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Video Game Consoles Are 'Fundamentally Doomed,' Says Lord British

Posted by Soulskill on from the depends-on-your-timescale dept.

zacharye writes "Microsoft sold nearly one million Xbox 360s last week alone, but we're nearing the end of the road for video game consoles according to one industry visionary. Richard Garriott, known for having created the fantasy role-playing franchise Ultima, says converged devices such as computers, smartphones and tablets will soon render dedicated game consoles obsolete: '... the power that you can carry with you in a portable is really swamping what we've thought of as a console.'"

4 of 374 comments (clear)

  1. Good by masternerdguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As a PC gamer I can't wait for consoles to finally die, fewer crap console ports and PC exclusives tend to be better anyway.

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    To offset political mods, replace Flamebait with Insightful.
    1. Re:Good by BenoitRen · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The obsession with high quality graphics is a large part of what's wrong these days on both platforms. Stop kidding yourself.

    2. Re:Good by hairyfeet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ya know, I want to hate the consoles but I have to say there is a nice side effect to the little bastards and that is how cheap I can offer folks an HTPC nowadays. Back in the olden days of the late 90s you were looking at a $150 GPU about every year to year and a half just to be able to play the games coming down the pipe and now I have several folks that are quite happy with HD4830s that i picked up for less than $50 a piece. And there is still more kick ass PC gaming for cheap than any other machine i know of, where else can you get games at the price of the big Steam Xmas sale while still having graphics that make my customers drool? you want to talk about an easy sale, all i have to do when they ask "But what can it do?" is fire up Just Cause II and set off some demo charges on the smokestacks. watching my guy walk into the sunset as these huge towers come crashing down and its "Sold!".

      So I wouldn't bitch TOO much, the consoles keep game PCs quite cheap while still letting us have some pretty impressive visuals, and while its true that the specs on them suck at least there are still games coming out with enhanced graphics for PCs while allowing us that don't have "ePeen" money to still enjoy gaming. I just hope when the next consoles come out it won't take a couple of years for GPUs that match or beat them to become cheap enough for the masses as I REALLY don't want to go back to $150+ a year in GPUs just to game. Hell at the way things are going with any luck i may still get another couple of years out of this soon to be Thuban desktop ;-)

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  2. Re:What he talks about by jo_ham · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The "anyone who has an opinion different to mine is obviously a shill" thing on slashdot is getting tiresome.

    It *is* possible for people to like things that the /, groupmind dislikes without them being paid to do so.