Will Consoles be Obsolete in Five to Ten Years?
An Ex-Microsoft (fairly)recently was quoted as saying that videogame consoles as we know them will “die out” in the next five to ten years.
Wait! Before you panic and throw your PS3 out the window, let’s think about this for a moment. Sure technology moves fast and more and more it looks like digital distribution will be important, but let’s think about this for a minute. While digital distribution will certainly play a much bigger role in the future of the entertainment business, you’ve got to have something to run it on. One of the greatest strengths of the console is that while you are on the current generation, everyone has essentially the same machine. If you moved away from a standardized form of electronics you run into the mess that is PC gaming. You have a million different combinations of hardware and software.
Duncan says, “In fact in 5 to 10 years I don’t think you’ll have any box at all under your TV, most of this stuff will be ‘virtualized’ as web services by your content provider.” Unless this stuff is being saved and processed in the Television or on some remote server, you need to have something in your home to store your games and have controllers to plug into. You will always need some sort of “box” hooked up to your television, unless the whole electronics industry radically changes in the next five to ten years and that is something that simply won’t happen. Look how long it is taking for the switch to HD to happen for evidence on how fast these major shifts occur. Still, the idea of not having to buy a new console (or three) every few years is a nice one.
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