Guys: Just a question I'd like to see what responses I get, but what company could put together a successful new Game hardware like an xbox or playstation. I'm just seeing if anyone has thoughts on what companies could compete with Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony. Could Apple make a game system? I wonder what that would be like Jeff.
Apple already tried that with the Pippin. Somehow, I don't think that they'd now buy into (or have the financial pockets for) the usual sell consoles at a loss to build a market game (the Wii being the exception to that rule & they already had an existing base of customers). Unless some company came up with some really unique/nifty idea (see Wii again), they'd have a hard time unless they had deep pockets. Maybe if Rupert Murdock brought Apple or something?! (Ugh!)
The first Name i´m thinking about: NOKIA! Maybe with a new N-Gage System, which will be included not only into one device. I´m thinking about a complete System-Chip (like NES-on-a-chip) in the whole N-Series... Dont blame me because of "playing on a mobile-phone keyboard is shit"... Its just an idea... WLAN, Bluetooth, Internet over UMTS/EDGE... Everything is on board what you need.
Samsung. I could also see NVidia or popular Taiwanese chip/mobo fabs getting in on the console action too...
Bad idea. Wii has low end covered, 360 mid and high. PS3 has high end locked down if they can keep it together (think in two years...) The real king? Ps2. Unless your system can beat ps2 (never happen), at the $120 price point (never happen), you are best off waiting until PS2 is dead in three years.
I would think for any new company to get into the business, it would obviously take money, but if they made there platform easy to develop for, similar to xbox 360, I could see developers making games for the 360 and X because of how easy it is to port one to another, it just would make sense.... so, I think it can be done, but by whom? J.
Alternatively, how about this proposal for an open platform from EA? -> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7052420.stm Hmm. This sounds like a request for an MSX/Xbox hybrid...
What about a partnership between some Japanese giants? Sharp/Toshiba/Mashushita I know that some of them partner in HDTV/LCD/Plasma technology to reduce risk of one media failing.
I heard about it, but in my opinion it just wouldn't work. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have lots of money invested on their consoles and they won't make a deal in a common idea. Think about this generation for example, maybe it could work with the PS3 and the 360, but the Wii was something totally different. Also there'd be less competition between the manufacturers causing prices to go higher and wait times for new releases becoming higher (not only for the low competition but for the coordination between all manufacturers). They've tried it more than a decade ago with the 3DO and it didn't have the expected sucess. The only reason to consider it can be EA, but it's not probable to happen.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a system based around an AMD chipset. They're the only company in the world who can supply high performance CPUs, GPUs and chipsets to tie it all together. Who'd do this, I'm not too sure.
I swore I heard somewhere that Square-Enix was talking about making a console. Hell, if they made a console ONLY for their FF games, it would probably be a hit. Think of all the die hard FF fans.
All of them (?) already have stakes in the current consoles, if they left Sony and Nintendo, they'd not only have to compete with the giants but forget them as major customers.
Yoichi Wada, the president of Square Enix made a comment a while ago about producing 'something' with Taito (whom they'd recently brought). There's been speculation that this 'something' is a console of some sort, though I was thinking more of some kind of arcade hardware myself. But yeah - anything with FF on it would shift some units...
I don't forsee any companies entering the console market in the near future. If I had to choose a company though with the best chance of getting a foothold in the market now then I'd have to place my money on Apple. Also, Depending on how they progress into other media areas I could also one day see this being a tempting market for Google. This however is just longshot guess.
I don't think it should happen, and I don't think it will happen in the near future, but I think it probably will eventually happen. Look at all the mergers that have occured in the last few years: Sega-Sammy, Adobe-Macromedia, AMD-ATI, Coca-Cola-cheeseburgers, etc. It's apparent that the market for technology is becoming increasingly consolidated and approaching monopoly. It would have been unthinkable just a few years ago to see Sonic in a Nintendo game! What I'm saying is that technology is starting to veer towards homogeneity. The good part of it is that things will be standardized, and thus ubiquitous computing will be possible. The downside is that consumers won't have as much choice and the companies won't have as strong an incentive to create quality products.
I re read most of this thread and I agree if anybody is going to try it it'll be EA or Square. Perhaps we could see the return of EA-Square........ *shivers*
