ALL Next Gen systems are going to fail!

[Landguy]

haxxiy said:

Landguy said:
It's clear that there is a large group of people on this site who think that people are not changing their gaming habits. If a person has to spend $300-500 on a console, why not spend the same on a tablet and get the portability of it? Today, most tablets lack the power of the XB1/PS4. But, in a few short years, they will be a lot closer. "Why buy a console?" will probably be the mantra of the average joe...

Graphic chips are increasingly suffering from diminishing returns when it comes to power consumption. Nowadays increases are about the square root of 2 for every 2x die shrink. Assuming full HD displays, the technology to match current gen consoles for tablets lie, within an optimistic assumption, at the 5nm manufacturing process, which is about 10 years away, perhaps a bit more. The increases you have seen in the last few years on smartphones and tablets are half due to the advances on manufacturing processes, half on companies making them bigger and more expensive as consumer trust and demand grew for these products, and are not going to continue. In fact, even 7th gen performance is safe for a further one or two years, again, taking into account clearer and sharper displays.

I would agree that there is a diminishing return on production.  The fact is, that you can already get a tablet(razer) with a good to great display screen and more powerful than both the PS4/XB1.  The concern about displays is not really existing.  Most if not all tablets/smartphones can output in high def to a tv.  Tablets/smartphones have bluetooth capabilities, that will allow the use of compatible controllers(maybe even a PS3/PS4) if they want.  Power/battery is not a concern either.  Just plug your tablet/smartphone in while using it as a console.  Intel/AMD are really focusing on the smaller and less power consuming processors now.  THey are just competing with one another anymore, as most tablets/smartphones don't even use their processors at all.  So they have the financial capability to put 10's of billions into this area to really get the advancements to continue. 

It might be 3-5 years before a cheap enough tablet can compete with the PS4/XB1, or it could be just 2-3 years.  If it happens sooner, it really only ends the need for the consoles.  It won't replace them to the core gaming community at that point anyway.  But, within 2-3 years after that, why would any big company bother with a new console when there won't be a need to produce a stand alone system?  The capabilities of then pre-existing tablets/smartphones with adequate power will eliminate the need to produce a console.  I do believe that there will probably be one more console generation, but I doubt it will include all 3 companies.  I would guess that the market will only really need 1 console buy then(5-6 years from now).