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Slashdot Asks: Is the Golden Era of Video-Game Console Sales Over?
Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it has stopped producing Xbox 360, a gaming console it launched in 2005. According to estimations, the company sold more than 85 million Xbox 360 units worldwide. Quartz has an insightful story today, in which it compares the shipment numbers of Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, the current generation consoles, to conclude that the "golden era" of video-game console sales is over. According to estimations, citing data provided by Nintendo, CNET, GameSpot, and Giant Bomb, the crown for the most popular gaming console goes to the Sony PlayStation 2 (2000) with 155.1 million inventories shipped. Sony PlayStation (1994) saw the movement of 102.49 million units, whereas 101.63 million Nintendo Wii inventories were dispatched. In comparison, Sony has sold 35.9 million units of PlayStation 4 so far, and Microsoft has sold roughly 10 million Xbox One units. From Quartz's report: It does seem, to some degree, that the golden age of home video-game consoles may be over. The previous generation of consoles was the last generation that didn't have to contend for users' time with mobile games. And you could make a strong case that a large portion of the casual gaming audience that Nintendo attracted for the Wii was almost entirely wiped out by mobile gaming. After all, the Wii was released in 2006 -- a year before the iPhone launched. Nintendo's next console, the Wii U, has been the company's worst-selling of all time. The average consumer may now feel more inclined to just pick up their phone and play Candy Crush or Temple Run than to get up and swing a controller around. The home console's saving grace could well be virtual reality. Just about every major tech and video-games company is working on a VR headset -- apart from Nintendo, it seems -- and early reviews of Facebook's Oculus Rift and HTC's Vive headsets have reduced non-gamers to tears. None of the top 10 most popular games consoles of all time have been released in the last 10 years, and VR may well be what turns the slowing console market back around.What's your take on this?
Who knew? (I now return to playing the latest Angry Bird on my iPad)
This was a predictable cycle to all of us naysayer luddites who play retro consoles. Some manufacturer will come out with a disconnected toy console for children, and the cycle will begin again.
Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
I think the problem may be that nine out of ten games released now are just Call of Duty with a different skin: CoD: Aliens, CoD: Zombies, CoD: Indiana Jones, CoD: Noir.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go blow on some contacts and reinsert.
(That sounds sexier than it is.)
The whole point of console gaming is to use specialized hardware that's far above and beyond what home PCs are capable of, to provide a gaming experience that's far above and beyond what home PCs are capable of. But we've seen that gap narrow lately. Console are essentially just limited desktop PCs, and become out-of-date quite rapidly. Why would I buy a console that isn't hyper-specialized? Why would I waste over $50 on a game that's not really any different from what I can run on my PC? When I buy a console and console games, I want to be wowed each and every time I play a game. But that just doesn't happen any more. So I haven't bought any new consoles or games in a long time.
PS4 has only been out for 3 years, and you are comparing units moved to systems that had a decade or more sales lifetime and drawing conclusions based on those being equivalent things to compare?
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
What happened was the Playstation, particularly the PS2, was built on cooperative and competitive multiplayer games. You would compete with friends in a social environment on the shared screen. Nintendo 64's Mario Kart was a blast for that. Then it stopped. The games all went online. You were social with your friend in a different hemisphere not one who could grab you a beer. That was the death of the console. I can play games by myself on any devices and the PC was better than the console for single player games.
Does noone remember the Virtual Boy console from Nintendo? I don't think more than 30,000 or so were manufactured, probably less.
moox. for a new generation.
If it's true, VR could be the next video editing- a huge push for better computer hardware. People will buy a headset, plug into their ancient C2D and watch it render at .3FPS and clamor for an upgrade.
tl;dr - Game consoles VR aspirations won't even help them compete against phones, since phone VR is cheaper and better already.
With some of the cool apps coming out for Google Cardboard, the console market won't even be able to have a massive edge with the VR stuff. It's been reported by many that they prefer Cardboard over Occulus rift. With such price disparity, it shouldn't even be up for debate - Occulus has to be tremendously better to justify the price, or it will fall to the side.
I've got a girlfriend, a job and some hobbies and a stack of games I haven't even opened. I don't really see the need to upgrade my PS3 until it's either hopelessly outdated or shits the bed.
Honestly, I'm more interested in picking up a SNES or N64 than a new console.
Your troll-fu is weak.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
Dirty console peasants tried and failed to become a master race. Why would anyone buy a networked inferior computer that also charges monthly fee when for a little bit extra you can a) buy an actual PC b) if you don't need an actual PC, do just fine with a smartphone and play casual games on it.
That is, PC gaming became much cheaper, to the point that you could game on a $600 box; consoles became more general-purpose computing platforms with apps and networking, and smartphones, that most people would already have, took over casual gaming niche.
... the reality is games are played for fun, the high fidelity games that cost megabucks are not necessarily even more fun than last generations games. Note that most games are sequels.
Is this the updated version of the question asked, what, maybe a year ago asking if computer games were dead and consoles were the future?
Or is it the "consoles and computers are dead, mobile gaming is the future?" question?
I get confused which point on the repetitive-headline cycle we're in this week.
-Styopa
The same thing was said when the Colecovision and Atari 2600 faded.
Video-game consoles were just the first wave of what will turn out to be the era walled gardens and vendor lock-in. And that era has only just started.
By rights then the XBone should be the clear winner.
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
The PS2 and it's games had a better price point, as did most if not all older consoles.
To compare games to comics, I'd call Atari 2600 and the original wave of popular arcade games the golden age, with NES through Dreamcast being the Silver age and everything newer being modern age.
Microsoft’s follow-up console, the Xbox One, has not sold nearly as well as the 360. In 2008, less than three years after it was launched, the company said the 360 had sold over 19 million units worldwide. The Xbox One was released in 2013, and has sold about 10 million units in roughly the same amount of time as its predecessor.
I remember way back when, if we didn't pirate, software prices would drop, companies would make cooler products, and so on.
Well, consoles are at a 0% piracy rate. Guess what. The $40 game back when, now costs $200 with DLC needed to actually get the content that should be on the game CD itself. It costs more if I choose to want a rare item or character. To boot, the gameplay is short, no cheat codes, and if I just want to copy my game saves somewhere for long term storage, I can't.
To boot, look at what comes out on consoles. Another Halo? Who cares. Madden, FIFA? Yawn. There is almost no difference in gameplay between AAA titles and the same crap made 5-10 years ago.
Let consoles die. PCs can do everything a console does for gameplay, be far cheaper, and still be usable for other tasks. I'm hoping for a 1983 where the video game industry just cannot support itself by regurgitated sequels of tired old IP any longer. Maybe we will see new IP come into the ecosystem, perhaps a company that is a modern day Origin that makes new IP with every game, not just the same tired old crap.
And as far as the Wii U is concerned, as an enthusiastic Wii owner, I have to say, why would I upgrade? The Wii brought something truly new and interesting to the table, the Wii U is just more of the same with slightly improved graphics and the addition of a gimmicky handheld. There's a couple games I'd like to get, but they're not worth the price of a new console, and most are just expensive new retreads of games I already own, or can buy used for pennies on the dollar. Seems like almost everybody I know who has a Wii U are people that thought the Wii was cool, but never got around to getting one for themselves.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Why say all this?
Consumers are abandoning video game consoles
Consumers are abandoning wired internet
Consumers are abandoning PCs
Consumers are abandoning cars
Consumers are abandoning colleges
Just say...
Consumers will soon use mobile phones for *everything* (coming soon, the pizza flavored iPhone).
Consoles are expensive and middle-class wages have been stagnant (read: purchasing power is decreasing due to inflation).
It used to be when kids were asked, "What do you want for Christmas?"
It was either:
- The newest console, if the next generation finally came out
- One or more games for the latest console they owned
Now, they want an iPhone or a (Samsung) Galaxy.
Since parents are buying smartphones and money is tight, guess which other electronics aren't flying off the shelves?
Absolute sales number comparisons don't provide the necessary information to make the conclusions put forth in the article. The PS3, for example, sold somewhere around 22 million units in the first three years.
source: http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/PlayStation_3
Likewise, the casual gamer comparison is more easily made when looking at the decline of mobile platforms (PSP, DS, 3DS, Vita, etc...) If you exclude their sales numbers from total console sales, you end up with relatively flat total unit sales over the last decade-ish.
source: http://www.statista.com/statistics/276768/global-unit-sales-of-video-game-consoles/
Every since I wrote games for the Commodore 64 starting in 1982, I have never been a console guy. There is something special about PC gaming to me. I like the control, the hardware hacks, the endless tinkering. Consoles are everything I don't want in gaming: someone else having control through crap like subscriptions, HW limitations, you name it.
EA needs to go away!
The tablet is dead! Long live the tablet!
The laptop is dead! Long live the laptop!
The desktop is dead! Long live the desktop!
Over the years the naysayers have smugly declared the death of all sorts of technologies that are still around. It goes through phases. Yes mobile gaming holds some appeal to the younger generation because it's always with you and can be played anytime. But can you really compare Candy Crush to The Division? Or Boom Beach to GTA V? There will always be a market for games on multiple platforms. Just like some users swear consoles are the only way to play games and us old timers say "bring it on, I'll crush your gamepad with my keyboard and mouse circle-strafe!" As long as people are buying and playing games on a particular platform, publishers will continue putting out games on that platform.
Each one may have it's "golden age" as well as it's "golden years" but they'll all be around for a long time to come.
"early reviews of Facebook's Oculus Rift and HTC's Vive headsets have reduced non-gamers to tears."
What exactly is that implying? The headsets are so awesome that non-gamers will start gaming? They're so awesome non-gamers are crying because their gaming loved ones will spend all their time playing games again? Motion sickness? WTF?
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
I believe that honor goes to Virtual Boy... Which lends to another mention in the article that Nintendo isn't making a VR. Probably because they already learned that lesson.
These losses and failings are the result of console developers own shortsightedness.
For years, they've been creating consoles based on the worst aspects of PCs with none of the PC benefits. No couch multiplayer, required internet connection, long boot times, frequent software updates, all while being completely unable to compete with PCs on graphical fidelity, multitask capability or input selection (PCs support keyboard/mouse, console controllers, etc, up to full HOTAS setups with rudder pedals and such). Consoles also lack the markets like Steam, GoG, GMG and Humble Bundle.
So yeah ... all the weaknesses, none of the strengths from both sides. Are we surprised that they aren't doing so well?
This signature is false.
What was the big selling point for consoles over PCs? Simplicity and "just works". Seriously. Put it up, plug it in, plug it into your TV, throw that CD or cartridge into the thing and here we go. Game on. Wiggle those thumbs 'til your eyes fall out and your brains rot.
That huge advantage was lost when consoles became essentially PCs without keyboard. Because hey, it's so much easier to produce games that way and you can produce games that play on consoles AND PC that way. Well, nobody wants to play them on a PC because the controls are ass-backwards if they are designed for a controller and you have to use them with keyboard+mouse, but who gives a shit about customers?
And the console jockeys were pissed to. Pop that CD in and ... install an update for your system. Go online to register it. Download some shit for that online content you don't give a fuck about. Install some more shit. Update the system once more because you changed your sitting position. Choose your avatar. Upload it to some server. Customize your avatar. More time to upload it again. Here, buy some bling! Or some new levels! Reboot your console after the update. And FINALLY you get to ... oh fuck it's bedtime.
Get consoles back to what they were. Simple, easy to use and most of all NO FUCKING LOAD TIME! For fuck's sake, given that these games come now on BluRay discs and most PCs have a SSD HD, load times are SHORTER on PC than they are on consoles!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If I had a nickle for every time someone told me that PC gaming was dead, then maybe I'd have a current gen console in the house. I expect this is much of the same.
They have to be making money from playstation network- you would think that this would probably be their revenue focus.
love is just extroverted narcissism
It's the economy, stupid...
There are a few reasons for the decline of the markets.
1) The costs of the consoles have been increasing since the days of the NES. I remember when I first got the Nintendo when it was about $100 brand new. I remember getting the N64 when it was about $140. Now we have consoles costing $300+. Even adjusting for inflation the prices have gone up.
2) Combine with #1, the wages and such have died since the old days. Comparing the market when wages were comparatively higher after adjusting for inflation and there was more job security to a time when people lack the funds for most things is not a fair comparison.
3) The differences between the systems over the years is getting comparatively smaller with each generation making it less enticing to upgrade without being really into a blockbuster franchise coming out for it. The upgrade from NES to SNES was HUGE, the upgrade from SNES to N64 again was HUGE, the upgrade from N64 to GameCube was pretty big, then from GameCube to Will which was barely noticeable and then onward to the WiiU with again barely noticeable change many times. Same with the upgrade from PSX to PS2 to PS3 and now PS4 and the Xbox, each one the upgrade are less noticeable.
4) Then we do have the fact that the mobile market is eating into them for the small pointless filler games that people just screw around on. Most people won't bother with trying to waste their time for a console for games like Tetris like they did back in the day.
5) How many games are getting to the point where they are less and less distinguishable from a previous product? Even the games that aren't sequels start to feel like older games many times now unless you are going for some huge blockbuster that costs upwards of $60. Lots of the biggest sellers now are nothing but iterations which gets old for many players. And by iterations, I don't mean like Zelda. I mean like Call of Duty or Madden where it quite literally is the exact same game year after year with only minor upgrades each time except for a single player mode that no one bought it for anyways.
As for me, the Wii and the original Xbox were the last consoles I ever bought. I personally prefer the PC for my stuff. I never have to worry about my games being useless after the next system comes out and my console dies, I don't have to pay extra to play my games online, and I have access to emulators and such for my old back catalog. In 15 years, even single PC game I own will still be able to be played on even the newest PC unless I move to an entirely different architecture that doesn't support virtual machines.
Next year it will be "PC gaming is dead"
Been seeing this same headline pop up every few years since Atari went bust in 1983. Yet consoles still get made, still sell well, and still get revitalized periodically.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
My Xbox 360 has logged more hours streaming Netflix, Amazon and HBO Now than playing games. We also have a TiVo and a Chromecast. Each one of the devices does some things well, but not one of them does everything.
In the spirit of asking for everything for free, my ideal game console would play games, but could also be a DVR (recording OTA signals, or acting as a cable box), in addition to streaming services (all of them, not with some of them removed for one reason or another) and VR. Naturally it will also work with Steam so I can pay once and keep game progress if I play on a laptop/PC or console. While we are at it, it will do 4K video, make my lunch and be reasonably priced. And of course, run Linux so I can tinker with it.
Yeah, I won't hold my breath.
If you look at "aligned" sales aka, how fast a console is selling both the PS4 and Xbox One are outpacing the Xbox 360 and PS3.
The difference is that there simply isn't a market for ancient consoles anymore. The jump from SD -> 720p -> 1080p and now to 4k TVs has happened in the blink of an eye in technological terms. The PS2 was able to hold on for a long time because bigscreen TV adoption was slow. Now that we've gone from a 32" 720p TV being $300 to a 55" 4k TV being $300 people are upgrading more often.
http://www.vgchartz.com/articl...
Leaving aside hard core gamers, the rest of world is happy with the games that these days can be played at tablets and phones. On the other hand, hard core gamers will not be happy with consoles, which lag behind ordinary PCs in a matter of months. Additionally, such gamers will probably start investing into VR systems instead.
Game consoles as they are currently conceived are all but dead. Next step: a first version of a primitive holodeck. However, we are still several technological breakthroughs and many decades away from anything that even remotely resembles that - the current VR stuff is not it.
I have ps4, xbone, but I still have a 360, ps3, ps2, wii, original xbox, cd32 etc. And what I hate is the need to be online all the time with the newest gen stuff and the constant wanting to bleed me for money for online features or a live account. I didn't buy the ps4 or xbone for myself, it was a gift or I wouldn't have bothered with either of them, there's nothing they seem to do significantly better than the last gen for a whole load more drm and always connected bullshit.
I bought destiny early on in cycle for the ps3 and it wanted to do a 3 Gb download before it would play, and my broadband sucks donkey bits. I have never to this day played it as a result. The ps4.5, theyre on about needing to do VR will obsolete the ps4 original and I only just got mine last xmas. Fantastic life span.
Perhaps the consoles might be a bit more popular long term, if the console makers stopped treating us as cash cows to be bled dry, and we know that we're going to get shafted in a few years time when they shut the servers down on on-line only stuff like they did with the last gens.
Hopefully. I am sick of console-friendly games being the standard, with ports of their lameness to the PC being most of the offerings. Even MMORPGs that are PC-only suffer from the backwash of consolitis design.
But I don't think phone and tablet based game design, which is what's killing consoles, is any improvement. At least a touch interface is mouse friendly on port.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I have a Wii and a Wii U. Not because it is a superior system. However the Nintendo brand games seems to be better for family play.
Me and my wife have only one TV setup, if we are to play a game, we will play a game together. So games like Mario Kart, Mario Party and Smash Bros are high on our list of games to play. After we decided to get off the Wii we did our research on the Xbox 1 and PS4 (Mostly because we use them for netflix/hulu/amazon prime) And the More powerful boxes had serious games titles, and less fun games for casual play.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
What's a console?
I have on my lap a device capable of playing every game I've ever bought, right through to GTA V and things released just now. It fits on my lap. It can go to my mate's house. It can connect to wireless controllers. It has HDMI out. It can download ALL my games and keep them all on the same device. It can emulate - or directly play - all my old games too.
And it costs no more than I'd normally pay for a laptop, which is about what everyone else would pay for a laptop, and a games console. Oh, and it does all my work, contains all my movies, connects to the net, and all the usual stuff you'd expect a computer to do.
And I bought it years ago, and it's still going.
Honestly? Consoles are dead. There is no sufficiently compelling reason to do anything on a console compared to just using the laptop that you probably already have anyway, or a very slightly upgraded version of the same.
Golden Age? If anything, we are in the Silver Age. The Golden Age would be Atari 2600 and it's ilk, including Pong. That's right. A console that just played Pong.
The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
Just sayin'.
I've still got 20+ unplayed games on my XBox 360 which I bought two years ago. For the reason that it is a mature product with the glitches removed and an excellent lineup of countless dirt-cheap multiple-award-winning AAA titles.
Make the XBone backwards compatible and I might even consider getting one. Other than that I'll wait 10 years. Some time in the not so distant future somebody will finally come up with convergence and we'll have tablet and mobile consoles you hook up to you TV or monitor. But for that to happen, the mobile vendors need to stop scimping on storage.
Other than that I'd say the market is probably saturated at the moment. I think we can all agree that there is no lack of high-powered electronic computer-like thingies floating about to care too much about yet another generation of consoles. VR and ginormous cheap ultra-high-resolution displays might change that, but for now I'm not holding my breath.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
I am sure the people who bandwagon-jumped on the Wii would also bandwagon jump on VR, but it's not sustainable. The only solution is to just keep producing games and stop trying to get 'the next big fad' only to lose all those people when 2 years later it's not interesting anymore. Nintendo fans will keep buying Nintendo games, especially if their new console is finally as powerful as its rivals, and games will continue to be successful on phones. Sony will keep leading the pack by bundling the latest movie-watching tech (PS4K now) into their consoles, and Microsoft will keep um, trying to do whatever Sony does. If there is no 'upgrade' version of the Xbox One to keep up in power with Nintendo NX and PS4K, it won't be the end of the world, but MS will probably copy the idea anyway to not lose face with this current generation of internet fanboys who only care about '1080p 60fps' as if that determines how good a game looks more than textures and polygons.
I theorize that a lot of people who bought consoles for simple games have moved onto their phones or even handheld consoles. That leaves the folks who are willing to spend $60 per game. So given that supposition, what are Microsoft and Sony's total revenu on games sales for the new platforms? Or what is the revenue per console? Has that actually shifted much? If a lot of previous generation consoles were used for cheap games, or hardly at all, then there would be little disparity in the sales income. This is based on the assumption that console sales still fix the (expensive) razor blade model.
It depends on how powerful the next generation of phones/tablets/goggles are. If they are powerful enough to present a reasonable VR gaming experience at an affordable price then there will likely be no need for a next generation of consoles. If, however, more computing power can be crammed into a console device, and if developers can take advantage of that extra power, and if the total experience can be delivered at a competitive price point then I expect consoles to continue to be developed.
Tablets certainly have a lot going for them. They are portable. They do multiple functions reasonably well. A wider audience may already own them. Maybe most of all - there are only two OSes to develop for. Now the hardware does vary, so unless the APIs are well designed you're going to have to deal with varying user experiences.
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That could very much depend on how quickly VR takes off.
If VR takes off.
A 4k console would like the PS/2 and the PS/3 probably offer a player for 4k video aka 4k Bluray
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I absolutely agree with many of the comments here - especially Simple To Use, and the requiring to join aspects but for me personally it is really about just sitting down to play. I have to jump through so many hoops - load screens, authorization, everything just seems to stop me from playing a game. Usually I have half an hour but if there is an update - whoo boy, forget it. Wii really started to miss the mark on playability - simple seeming characters or interfaces, but the actual playability was somewhat complicated and required confirmation after confirmation or selection. Xbox 360 was soured from the Game Destiny - required online play and our internet is not the best. Every time I tried to play a >100MB update was required before I could even start! I'm excited to see what happens with VR - that could change the landscape a bit.
If VR takes off. A 4k console would like the PS/2 and the PS/3 probably offer a player for 4k video aka 4k Bluray
4k is still the magic number needed for VR to have decent resolution since you always have to divide that number in half to get the 3d.
My issues is that so many consoles REQUIRE online access to play the games. Not that they require always on connections but just have to phone home occasionally. The Xbox 360 is swilling down the tubes, game companies have dropped servers for PS3 games. We are loosing what will be one day our gaming heritage.
Take a look at the older systems. Anything from the original PlayStation backwards, if you found a working console and undamaged game you'd still be able to play it now. How many contemporary games disappear forever because the servers are no longer around.
No good deed goes unpunished.
They suggest that console sales have been affected by mobile games, but then they exclude portable systems--even though portable systems are more similar to the mobile game niche than home games, and would be more affected, if anything. Furthermore, mobile games are a different type of game from console games. You don't play Call of Duty on a phone.
And it's misleading to compare figures for a couple years after a system's release to lifetime figures for other platforms. The article includes a single example of non-lifetime figures (for Xbox 360), but fails to give anything else. http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/... shows sales of the PS3 for the first three fiscal years to be 22.91 million (including a partial year). The article here shows PS4 sales as 35.9 million since 2013, which includes a similar partial year and is clearly greater. In other words, the Xbox One has lower sales than the 360 had back then; but the industry did not.
A $400 PC with an upgraded power supply and a last-generation video card will play all but the latest AAA titles just fine, for a hell of a lot less than $1000. Maybe not at 4K resolution 120Hz, but everybody doesn't need that.
Games used to tell stories. Games used to be fun. Games used to be challenging. Games used to innovate. The consoles used to be slow. The consoles used to be hot. The consoles used to be heavy on pixelation. The consoles used to be low on HID options.
It's definitely a problem with the console... not the content. Hardware is always the problem because software is flawless.
Consoles topped being consoles sometime within the last 2 gens. Now they are essentially stripped down PCs with all of the inconveniences (Firmware/Hardware updating, game installation, patching, etc) and none of the benefits.
Mandatory DLC wasn't a thing until the Xbox 360.
Are the types of people who generally buy consoles really the same type that would be satisfied playing games on mobile instead? I don't know if I'm an average console gamer, but I don't see much appealing about mobile games, beyond being able to play them when waiting around or otherwise bored and not able to easy access my computer or console. Freemium games and cheap games chock-full of ads and microtransactions are not my cup of tea. Besides, according to one link I found (http://www.vgchartz.com/article/261037/ps4-and-xbox-one-vs-ps3-and-xbox-360-aligned-sales-comparison-august-2015-update/) this generation of consoles is selling significantly faster than the previous generation. It's only Nintendo that has stumbled, which can probably be explained better by the Wii U itself than by the mobile market stealing the attention of console gamers. Plus if Microsoft hadn't screwed up the XBO, this generation be selling even better.
You would need to wait for another 10 years before those comparisons even begin to make sense.
I think you underestimate just how much I just dont care.
i can play console games on the couch on a big screen tv with a well-made controller.
PCs have VGA and usually DVI or HDMI out; HDTVs have HDMI and usually VGA in. (HDMI is DVI-D with audio in the blanking period and a different connector.) Set the PC next to the TV, connect a well-made Xbox 360 or Xbox One controller to its front USB port, and play.
i'm not spending 1500 dollars on a gaming pc every few years.
The beauty of desktop PCs is that there are so many builds to choose from that you're more likely to find one to fit your needs. There are $500 builds that'll match any current console, and even the integrated HD Graphics in Intel Core i series CPUs is running games at lower settings nowadays.
you can't play nintendo games on a pc.
Or on a PS4 or Xbox One. Nor can you play Halo on PS4 or any Nintendo console. (On PS1 through PS3 you can make a joke involving the numbering system of Nine Inch Nails albums; PS4 dropped this capability.) But there aren't a lot of critical games that are on both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 or both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One but not on Windows. In addition, a lot of especially indie games are PC-first or PC-only.
Unless you have a reason to specifically get a Wii U, why wouldn't you get a used Wii with a bunch of controllers and a mountain of games for half the price?
All Wii games with online play relied on GameSpy. Its closure killed online play for Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and to many players, continuing online play in those franchises is a good "reason to specifically get a Wii U".
You want to count exclusives? Show me Stephen's Sausage Roll or Undertale or Stardew Valley or A Good Snowman for PS4.
I got into computers in the mid to late eighties, when a second-hand Commodore (or no, it was a Vic20 first) wasn't all that much more expensive than a second-hand Atari2600 with a bunch of games
Atari 2600 booted instantly. Adding a 1541 floppy drive to a Commodore 64 to shortcut obscene Datassette loading times made it a lot more expensive.
even though portable systems are more similar to the mobile game niche than home games
I disagree. Most mobile games are either point-and-click or endless runners because that's all you can make with a touch screen. Things like a PlayStation Vita or Nintendo 3DS come with input devices much more similar to the gamepad of a traditional set-top console, which allow interaction methods other than point-and-click.
Are the types of people who generally buy consoles really the same type that would be satisfied playing games on mobile instead?
Not necessarily. Good luck playing something like Mega Man on a touch screen.
This console generation just isn't exciting. The hardware was laughably underpowered before it even shipped, with many games rendering at some oddball resolution and later upscaled to 1080p, just to maintain acceptable performance. For those less technically inclined, the rising game prices and egregious DLC / season passes is too much to swallow. I'm financially quite comfortable, and even I balk at new game prices because the value just isn't there. AAA titles are released full of bugs and it's a coin-toss as to whether they will be properly patched. Just recently, some baseball game was launched in an unplayable state, allegedly due to underpowered/unstable servers. I think it took them 3 weeks to finally get it working.
Customers will only accept mediocrity for so long, and I think they're starting to snub these console makers and game publishers who repeatedly treat the customer like a fool.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
The "next-gen" consoles aren't selling well as there's not a reason for many people to upgrade. Why should I buy a PS4/XBox1 when many titles are still being released on the 360? Yes there are some exclusives, but so far many titles are available on all the consoles.
Also there wasn't enough a difference between the consoles. It's like DVD / BlueRay, 1080p/4k, yes there is a difference, but not enough for most people to care, and not enough to justify spending extra.
Heck now there is a new PS4 coming out to handle the VR stuff, meaning people who want to play that will again buy a new system. So there's really no reason to buy a next gen console right now until at least that is released. Nintendo's new console isn't far off either. I think the small gains they offered, at a high price tag, meant consumers just decided to sit this generation of consoles out.
Mobile games are a pretty big disappointment really, I don't have any left installed. They're all just quick money grabs.
The real problem with consoles is that the games are overly complex. They're just not something you can drop in on for a half an hour here and there. It requires a commitment of time and energy to even figure out the game. That's tough enough by itself. However, combine that with all the games being networked and it's magnified. There's always someone out there who has all day to get great at the game. Makes it really unfriendly for casual players as there's always "that guy" there that's destroying everyone. Social is what's really killing console gaming.
The same argument might have been made after the heyday of the Atari 2600. The follow-on Atari systems which offered only incremental improvements and the competing systems which were only marginally better never attracted the same attention. Then, after 7-8 years, along comes the NES and the next resurgence in the console market. But yet again, there was a repeat of the Atari phenomenon. The follow-on and "slightly better" systems just never got the same market penetration. Took another 7-8 years until the next big thing with the Wii, PlayStation and Xbox. I think the console industry is just taking another hiatus. The day of the console might be over *for now*, but give it ~10 years and we'll have the next awesome gaming system.
Commodore 64 cartridges could include a circuit that switches different pages of ROM into the 16 KiB of address space available to a cartridge. For example, if writing to cartridge space ($8000-$BFFF) instead writes to an octal D flip-flop (e.g. 74HC373/377) that controls A14 and higher address lines of the ROM, this would allow (in theory) up to 4 MiB of ROM. Similar techniques were common on Atari 2600 (which originally topped out at 4 KiB ROM) and especially on NES (likewise 32 KiB). But cartridges were underused because they were more expensive for game publishers to replicate than tapes and floppies.
Its a PC for my TV and its taking as much time and effort to maintain as a PC but with more restrictions on user choice. Why would I buy another? Not to mention, shitty laggy bluetooth controllers, online fees, locked down environments, few decent games...
I'd say that the decline in video games comes to a few key points:
1. Lack of trust / ownership. We're at the point where the makers of the consoles basically say "You don't own it, we can change the terms of usage, you can be locked out of your own device, you can't do any soft modding, and if you try we can wipe your softmod or wreck your device because our TOS says we own it after you pay for it".
See Nintendo and the Wii U.
Now realize any of them can do this.
2. Price per game. Lack of any significant discounts.
3. We're not that far from tying your purchased games to a single console, completely eliminating any resale market -- point numbers 1 and 2 to the extreme.
4. As others have mentioned, a normal computer is becoming more convenient than the consoles.
5. The fundamental question: Why bother?
The Wii gave us a reason to bother: the motion-sensing control. And then the improved control that actually senses motion instead of sensing jerks and angles. Now if only the software was actually fixed/improved -- many of the games seemed to operate under "Ok, we're learning how to work with the controls, and got X working, we learn more, make Y much better, we now know how to go back and improve X, but we won't". And this is *before* shipping.
Nintendo's own "Wii Fit" is the perfect example of this. I'm sorry -- the quality of working with the balance board is different in the different exercises, and worst, when they made Wii Fit Plus, they did not go back and fix any problems with the older exercises/games.
The Wii Sports Plus, the key game for the Motion plus sensor? Seemed to have the exact same issue.
6. Reduced quality / lack of bug fixes and patches. Yes, computer games get patches and fixes. Can you add a patching system for these cartridge/CD games? Sure. Do they? Nope.