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SvennoJ on 11 December 2013
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Shinobi-san said:
SvennoJ said:
Shinobi-san said:
SvennoJ said:
Can the demise of the home console by mobile platforms be put to rest now?

If the demand persists into next year Q1 - Q2 then yeah lets start celebrating. Although i dont think its mobile platforms that are the demise of home consoles...but rather home consoles have become their own demise.

Both PS4 and X1 can be seen as updated versions of their predecessors, and I can see it being a hard sell to a casual consumer.

True, although you can use the updated version argument for every gen. At least from the casual consumer perspective.
But yeah, let's see what happens when stock is freely available next year.

I thought the Wii was quite a step up in terms of the gaming experience for the casual gamer.

For the HD twins...well they were the first consoles to bring HD quality graphics and the major shift towards cinematic games (COD, Gears. Uncharted). You only really needed to see a few seconds of footage from the HD twins to see the massive difference in image quality to the PS2. "Its like playing a movie!" I think that really sold the HD twins to the masses.

Im not sure what the hook is this time around though...but maybe that isnt needed this gen. I just feel like the updated version argument is a more valid argument this gen than its ever been.

True, but the Wii was an exception.

The HD twins weren't all that hot for the casuals at the start, HD ready tvs were still in the minority and I remember several articles comparing xbox games to xbox 360 games with the underlying message: if you don't have HDTV it's not that big of a deal.

For example:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-vs-xbox-360-do-you-really-need-hd/1100-6140621/
The environment looks marginally better, with improved textures and additional shrubbery here and there, but it's still very difficult to see any real differences between the 360 and Xbox versions at normal resolution. The game also appears unexplainably dark on the 360 (the shadows engulf poor Ned in our 360 shot). The game definitely looks better at 720p, but stay away from the Xbox 360 port if you don't have an HDTV--it's pure snake oil at standard resolution.

The games will shift over to the new systems and casuals also like to buy the hot new thing.