There has been a lot of talk in the games console industry recently about the future of the home console. A lot of big people in the industry seem to be of the belief that it will not be around in the future. Even going as far as saying that the next incarnations of the Xbox and PS are the last that we as consumers are going to ever see.
I don’t believe this to be true. The video console industry, in my opinion, is the strongest there is. And will be sticking around for a long time.
Here is a short breakdown of some of the reasons why I think that this is the case:
The Need For A Host System
The main argument against the home console being around in future, is that the internet speeds are getting fast enough to accomodate a fully in-the-cloud gaming experience. And though this may be the case. A device will still be needed to host the connection to the cloud. What would this be? The most obvious answer, would simply be – a more connectivity oriented version of the more traditional consoles. Implementing something completely new would be unnecessary. My guess is that the console of the future, will just be a differently designed - more connected clone of the current consoles.
Reliability
Even though the wifi networks are getting faster, the problem of reliability seems to lag behind. Entrusting the whole gaming experience to a network connection is not something i see the majority of users doing in the long term. Granted there are many people now, who spend a large amount of time – gaming online. But those same people will still not want to have to worry about latency and connectivity, while they’re playing their career modes. The same reason why desktop apps such as photoshop are as popular as ever is the same reason why users will be hesitant to go with all-of-it in the cloud gaming.
Human Behaviour is very hard to change
People don’t like to change very easily. And with consoles, we’re talking about over 50 years of habit. This is not something that changes overnight. Infact i would argue that this reason alone, is why the console won’t be going away any time soon. Only changing form. There are too many manufacturers, game developers and end users who are entrenched in the way things are to make the console dissappear as easily as has been stated by the pundits.
In short…..
Consoles are not going anywhere
They will just look different to how they look today. And that is what my point breaks down to. That the change in the market will not be as extreme as the people around it think it is going to be. But instead it will be rather subtle and even though consoles will look a little different. The fundamentals will still be there. Consoles, in my opinion – are not going anywhere.
This is a guest post from Tapha. Founder of MyAppTemplates.com, a site that provides custom iphone app templates to people who cannot afford to spend $1,000?s on their iphone app design.
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