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Sony, Microsoft Squabble Over Console Features, But the Real Opponent Is Apple
Nerval's Lobster writes "Now that Microsoft and Sony have unveiled their respective next-generation gaming consoles, the two companies have cheerfully resorted to firing broadsides at each other. Whether the current brouhaha has any effect on sales of the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 (if hardcore gamers keep complaining, they may even convince Microsoft to knock $100 off the new Xbox and bring its pricing down to the PS4's level), it's also drowning out what many perceive as the real issue: gaming consoles face an existential threat from mobile devices, most notably those running iOS (with some threat from Android). First, there are signs that the hardcore gamer market is soft: console sales in the United States dropped 21 percent in 2012, and sales of new video-game cartridges haven't fared much better. Second, PC/console games such as X-Com have begun appearing on iOS; if that trend continues, the console companies will have more rivals to fight against. Third, Apple is developing a game controller for iOS which could make it an even more dedicated opponent — and convince other tech companies to follow in its footsteps. But don't tell any of that to Microsoft and Sony, which seem content to fire at each other."
Cartridge sales are extremely low, but that has nothing to do with PS3/4 or the Xbox family.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
Carts.....
So this was written by someone who understands the gaming market well then? In 1995 maybe.
- http://www.milkme.co.uk
console sales in the United States dropped 21 percent in 2012, and sales of new video-game cartridges haven't fared much better.
What the hell would be considered a "new video-game cartridge"?
I know jargon in certain industries gets weird. I mean, I deal with tables, floors, clouds, nets, webs, pipes, and none of those are physical objects. But whoever is using the term "cartridge", in the game industry, in this year, deserves to be ignored as they are obviously stuck in the last century. Seriously, while you're back there warn them about 9/11 and Bush.
People playing 99 cent time wasters aren't the same demographic as those spending $400 on a console to buy $60 games. If Apple come up with a PC type small box that runs games, and give billions to several devlopers, they will enter the gamers' market, their twee stuff on their iStuff is not taking a single cent away from xbox, ps3 or nintendo, other then child titles and all that useless fitness stuff women buy.
How many times will people think that the iOS gaming and the HD console gaming is the same market? this is bullshit. yes there is some overlap, yes there is a bit of cannibalisation because time is a limited ressource, but no one can compare the experience of a AAA game on a PC or next gen console with what you can get on even an iPad.
even if it's streamed on a TV, even with a controller. the hardware is incomparable, the promise of the experience is completely different.
let's stop with this "new apples are disrupting oranges!" please.
Nope. Wrong. People play games on phones because you can, but there's no direct correlation between this and console game sales. Totally different demographic. I couldn't give two rips about video games but I'll play a game every now and then at the airport because it beats watching the guy sitting across from me pick his nose. It's a convenient time killer. Of course there are phone based games that are addictively fun to some, but they tend to be very short lived. Console and PC gamers want immersive games that a 4 to 6 inch screen cannot deliver on. They want extremely granular control that a few soft buttons cannot offer. You're premis is quite simply wrong. You're comparing apples to oranges.
You miss the point. Comparing tablets/phones to dedicated gaming machines is kinda like comparing bicycles to cars.