Peter Vesterbacka, CEO of Rovio Mobile and creator of the popular mobile game Angry Birds announced his opinion about the future of console games on a panel at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin. Vesterbacka claims traditional console games are much too expensive at $40 or $50 per game. He also said console developers are not as "nimble" as mobile developers due to the time it takes to develop and release new content. 

All this combined with how difficult it is to upgrade console games led Vesterbacka to announce that console games are dying. Nokia's Tero Ojanpera was on the panel as well and refuted Vesterbacka’s comment, stating that there's still a place for consoles because gamers aren't going to plug tablet devices into their televisions.

Vesterbacka acknowledged the fact that regarding the business model for mobile gaming "no one has figured it out yet" but clearly there is a business opportunity. No one can deny Angry Birds is popular with one hundred million downloads, or that it isn't a cash cow, but can games like Angry Birds really stomp out console gaming? Vesterbacka thinks so, saying he's tired of the phrase "casual games" when referring to mobile gaming and that an Angry Birds player can be just as addicted and involved as any other gamer, even going so far as to mention times when he has seen devices thrown across the room in frustration.

Who knew that all you needed to officially clear a game of being casual is the ability to irritate your players? Indeed, if that is all that makes a game a game, the console industry had better watch out.

Source: VentureBeat

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Wow this is ludicrous, this guy can't be serious.

Vesterbacka claims traditional console games are much too expensive at $40 or $50 per game.
Compared to what, a simple measily mobile game? Which hardly has any content and even less value.

He also said console developers are not as "nimble" as mobile developers due to the time it takes to develop and release new content.
Well no crap, the extra content for mobile games fails in comparision to the amount for console games. Plus companies don't want to release extra content asap as gamers feel ripped off because the companies could have added the content in the original game.

Anyways, console games aren't going anywhere. This guy is way over his head.

Phones and tablets aren't going to kill gaming consoles because their cheaper. PC never killed game consoles so why should this?

"Fuck Angry Birds," says console gamer badgenome.

This guy obviously does not want my money. Good luck with trying to destroy gaming for so many people.

Angry Birds clearly offers a very different experience from the larger games. This guy is also clearly a moron for not being able to see that.

Yes there is a space for mobile games in the market, no it is not going to push out the more cinematic and larger scale games.

Lol so $2 mobile games that suck ass and provide 5-10 minutes of fun while waiting for the bus are going to take over full $60 games that provide potentially hundreds of hours of fun? Yeah...no.

If he's talking about DS/PSP games, he may have a point.

If he's talking about 360/Wii/PS3 games, he needs to shut up.

iPhone/Android/iPad gaming is going to continue to impact portables. As more devices converge, less people are going to want a dedicated gaming device. It's just another thing to spend money on and carry around. The thing he seems to be missing is that the SAME THING is happening in the living room, only the consoles are actually the convergence devices. Netflix, movie rentals, downloads, all available on the PS3/360. They're not just game consoles anymore. They're much more than that.

I highly doubt it. Although, with the route OnLive is going, I could see a future where consoles aren't needed because everything is delivered for video games in the same way we receive cable.

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