What If? The PS4 Fails And Sony Quits The Gaming Industry

[greenmedic88]

If SCE left the console/hardware making business due to the lack of profitability, it would be a sign that video game consoles themselves had become relics of a previous era and had lost their relevance as entertainment centers. While you can rule out corporate bungling/mismanagement as the reason for a company leaving a market (Sega, Atari), if Sony exited, it would be more likely a greater indicator of the overall state of the market and the lack of ability to adjust to changes or anticipate future trends.

It's entirely possible that the future of "game consoles" is cable/TV/internet boxes that also happen to play games tailored specifically for said hardware, but at this point it becomes a valid question as to whether the purchase of a branded game playing box even becomes necessary when the "box" can be in any laptop or desktop PC the consumer owns, or any other device that's already connected to a network service.

The future of consoles may well just be that: network services that are accessible by more than just proprietary hardware. In this future, dedicated consoles would be little more than a cheap box that grants access to the network services but doesn't do any of the actual processing for the purpose of having a branded piece of hardware that can be marketed, purchased and placed in consumers' living rooms/homes.

If Sony left the gaming hardware business, it would also mean abandoning the lucrative walled entertainment media business also as the PS3 has in effect become a set top box for accessing streamed, downloaded media and services in addition to functioning as a dedicated, proprietary gaming device.

Considering how Sony has a great deal invested in actual content from the music industry, film industry and television industry, if you weren't accessing their media from a Playstation X, it would still be accessible from a Playstation Network on a Sony PC or network device. Even if there was no box labeled and marketed as the "Playstation," the Playstation would still exist.