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?

Comments

Make them toys again. Watch them sell.

[uCallHimDrJ0NES]

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.

Re:Make them toys again. Watch them sell.

[Dutch Gun]

I seem to recall pundits predicting that this current generation of consoles would be the last *ever*... that no one was interested in home consoles any more because smartphones were eating up the market. That seems a bit ridiculous now, especially as consoles evolve into more general-purpose home entertainment platforms. And naturally, we've been hearing about the impending death of PC gaming for... what, well over a decade now? Somebody should tell all those companies collectively sinking billions into VR research and development.

To me, the argument that consoles (or PCs) are doomed is like saying that three and four star restaurants will all be put out of business because fast food restaurants are so much cheaper, convenient, and popular. It ignores the fact that there are different market segments that will always exist because the different segments provide vastly different experiences. Does anyone think a hard-core gamer will be satisfied with playing on a 6" screen with a touch-screen versus a 60" TV with monster speakers and an ergonomic, purpose-built game controller, or using a high-end PC with precision controllers and dedicated gaming hardware (like the new VR equipment)? Is anyone stupid enough to believe that you can even build the exact same sort of games for all different platforms, given their different form factors?

More to the point, just because the market for smartphone-based games is increasing doesn't mean it has the same demographics as the console market, nor does it mean that, even for those in the same demographic, that person even could use a console when they're playing a phone-based game. After all, they could be anywhere, like on a plane or in a hotel room, since that's the obvious virtue of mobile platforms: they're always available.

Generally speaking, I think there's a lot less competition between mobile and traditional games than most people believe. I believe it represents a fairly large expansion of the gaming market, and not just a shift from one platform to another, even if some migration is inevitable.

Yar's Revenge's Revenge

[Pseudonymous Powers]

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.)

Let's get this straight...

[Junta]

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?

Can someone please translate?

[Radical Moderate]

"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?

The fatal flaw was making them "serious".

[Opportunist]

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!

Re:They still make game consoles?

[Mattcelt]

I can't speak for anyone else, but for my own purposes, I have avoided the latest generation of consoles for reasons that have nothing to do with mobile gaming.

Wii: If Nintendo had released a more-powerful, HD version of the original Wii for a similar price point, I would have bought three. Instead they added and required that ridiculous controller, which IMHO completely ruined the experience.

Xbox: Requires a subscription for playing on-line, which I simply won't do.

Playstation: I own three PS3s, but the PS4 went the MS route to require a subscription for on-line play, so I've refused. And Sony's repeated feature regression over the years isn't exactly enticing.

For myself, the draw of console gaming has always been 1) the real-time interaction (including audio) with other gamers throughout the world and 2) and off-line (i.e., completely-disconnected) single-player mode. Both of those experiences have grown steadily worse of late.

If any manufacturer releases a console that allows for offline play and free interactive online play, and doesn't require an absurd controller, I'll buy it in a heartbeat.

Re: Why buy consoles that aren't above and beyond?

[jxander]

Give me a console that does this, and I'll buy it.

In the meantime, I need to keep browsing forums for another 20-30 minutes while my console updates... and then has to download a patch for the game.

Re:They still make game consoles?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Or you could just buy them from GOG in the first place...

Re:They still make game consoles?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

I have no idea what modern console games are doing; I don't have one. However, the idea that you need a dedicated server, run by the game developers or some intermediary on a subscription basis, just to get a dozen players in the same arena is just silly. Anyone could run a server even back in the early days of games like Quake, and many people did, and the community quickly developed tools to find them so you could match people up and get a game, and it worked just fine without id Software or Microsoft or Valve whoever else controlling everything. That was about 20 years ago, with devices and connection speeds orders of magnitude slower than we have today. If modern game developers can't do the same for the same kinds of game, then they just aren't very good.