By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Gaming Discussion - The "consoles are dead" years were hilarious in retrospect

Mar1217 said:
super_etecoon said:

Ha, he even used as support for his argument that Michael Pachter agrees.  And without a touch of irony.

We can only be glad he's revelancy died after the start of the Switch-era proved him mostly wrong. Remember the time when we had news of his predictions on almost a weekly basis ? This was wild how people were getting fired up by something that had basically no substantial backing

SKMBlake said:

They reportedly cancelled it due to the poor reception of the GTA Trilogy 

Oh wow, they did something sound for once. I mean it's clear that a "remaster" of RDR would've prolly employed the same team of development that was behind the dreadful massacre of the original trilogy 😅

I miss Patcher, at least with him we had almost 90% or more precision on prediction as long as we reversed what he said.

And indeed if the RDR remaster/remake was similar to GTA I would consider it trash (but didn't it generate quite some revenue?)



duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=8808363

Mr Puggsly: "Hehe, I said good profit. You said big profit. Frankly, not losing money is what I meant by good. Don't get hung up on semantics"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9008994

Azzanation: "PS5 wouldn't sold out at launch without scalpers."

Around the Network
DonFerrari said:

The narrative was certainly imbecile, but the way I see Sony answer was risk mitigation. They didn't make mobile games or changed their focus on console (they double down on investing on their best games and increasing scope), but attached functionalities to the console that would use the smartphone (and mostly useless ones).
I do hope that even with the increase in revenue on mobile gaming Sony keep their core in consoles and for smartphones they either use the PS+ streaming features or make the MP/GAAS games playable there but keep making a lot of great SP for console.

The problem with the PS Streaming app is that it requires a Dualshock 4 or Dualsense to work properly, cause PS (as Nintendo) consoles have console-specifi features. So it will be hard to expand as much as Xbox xCloud



SKMBlake said:
DonFerrari said:

The narrative was certainly imbecile, but the way I see Sony answer was risk mitigation. They didn't make mobile games or changed their focus on console (they double down on investing on their best games and increasing scope), but attached functionalities to the console that would use the smartphone (and mostly useless ones).
I do hope that even with the increase in revenue on mobile gaming Sony keep their core in consoles and for smartphones they either use the PS+ streaming features or make the MP/GAAS games playable there but keep making a lot of great SP for console.

The problem with the PS Streaming app is that it requires a Dualshock 4 or Dualsense to work properly, cause PS (as Nintendo) consoles have console-specifi features. So it will be hard to expand as much as Xbox xCloud

That is partially true, if I'm not wrong if you play on iPhone you can use touch screen as dreadful as that is when streaming from PS5, for PS+ content I have no idea but you are most likely right although the purchase of a controller shouldn't be a big barrier when you want to reach as much as possible removing barriers is necessary.



duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=8808363

Mr Puggsly: "Hehe, I said good profit. You said big profit. Frankly, not losing money is what I meant by good. Don't get hung up on semantics"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9008994

Azzanation: "PS5 wouldn't sold out at launch without scalpers."

DonFerrari said:
SKMBlake said:

The problem with the PS Streaming app is that it requires a Dualshock 4 or Dualsense to work properly, cause PS (as Nintendo) consoles have console-specifi features. So it will be hard to expand as much as Xbox xCloud

That is partially true, if I'm not wrong if you play on iPhone you can use touch screen as dreadful as that is when streaming from PS5, for PS+ content I have no idea but you are most likely right although the purchase of a controller shouldn't be a big barrier when you want to reach as much as possible removing barriers is necessary.

Oh you're absolutely correct, forgot about the remote play app



Like most technological change, people expected it to take hold a lot faster than it actually has. You can see the same thing playing out with AI right now. Look back in a decade or two, and we're going to laugh at what people are saying about AI taking over right now.

That said, mobile has continued to gain market share, and consoles have lost market share. To be clear, I'm talking about the size of their piece of the pie. Console sales are not really declining. But they're not growing either, while other segments of the gaming business are growing. So consoles are a smaller segment of the market, and are continuing to decline relative to mobile (and sometimes to PC as well). So, consoles definitely are not dead. But I think it is safe to say that we are past peak console, and that their market share is likely to continue to decrease for the foreseeable future.



Around the Network

The home PC style of console is dying though.
I only see something like the Switch surviving.



I LOVE ICELAND!

Pajderman said:
Pemalite said:

It's a mobile device. - The fact it can dock, doesn't change that fact.
My Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has a dock and interfaces with my display, it's actually one of the benefits of USB-C.

In-fact if I go back to something like the old Lumia 950XL you had the Microsoft Display dock which turned the phone into essentially a PC using continuum.

Phones and Tablets have docks and predate the Switch's docking technology. - My tablet is always docked in the kitchen, it never leaves it, I use it for fire alerts.
But they are still mobile devices.

But what reinforces the Switch being a mobile device and not a home fixed console or even a hybrid is that, regardless that is has a touch display, mobile SoC, battery and can be taken outside of the home...

It is the Switch Lite. Which can't do any of that anyway,

I'm curious, to me this sound more like an argument against the possibility of a hybrid console than against the switch being one. 

Is it possible to imagine a hybrid console at all? How would a console work in order to be able to be called a hybrid console instead of a mobile one?

I would argue the WiiU was a true hybrid as it was a fixed home console, that allowed you to play away from the TV with a mobile display, albeit with limited range.

The Switch is designed as a mobile device first and foremost, it's actually a fantastic mobile device, the fixed-console aspect however is comparatively poor and more of a feature added "just because they can".



--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--

I remember seeing this all over the place the last couple of years before the PS4 & XBO were released. So many of the arguments were based on an actual observed fact: a decline in console game revenues during the early 2010s. It seems they were extrapolating from that to argue that the console market was hurting, and that perhaps the emerging mobile gaming segment and other "disruptive" developments were the reason. What they failed to notice is that the console market was cyclical, rising and falling like the tides. Every single Gen 7 platform was in decline by 2012. I honestly got kind of tired of having to point that out so much back then.

Now, it is true that the Vita and Wii U were commercial flops and the 3DS failed to replicate the success of the DS (though doing that well is a hard task, to be fair), and I suppose that might've been worrying signs of the market's health to some. However, Sony & MS were doing fine on the home console front. Nearly all the variability in the market was with handhelds and Nintendo's home consoles. Conventional consoles (i.e., PlayStation & Xbox) were and still are doing just fine. While there was a dip in combined PS+Xbox sales in 2012 & 2013, they rebounded back in 2014. Combined PS4 & XBO sales were on par with combined 360+PS3 sales, and, despite stock issues, the PS5 & XBS are doing well.

I always though the idea that emerging "disruptive" forces would've had an effect on the home console market. PlayStation & Xbox offer experiences that you just don't get on mobile. Just look at what kind of games dominate on consoles. Elden Ring, God of War: Ragnarok, and Horizon Forbidden West were among the Top 10 best-selling games of the year. You just don't get that sort of thing on mobile. What you do get on mobile is stuff like Candy Crush (still mega-popular over a decade later), Honor of Kings, Roblox, and Coin Master. Everything from the interface (sans expensive accessories) to the average phone's power to when and where people use their phones matters when it comes to the kind of experiences that people demand from that platform. Having a big, beefy piece of hardware plugged into your TV just never stopped being relevant, and I doubt it will any time soon. The idea that mobile is competing with home consoles is like the idea that potato chips are competing with steak dinners (I suck with analogies, so just roll with it).

One could have reasonably argued that mobile was eating into handheld sales, but even then, the 3DS was still offering experiences that weren't available on mobile at the time and it still sold well nearly 76 million units, and then in 2017 the Switch was released and utterly disproved the idea that mobile was some sort of death-knell for console gaming on the go. Also, it is worth pointing out that in Gen 7 the DS shattered all expectations, selling nearly double what the GBA did worldwide and nearly matching the PS2, and the PSP was the first (and only) time a non-Nintendo handheld was a huge success. So, the handheld console market was arguably over-performing back then. By the end of 2010, the DS & PSP represented about half of all handhelds ever sold at that point. They sold ~234M combined in a single generation compared to 200M for what the GameBoy & GBA sold over a span of nearly twenty years. The 3DS was therefore more of a return to normal (though it still arguably underperformed thanks to a slow start). The Vita, meanwhile, failed for reasons that likely had little to nothing to do mobile (its high cost—exacerbated by expensive proprietary memory cards that were sold separately—combined with lack of software support are likely the main factors.

TL;DR: The early 2010s claims that consoles were in danger was always based on a very superficial understanding of the market, one based largely on a short-term decline in revenues.



Visit http://shadowofthevoid.wordpress.com

In accordance to the VGC forum rules, §8.5, I hereby exercise my right to demand to be left alone regarding the subject of the effects of the pandemic on video game sales (i.e., "COVID bump").

Pemalite said:
Pajderman said:

I'm curious, to me this sound more like an argument against the possibility of a hybrid console than against the switch being one. 

Is it possible to imagine a hybrid console at all? How would a console work in order to be able to be called a hybrid console instead of a mobile one?

I would argue the WiiU was a true hybrid as it was a fixed home console, that allowed you to play away from the TV with a mobile display, albeit with limited range.

The Switch is designed as a mobile device first and foremost, it's actually a fantastic mobile device, the fixed-console aspect however is comparatively poor and more of a feature added "just because they can".

Absolutely not.  The gamepad can barely even leave the room with the console.  I can't get it to work in my bedroom directly above the living room.  We are only talking about 12-15 feet plus a floor in a wood construction house.



Switch Code: SW-7377-9189-3397 -- Nintendo Network ID: theRepublic -- Steam ID: theRepublic

Now Playing
Switch - Super Mario Maker 2 (2019)
Switch - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (2019)
Switch - Bastion (2011/2018)
3DS - Star Fox 64 3D (2011)
3DS - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Trilogy) (2005/2014)
Wii U - Darksiders: Warmastered Edition (2010/2017)
Mobile - The Simpson's Tapped Out and Yugioh Duel Links
PC - Deep Rock Galactic (2020)

theRepublic said:
Pemalite said:

I would argue the WiiU was a true hybrid as it was a fixed home console, that allowed you to play away from the TV with a mobile display, albeit with limited range.

The Switch is designed as a mobile device first and foremost, it's actually a fantastic mobile device, the fixed-console aspect however is comparatively poor and more of a feature added "just because they can".

Absolutely not.  The gamepad can barely even leave the room with the console.  I can't get it to work in my bedroom directly above the living room.  We are only talking about 12-15 feet plus a floor in a wood construction house.

 Milage may vary as mine worked all the way across the apartment through a wall,furniture.



Bite my shiny metal cockpit!