And YouTube has been the killer of films. Who can be bothered watching a whole movie when you can reach into your pocket and watch a dude get hit in the nuts with a football for so much less effort? Stupid analysis is stupid.
Poll: CNN: Console Gaming is Dying
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OK, so the market for smart phone games are up... maybe because more people have smart phones?
As to the poll question I don't think CNN should stop writing game articles, I just think they should get better at checking facts and sources and do more when it comes to statistical analysis. In fact if they do those three things it will actually merit all news not jus the gaming related ones.
As to the poll question I don't think CNN should stop writing game articles, I just think they should get better at checking facts and sources and do more when it comes to statistical analysis. In fact if they do those three things it will actually merit all news not jus the gaming related ones.
Funny how CNN reports this and the vidyagame press doesn't.
In fact, what importance is it to people who don't read the gaming press or are involved with the industry?
Even if it's of importance to shareholders, they've got to have a better source of information than that, surely...
In fact, what importance is it to people who don't read the gaming press or are involved with the industry?
Even if it's of importance to shareholders, they've got to have a better source of information than that, surely...
Yeah, for anyone wondering why I even bothered to read the article, it's on Google News. Kinda the only game article currently.
It's interesting, I was reading the blog of the author, Blake Snow, and he's got bits with titles like "Teeth beware: Dental diagnodents are shady".
Seriously.
The comment tree at CNN is growing quite large, and here's a good one:
"You know what is dying? CNN.
Consoles (and PC gaming) are strong, the hardware sales are not stellar, but there is not much real hardware out there that is interesting...it is all old. The handheld garbage is not much better than phone and tablet games, which are a joke.
When the next generation of consoles come out they will sell like crazy. Anyone who wanted a PS3 or 360 or Wii bought it years ago...games are still selling just fine.
Next time you have a deadline and have to post something preposterous about technology just spit up another 'Apple is perfect' pile of bile."
It's interesting, I was reading the blog of the author, Blake Snow, and he's got bits with titles like "Teeth beware: Dental diagnodents are shady".
Seriously.
The comment tree at CNN is growing quite large, and here's a good one:
"You know what is dying? CNN.
Consoles (and PC gaming) are strong, the hardware sales are not stellar, but there is not much real hardware out there that is interesting...it is all old. The handheld garbage is not much better than phone and tablet games, which are a joke.
When the next generation of consoles come out they will sell like crazy. Anyone who wanted a PS3 or 360 or Wii bought it years ago...games are still selling just fine.
Next time you have a deadline and have to post something preposterous about technology just spit up another 'Apple is perfect' pile of bile."
FelixG said:
Yeah, I got that actually. I'm still forming an opinion as to which is best. I actually like simple quotes better but I'm quickly learning that it's utterly and completely wrong. People have mistaken my citations as my own personal opinion. Lesson learned.
And thanks for the welcome.
There is less and less of a need to have a stationary gaming setup in the home. Just like there is less of a need to have a dedicated desk for stationary PC gaming. These things will take years/decades to truly fade away, but I'd say it's safe to say it'll be dying come this console generation.
I'm thinking we'll have the PS4 and PS5 generations of consoles before it truly dies off to all but a niche group.
I'm thinking we'll have the PS4 and PS5 generations of consoles before it truly dies off to all but a niche group.
If you ignore economies of scale and the type of industry it is then yes games have gotten cheaper.Kopikatsu said:
PC gaming has been dying for 25 years in the eyes of the moronic. Which is why it has the most exclusives of any platform. Oh wait...
You'll learn the live with it console fans
What will kill consoles for us (if it would happen) depends on just how bad the next gen is hardware wise. If it's not good enough, the few remaining studios still focusing on console games that aren't the stupidly over marketed few will go bankrupt under the strain of trying to get the hardware to do anything decent, kind of like what's happening now.
So bad hardware will increase production costs more than good hardware. Counter intuitive, i know, but that's why star citizen will be built on a budget of ~$20m and be ridiculously good looking, extremely physically detailed, and a massive complex game all at the same time. It's also why the Witcher 2 on PC murders any game on console graphically despite being made by a small polish studio with nowhere close to the funding most mediocre AAA console games have. To be honest, any game i've played on PC in the last 2-3 years has looked better than halo 4 has in terms of fidelity just due to the resolution, framerate, and AA. Don't get me wrong, Halo 4 is a good looking console game! but the costs associated with halo 4's graphics on 360 will far outstretch the costs of making a mind blowingly prettier game on better hardware.
That massive overhead in costs for developing for console nowadays, coupled with patch fees, the difficulty of selling anything to console gamers as a whole (retail is still the main factor, so if your game isn't marketed heavily it wont be on shelves long enough or in large enough quantities to sell enough) makes it very difficult for anything but massive companies to partake. It's a horrible situation and WILL destroy consoles if left unchecked.
In the end, say what you want about hardware (adamant fans will always do so because everything is 'good enough' for those guys, ever since the NES), but once phones and tablets outpace consoles in performance (2015 is the rumours for the next gen are correct), it's only a matter of time anyway. Consoles need to have some advantage to be viable, and they're currently being squeezed from below by tablets and TV's (for additional extras to gaming), and from the top by PC Gaming, which has become vastly cheaper and accessible lately, and has been gnawing at the consoles market share year on year for a few years now for many publishers.
I can see why CNN think it's a bleak outlook, because it frankly is. But it's too early to call it until the next gen arrives in full. I can't say i'd be sorry to see Sony & Microsoft to GTFO any position of influence in gaming though, console gaming has taken a massive hit this generation. Sales wise it's 'fine' but then you break it down into what's selling and then it hits you just how creatively bankrupt major console games have become lately. I'm not sure how i feel about the possibility of consoles dying after considering that, when both the major alternatives (mobile and PC) offer a much more creative selection of games (indie gaming on the latter is amazing, it's like the PS2 glory days of console but cheaper and prettier).
Argh, conflicted. A lack of consoles would force the gaming industry to once again discover something other than low risk heavily marketed sludge, but it would also make people who are extremely adamant that it's 'CONSOLE OR NOTHING!' depressed. In the end, i may think they're narrow minded and losing out on so much with that mindset, but they're happy i guess
You'll learn the live with it console fans
What will kill consoles for us (if it would happen) depends on just how bad the next gen is hardware wise. If it's not good enough, the few remaining studios still focusing on console games that aren't the stupidly over marketed few will go bankrupt under the strain of trying to get the hardware to do anything decent, kind of like what's happening now.
So bad hardware will increase production costs more than good hardware. Counter intuitive, i know, but that's why star citizen will be built on a budget of ~$20m and be ridiculously good looking, extremely physically detailed, and a massive complex game all at the same time. It's also why the Witcher 2 on PC murders any game on console graphically despite being made by a small polish studio with nowhere close to the funding most mediocre AAA console games have. To be honest, any game i've played on PC in the last 2-3 years has looked better than halo 4 has in terms of fidelity just due to the resolution, framerate, and AA. Don't get me wrong, Halo 4 is a good looking console game! but the costs associated with halo 4's graphics on 360 will far outstretch the costs of making a mind blowingly prettier game on better hardware.
That massive overhead in costs for developing for console nowadays, coupled with patch fees, the difficulty of selling anything to console gamers as a whole (retail is still the main factor, so if your game isn't marketed heavily it wont be on shelves long enough or in large enough quantities to sell enough) makes it very difficult for anything but massive companies to partake. It's a horrible situation and WILL destroy consoles if left unchecked.
In the end, say what you want about hardware (adamant fans will always do so because everything is 'good enough' for those guys, ever since the NES), but once phones and tablets outpace consoles in performance (2015 is the rumours for the next gen are correct), it's only a matter of time anyway. Consoles need to have some advantage to be viable, and they're currently being squeezed from below by tablets and TV's (for additional extras to gaming), and from the top by PC Gaming, which has become vastly cheaper and accessible lately, and has been gnawing at the consoles market share year on year for a few years now for many publishers.
I can see why CNN think it's a bleak outlook, because it frankly is. But it's too early to call it until the next gen arrives in full. I can't say i'd be sorry to see Sony & Microsoft to GTFO any position of influence in gaming though, console gaming has taken a massive hit this generation. Sales wise it's 'fine' but then you break it down into what's selling and then it hits you just how creatively bankrupt major console games have become lately. I'm not sure how i feel about the possibility of consoles dying after considering that, when both the major alternatives (mobile and PC) offer a much more creative selection of games (indie gaming on the latter is amazing, it's like the PS2 glory days of console but cheaper and prettier).
Argh, conflicted. A lack of consoles would force the gaming industry to once again discover something other than low risk heavily marketed sludge, but it would also make people who are extremely adamant that it's 'CONSOLE OR NOTHING!' depressed. In the end, i may think they're narrow minded and losing out on so much with that mindset, but they're happy i guess
See, they way I'm seeing it is that ultimately consoles can't win on the front of sheer hardware power, but it's (apparently) too risky business-wise to properly invest in anything else, which is why the WiiU looks to be the most promising; even if it's a little gimmicky, it's at least a little different.The Comfy Chair said:
I reckon we're not going to be looking at consoles any more, rather, we're going to be looking largely at 'media centres', and considering that PCs and tablets have the market on convenient 'content' pretty much licked, it's just not playing to the strengths of what a console could have, now that technology and media have progressed.
Now that's not to say that enjoyable and great (not to mention good) games won't be made; but again, the problem seems to be just not playing to strengths because 'shiny HD realistic gritty gritty' has the temerity to keep selling like sufficiently warmed cakes.
It's not dying, rather it's changing.
Gaming will always survive, but consoles, the things that brought it to the masses, will die eventually as the need for them disappears. It is a matter of 'when', not 'if' in that respect. I'm just interested if the next gen is the 'when'. I doubt the PS6/xbox 1440 will exist, that's for sure. Nintendo probably will because they do mess around with different concepts like the motion controls and touch screen - therefore embracing the strengths of a relatively closed gaming platform like a console is.PieBrotherTB said:
The more i think about it, the more it is an eventually that consoles will be gone soon. Gaming wont though. So the people angry about this are probably dangerously attached to a brand as opposed to gaming or a gaming style. Which is a bit worrying. Console gaming (MS or Sony style) isn't fundamentally different from mobile gaming as a structure, the only difference from a gaming perspective is an input device, one that mobile games could use if the need arises. It isn't like PC gaming where you lose an insane amount if it disappeared due to it being a much more user driven experience as opposed to dictatorial like consoles.
Dungeon defenders on my HTC One X is the same as on my 360 if i use a control pad, except the former looks and runs a bit better (seriously).
It is funny that I barely need to install games while using GOG or Steam, they just install pretty much automatically after downloading patches and stuff in the background, while I'm doing other things!wombat_of_war said:
"Console gaming dying" is a wrong angle. "PC gaming is becoming healthier" is what the title should be
Actually, I think you're the one who doesn't understand basic economics. Wages haven't kept up with inflation. That is a fact. It doesn't matter if they've gone up since the 90's if they haven't gone up enough to counterbalance the effects of inflation, which they haven't. I'd give you the full PPP adjusted chart if I could find it, but hopefully <link=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/13/inflation-adjusted-income_n_960588.html>this article from a year ago talking about how the median income was lower than at any point since 1968 should be enough. If you'll notice, 1997 is between 2011 and 1968, meaning 2011 wages were lower in real terms than 1997 wages. I think you'll find there hasn't been a massive nation wide pay raise in the last year.s69-5 said:
The point was, we've got the economy of scale going, we've got significantly cheaper storage media (tens of pennies instead of tens of dollars per), and we're still paying pretty much what we did back then. And your range is off, it was more like $35-120, with the $70-$100 range being almost entirely taken up by those exceptionally expensive to manufacture cartridges I mentioned, with the rest being games that were guaranteed hits that would sell no matter what the publisher charged for it.
Okay, two things here: one, the market for games is smaller than the market for movies because the cost to entry is so much higher. It's not that that many fewer people want to game, it's that the publishers have priced a significant portion of the market out. Or did you think pirates were nothing but greedy yet wealthy individuals?
Two, The $60 price tag has only been stable since the start of this gen. The PS1 era had your average game running somewhere in the $30-$50 range, and they weren't really standardized. The PS2 era saw standardization (some might say price fixing) on the $50 point. $60 was a premium for the new gen, caused by the console manufacturers hiking the certification fee by a full $10 a copy.
I actually buy most of my games for between $1.49 and $10 on Steam, but thank you for the sarcasm.
Agreed on this point.
I'm not claiming to be a genius, but at least I can read a demand curve. I have to question from your post if you even know what that is, or why it would be relevant to a discussion about how many units of something need to be sold to make a profit at a given price.Giftfromme said:
Dude, you realize you have no idea what you're talking about, and that nobody here is claiming that game companies should "NOT be making money for their investors" or anything of the sort? We're saying that they can easily do that at a lower price point, because the demand is there. Call back when you've taken high school economics.
no, CNN should not cover gaming. least not until they actually know what the hell they're talking about
Okay, you're arguing Canada, I'm arguing the US. Different economies, different wages, different costs of living, different everything when you get down to it. The storage media cost is important because the hardware was very much the price bottleneck back in the cartridge days. People tend to underestimate that stuff by an order of magnitude. As for the cost of gas, wages, all that? Have you read a single thing I've posted? Do you know what the phrase "economy of scale" means in this context? And do you understand how $35-50 million, which is what most AAA games cost, really isn't that big of a cost to recoup on a mass media product in this day and age? $60 isn't a reasonable cost for a piece of media. It's a reasonable cost for a piece of hardware to play it with, like a DVD player or a relatively expensive game controller.s69-5 said:
We've been there before, we'll likely go there again.Ultratwinkie said:
So far Nintendo can count Fairchild, Magnavox (Philips), Atari, Mattel, Coleco, 3DO (Panasonic), NEC, SNK and Sega as rivals it's outlasted.
Should the next Xbox and Playstation cause the same financial stresses as the current ones you can bet they'll be adding Microsoft and Sony to that list too. Leaving... Ouya?
It might no be what anyone wants as such, but it isn't necessarily a bad thing. Also, aside from the odd blip (Hello Virtual Boy) they've managed to either turn profit or flat out win every generation so far, so they must be doing something right.
Those have always been present, ten years from now we'll be holding up Natural Selection and Planetside as greats (maybe?) and you'll have forgotten all about Dragon Age.Blargh McBlargh said:
Meanwhile, millions of peoples buy Black Ops 2 for consoles. Sure its a bad game, but i dont think you can call consoles dead when there lots of games selling millions.