Higher speed internet and things like Google Fiber are inevitable. If you think your kids will be using the same internet you are think again. 

Storage space is accelerating all the time too, I don't see that as a particularily huge issue. 

If you think gaming will largely be the same in 15-20 years as it is today .... I'll just say I seriously, seriously doubt it. I think by then the "giant shoe box under your TV to play video games" concept will be more or less dead. 

A kid's cell phone will likely be able to stream games to any display around them with graphics that are approaching/close to photorealism. 

Games will also continue to become more complicated leading to better connections being required regardless and companies will also continue to abuse data caps. Streaming video games has a place no doubt (rental) but its simply not practical everywhere.

Netflix isn't practical everywhere either. Hell it doesn't even most new release movies. 

Yet Blockbuster Video is extinct now and so is basically all movie rental houses, and that used to be a staple of America at least, going off to Blockbuster with the family on a Friday night to pick out some movies. 

Things change. Fact of the matter is too, the people who grew up on things like the PS2 (or even earlier) will be like 40-50 years old in 15-20 years. That encompasses most of this board. Their opinions on hardware media are simply not going to matter as much. 

This board insists over and over again that no one should play smartphone games and you need real buttons to play "real" games ... but you ask a kid who's 9 years old and he doesn't give a a shit about any of that he didn't grow up with a NES or Playstation that stuff doesn't mean the same thing to him. 

Once you have things like Google Fiber or its alternatives spread throughout most of North America/Europe/Japan, it doesn't matter what the graphics capability of a game is because the signal is just being streamed, but the control lag will be reduced to the point where most people simply won't care for physical game consoles IMO. 

That and on the other side you'll have smartphones that are absurdly powerful in 15-20 years capable of generating basically any type of game world at a high quality and being able to display that graphic on any display with the snap of a finger. You'll just need a controller if even that. 

Yes because its more convinent to rent from home. Buying movies physically hasnt died now has it?

My internet speed hasn't increased since 2009. So, if I had a kid back then, yes, s/he would have been using the same internet as I did.

And we've been hearing that phones will replace consoles for 5 years now.

These articles on the heels of Microsoft's statements are always dubious.

It's not going anywhere for the time beeing. Microsoft just finally realised that they don't have whats needed to dominate on that market and chose a different one. If it was the X1 having the PS4's sales, we wouldn't be reading this article.

Microsoft starts putting exclusives on PC...so it's the "death of consoles"? Lol. Okay. Maybe it's simply a sign Microsoft shouldn't have gotten into console gaming the first place?

Ok now i get it, the typical Nintendo doom and gloom is all youre spewing.

Fail 1. "Nintendo having high attach rates also comes from their having lesser hardware sales"

Nintendo games have very high attach ratios with all of Nintys platforms including Wii. But ofcourse you are trying to desperately push some kind of agenda like Sony could do the same, with no history of showing it. Sony has a poor selling plat in Vita, attach ratios are a joke. PS4 is a high selling platform where Sonys first party games will also fail to have high attach ratios. They gotta sell way more than 10 million of a single game(a feat Sony pulls very rarely) to have an attach ratio on Nintys level.

Fail 2. " NES to the Wii U all consoles except the Wii"

When you have to use the word "except" there is a obvious flaw in your argument. You are clearly just further spewing the same Ninty doom and gloom we have been hearing forever lol. The Wii being the exception puts a damper on your argument, it proves Ninty is capable of self sustainment. It proves if Ninty does a better job of supporting their own plats, they could sustain. Now you even bring handhelds into this declining argument all because of one decline? Now i see why he gave up explaining this to you. You are so caught up on trying to shit on Wiiu, you want to ignore all of Nintys proof of self sustainment. They dont need home consoles and have clearly given up on them. Does Vita prove Sony will go the way of Sega? No lol because of Sonys success in the home console market, so why childishly ignore Nintys success in the handheld market? Thats the kind of argument he wants to dodge from you because he knows most Ninty haters think just like this "home console market is all that matters to me because Sony is owning it". Meanwhile Ninty continues to stack just as much money as Sony, showing Sony just how much Ninty needs 3rd parties(no much).

I'll believe consoles are on their way out when we start seeing stuff like Call of Duty and GTAV sell at $60 dollars on the App Store/Google Play and do well.

Until then, the markets are divergent enough to ensure that both have a place in the gaming landscape.

Seriously. This is troubling. The fact that the console could be considered "dead" just because Microsoft doesn't want to make console games anymore is silly. If anything this shows a weird, scary ALLEGIANCE people have with Microsoft.