The Distant Future of Console Gaming

[Game_boy]

BengaBenga said:
Good read but I don't agree:

As far as I know almost everyone has a PC and yet CD-players, DVD-players, consoles etc. are being sold. PC's will never fully take over consumer electronics functions because

1. some people want quality (like a good CD/Amplifier/Vinylplayer combination), PC's don't provide this by nature, since everything is digital and most consumer electronic functions are not not a core function of a PC without extra expences. (Good souncards are expensive for example and still don't match real amplifiers/speaker combination).

Everything that can be done in hardware can be done in software. It is only a matter of time really.

2. Most people see their PC as a WORK station, used for documents/internet, people don't want to use there computer for everything.

That would be why sales of top-end gaming video cards have never been higher, Windows Home Server for multimedia sharing has been released and media extenders have never beenn more popular. Just because your PC is boring doesn't mean other people's must be.

3. Putting a DVD in your DVD player is way more convenient than using Windows/software stuff for everything. People want convenient equipment, not a mouse/keyboard combination to do everything.

That's you can put DVDs in my computer and use a media remote to control it. Optical media will die in favour of downloaded content - there will be TVs that link to your PC as a dumb display device channeling remote input to the PC and streaming downloaded movies from the PC.

Gameconsoles definitely will become more and more functional with the internet and have more discspace and function, but just like today the market for different home consoles will exist because people love to play games on their TV instead of on a PC where they have to install files and be attached to a keyboard/mouse.

No. The PC will have like a Linux package manager (one-click invisible download and install) and then stream the game to your TV if you want per point 3.

The reason why it hasn't happened yet is proprietary standards. I want a media network in my home, but tyere's o many proprietary, DRM'd and conflicting standards that I can't do it. When open standards like Displayport, OGG Theora and Vorbis, and Linux dominate it will be easier and much cheaper to do so without buying closed software and hardware to do the same job.