I do think like that too. This generation will survive, but I wonder what we will have in a decade..

There's a bit of a division between portable and home consoles, but I see the market for both as dedicated platforms shrinking, but not disappearing throughout the current generation.

I'll venture to say that the market for dedicated handheld gaming systems is definitely shrinking thanks to iOS and Android platform gaming. Yes, we've heard the old arguments about how it's not the same, we all love physical controls and buttons, but for the average consumer who already has a smartphone that they carry with them everywhere, it doesn't matter.

What we will see is a continued market for children's handheld gaming for those who have kids that aren't allowed to play games on their parents' iPhones or iPads. It's still a viable option for inexpensive children's entertainment although the $30-40 price per game may be something of an issue when a child can just as easily be entertained playing a free to play app on a phone or tablet. More and more sales might shift to Nintendo's DD games with more expensive retail games filling in the gaps and providing big profile exclusive games that justify proprietary hardware.

I can practically guarantee we won't be seeing another Playstation portable system. As much as I love the Vita as a gaming device, the market for it is simply too small to justify future versions although with the loss of their smartphone branch, who knows? If there's still a market for $40 portable games in the future, Sony will still need a platform for them. If there's a high enough conversion rate between PS4 owners and PS4+PSV owners, maybe they can keep their portable line going as a sort of satellite device for their home consoles.

Regarding home consoles, I'm going to say that this will not be the final generation, but that future generations will be a lot less clearly defined as dedicated game consoles become more of a smaller niche product. Like children's handheld games, I think there will always be a market for consumers who want the simplicity of a console; it just might be a smaller market. But the notion that everyone will be gaming on gaming PCs in the future is one that I do not agree with.

So far, the PS4 has been sending the message that consumers still want a reasonably powerful, reasonably priced game console as long as it has the games they want to play available or in the works. The PS4 certainly isn't making any sales based upon non-existent TV or media functions, so it's doing as a gaming console. Unless the market changes more drastically over the next five years than it has since 2006, the games consumers are playing today will still need a platform on which to be played in the future and again, everyone isn't going to be doing it on a PC or even a Steam box.

Console are just accessible. Therefore, its not going anywhere.

On a semi-related note, unless I have kids who are into console games in the future, the PS4 may be my last console since the amount that I play these days barely justifies having a dedicated console when it just means buying games that see minimal if any play and a rare game every now and again that sees repeated play.

But if I have money in the entertainment budget, I may end up buying a PS5 even if it sees little use, but my guess would be that it would be used for light gaming and a lot of Hulu Plus, Netflix and other streaming services.

In a decade, we might have console games beamed directly into our smart TVs via cable providers or some shit like that.