and Xbox will be the last consoles ever produced. His argument is the model of buying games at £40 a pop for consoles has no future. He uses the argument that the young generation, the kids who will make up the future gaming market.. they don't care for this. They all play games on tablets and don't want to be spending huge amounts of money on games. And it's a valid point. How many times do we see people go out and buy a game at release for £40 and then complete it in a few hours and trade it in? It's a broken model IMHO full of games that are all sequels and re-hashing the same old content.
Here's the article. It's just one, and it's just one persons opinion. But I would suggest it's worth reading.
"These are the guys who will be playing in five to seven years' time. And then we'll be seeing iPads that are five times as powerful as they are today, we'll have five times as powerful Android tablets – but we won't have consoles that are five times more powerful. The power of the technology you have in your hands will be greater than any console in the next five years. Tablets will be streaming to TVs, you'll have controllers – why would you by a console? Unless the consoles figure it out. The Cryengine will be there on the next generation of consoles, figuring it out too. There will be some support from us, but I believe that some kind of software platform will be the future."
Comments
Ok, i thought i was being silly.:D
Classy attacking a posters intelligence.
Maybe you missed the BBC News at 6 tonight that ran a feature on how the PS4 had launched but the future may be in tablet gaming. They even interviewed a few industry people who agreed.
You can't attack something that doesn't exist.
I don't live in the UK and I like to have my own opinions which I think are fairly well informed, thanks very much.
Right now there's a bit of a bandwagon going on with respects to tablet gaming. But there are a lot of issues to overcome before tablet gaming gets close to consoles and hand held consoles before they can become anything close to the main focus of gaming.
For a start, not every game is good for motion or touch controls. Sometimes, a controller is really needed. But how are you going to hold that controller on the move?
Then there's processing power. Tablets by their very nature are very weak, because of power consumption. Don't get me wrong, they're pretty good for portable devices and there's a lot you can do with them, but they're pretty lacking when compared to even the Wii's capabilities.
These things happen in cycles. First off, smart phones were going to kill the console industry. When that didn't happen, it started to become tablets that were going to do it.
The few industry people who talk about the end of console gaming, tend to be the ones who have a vested interest in producing mobile games. So you'll have to forgive me if I don't take their views at face value.
While the tablet market is huge and is growing there is always going to be people that want a story and gameplay that is more deeper than the quick fix game to kill a spare 10 minutes. I don't see a huge amount of gamers jumping ship to tablets it's more like a totally different industry growing.
Also the problem with tablets is there is so many and there seems to be a new one available every 10 minutes. So lets just imagine for a moment they do get has powerful as consoles to play games on, I really don't think people would want to be forking out £300 or £400 every year because they found out that the tablet they own doesn't play the latest games like the new Samsung tab 2000 or that their iPad100 wont play a certain game unless you jail break it because it's a Android exclusive. Console and even PC gaming is far more constant and less hassle.
Indeed. I own a tablet, but I wouldn't dream of playing games on it. Give me a full-blooded console with a proper pad (kinect is a turn-off for me) and some high horse-power games.
As for the forthcoming generation, I think we have seen the end of the 'tech wars' based on how many gigabytes and terraflops they can do. The tech is now advanced enough to be roughly comparable, each of the major contenders easily capable of excellent results.
The war is now between fearures and goodies.
Tablet gaming is a different market with a different type of game. They are casual gaming devices. It's a market for relatively simple games that are not graphically demanding, that can be just 'picked up' and 'put down'. Sony's PS4 is mainly targeted at the established console market with advanced graphics and power demands.
At first sight the hardware spec of the PS4 looks unspectacular. That's because Sony is building this console to a price, so that they don't start out by making a loss on it as they did the on the PS3. Remember that they are learning from all the mistakes that plagued the PS3 which was late to market, too expensive, uptake was slow and it was difficult to develop for.
This time round they have an almost off-the-shelf hardware solution from AMD. I say off-the-shelf because while that 8 core processor itself is custom made for Sony, it is 'cobbled togther' from established x86-64 and GPU designs. It achieves it's power through having multiple cores, not through clock speed which will make it easier to design a reasonably simple cooling solution. That means better reliability (so fewer returns), lower fabrication costs and the x86-64 architecture is easy to code for resulting in lower software development costs.
In fact, Sony have gone as far as admitting that the PS4 is more-or-less a glorified PC. And while it may not be leading edge spec, it's not far off and bear in mind that it is a platform with a rigidly defined standardized architecture with a lean O/S. That means developers can code pretty much 'on the metal' and push the hardware as far as it can go with minimal overheads. Compare that to PC in which any game has to work through Windows, through DirectX and through device drivers. All that middleman software incurs performance overheads and soaks up some of the available processing cycles.
So I'd say you can expect that you can expect the PS4 to be pitched at a lower and more competitive initial price than the PS3. It may not be spectacular. But it is a solid product.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0rJDn0jRnUQ
Yeah normally the guys making tablet games, and getting out of consoles... strange that!
I think the main challenge of consoles will be the hybridisation of PC/Consoles and games on demand. Valve's new console, the 'Steambox' is quite an interesting idea, having a console that allows you to play Steam games downloaded to your box, displayed in glorious HD on your television. However, I think that there will still be your classic consoles out there for at least another 5 years.
Is the PS4 announcement a little underwhelming? Sure it is. Personally, it will be awhile before I go for it - even if it is launched at a £300 pricepoint simply because there is still many PS3 games I have yet to complete. As improvements in graphics processing see diminishing returns, there is less and less reason to be an early adopter of a newly released console.
Not sure Gabe Newell has much of a direct interest in producing mobile games, and he sees Apple as a direct threat to the console industry. Many view him as a very respectable opinion on the gaming industry.
I think you're viewing things from the wrong perspective. You're taking a product, ie, a console game, and you're trying to suggest a tablet is not compatible with that experience. And you may well be right about that. But then you can't get an arcade racer experience in your living room either.
The point behind tablet/mobile gaming making serious inroads into the console gaming market is the following:
- A larger demographic of people are buying and playing games on tablets/phones than on consoles. This larger demographic covers a larger age range of people.. people who typically wouldn't be gamers.
- This large demographic naturally comes with a much larger target audience.
- The games themselves are a fraction of the cost of a console game and in some cases provide just as many hours of entertainment.
- The living room space is becoming more of a technology friendly environment where families will soon be sharing TV shows, movies, music and games on entertainment systems.
- Mobile devices are far far far easier to develop for and anyone can get their game out there.
Now sure.. are you going to be able to play Call of Duty 15 on a tablet? Not really. But then does that really matter? Does the market (remember the larger demographic here.. we're no longer just talking about gamers) really require such an experience and want to keep spending £40+ for those games? Or are they happy to play smaller games with less advanced graphics but games that are still fun.
In effect you split the market, you have the "old school" gamers who want huge graphics, big story lines and the 10th version of the same game at a price of £40+ for a few hours game play.... and then you have a slice of the market that is getting bigger and bigger every single month who just want a casual gaming experience, don't care too much for huge titles etc. Don't under estimate that market. It's growing at a rate that will see tablets exceed PC sales this year.
And throw into the mix the theory that Apple may produce a new AppleTV style box that plugs into your HD TV and allows you to play iOS games on your TV... and imagine if they released a gamer friendly controller to go with it... and a motion sensor... and oh oh... every household that has brand association with Apple (A LOT) are suddenly going to be playing iOS games on their TV.. which guess what.. cost a fraction of console games.. and will allow friends/family to play simple games together.
End result? Consoles are suddenly looking aged.
I don't mind if you disagree.. that's fine. But personally I think the potential is just waiting to be tapped into.
The living room is about to turn into a battle ground.
As for the Apple TV set up, you've essentially just described a console. Kind of backfires on your argument that it'll kill the console.
Well personally I think the AAA's are losing their value. They all seem to be sequels of the same games. I walked past Game the other day and every single game poster on the window was advertising a sequel. They're running out of ideas and the games are developed by the same old developers. It's no coincidence that game shops are going out of business.
Yes.. you will still have your console players. I'm not suggesting they're about to vanish like the dinosaurs. But if the market becomes dominate by games on mobile devices/non console formats.. it suddenly becomes less attractive to develop for consoles. You're trusting that there is a loyal console player base out there who will stick with consoles regardless of what's happening around them and i'm not so sure it's like that.
Well when I say "Console" I mean a piece of hardware that won't change for years, is a nightmare to develop for and the games cost £40. An Apple TV box would certainly not be that.
I wouldn't take much heed of a report on gaming by a BBC tech reporter, he'd have had his own ideas and will have run comments which back that up, probably from fellow tech reporters who have spent a decade being wooed by Apple.
The BBC's coverage of gaming is woeful.
Give me a tablet or phone game any time of the day when I'm bored and need a quick five minute fix and not in front of my TV.
That is the trouble with the 'rise' of mobile gaming.
Yeah the numbers are going through the roof, but these people aren't traditional console owners.
How many mothers playing games like Candy Crush or women playing Diamond Dash do you think would have otherwise bought a console if gaming on phones didn't exist?
Not many. Maybe they'd buy the Wii Fit to get rid of their fat arses, but other than that, they're not into COD and FIFA and probably never will be.
It has increased the gaming market, but isn't a direct competitor, I don't think. It is more the Wii crowd.
The Wii U isn't exactly doing well so the OP is kinda right.
At the moment it isn't doing well but it's only been out for a few months and as we know you can't judge how well a console is going to sell that early in its life cycle. I expect the sales will pick up when the games start coming.
The same wii U that came with a tablet/controller?
Gabe Newell has his own agenda. Apple can barely keep its market share in the mobile device market. What makes you or anybody else think it can move into the home console market, and kill it off?
I dunno about that. I'm pretty sure I played Outrun 2 at the arcades and then, played it on exactly the same hardware (with a bigger screen and better sound system) at home.
You could be right. I can have an experience that is BETTER than an arcade racer at home.
You're making the assumption that people are giving up consoles for mobile devices. The truth is, the two live side by side and cater for very different needs.
And this is the big problem with the mobile market. It's seriously devalued. It's very difficult for small developers to make a profit there.
So errr....rather like I use my PS3 or laptop to rent, buy and watch video on. To play music. To play games. It sounds to me like you're talking about games consoles, which have had a lot of this functionality for around four or five years now.
I can tell you that you're very wrong. If anything, mobile devices are much more difficult to work with, Even on iPhone, you have varied hardware that you have to deal with and getting decent performance out of the devices is a real problem.
Not only is the hardware very weak, but as a developer, you get no documentation as to what the hardware actually is. You can't optimise properly and have to do a great deal of benchmarks.
Even for 2d games, this is really, really important.
At least on console platforms, developer have masses of documentation, profiling tools and here's the best bit; something more than a support forum that may or may not get answers for help.
No. Mobile devices are no more easier than consoles.
I've cut the next meandering, contracting part of your post. I wanted to get to the meaty part, because it's so full of assumptions.
And? So they make their own console. They become a console manufacturer. The games industry continues on, much the same way that Sony did when they released the PS1 and all those little developers that you seem to think all make such amazingly fun games, get pushed out by the big money players.
And the cycle continues.
Maybe. Perhaps not in the positive manner that you would like though. For many households, that association is "overpriced" and "pretentious".
Which are going to look and, unless they are somehow re-written to use a controller, a bit difficult to play. And what makes so many games fun to play on these devices, can't easily be replaced by a controller.
Which consoles do already.
No, the end result is that Apple just become another console manufacturer. And that means in order to cater for the larger resolutions, they have to produce hardware that can deal with it. And as far as games go, even for some 2D stuff, mobile hardware just barely manages to deal with it.
So Apple have to start producing hardware that can more than "just about fill the screen twice at 30hz". And that's going to cost. They become yet another expensive console manufacturer, with the same old problems.
Here comes the new boss. Same as the old boss.
However as I see you're from Germany, here's Cavat Yerli from Crytek predicting the next PS and Xbox will be the last consoles ever produced. His argument is the model of buying games at £40 a pop for consoles has no future. He uses the argument that the young generation, the kids who will make up the future gaming market.. they don't care for this. They all play games on tablets and don't want to be spending huge amounts of money on games. And it's a valid point. How many times do we see people go out and buy a game at release for £40 and then complete it in a few hours and trade it in? It's a broken model IMHO full of games that are all sequels and re-hashing the same old content.
Here's the article. It's just one, and it's just one persons opinion. But I would suggest it's worth reading.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2012/jul/02/crysis-cevat-yerli-interview
"These are the guys who will be playing in five to seven years' time. And then we'll be seeing iPads that are five times as powerful as they are today, we'll have five times as powerful Android tablets – but we won't have consoles that are five times more powerful. The power of the technology you have in your hands will be greater than any console in the next five years. Tablets will be streaming to TVs, you'll have controllers – why would you by a console? Unless the consoles figure it out. The Cryengine will be there on the next generation of consoles, figuring it out too. There will be some support from us, but I believe that some kind of software platform will be the future."