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Is Console Gaming Dying?
mr_sifter writes "PC gamers love to obsess over whether PC gaming is dying, but bit-tech thinks it's time to look at the other side and examine if console gaming is really as secure as publishers would have us believe. All three console manufacturers suffered from the recession — this year, Sony announced its first net loss in 14 years; a stunning ¥989.9bn, which includes record losses of ¥58.5bn in its gaming sector. Microsoft also announced its first loss since it went public in 1986 in the second quarter of this financial year, with a $31 million US loss coming straight from the Entertainment and Devices division, which is responsible for the Xbox 360. Not even Nintendo has escaped the financial plague either, with sales of the Wii dropping by 67 percent in the US, 60 percent in Japan and 47 percent in the rest of the world. In addition to reduced profitability, casual games and the rise of the iPhone further suggest the current model is not invulnerable."
Next question.
<non smart ass answer>The console industry is hardly the only one that lost money this year. Hello, recession?</non smart ass answer>
<smart ass answer>Netcraft hasn't confirmed it yet, so it can't be dying.</smart ass answer>
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Perhaps if they charged less than $60 for a tier one new release, sales would go up.
The video game industry isn't the only one posting losses recently, so this doesn't seem like a big deal at all. That and these consoles are four years old, it's not surprising to see sales dip.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. -Aldous Huxley
What an ignorant story. We're in the middle of the worst recession/near depression that has ever occurred since videogames came to be, and it's somehow an ominous sign that the companies behind videogames experienced losses either during the whole year (Sony), a single quarter (MS), or simply had lower sales than the previous year PRIOR to the recession? How about looking at it from the perspective that it's amazing that the videogames sector has done as well as it has over the course of the past year, despite a tremendously inhospitable economic climate?
m@
Or it could be that we're in a global recession, it's been a rather lackluster year for gaming in general, and all of the consoles have reached the maturity/decline slope in their product life-cycle.
This article is inaccurate. Microsoft didn't post a loss, it posted its first REVENUE DROP since it became public in 1986. They still made a pretty good profit in that quarter.
Instead, with fattening broadband connections, mainstream gaming is probably going to go towards the way of OnLive, where one big bank of hardware can churn out the power needed for broadband-connected gaming machines, without needing to fill a loss-making box with proprietary hardware. In fact, limited bandwidth is the only obstacle to this technology taking off worldwide.
Bandwidth isn't the only problem; latency is another biggie. Players are used to being able to press a button and see something happen within 30 milliseconds. The latency for sending your keypresses to the game server, rendering and compressing a frame, and sending it back is likely to be much larger than that, even if only for speed-of-light reasons.
Consoles aren't in any danger in my house, because I have ceased to maintain a gaming PC. I've switched to console gaming entirely- at the cost of the superior control scheme of Dragon Age, the third-party mods of Oblivion, and the keyboard-and-mouse input that I'm so familiar with. I gave that all up in order to get a game that I know will work when I get home, that won't disagree with my video card or run like a slideshow cause I don't have enough RAM.
Console gaming is, in my opinion, stronger than ever. It just happens to be a recession and people are spending less on luxuries... like video games.
Yes it is dying along with driving cars. GM lost a lot of money and so we know that people just aren't into driving cars anymore.
And I'm pretty sure that Sony and Microsoft both lost a lot of money in the format war that went on between Blueray and HD DVD. It seems to me that Sony won that war because of the PS3.
What, like gripe in a real-live conversation instead of posting some stupid shit on slashdot?
Pot meet kettle...
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
there's two questions here:
1) is GAMING dying?
2) is CONSOLE GAMING dying?
1. no. people continue to want to play games. it will only grow as current gamers grow older and have kids who become new gamers.
2. no. while PC gaming will continue to have its niche market, especially in areas where keyboard and mouse have dynamic advantages (especially MMO and RTS games), console gaming makes modern games accessible to the masses who cannot (through lack of knowledge or lack of money) continually upgrade their PC's to keep up. Consoles give a consistent platform for several years where upgrading is not necessary, and games will "just work".
Sure during recession all forms of entertainment will suffer cuts, but gaming is far from being alone here.
frog blast the vent core
I don't own a Wii, but I'm pretty sure there are several games available for it other than the "Wii Sports" to which you allude.
If the masses can keep you down, you're not the Ubermensch.
you must be a blast at parties...
I think you hit it on the head. Hard core gaming is dying not console gaming.
I have been playing video games since I got a new 2600 way back when. Just like war games and flight sims you have reached the level of just to hard to be fun. When I pick up a game for the XBox I can not just start to play it and be any good at all.
There will always be hardcore users that want hard core games. But the number of casual users will always be many times greater.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
No.
All car manufacturers suffered from the recession. Is driving dying?
The Wii has been out for quite awhile too. Wii games (and therefore licensing) can continue to be massively successful, even if sales of the console peter out. You left out the fact that despite falling sales of the Wii (which can actually be a good thing if it indicates market saturation), Nintendo is actually the only one of the three that posted an overall profit.
Are you an idiot? The iPhone is not going to replace anyone's XBox, PS3, or Wii. Mobile phones, PC games, and console games all serve entirely different markets. None of these are going to take over the other in the foreseeable future. Stop trolling the easily-trolled Slashdot editors.
Instead of writing that presumptuous post chastising some random guy you don't even know, you could've gone outside and we wouldn't have had to read your condescending bullshit.
I like consoles because I know that even in 5 years, if a game is released for my xbox 360 (or wii, or whatever), then it'll work on that console. I can build a PC this year and I've still got to check every game to be sure it'll work. For the next 1-2 years, it'll probably work, after that, all bets are off. Maybe it'll work as long as I turn down some of the graphical options or maybe it'll be completely unplayable. This is especially true if I'm building a PC that has a cost in the same range as a game console.
Then you've got various hardware and software compatibility issues to worry about. I have to assume that stuff isn't as big of a deal as back when I did play a lot of PC games in the DOS/Win 3.2/early win95 days, but judging by posts on forums the problem still exists.
Some people are ok with that to have the "better" (which is really opinion anyway and varies between games) controls, the usually better graphics on the PC version of a game if a console is more than a year or so old, the mods from the game community, etc. I can certainly understand that and there are times where I think about getting back into PC gaming because of those reasons, particularly the community mods. In the end, though, for me and for most console gamers I personally know, the known ability to just buy the game, stick it in the console, and get playing wins out.
It also seems like there are more games released for console that do not make it to PC than the other way around. I may be wrong on that due to not following PC only games, though.
Left Joystick Movment
Right Joystick aiming/Camera Movement
A is to select a menu item
B is to cancel out of a menu item
These are all pretty standard across all the consoles (Well PS3 uses shapes but if you use their relative positions its the same).
The thing that scares most people away from consoles is that they have too many buttons. 2 Joysticks, 2 bumpers 2 triggers, a D-pad, start, select, and 4 other buttons? It overwhelms most casual gamers. A keyboard full of controls gets even worse.
The arguement has and always will remain the same: Computers have more flexibility but also more issues tied with it. The money you save in online playing fees are spent in computer upgrades. Console games are guaranteed to work on your brick whereas your PC game might not support your video card.
We can circle around all day - neither is any "Better" for gaming, its all dependant on your needs. Some people would much rather sit down, use two thumbs to make masterchief Shoot, putting little to no thought into cursing at 10 year olds on Xbox Live. Other people want to be able to micro manage and feel their adrenaline pump as they perfectly maneuver their forces into the enemy base.
In other words, under any of this situations you would come off as a jack-ass if you said just what you wrote. There is no holy grail way to play games.
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
A video game isn't (normally) a replication of a real activity -- it's an activity in and of itself. Just because it is based on a sport doesn't mean it's a simulation intended to replace said sport. Using your logic, people who play ping pong ought to go play tennis since ping pong was inspired by tennis (IIRC).
I don't really like bowling, but I like Wii Bowling. It's more convenient, cheaper, and much faster. Not to mention that I suck at bowling, and would have to invest a significant chunk of time and money to become proficient enough to actually enjoy it.
I find it hilarious that people spend their valuable time on Slashdot arguing that others aren't wasting their time the correct way.
I think you hit it on the head. Hard core gaming is dying not console gaming.
I don't think that's true at all. "Hardcore" gaming (I hate that term) isn't declining, it's just being OVERSHADOWED by the massive growth in the entire gaming market. It's a smaller piece of a vastly larger pie. That may bother some egos, but isn't really a bad thing. Probably good for the industry.
Define Smallest?
I alone could submit a game to the Xbox Live Arcade - for a small investment. Whether it makes it up there or not depends on how good it is - but the fact remains a single person can make a game for the 360.
It also seems like there are more games released for console that do not make it to PC than the other way around. I may be wrong on that due to not following PC only games
You're right that you're wrong. Pretty much every shareware, freeware, or free software game for PC is a PC exclusive. If you thought Apple's App Store model wasn't friendly to small studios and individual developers, the model used by Sony and Nintendo (and for Xbox 360 games that use the console's advanced features) is far more of a hassle.
...are recent games! Mario Kart for Wii and New Super Mario for DS has sold very well.
Top 20 console games of all time
1. Wii Play (Wii – 24.43 million)[68]
2. Wii Fit (Wii – 22.5 million)[68]
3. Nintendogs (DS – 22.27 million, all five versions combined)[69]
4. Pokémon Red, Blue, and Green (Game Boy – 20.08 million approximately: 10.23 million in Japan,[45] 9.85 million in US)[19]
5. New Super Mario Bros. (DS – 19.94 million)[68]
6. Mario Kart Wii (Wii – 18.36 million)[68]
7. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES – 18 million)[108]
8. Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! (DS – 17.41 million)[69]
9. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2 - 17.33 million)[114]
10. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (DS – 16.81 million)[70]
Except for the single PS2 game and Super Mario Brothers 3, DS and Wii games seem to be selling very well. It will be very interesting to see how well New Super Mario Wii sells. It has been out for three weeks and is currently clocking in near 2 million units.
I didn't know F-Zero GX was so badly received - it appears to be fairly WELL received in fact. Are you talking about direct comparisons to the fun factor compared to the other versions, as if so, do you have any claims to back that up?
I find Sega's situation completely disheartening however. They used to be all about really cool, slightly off-beat games, or REALLY well done "more normal" type games. It's really sad to see them in their current state where maybe a handful of interesting games per year comes from them anymore (MadWorld, HotD: Overkill, Valkyria) when they used to pump out game after game of awesomeness and originality.
Sony isn't about to let the PS3 go when they're counting on it to push Blu-Ray (their proprietary format)
I don't know how the rest of your post got +5 insightful, but this comment especially should've gotten you a couple of troll mods. Blu-ray is design by committee. It's not Sony's proprietary format even though they started the project to work on it and were most aggressive in pushing it (through the PS3). Sony doesn't own the format and if Sony died tomorrow, you would still have Blu-ray on the market.
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
You seem to be a little scattered with what you're saying, but the gist seems to be "of course there will be a crash, look at all the crappy games that are coming out."
What you're failing to notice is that those "Crappy games" are selling... What we're seeing now are Once great publishing houses (Midway, etc) that have too much overhead and outstanding debt to function in the low effort - high reward shovelware market.
That's not a sign that the market is failing, it's a sign that Some publishers aren't lean enough to hack it and they're going to falter as a result.
You can crap on Activision all you want because Tony Hawk: Ride was bad. But they made $550,000,000, in FIVE DAYS by releasing Modern Warfare 2. And don't think they aren't constantly raking in the World of Warcraft dollars... Most of what Activision puts out is garbage, but as long as projects mostly cover their costs, and the company as a whole doesn't put too much money on one horse, they'll be fine.
The bottom line is, it's a recession. Every industry is seeing large declines, (the average is something like 18%) and will this kill off some poorly structured developers/ absolutely, Is it a "Crash" or does it spell the doom of console gaming? Absolutely not.
Even if developers die, the Platforms will go on.
Did you not note that I pointed out DVD was in the PS2 for the same reason?
Sony has a hand in the design of Blu-Ray. They, along with a set of other companies who also "contribute", gain a certain amount from the royalties on discs/players adhering to the blu-ray format, the same way they were connected to DVD.
Sony's setup has always been this way. They never implement an open, universal standard unless they absolutely, positively have to. Look at the amazing number of "standards" they've tried to develop themselves (Beta vs VHS, Compact Disc they had a hand in, DAT, Video8/Hi8, Minidisc vs Philips Digital Compact Cassette, Sony ATRAC vs MP3, Sony SACD vs DVD-Audio, MMCD vs SuperDensity till they gave in and "contributed" their patents to merge EFMPlus into the DVD standard with Toshiba, Memory Stick Duo vs SD, SDDS "Sony Digital Dynamic Sound" versus DTS and Dolby Digital, and of course the craptacular UMD format). Their goal is to make their proprietary "standard" the industry standard, and rake in the royalties, not unlike Microsoft's "embrace, extend, destroy" philosophy concerning open standards.
The 3 1/2 floppy disagrees with you. Not to mention, like you say, a lot of companies are part of the Blu-ray association and as such, if every maker of Blu-ray devices is part of it, no one charges royalties. Like DVD, Blu-ray is very much design by committee with no one company controlling it. This is the exact opposite of proprietary.
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
I like consoles because I know that even in 5 years, if a game is released for my xbox 360 (or wii, or whatever), then it'll work on that console
Yeah, but with regards to the 360, whether the console itself will be working is a major consideration.
You'd be surprised.
Beta, for instance, ran for nearly two decades. Not in the home VHS market (which was their original target) but in the home camera market (where the smaller size made for easier handheld video cameras) and the television broadcast market (where they don't care so much about having to switch tapes after a certain time limit, but DO care very much about getting higher, more reliable video quality). Those two sectors were still using Beta tapes for a very long time, in fact some more rural TV broadcasting stations were still using them right up until the limit of HDTV broadcast conversion.
DAT was exceedingly popular in Europe and Asia, just not in the US - and Sony took their money there quite happily. It took longer to get DAT into the US because the RIAA, and their pet senators like Al Gore Senior, pushed the predecessor to the DMCA, the Digital Audio Recorder Copycode Act of 1987, with the intent of making DAT carry a "copyright flag." Sound anywhere similar to MafiAA tactics today?
Memory Stick Duo hasn't gone away. It's not used on many non-Sony devices, but Sony sells enough cameras and PSPs that they can keep it on the shelves and make a fair bit of money back from third-party manufacturers like Sandisk who license it.
I could go on, but the point is, not all of their "failures" failed spectacularly, and they have had plenty enough successes to fund everything else they have wanted to do. Had they actually been smart and come up with a "flash once" Memory Stick Duo standard rather than trying to push UMD on the PSP for their games (or alternatively, had the PSP had RCA/Composite video and audio outputs in its original incarnation so that it could simply be plugged into a TV for playing those UMD movies), it's quite possible they could have had yet another proprietary standard that did "well enough."
the Wii is awesome because the games are *fun*.
The Wii had the lowest rated games of all platforms in 2009.
Wii: 362 games... 1 considered great.
Xbox 360/PC: 7 considered great. PS3: 10 considered great.
Of course you'll be able to play current console games 10 years from now.
Using an emulator.
On a PC.
That's the path that I and most of my peer group at work (for major IT name) have followed, and I'd give 50:50 odds you're in the middle segment at the moment. When you realise that you just cannot be bothered fighting whatever copy protection is stopping you playing that legally purchased disc in your hand, and you've got too much to lose to torrent the new release of Windows, maybe things will look different.
Maybe I'm wrong, and the upgrade cycle is really your hobby, with gaming an occasional bonus - that's the other way to go.
A lot of the stuff they put out is partnerships and they participate in many of the industry standard committees.
Yes, so that they can get their patents included in the "standard." It's part of the ongoing barrier-to-entry collusion on the part of the "standards committees"; if you're part of the committee, you generally have some form of patent-access trade so that you can produce the "standard-based" equipment with no patent cost. If a new guy wants to come along and enter the market, the "standards committee" members (of which $ony is one) all agree to hike their access costs to an exorbitant amount to keep real competition out of the marketplace.
They've sectioned up the market quite nicely to themselves, really. Note how LG is given de facto control of the entry-level segment, as long as they agree to not compete higher up.