The "consoles are dead" years were hilarious in retrospect

[SvennoJ]

Pajderman said:

I view them as two different markets. The revenue from mobile games comes from adds and micro transactions while games on consoles are mostly from buying the game even if micro transactions sadly are on the rise there as well. Simplyfied it is the old quality vs quantity. Sell something cheep a lot of times or something expensive fewer times.

There are a few mobile games that I think matches the experience on consoles, but almost all of them have annoying ways to generate money that lessen the experience. But a few nuggets exists on mobile as well, but then the games cost a pretty penny in the same way that games cost on consoles.
The number of games that are free to play or very low in cost have created the expectations from consumers that mobile games need to be cheep or they are not worth the time.

Subscriptions are trying to change that though. (while games on consoles are mostly from buying the game) MS throwing everything day 1 on Gamepass is eating into game sales. Plus the abundance of discount sales and f2p have diminished the perceived value of games a lot. There is a lot of resistance against $70 games, even though that's still low when you take inflation into account. And you still have to put up with MTX and season passes.

Revenue models on console are creeping closer and closer to mobile revenue models. Console gaming isn't in danger, but the AAA linear single player console game kinda is. Only the biggest franchises survive. The rest have to adapt to new revenue models.

Hiku said:

A lot of popular top grossing mobile games are largely, if not completely, dependant on the video games or anime, etc that they are based on.

Dragonball Z Dokkan Battle for example had grossed over over $3 billion as of August 2021, and it's still going strong to this day.
Compare that to the Dragonball Super Broly movie which only grossed $116 million worldwide.

Does that suggest that they should just focus on the mobile games?
No. Because the movie provides more source material for the game (new characters that people can spend money to obtain), which in turn makes it even more successful.

There are popular mobile games based on videogame brands as well such as Final Fantasy, and it's the same thing there. 

However, even for mobvile games that have no correlation to an already established brand that it depends on, I think a lot of people delve into both.
Console gaming when they are home. And a bit of mobile gaming while they are at work or on the go, etc.

I'm sure gaming companies are well aware of this.
It's similar to what Shuhei Yoshida said about The Last Guardian. He said Sony knew it wouldn't be a huge seller, but that games like this are also neccesary. 

Yes necessary to keep selling consoles. A diverse line up is what is needed to keep them attractive.

And sure plenty people play on console when home next to mobile, but it's not an even market at all. Estimates suggest there are over 2.2 billion mobile gamers! No wonder MS is eyeing that ocean with the acti-blizz acquisition.

Console games also benefit from movies, tv shows, and books. Spiderman, Batman, Harry Potter, the list goes on. But the reality nowadays is that there is more money to be made in mobile games. Cheaper to make, magnitudes larger audience to reach, so much more successful selling MTX which is where the money comes from. Huge popular games still generate good revenue from sales on consoles, yet mobile is surpassing that.

The hunger for big console games is still there, Elden ring generated $6.85 billion in revenues for Bandai Namco. But that's the exception nowadays. Overall mobile performs better. Hence we're seeing more and more GAAS games now and games like Elden ring are in the minority. (Which is also a factor why it sold so well, fewer and fewer quality alternatives)

How long can we keep on blaming the pandemic for the slow turnout of AAA console games this generation?