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Kojima Predicts the End of the Console
nathanielinbrazil writes "Konami founder and developer Hideo Kojima predicts gaming console is a dying breed. Anticipates gaming on demand via Internet. 'It's a bold prediction,' Sony Computer Entertainment Japan President Hiroshi Kawano told reporters nervously. 'We hope he continues to develop for platforms, but we deeply respect his sense of taking on a challenge.' Kojima launches his follow-up game Heavy Metal Solid Gear: Peace Walker in late April designed for the PSP."
Many people have predicted the move toward either One Single Console To Rule Them All, or in this case none at all. The problem with this sort of prediction is that it does not account for the profitability of such systems. As long as money CAN be made by putting out a console, someone will. And as long as someone does, others will want a share of that pie, thus competition. It's the reason why Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo could fold eventually and still we'd end up with a multiple console market competition.
I like computer gaming for the depth - Total War, Master of Orion, etc. Console gaming fulfills the high adrenaline stuff - God of War, Uncharted. Of course, computers get some of that too, but not all of it. But all of this is really off topic. What I believe he's trying to say (having not read a single line of TFA) is that there is strength in a subscription-based gaming service. It's an interesting concept. If you pay $2 an hour to play Bioshock 2, and I finish it in 6 hours, that's only 12 dollars. But I have a friend who is on like his fourth play through - he'd be up near $50. It seems to me then that a subscription service penalizes heavy gamers but would be great for mid-casual gamers like me. It would also save me the heartache of paying $60 for C&C4, when at whatever hourly rate they wanted to charge I could find out that it's awful in an hour or less. Ultimately I think there's room for both services, if for no other reason than the ability to play games in places where there is no significant connectivity.
Jealously hoarding mod points since 2007.
The game's name is Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Heavy Metal is a totally different series.
~Syberz
For casual gaming, yes and this has already happened to a degree with smartphones.
But for hardcore or graphics intensive games, I don't see anything beyond PCs or consoles. Heck, the trend is so much towards consoles, this generation we have 3 of them with respectable size audiences. Six, if you count the DS, PSP, and PS2 (because it's still selling). Back in the original NES days, there was one winner and the rest were afterthoughts.
Years ago, things like the Wii Controller would only differentiate the systems if it came standard with the console, but really dedicated hardware like the Balance Board would never have taken off (power glove, super scope, etc anyone?) and after the initial game very few others would follow because the install base just wasn't there. Now even more dedicated hardware than the console/controller itself is taking off.
I just don't see platform agnostic gaming being feasible in the near-future. It's usually the attention to detail and tailored package that makes the experience and sale.
The console itself may not be dead, but will just become one more internet "appliance", doing precisely what Konami says, accessing the net on demand to play the users game of choice. With VMs becoming more and more prevalent it is only a matter of time before they start to appear on consoles. It would not be very hard to do it now in fact. So a console could run a VM to appear to be any machine....or a PC could run VM to appear to be a console, hmmmm.
Konami founder and developer Hideo Kojima predicts gaming console is a dying breed. Anticipates gaming on demand via Internet.
The flow of that is positively dreadful.
It will come right after the year of Linux on the desktop.
+1 Disagree
Was it not just a week or 2 ago that someone else said that the end of computer gaming was coming soon, and consoles would reign supreme?
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
I used to love PC gaming, but the enjoyment just isn't there anymore. Mainly it is the hardware / driver / tweaking issues and ridiculous DRM that killed it for me.
Clearly you don't remember fiddling with config.sys for those last few K needed for the game you just bought. And then flipping through the manual looking for word 6 of paragraph 2 on page 12 so you could actually play it. If PC gaming can survive that, it'll survive this no problem.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
As a long time PC gamer, I'd say games are easier to play now than they ever were on the PC. Games tend to support the vast amount of hardware out there, even low end stuff. I haven't had a driver issue in a long time, you may want to upgrade to computer made after 2000. DRM can be an issue but it's only invasive on a small number of titles that I don't buy (they're usually console ports anyway).
And to me, the experience is dramatically better than a console (although I only play PS3 and Wii). You get more varieties of games, not just action and party games. Vastly better multiplayer, better graphics, more challenging types of games (from indies to AAA), etc.
PC gaming is awesome.
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He probably does.
That sort of stuff is positively benign and quaint compared to the nonsense they pull today.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
You have pretty limited experience with on-line games, don't you?
The "human interaction" is richly-textured and explores the full breadth of human ass-hattery, just like in person. Except it might depend on a modicum of skill with the push-to-talk button. And has less chance to degenerate into physical violence and law enforcement attention.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Aside from cigarettes, I've given up smoking.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I enjoy his games but I often wish he worked under another manager who would help direct his work a little more smoothly.
Notably, this is the same Kojima who didn't think HD was that big of a deal for games and didn't see the point in going all super high resolution for MGS4 ... and didn't.
Consider that MGS4 has load times worthy of watching an entire sitcom episode when other PS3-specific games like R&C or Uncharted have stream loading and almost no delays between levels as a result.
I can ignore the writing and bad jokes and horrible timeline issues as standard low budget Japanese fare (try reading some manga sometime), but the production quality really wasn't there for me, except on sound.
Oh well. He can have his opinions but they're not valuable to me.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)