Poll: If consoles really do go extinct, wo would you think is to blame?

[PatrickXD]

I love the use of the word 'extinct'.
OT: I don't think consoles are going to disappear. The only person that springs to mind will be the consumer, if the blame must be passd to a single group of people. If the consumer stops buying, the producer stops selling.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Well, consoles won't 'die' as such.

But another big crash is well on the way. They're getting rapidly mor eepensive in every sense, more complicated, more vulnerable to damage (both real world damage and software damage) and most damaging of all, there is a rush to monetise everything whilst delivering a system closer and closer to a low end PC.

Short term making players pay for everything works fine. But sooner or later people will either move onto other devices that offer free content (see PCs and Smart phones) or simply stop buying the product.

The steady move towards being just like PC is hurting as well, not least in the increasingly ridiculous DRM appearing on consoles.

For example, to get all the (usable, in game) content on Mass Effect 2 you must do the following:
Enter a CD key
Pay $60-ish on top of the game for downloadable content.
Connect to Xbox live
Spend several days downloading.
Remain connected to Xbox Live throughout character creation/profile uploading.
Remain connected through the death of the Normandy
Remain connected until the beginning of Cerberus Station.

Failure to do any of that boots you back to the opening screen and makes you start the whole process again from scratch. It also boots you out if your status on XBL changes as well, bear in mind that 'X is playing Mass Effect 2' can count as a status change.

That whole rigmerol is no easier than using a PC to play games, sooner or later console will hit the samelevel of complexity and vast swathes of pre-teens just aren't going to bother.

 

[FalloutJack]

It's all a load of crap. There's too much money in both console and PC for either one to ever go the way of the Titanic, and that bottom line is precisely why all discussions about which is better, which is dying, which looks more like a pink flamingo, etc. is entirely pointless.

Actually, that's what makes me most worried. As an investor I got to tell you there really isn't that much money to be made in creating the big games we all like.
Many of the people who do the actual work, don't make a lot and do it mostly for the love of it. Even the board members and VPs don't make as much as their counterparts in other corporations.
It seems like the struggle between making money per unit and keeping it affordable enough that people will still buy could be enough to tear the industry apart. Maybe I should be thankful that gamers are so easily parted with their cash. Those suckers who are willing to spend every time gamestop says pre-order, might just be the people keeping the industry alive. But they're also the people telling the corporations that their practices are sound.

Well, in that case, I've got a nice bridge to sell ya. It's slightly used, but don't worry. I'll give you a fair price.

 

[GonzoGamer]

It's all a load of crap. There's too much money in both console and PC for either one to ever go the way of the Titanic, and that bottom line is precisely why all discussions about which is better, which is dying, which looks more like a pink flamingo, etc. is entirely pointless.

Actually, that's what makes me most worried. As an investor I got to tell you there really isn't that much money to be made in creating the big games we all like.
Many of the people who do the actual work, don't make a lot and do it mostly for the love of it. Even the board members and VPs don't make as much as their counterparts in other corporations.
It seems like the struggle between making money per unit and keeping it affordable enough that people will still buy could be enough to tear the industry apart. Maybe I should be thankful that gamers are so easily parted with their cash. Those suckers who are willing to spend every time gamestop says pre-order, might just be the people keeping the industry alive. But they're also the people telling the corporations that their practices are sound.

Well, in that case, I've got a nice bridge to sell ya. It's slightly used, but don't worry. I'll give you a fair price.

I didn't say that I was about to start pre-ordering from gamestop, signing up for all sorts of fees, or buying every piece of dlc that's released for every game I have.
Don't worry though, bandy that sale around game forums and you're bound to get a few takers. Just tell them it's an exclusive bridge, that Gabe Newell designed it, and that if they don't give you $5 immediately, they will never be able to cross it.

 

[veloper]

None of the above.

Keep adding more and more non-gaming functionality to a console and at some point you'll have a "home computer" and nolonger a game console.
This is the direction we're heading now.

 

[Etherlad]

People just get so wound up about words and their definitions for it.
The distribution of Games will change (thanks to Cloud Computing and online distributors) and with it the platforms eventually too, simply because a Media Platform that everybody and his Grandma can plug into a TV that plays your Movies, Music and Games and also allows you to surf the internet is simply so much more accessible to a bigger audience, and that's what the industrie wants.

I pretty much just have to ask the OP what he defines as a Console.
Imagine for example a Next-Gen-Playstation that allows you to download Games from Steam or play them on a cloud on Gainax while having a wireless Keyboard or Tablet that allows you to surf the internet as comfortable as a PC. That's a console isn't it? But what is the difference to a PC except having a different casing for the Hardware. It's just a difference of definition because it's basically nothing but a Home Computer.

So hurfdurf yes Consoles and PCs will die only to be replaced by a new generation of Computer and you're free to call it whatever you like.

 

[TheIr0nMike]

PC gaming will die LONG before console games will.

 

[Ganthrinor]

Russell Crowe. I hate that twat.

Comments like this are the reason that the facebook like button should be incorporated into everything.

I personally would get FAR more use out of a "Dislike" button. I'm a rather contrary perosn.


OT: If consoles somehow manage to get themselves "extinctified" it'll be thier own damn fault. Expensive systems that either break or malfunction easily or offer little to no support, archaic title marketing and distrubution methods and severla other factors.

 

[EmzOLV]

Consoles won't go anywhere, because people like me will continue to be playing and purchasing them. I simply don't want a PC, nor the hassle of trying to keep that up-to-date. I mean, I can't predict what will happen and I'm sure that there will be a point where it switches from being consoles to whatever else, but I just cannot imagine not playing on my consoles.

 

[L8NEYET]

Consoles will never go out and who cares about retailers when you have downloading. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo just need to cut out the middle man and just go for download.

I barley visit a game store as it is and can say that I do not miss it. I am more concerned about the PC market and how games like WOW completely destroyed PC gaming. I remember when going into a EB games a half the store being PC titles and now PC games are one,tiny,little endcap display.

 

[Roxor]

I don't think consoles will go extinct, just that consoles as we know them will cease to exist.

The definition of what a gaming device (or computer for that matter) is has expanded over the years. For example, the iPhone can function as a handheld, but it also has the functionality of a phone, laptop, camera and with the right apps, heaps of other things. All in one device. Sure, a dedicated device still does its specialty better, but for most people something like the iPhone serves all their needs.

I can imagine there will come a day when your tv, pc and console are all the same device. Possibly one that is compatible and connected to some portable device. Perhaps even that distinction will disappear in the long run.

I agree with you.

The lines between the groups of computing devices are getting blurrier every year. Eventually everything will become a general-purpose computer. Anything you do on one computer, you'll be able to do on any other as long as you connect the appropriate input devices and have the required software installed.

Fire up Photoshop on your console and use the motion-sensor controller to paint big, sweeping strokes across your 150cm TV screen. Save the results to your home network drive, then load them up on your desktop the next day and add fine detail with your graphics tablet.

Game across the house in different styles in one game. Your mother commanding an army from her tablet computer, your father driving a tank for the AI general opposing her from the console, and you playing freelance mercenary for both sides in FPS style on the desktop computer.

 

[Latinidiot]

The bourgeouisie!
TO ARMS, BROTHERS!

 

[ionveau]

PC gaming will die LONG before console games will.

your 100% right
PCs may lose the mainstream market grasp

Overall the reason that Consoles are making record profits are thanks to the Dimwitted people that buy consoles, Without people paying $14 for something that it took maybe $400 to make if not less (E.G DLC and other things) Company's would be charging a lot less and giving more for free.

Thanks to the player base of console, console gaming will be alive forever but is that a blessing or an abomination?

 

[Bobbity]

I didn't vote, because I really don't see this as at all likely, at least in this or the next generation of consoles.

 

[Tony2077]

after thinking about it i vote Apocalypse

 

[ten.to.ten]

I don't think they will, but if they did go extinct it would be because of Nintendo making underpowered gimmick consoles like the Wii that just can't handle large, modern games and taking away too much of the market from Sony and Microsoft as to make creating a console that has a lot of powerful, sophisticated technology entirely unprofitable. Then once the novelty of Nintendo's consoles wears off, there being nothing left in the marketplace.

 

[TokenRupee]

If anything kills the consoles it will be a combination of unreliability, piss-poor support, asshole devs that are trying to stamp out used game sales, Day 0 DLC, overpriced samey shooter clones and a healthy dose of "This looks like shit" realizations.

I pretty much agree fully. Except it seems to be more the publishers that are trying to stamp out used game sales. The developers are just at their mercy really.