Another Iphone launch and another prognostication of the DOOM of console gaming!

As most of us know, the Iphone 6 was announced yesterday.  Earlier this year, Apple also announced Metal http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/2/5773128/metal-ios-gaming-wwdc  their "almost direct access" utilities for developers.  It's interesting to note that Apple designs their own proprietary processors, as that means they also design them with their own OS in mind.

THe new processor in the Iphone 6 http://www.extremetech.com/computing/189787-apples-a8-soc-analyzed-the-iphone-6-chip-is-a-2-billion-transistor-20nm-monster has over 2 BILLION transistors.  THat is a crapload for a phone.

During the keynote, Apple demoed VainGlory http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/09/09/vainglory-the-ios-moba-league-of-legends-and-dota-2-players-may-care-about .  It was pretty impressive for a cell phone game.  The thing to remember about this game, is that it wasn't designed to work only on the new Iphone 6, but previous Iphones too.  So, this game is only scratching at the surface of what will be available in the future when developers aren't afraid to make games for "only Iphone 6 or later" type of scenarios.

If I was making portable gaming systems, I would have been worried 2 years ago that cellphones will eventually wipe out my business.  As of today, I would no longer be worried, I would be accepting my fate.

You can take your cellphone and hook it up to just about any HDTV and get the same output (1080p in most cases) as you do on your cellphone screen.  Yu can also add controllers to get past the screen mashing of the cell phones.  I would guess that at some point, they will sell a Docking Station for cell phones. This will be a simple thing that provides continious power to the phone and a direct hook up to both the tv and wireless controllers. That would basically eliminate the need for console for 75% of the market.

As far as Console makers go, I am sure that they have a few years to go before they hit the panic button.  But, based on how hard Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft want you to get in their ecosystem now, they know what is coming.

I would guess that at some point, they will sell a Docking Station for cell phones. This will be a simple thing that provides continious power to the phone and a direct hook up to both the tv and wireless controllers. That would basically eliminate the need for console for 75% of the market.

The question is how many people buy a smartphones mainly to play games.
Comparing sale of smartphones with consoles is stupid

Graphically, it's still high resolution Dreamcast. Gameplay, there are a handful of nifty games out there.

Wake me when they have built-in physical game pads.

I think by 2016, Nintendo will be able to create a handheld easily 5-6x the raw horsepower of a Vita, if not more.

That should be enough to get Wii U/PS3/360 level graphics on a portable at either 720p or 960x540 IMO.

Nope, it doesn't matter if one has a quantum computer and the other has a processor ripped from an 80s calculator, it's not a gaming machine by concept.

It is impossible. Short answer is:

Phone: 5w

Tablet: 10w

Console: 200w

PC: You can even grab 1000w, your choice.

If you use the same tech on all these devices (and that is a lot of a stretch because mobile GPUs use several year old desktop tech), the device that uses more power is more powerful. To beat that guy, you need to get way better tech. Just think at this: a phone uses 20 to 40x less power than a console. You need a decade of tech to reach that guy. And if you create a tech that can beat the 200w or 1000w guy with just 5w, someone will just get your revolutionary tech and use on a 200w or 1000w system that will crush your 5w device.

The quick advance in mobile tech just happened because the tech used on phones was pathetic in 2005. And then gradually they started putting their best silicon in there. Exactly what PCs and consoles are doing since ever. Now they reached the power wall. It's just like Sony portables, lagging a gen behind their consoles.

And don't talk about transistor count. A 2010 Core i7 would have "just" 1B and simply obliterates the performance of an ARM processor. We actually have good evidence that ARM was an option for PS4/X1 but was discarted for its low performance. The ARM architecture was made to be power efficient, not powerful. x86, PowerPC and any other were created for desktop computing/supercomputer and other enviroments in a time nobody was caring about power comsumption but everybody was eager to get more performance. Even Intel just puts on phones their weak Atom processors. These things, when created, were basically first gen Pentium processors created with modern litography and some more tweaks. They are literally the worse available x86 CPU (of course, they use way less power). And they were beating a lot of high-end ARM SoCs when released. And they are absolutelly the worst thing x86 has to offer.

And there is the die size. The area of a desktop/console CPU and GPU is way higher than on a phone. They use the same manufacturing tech (even that is a stretch, Intel usually is always one gen ahead). And right now, we are close to the limit of how tiny components can be so the margin to improve things without growing the die size is really getting tight even on desktops where you can use a massive cooler or even use water to cool things down.

Edit: Just one more thing, portable consoles will surelly lag behind heavily. These guys have to worry and looking at how badly both 3DS and Vita are doing compared with their predecessors things can get complicated.

That's the problem isnt't it.  You assume that console gamers only buy them to play games?  Why is the most popular feature of any console Netflix?  It is quite obvious nowadays, that people buy devices and expect them to be swiss army knives.  They want to buy 1 device and get rid of 3 others.  

Back to your point, how many are buying for games?  PRobably not many.  How many are gaming on their phones?  Almost all of them...

iPhone the DOOM of the console gaming.. Made me PSYCHED!

Seriously - I mean come on, it's only a smart phone and it's so gimmicky. Bullcrap!

To be honest, it wouldn't take much for a smart phone to be much more functional as a gaming device without having to turn it into a giant Game Boy or something.

A small directional input (stick or nub) and 2 physical buttons (L/R) style would make a smartphone able to play most types of games (secondary commands could be on-screen buttons) quite well. Good enough for most people on the go.

I kinda think Samsung should try that, like a Galaxy Gamer phone (they have so many variants of the Galaxy line anyway).