Having a nice piece of a big pie is better than having the entire piece of a very small pie I think.

If iOS continues to negatively impact handheld console sales, I think Nintendo may have little choice.

They are never, ever going to start making iOS games though like all those uniformed "analysts" think, but if they could secure themselves a nice deal with Sony, I think they would listen to it. Who knows, given how desperate Sony is right now, Nintendo may even be able to get a split more along the lines of 60/40 for licensing fees.

There would be other benefits too, like the two could share losses based on yen flucuations, rather than eating them seperately, which is walloping both Nintendo and Sony pretty hard right now. Shared marketing costs and split R&D would also help with costs.

Nintendo could just make their own phone

That's too far out of Nintendo's comfort zone, and honestly there are too many problematic stigmas with that brand (ie: it's more for kids, extreme casuals) for a "Nintendo phone" to attract demographics like businessmen, grown adults, etc. Plus in that scenario, they'd be out on their own competing against ... Apple ... which I don't think Nintendo wants any part of.

If they go in that direction it will only be with proper back up.

Yes there are those who will buy the cheaper set-top boxes. I actually stated that specifically. They may actually never buy any of the boxes and just utilize what comes in their future TV or bluray player. But, they are not the market these companies are focusing on.

Likewise, there are those who only buy one companies first party titles and it won't matter what that box has, they'll still buy it and maybe something else as well.

Then there are those who like to game and will buy the version that has the best value in games and smart OS features. This is the largest single segment of gamers and what all three really want to reach. This is the group that will never choose a console that doesn't have these smart OS features because they also want those features and at least one console is guaranteed 100% to have them. (MS)

Its not about disruption but about the normal path of the markets. They are colliding for better or worse. They have been moving this way for the past two generations. They are the reason MS entered gaming in the first place.

My main point is that next-gen gaming must have smart OS otherwise it will lose in the long run. That OS will define it as much as the game library. It will not be just games that are the focus but all content.

We'll see rol, we'll see.

We completely disagree here, among other places. If you'd been writing a decade ago, you'd probably have written "ability to play DVDs" instead, with the same result.

There are already a plethora of cheaper, better alternatives for your multimedia needs, and the number of such is only going to grow. If you're looking to a game console primarily for anything aside from gaming, ur doing it wrong.

Well a phone isn't always the option, they could also do a tablet, and the Wii U could be very telling if it suceeds or not.

But to clarify on the phone statement,The best companies can step out of their comfort zone. And I have seen nintendo Step out of their confort zone many many times. So a phone is not out of the relm of possiblility, remember, apple didn't make a phone before the iphone as well.

And a Phone would would be good for that very reason of the casual crowd, they could easily draw those people in and there are a lot of them. Knowing Nintendo, they would bring in a really cool new feature to phones that would be really cool to that kind of audience. plus, I know a lot of teens/adults that would get a nintendo phone just because it has pokemon on it. How ever you are right about the businessmen and professional crowd, but it wouldn't really matter to them because that casual crowd will be huge.

You're missing my point.

People who want to play games will look at consoles over the other media players. However, they will also demand smart OS based content. That is my point.

Sure they can buy a cheap alternative and a dedicated console. But the dedicated consoles will now have that same content and it will be expected and demanded from consumers.... at least the large majority of gaming consumers.

lol, well I still think it had a viable chance as a smartphone with yearly iterations like others, android based, and full of Playstation content only available on it. I would have likely bought it as I'm sure many other smartphone owners.

But, we'll never know as the only proven thing will be if it rebounds or dies early as I said in that thread.

However, if Sony's next portable is a smartphone and it does well/better, then I WIN!

"What I hope I have demonstrated is that the dedicated console is effectively dead...

Next gen will be smart multimedia set-top devices, not gaming consoles. They will be OS branded and equal in importance to first party games."

I'm not missing your point. I'm telling you your point is incorrect. Future game consoles will have much of the same capabilities as set-tops, because why the hell not?, but they will be game platforms first and foremost. No "equal" about it. Any game console that tries to make the two equal will be pretty much dead, as it's emphasizing capabilities that are widely available elsewhere, and will only become increasingly accessible as time goes on.

That line about DVDs in my last post wasn't chosen at random. If you want to amend your point to "from now on game consoles will also have lots of multi-media capabilities!" then I'd say "yeah, sounds about right." If you're going to stick to your point that multimedia capabilities will be as important, if not more so, to future game consoles, I'm going to have to keep disagreeing with you.