My weekend involved a few regrets, many drinks, and a gaggle of IMAX dinosaurs. This morning will involve a few espresso shots, many crunches, and some personal time with Dishonored, a game I'm finally getting around to. Good luck with your week and see you tomorrow.
I should just write up all of my predictions. That way, when facts finally come along to support them, I can firmly lay claim to my desired title of “gaming soothsayer.” Because predicting the future is groovy, and who the fuck else is going to voluntarily call themselves a “soothsayer?”
It seems, based on the latest rumors, that the next Xbox will offer two models: One subscription based and running $300, and a non-subscription flavor, clocking in at $500. Seems that a persistent internet connection is also “confirmed,” or as close to such a thing as we can hope for this month.
Now to my “prediction,” and this didn’t relate directly to the coming console cycle, but the world of tomorrow.
Presently, tablets are in a race to provide power comparable to that of the game console. While it will surely take them a few years, they will eventually catch up, and the landscape for home gaming will change completely. Steam box and the Ouya are bringing mobile games to the television, and it takes little more than a bluetooth capable controller and an HDMI cable for any compatible device to output in a similar fashion. Devices like the Razer Edge.
The titles that can benefit from this coming together of devices don’t run anything like their AAA console counterparts, save for those running on Razer’s holy-shit-why-ow-my-wallet-expensive gaming tablet, but time will cure that particular affliction. What this will create - and rather unceremoniously - is not the death of the game console, but its inevitable transformation. The game console market will change as well, because if the tablet that replaced your laptop can hook up to your television and run a AAA game, why on Earth would you buy a separate machine to do that job?
The world of mobile gaming and independent publication will create an environment in which not just Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft create game consoles, but Motorola, LG, and Apple do as well. And how, prey, do these mobile companies provide most people that can’t afford a $700 smart phone with a yearly or bi-yearly upgrade? Contracts. Sign with Verizon for two years, and that $700 Droid is now $200 ($150 with a mail-in rebate! Act now!)
Microsoft’s only real problem, if today’s rumors prove to be true, is that they jumped the gun. This will certainly be the last generation for the traditional game console, but this is the last generation of the traditional game console. A move such as this would make perfect sense once technological convergence has had its way with the gaming world, but we’re not quite there yet. Further, Microsoft is in fact releasing a traditional game console, not the jumped-up, TV/Oculus Rift-ready tablet of tomorrow. The market is simply not ready for this sort of thing yet, nor is Microsoft’s console.
All signs point to the final console cycle being dominated by Sony, bookending their superiority with the PSX and the PS4. If even half of the rumors surrounding Microsoft’s next console prove to be true, I’ve already made my decision.
Also, my 30th birthday is next month, and I’m hoping someone buys me a Vita. Hint hint.
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