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Is Console Gaming coming to a close?

C

Cavalier

Banned
According to recent news reports, both Sega and Konami will be focusing more on making games for mobile platforms than consoles. Will we see other publishers following suit?

There has been a severe lack of variety of games produced for current console systems compare to 3 generations ago. Also, the amount of games produced for current gen has been very disappointing and it seems to be on a downward trend. Not to mention, the lack of new IP's and too many remakes, series and ports.

It got to the point where it is very risky for publishers to invest in the development of a console game, which leads them to only green light a safer, proven formula instead of projects that explore uncharted new territories. It makes sense on a business point of view, sure. Mobile game investments are much less riskier compare to the console counter-parts. They take significantly less time to produce and the ratio of profits gained to cost and time invested is high.

Nintendo might have foreseen this considering their rumored 'NX' system is a hybrid mobile-console device.

Is mobile gaming the future? Or is it just a phase?
 
Apple/Google/Microsoft need to find a way to make high-fidelity input more enticing for consumers to carry with them for that to happen.

I've never tried the Controller-With-A-Clip thing. That might work.
 
Big publishers, boohoo. There will always be Indies and Nintendo.

Consoles are here to stay for at least 2 more generations.
 
Gaming in general has been growing since the late 80s. Now we have a legitimate mobile platform. Profitability is changing and big publishers are adjusting. Whatever holes they leave will eventually be filled.
 
Cavalier said:
Nintendo might have foreseen this considering their rumored 'NX' system is a hybrid mobile-console device.
Click to expand...

The NX will be a dedicated game system. Smartphones and tablets are separate from it.

ninsub.jpg
 
Mobile gaming is an easy way to make money for publishers. It's definitely a viable way to generate income while working on larger products. If anything, I'd expect studios and publishers to turn towards what Nintendo is doing, since we already see this happening a bit in games like Assassin's Creed Unity.

Developers know their core audience isn't going to replace their hardware for phones, though. Consoles themselves are moving more towards modulation and I believe the first manufacturer to really nail the "LEGOfication" of PCs will come out ahead, although they'll likely debut something similar at the same time.
 
Vincent Grayson said:
No. Console gaming is bigger than ever.
Click to expand...

It really isn't. The op is certainly doing the "sky is falling" to the extreme, sure, but his premise isn't wrong. It's on a downturn from both a hardware and software perspective. Demographics are being lost or pushed out, and software support continues to consolidate on the aaa model. Mobile and PC are currently the only places where there is growth. The PS4 selling well isn't going to change that reality.
 
pbayne said:
No. Hasn't the ps4 sold like 22 million units?
Click to expand...

Doesn't matter when publishers can make good money on mobile platforms with less $ and time invested. 22 million is by no means a small number, but the audience on mobile platforms is much much bigger.
 
I think we're in a weird transitional period where it seems that on consoles you've either got AAA or Indie games, with very little or no inbetween.

The mid-tier games that were everywhere on last gen aren't making it to this next gen as often because these companies, especially Konami, Sega, and Capcom have become risk-averse to spending the kind of money it takes to make the kinds of games they used to. In some cases, it's because they really can't afford to take risks, or simply because they don't see the value in the risk. Game development is real expensive.

Consoles will survive so long as there are millions of people who want to sit down and play games in front of their TV, and that's probably not going away any time soon. But Japanese development on these consoles is going down and shifting towards mobile, at least when it comes to the companies that used to be all about making games for consoles.

It's an interesting time for the industry, and it's changed a lot just in the last few years. It's probably just going to get weirder too.
 
Console gaming will never cease to exist. It may morph into something else but it will always be. Handhelds are a different story.
 
pbayne said:
No. Hasn't the ps4 sold like 22 million units?
Click to expand...

I don't know why, but people assume that because of this, this generation will sell more than the last one, it's not happening.

The console market ultimately will be done or look so different than now that it won't be recognizable. But that's not happening next gen.
 
Consoles might be on a downturn in Japan, but they're still selling greatly in the US and other markets. No, they're not going anywhere. PC and consoles are here to stay. Atleast I'm hoping they are.
 
Console and mobile gaming are in my opinion two very different things, and there are room enough for both as long as people want them. Console is bigger than ever before.
 
Not to a close but it is changing as it always did.
The traditional console industry is in fact right now very different from the eighties.
 
Cavalier said:
Doesn't matter when publishers can make more money on mobile platforms with less $ and time invested. 22 million is by no means a small number, but the audience on mobile platforms is much much bigger.
Click to expand...
But it gets less and less viable the more other publishers get into the market
 
StevieP said:
It really isn't. The op is certainly doing the "sky is falling" to the extreme, sure, but his premise isn't wrong. It's on a downturn from both a hardware and software perspective. Demographics are being lost or pushed out, and software support continues to consolidate on the aaa model. Mobile and PC are currently the only places where there is growth.
Click to expand...

How would we know if it is declining or growing if it is not the end of a generation yet? XboxOne and the PS4 are in it's early years atm.
 
Erm, isn't the PS4 the fastest selling console ever? Looking at the psn store I see games from all walks of life. AAA, AA, indies, youtube is packed full of Let's plays and walkthroughs, so no, I'm going to disagree with OP.
 
Cavalier said:
Doesn't matter when publishers can make more money on mobile platforms with less $ and time invested. 22 million is by no means a small number, but the audience on mobile platforms is much much bigger.
Click to expand...

The console market is a pretty big audience too.
 
The race to the bottom is real. When money is the soul fuel for these companies, it makes logical sense to chase the bubble where they can get the most of it at the lowest up-front cost. It has done the industry zero favors that on the traditional front we are literally dealing with diminishing returns: not so much on the capability of technology, but on the cost and returns the industry can sustain itself on. Many of the big companies are used to the $60 high end model, and that model for many companies and franchises is simply unsustainable. One mistake and an entire IP can be cancerous to ever work on again in such a climate.

Like many pits where money is the blood of it, the console ecosystem has simply become a toxic cyst, and we're starting to see it ooze and become very inflamed. I kind of have to imagine Nintendo's presence in the mobile space is a response to this too, even if they called out the problem of diminishing returns almost a decade ago while slowly falling into it with HD development. They attempted to make a system that avoided it with the Wii, but despite being the clear market leader, the rest of the industry stuck with its hollywood-ification of games, and in turn kind of created this mess on themselves.

I'm not saying that it's dying off, but it's quite clear as day the way it is isn't particularly healthy, primarily in the traditional status quo we've been dealing with since the launch of HD systems. Too many companies are throwing too much money at products, and this is the danger. You're left with extremes, a high end and a low end. The fact there's no middle is very, very troubling.
 
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