| superchunk said:
The difference is Roku, Apple TV, majority of Android OEMs... they all don't have first party games. They will get 3rd party titles and be just fine, like a PC. However, if MS/Sony/Nintendo do not add smart OS features, then MS will easily mop the floor with them and its Win8 integration... hell even Apple or one of Google's OEMs will out do them. Let's take Apple. Let's assume its next iTV product is equal in power to Wii U in 2013. Consider the number of people with iOS phones and tablets already, plus a very affordable bluetooth controller. Then I am right and ALL 3rd party games are also on the device in addition to all the mobile style games. Do you really think it wouldn't sell tens of millions? Do you really think all the 'core gamers' out there who only buy cod, gta, batman, assassin's creed, [insert tons of other AAA 3rd party titles] wouldn't just buy that vs a PS4 that is a Vita style upgrade? Meaning it has a lot more power, but still only a gaming machine with a halfway decent browers and a few media apps? There are far more gamers who really don't care about MS/Sony first party than you think. Nintendo proves this. They have the singular best selling first party titles there are. Yet, looking at N64 and GC and you come to the quick realization that first party alone will only get you to the 20/30million range. You a have to have something else to push you further. Wii had that with its casual pull due to Wii Sports/Fit. Xbox/PS3 has that with tons of 3rd party support. Games are a big draw for a gaming console. But what if 95% of those games are on 10 other devices that have all the same console simplicity, TV connections, and tons of other value added features you already us A LOT on your phones? Again, without a smart OS, they will fail. Vita is failing due to this and it should have been a smartphone. MS is doing this and will be fine. I sincerely hope Sony and Nintendo are doing this as well as I expect. |
That is untenable. The videogame component of a multimedia box gobbles up a large amount of resources. If videogames are just a focus, one of umpteen different ones, then why wouldn't the majority of people interested in multimedia simply revert to the built-in functions of their TV, or purchase a much cheaper boxtop?
Much of the rest of your post even concedes this. Your iTV example requires enough juice under the hood to be a full-fledged game console. Third party AAA games can and will run off the thing. Of course gamers will buy this thing...because it has the games they want to play. Of course, the price of this iTV is going to be huge, because of the need to run these AAA games. So people who aren't really interested in gaming, but who want the multimedia features, can just stick to their smart TV/wi-fi added Blu-Ray/whatever much cheaper alternative they prefer. This wouldn't exactly be a case of "disruption" per se, but if the OS is really the big draw, with gaming being secondary-at-best, the end result will look remarkably similar.
Do you see what happened here?
