binary solo said:
A_C_E said:
binary solo said:
Are game consoles really that important in a broader entertainment context for any company other than a dedicated gaming company to get in the game, so to speak?
I feel like even if consoles are still selling well, their overall importance has passed its peak. Sony made gaming consoles mainstream by first making them double as CD players and then more importantly double as DVD players. But aside from those developments, and the fact Nintendo and MS both failed to given motion controlled gaming or device interaction any real legs game consoles don;t really have a lot to offer to the general population and it's really tablets, Apple TV's and the like, Chromecasts and the like, and smart TVs that are going to be the way people interact with the world through their TV sets.
Consoles need all those streaming apps like Netflix and Amazon Prime to try to remain relevant. But they are not the forefront for delivering these things to the TV audience. |
Netflix is part of the movie industry, same with Amazon Prime. The videogame industry is worth more than $70,000,000,000 world-wide, that's more than the movie and music industry combined. Netflix needs gaming consoles more than gaming consoles need Netflix. Netflix also benefits from consoles more than it benefits Smart TV's, by a wide margin! 100's of millions of home consoles have been sold world wide that have the ability to stream Netflix.
People buy home consoles to game on, Netlflix and the like are added bonuses for sure but beyond convenience they serve as a distant second in command next to videogames. I mean CoD just launched to over a half-billion dollars this week...there is major money to be had in this industry.
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And how much of that huge amount of money is hardware profit? Bugger all. Console hardware is a mug's game. By all accounts over the lifetime of Xbox MS has failed to turn a profit despite cumulatively selling in excess of 100 million units. And there are hundreds of millions more devices aside from consoles and Smart TVs that play those streaming services so consoles are not so important to Netflix and the like as you suggest.
The real money in gaming is in the games, not in the hardware.
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OK...I feel like we are actually agreeing more than disagreeing. I'm not saying Netflix needs consoles I'm saying Netflix needs consoles 'more' than the consoles need Netflix. And yes the money is in the software but there is still money to be had in hardware, the Wii and DS can attest to that. And MS is a good example of a company willing to shell out billions of dollars just to interupt a slight competitor, not necessarily to make loads of cash. Other companies wouldn't follow suit with MS's tradition even though MS did eventually turn it around to begin making a profit in the games division.
