Apple aren't stupid enough to risk a lot of money on console hardware, they tried with the pippin and that failed, they are seeing Microsoft lose money hand over fist with the Xbox series and I can't see them making a crappy piece of hardware cool just by sticking an i in the front of it. Taito did design a console in the past but it never got further then being shown at a couple of trade shows and I can't see Sqaure Enix wanting to spend lots of money on hardware on a console. This is not to say they didn't get burnt in the past trying games hardware, they did make a loss on the silly Kenshin Dragon Quest unit.... Koei are quite a large company and one of the few companies that has expanded quite a lot in the recent years, next year they will celebrate their 30th anniversary of making video games. Now they made a portable games machine and it was soo succesful that it's a challenge trying to find the unit on google... EA? Why would they want to burn money, better let other people do that then you can pump out shite on their consoles and get johnny public to buy the semi update crud they make. Hitachi, Toshiba, Sharp and Matsushita? Unlikely, all have been involved in console releases and all got burnt in one for or another, best to make money selling parts to the foolish companes that want to make consoles. Microsoft are probably the last new company to make a console and they have more money then most other companies do... So that means... A future of Sony / Microsoft and Nintendo with at least one of them pulling out before 2010. If Nintendo decide to put an Intel chip in their next console then that would probably start the slow decline of the PowerPC / Cell chip, however I can see Nintendo using a CELL chip in their next console... With just AMD / ATI and Intel plus Nvidia there isn't much competition in the PC hardware market and what's the betting that Intel invest in Nvidia sometime in the future?
A single format won't work for a long while yet, IMHO. Once we have enough power that there is no need to upgrade, there is more power than we can ever make full use of, and said technology is cheap to manufacture, then perhaps we'll see a single platform develop itself. That is a long way off.
interesting article with regards to this topic as EA wants an open platform: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7052420.stm Interesting. Jeff.
I think the next console manufacturer will be Apple. Apple will come to the console market and offer a platform that is all download content. With the shift from physical media to downloading content, examples such as ipod, on demand cable, and services such as XBLA, PSN, and VC, it is likely that video games will make the shift as well. I have a feeling that the next generation of console will not offer physical media. These console will be big hard drive and the library of softs will come from network that consumer can download what they wish to play. I am not favor this shift but it seems to head in this direction :crying:Apple is already have success in this type of market with their music and video games is the final frontier for Apple as well as the chance to compete with Microsoft on another level.
Download content will be the future. Doesn't matter if you like it or not (I personally hate it). Some markets already largely shifted to this. The main problem for download media is that not everyone got highspeed internet at home. The occassional VC title might not be a problem, but I will be a problem when it comes to a 4,xx GB DVD or even larger titles. Here in Germany, in 2006 nearly 15 million people got DSL (out of 80 million). That's not even 25%. You cannot dump all those potential customers.
I would love to see a new gaming system other than ones from sony, MS and nintendo. The thing i want but doubt it happen is a gaming machine which has exactly 2 purposes and thats to play games and have downloadable content for games and nothing else cutting out everything else like multimedia,arcade/retro games and stuff and just be about games,
My guess would be .......................................................... "Tesco":icon_bigg. Yeah i know they're a supermarket, but as anyone in the UK will know they seem to be trying to take over the world. Food, petrol, electronics- all commonplace supermarket goods. But then Tesco also sell furniture car insurance, broadband, etc;.....
I van't see anyone making a console right now to me it seems whenever a new competitor comes in its because someone dropped out . This is kind of the case with microsoft sega left they came in. There are three on the market already four would seem overly crowded. Plus whatever it would be woul;d need to have the power of the PS3,graphics of a 360 and the innovation of a wii. that would seem like it would sell. As for downloadable content. Its a great idea but I can't see it being executed well. It would put major strains on servers and currently it doesn't seem feasible. Maybe Square could pull of a console. Another idea could be a company making the system then buying up some small third party dev houses and leaving games to them. Apple seems like they would do that,even though the pippin was a failure its premise wasn't horrible just not well executed
I could see that happening some day. Hell, they already have their own Office suite and range of computer products. Probably not a full blown console, but some sort of set top box for games. But then again they could invade Denmark instead.
Funny you should mention TESCO. The "TESCO LAW" is a law that will allow non-legal persons and professionals to be able to have a business on Legal advice. (simply put) This means that a lot of the day-to-day "simple" legal stuff will be found under TESCO's brand. This is of course bad in my view, because service is going to be very standardized and the solicitors will be paid less than they are now for shitty work. Before you go on an offensive on how lawyers make a lot of money, the answer is that it's really hard work. Harder than any formulaic job, even for the simplest of issues that seem remotely procedural. Of course, this will not affect solicitors working in more specialized fields, such as shipping law , banking law etc.
If there was a video game console monopoly, like say Sony and Microsoft dropped out, hypothetically, would that mean we'd see Government made video game consoles and government approved video games?
Here's my 2 cents: Apple: did anyone here get the "news"? Jobs is back! this is the guy who hates videogames so much (some say due to his days at Atari) that he rejected the idea of a game console during his entire first term in apple, when consoles were hotter than computers. Apple as a company works in an entire different way, one that I consider archaic yet still works: they make both the hardware and the software, but they profit in the hardware and NOT the software, much like most companies during the first years of personal computing did. Is no secret that in Macs the software is subsidized by the hardware (reason why you get those cools apps you wouldnt get on a PC, at least not out-of-the-box) and the iTMS songs are also subsidized by iPod sales, to help the sales of the latter. But on the other hand apple got into the PDA biz again even when jobs hated the newton, so who knows... Samsung: now this is a possible player, since this company is trying to get into every corner of the consumer electronics market. Now before any of you pull the provider card like you did with Matsushita/Toshiba/Sharp, I remind you Samsung has its own line of MP3 players and yet still sell NAND chips to Apple for both the Nano, Touch and iPhone iPods, even when they could sell those same chips for a lot more to apple and then sell the Yepp cheaper than any other MP3, thus controlling the PMP market. Yet they dont, reason why they may get into the console biz in the near future. However I dont see them going solo like MS did, and here's when SEGA enters the show: being the only company with serious market experience thats available for either a partnership or a merger, is the most likely to help Samsung with their console. Plus SEGA still has a lot of talent, as games like the new Sega Rally, VF5, or AB Climax can show you, [Teams] just need more motivation, thats all. Square-Enix: no chance, square almost go bankrupt with the FF movie and the hardware biz is all about low profits and big losses, and at the current high level of complexity consoles have today that means heavy losses during the first 2 or 3 years of a console's lifetime. EA: well after Trip, one of the founders of the company tried to do this with the 3DO 13 years ago and failed I wonder who in thier right mind at EA would try to test god's mercy and destroy the company with a very expensive strategy like making a console. Theres some misinterpretation toward that article: what EA wants is an open console standard, like PCs, so they can lower their quality even further in their games. Nokia: they tried to make a console with the half-assed Ngage and failed, so now what they are doing is simply a software suite that works with the entire line of Nseries phones, so games can be played in any of those phones. You still get the vertical screen and even shittier controllers than those found in the original Ngage, so I wouldnt hold my breath for this. Basically I doubt any company out there is willing to enter the market after seeing how MS has lost $4 billions just with the first Xbox and how sony is struggling with the PS3. You may think that the Wii would spawn a new age of shitty and overpriced consoles (like the 2600 and most consoles at the time) but dont be afraid: companies know that is mostly hype what drives Wii's sales, and that just like Macs look extremely popular to the naked eye, the fact is that after getting rid of the RDF, fanboy hype and looking at actual numbers you'll see Apple has barely 5% of the PC market, with Dell holding a bigass 25%. The same is going to happen with nintendo and the Wii at the end of this generation. Well how many PS2 were sold in germany? cuz 15 millions sounds like enough consoles to me...
Well past experience in any business shows that when there's a single format, albeit from a unification of forces, a second one will come in to compete naturally. And since you cannot legally force a monopole, it's very natural that competing interests will create multiple platforms and alliances. What I am in essence saying is that a single platform won't last.
I don't think we will see another top end system like Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft for some time but its quite possible we will see someone trt something similar to a set top box that plays games like the VC or XBLA etc. It might be possible a homebrew machine will appear too - like a static version of the GP2X?
With Tivo becoming software instead of hardware I doubt that, but it is possible that either a small company or several DVR corporations could create a standard to download and emulate games in DVR boxes. After all most of 'em have enough power to emulate 16bit (while doing other tasks) or 32bit (fullpower) systems. Beyond the ability of playing pirated ROMs the average joe has no real use for something like that, and even then it would be cheaper and easier to get a PSP and a Tv adapter to do that.
I didn't mean for the average joe - a consolized homebrew machine that features easy programming, aimed for the users of the GP2X etc. Of course the homebrew market is pretty small but Gamepark are making a living. I would think that making a console would be cheaper than a handheld (in this case - presuming it would have the power of a 16/32 bit console).
