Possible Future of Console Gaming?

This is a good read. Makes me wonder whats going to happen and to see how things unfold.


games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/hello-b...aming-003839870.html

Wow, a yahoo article labeled as a "good read?"

I'd say this is far likelier than a possibility at this point. It's pretty much what everything is inevitably moving to.

It will eventually get to that point for digital distribution. Just look how it has slowly been happening to the PC market. Now will this happen in the next gen of consoles? Maybe.

I personally don't think they will be total digital distribution since 95% of the sales come from big box retail stores. If they can't push any product than why would they sell the consoles when the get a small percentage of return on it.

The only thing I can see them do is sell the voucher to claim your digital item plus I'm sure Gamestop and EB Games would take a giant hit on the used market and I'm sure they get have some push or sway in this or they might opt to not sell the next consoles.

DrDeath wrote: Wow, a yahoo article labeled as a "good read?"

lol!

drpain wrote: ...they might opt to not sell the next consoles.

They wouldn't sell them at a loss as some/most consoles do at first. If they can make profit, they will be sold. Steam doesn't do deals with Newegg, but they still sell computers and hardware as there is profit to be made. They might not get every oil change and maintenance purchase from you, but they'll still sell you the car. [/carAnalogy] The line between PC and console will blur even more, but I expect to see it lean more towards PC, rather than dumbing things down.

Edit: But Gamefly is completely effed.

Console people just need to get used to what the PC people got used to 10 years ago. That games need a code, once used the game can't be sold it's yours.


I don't think it will kill console gaming, but I do think it will really hurt the Gamestop etc reselling used games, and will pretty much kill Gamefly.

The publishers have been pushing for something like this one the consoles for a long time.

So console only players welcome to the world of PC game buying.

Leonresevil2 wrote:

drpain wrote: ...they might opt to not sell the next consoles.

They wouldn't sell them at a loss as some/most consoles do at first. If they can make profit, they will be sold. Steam doesn't do deals with Newegg, but they still sell computers and hardware as there is profit to be made. They might not get every oil change and maintenance purchase from you, but they'll still sell you the car. [/carAnalogy] The line between PC and console will blur even more, but I expect to see it lean more towards PC, rather than dumbing things down.

Edit: But Gamefly is completely effed.

True Gamefly would be pretty much screwed over and if the brick and mortars decided to sell than I could see them at a higher price to cover their costs and make a profit since games would be digital goods. Me Personally I'll probably just go with one of them for NextGen instead of the usually 3 or so.

The entire Xbox brand is about worthless anymore and I can't see them distinguishing themselves as console only or basically a closed off mini-pc running Windows in the future.

This only reinforces the fact that my PS3 is used only for Netflix and DVD/Bluray use. I see
the PC gaining even more ground because of this.

Wingcmdr77 wrote: This only reinforces the fact that my PS3 is used only for Netflix and DVD/Bluray use. I see
the PC gaining even more ground because of this.

At least you are getting more use out of yours than mine haha. I finally turned my Xbox 360 on for the first time a few weeks ago and it hasn't been online in maybe a year, year and a half while the PS3 has been collecting dust since they had their security breach.

I don't even use the Netflix app on either and stream everything through my Apple TV.

You know if they took out the cd drive and made everything cloud. They could put a water cooling system in and make the console extremely fast and reliable.