Like clockwork, David Thier contributed this piece to Forbes. Hot on news of fresh studio closures in Microsofts first party portfolio, this piece does its bit to ride the negative wave and predict the fall of the entire industry. Even with Playstation selling "gangbusters"

I guess if HTC screw up a launch and sell way less of their next phone we can expect a load of doom and gloom articles on the mobile industry.... somehow I think not.

I for one will buy a PS5 and probably an NX if they are decent, what about you lot? Are you all going to stop buying consoles now? 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2016/03/07/xbox-one-and-ps4-is-the-death-of-consoles-inevitable/#3df36f77be19

I'll stop buying consoles. If every single franchise is only made on a phone.

I hope VR is successful.

Yes, you just need to keep buying them people. Vote with your wallets or something.

Consoles won't die in the near future, they will probably have less lifespan if they keep making them underpowered

Xbox will become integrated with Windows and become a service, they will license out the brand to make "Windows Xboxes" similar to "Steam Machines".

Playstation will become a streaming service available on Smart TVs, Micro-consoles, Phones/Tablets.

Nintendo will release a portable device and micro-console with a unified library.

The last traditional console maker will be Nintendo. MS will be the first one gone followed by Sony. The last years will be pretty sad. The big yearly AAA franchises will be gone. Nintendo will be bravely moving forward with their first party IPs and some indies. The gaming industry will shrink back down to the pre AAA explosion days. Pretty much it will return to being a niche group again.

I mean, yeah, but I don't really see this as a bad thing. Consoles will be replaced, largely by something superior. NX will be the only "console," but that will be so drastically different from consoles of old that it'll be like calling a smart phone a cell phone.

MS already made their move obvious, making a hardware platform that it more PC than console, but will still be console-like. And Sony will continue to improve PS Now until 2022 when it succeeds the PS4 and the main playstation platform. By that point, PSNow will be on everything, and they will probably release a cheap, $100 streaming box like the PSTV, call it the PS5, and call it a day. All will be awesome, and gaming will win.

If Sony is really smart, PSNow will be playable on NX and Windows, but only if you have the DS4/5 or whatever. They still get 100% of the profits since they will be selling a service instead of hardware.

So yeah, the death of traditional consoles is inevitable. And thank God for that. It's like consoles are the Flintstones and they are next door neighbors to the mobile, book, film and TV Jetsons. We're living in the stone ages still for no good reason.

I predict they ll have longer and longer lifespans.

Because of deminishing returns on visual quality improvements vs required hardware power to reach those levels.

Also because game developement takes longer and longer, as games get bigger and prettier looking.

I think this gen only lasts until 2019-2020, but the next one will last much longer.

Because of the technology jump, from 3D transistors, hybrid memory cube technology, how long we where stuck on 28nm ect.

Next consoles will last longer than this gens consoles.

I'm not so sure. I only say this because people like physical media, both music & movies have gone full force digital / streaming but yet, traditional discs are still available as an option