Squilliam said:
Well it beats me sorry as to the other player. I think smartphones/tablets are also threats to Nintendo's home console market. They responded to the threat of smartphones essentially by eating Sony's market and moving towards the core gamer with their latest handheld because a lot of the DS owners will probably be starting to play games on things like the iPad given the same kind of simple gameplay is easy to implement on them whereas the more complicated 3D games are much safer for now. I think the Wuu's tablet is an attempt to embrace the same kinds of games as the tablets in order to stave off some of the encrouchment. The nVidia/Valve thing is an interesting development especially given how nVidia has been developing cloud gaming infrastructure. On the one hand you've got something for the hardcore gamer, I.E. the guy who spends $500+ on games / heaps on hardware whom you could say are the best customers so whilst they may be few their value is immense. On the other hand you've got the option of very low entry cost into gaming and streaming from their services and direct competition for customers from a Valve console so you've got competition for both ends of the market. |
I think Nintendos next handheld is pretty safe as well; it is after all a dedicated gaming device and thus superior to any smartphone games. It might not sell 150m+ - but they should be able to do some good numbers none the less. But that's like 3-5 years from now ^^
I don't really think Wii U's a reaction to tablets. As far as I know development started back in 2008 - and that's very close in time of the release of the first iPhone; so that market wasn't that big then. I think they saw the success of the DS and wanted a new "gimmick" if you will for their next home console as well (like the Wii had motion controls). Unfortunately Apple launched the iPad and thus destroyed the novelty of the Wii Us GamePad before it even was launched.
How ever this plays out, 2013 will be a very interesting year in gaming!!!
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