Sega has no money. EA and Activision are happy making piles of money from selling multiplatform games.

Nokia?

steven787 said: Sega has no money. EA and Activision are happy making piles of money from selling multiplatform games.

 

That is Segas man problem. THey would basically need to continue this resurgence and have either Sony or Microsoft (or even better for them Nintendo, though that doesn't look likely to happen for quite a while with their massive tanks of cash) drop out.

Of course I could be surprised by who does it, I didn't actually expect MS to enter the fray.

At the moment there may be no space left for a fourth home-console manufacturer. But the market is growing. Here in germany consoles reach for the first time a bigger audience. China, India and Korea may become also console-markets for the future. I think in the next generation the market can support a fourth home-console.

But I don't see who could enter. Maybe a company from the new countries, a chinese, indian or korean company. I don't see any of the one named here to enter the home-console-market (handhelds are another point):

* Sega/Sammy don't have the cash-reserves and it will be suicide to take the risk making a new home-console. They don't can support a console with exclusives, like Nintendo can.
* EA cannot make a own console. The impact of making their sport-series exclusive will be big for a console, but it will don't happen for two reasons. First they loose their contracts with the leagues, if they make their games exclusive. Second: they possibly (!) make the winning consoles this way, but they lose the cash-return for all the multiplats. Other companys will fill the hole in sport-games with their own attempts on other consoles. Konami will be happy: Pro Evolution Soccer will be the #1-soccer-game.
* Square/Enix: They have big game-series, but I don't see the flow of normal/simple games to support their console.
* Toshiba, other hardware companies, a partnership: I think Microsoft will be happy to make a partnership on hardware. They are not so much interested in selling the console, but in control of the homes. Why should other hardware-companies take any risks, if they simply could partner up with Microsoft?
* Apple: Apple produces no games at the moment, they have to build up or buy some game-creators. They could make a good console, but with nearly no games. And in console-gaming you have to work with third-parties. Nothing apple often does.

Handhelds are another thing. We have only two handhelds at the moment, and they have nearly completely different markets. PSP is a multimedia-device with ghaming capabilities. Who wants to watch movies or listen to music on the go will not buy a DS. DS on the other hand concentrate on gaming and catches also the casual- and so called non-gamers. Language-courses and cooking-courses - nothing the PSP has to offer. In the handheld-market is very much space over for a new competitor. As before, some for us unknown chinese/indian/korean company may enter. Or the usual suspects:

* Microsoft: To offer a addition to their home-console and reach bigger audiences with their franchises. Halo portable? Viva Pinatas in the wild?
* Apple: An addition or extension to the I-Phone or I-Pod to give a gaming-plattform.
* Any phone-producer: A combination of handheld and cell-phone would be great. Possibly Sony makes the next PSP also a Sony-Erricson-phone. Other big phone-producers may also extend their phone(s) to a gaming platform. Maybe many producers do it together. Thinnk of GAG - Google Android Gaming.

SHMUPGurus said: The Atari 8000. Believe it.

I believe....

 

Ms has money, sega has a name which could sell in Japan too. Sounds like a good idea. :D

Apple will not enter the Video game market directly. Only indirectly (Iphone, Ipod). It doesn't fit their business model (Make high priced, well designed, live style products).

Ever seen a high priced gaming hardware make a good profit? This buisnes model doesn't function on the gaming market. As seen by the action of Apple there are already problems on the mobile phoning market. And that's a market where I would say, their business model fits better.

Sega could of course, but I think they will not. Just to risky for their current cashflow.

EA is a possibility, as other have said. They have the cash flow, have the development power to drive sales. But the new CEO doesn't seem to want to take such high risks right now. He is concentrating to make profit on the current software, and change the way EA is doing business. I wouldn't rule them out, but that is something that will keep them busy for at least another 2 years. Making an entry risky, because you give something like that a lot of attention in the beginning.

I want to add AMD and Intel. Both know how to produce such hardware. Both produce CPU and Graphicchips. They could build the hardware perfect in a technical matter and damn cheap. If someone wants to enter this market, it has to have on the hardware front a better business model than the current producers. Both just could take chips already produced in high quantities and therefore make better prices (and profit on hardware). But both would have problems on the Software side.

Maybe some big Chinese company? A company could sell millions of units if they operate from the Chinese market and give that market top priority.

So why would someone enter a market in which 2 of the systems have to sell at a massive loss in order to be able to compete?
Seriously, unless you have a software division it makes no sense whatsoever to release a console.
But there should be companies interested in software though.

Apple has more incentives and assets to enter the gaming market and be successful. Their itunes service is already a dominant force in the digital industry. Why wouldn't they want to capitalize on a growing casual market by introducing a console for the casuals, that offers services that would make the wii seem like 2nd dog.