Do you think consoles will be obsolete in 5-8 years?

[Dudenstein]

Who cares what happens to consoles were all PC gamers.

I hope shield-like devices or tablet things take over. That would be nice.

Just because we are PC gamers doesn't consoles don't fit into our overall gaming experience. 

[Lays]

I think we'll have super duper titan black ultra hawk unlocked extreme edition r9 4999999000000000x in mobile devices and stuff.

[snes]

My theory: If anything, it's the PC as we know it that's going to become obsolete. Not even kidding. I've seen PCs coming from huge prototypes of pre 286 monstrosities to something like the Intel NUC and Gigabyte BRIX. Or even the Intel Edison.

 

Who cares what happens to consoles were all PC gamers.

 

Are we? Header says "Linus Tech Tips". Not "Linus' PC Pricks" ... which it should. I too own more than one PC and a few steam keys, but I still think that the way some of you guys behave on here is beyond ridiculous. Are you guys too thick to realize that we tech nerds are a minority and that the vast majority of the population has completely different things to worry about and thus spends its money differently? Building a fancy PC is an enthusiast thing which is perfectly fine as long as it doesn't affect one's attitude towards others.

 

Consoles might change in the way they look and function but they will not go away anytime soon. Especially since the PC itself is desperately trying to become a console these days - something that you guys despise so much. Big picture, XBOX gamepad ... all that's missing is a better selection of games, the long overdue introduction of new form factors/connectors and better energy efficiency. And an affordable version of the Oculus Rift. Once Mainboards start shipping with integrated CPUs (which Linus himself talked about in the past), there really won't be much of a difference anymore anyway. My theory: If anything, it's the PC as we know it that's going to become obsolete. In about 10 years from now, everything will fit on a Mini ITX sized board and the graphics will be good enough that you will have a hard time telling them apart from a regular movie. At that (price) point owning a dedicated graphics card or any other expensive components won't make much sense anymore. 

 

Also, the argument that a PC is more versatile is pretty moot. A PC that's good enough for Office type stuff and creating meme pics in paint can be had for next to nothing these days. You might even find one sitting on the side of the road. I'm sure I wouldn't even get $50 for my ASRock ION 330, if I was to put it on ebay and that's a system that can play 1080p movies and work with 50mb Photoshop files. Fortunately, no one needs a huge and boring looking $1000 box for that anymore. (Thinking of my dad's 60Mhz PI and my old 800Mhz PIII in a big grey case that my parents and I spent about $1000 on, when I was a teenager.)

[Whiskers]

The PS4 and Xbox One have just shared two very successful launches - the PS4 in-fact having the most successful video game console launch of all time.

 

Consoles aren't going away any time soon. I believe we're going to start seeing a unification between consoles and PCs - the idea of a console being a unique and altogether different machine will change, and they will instead be more akin to miniaturised and streamlined PCs. The current generation of consoles is already going down this path (albeit not as far down said path as most PC gamers think), and it's something that would make a lot of sense for Microsoft in particular given their idea of 'One experience across all devices' etc.

 

I think, for example, that Xbox Live will in the future evolve to fully support PC. Cross-platform gameplay between PC and Xbox, unified purchasing and ownership of games and content (buy things once, play on PC & Xbox), and naturally the availability of Xbox titles on the PC through a spiritual successor to Games for Windows Live. Think Steam a la Microsoft.

 

People will probably dislike that last part, but I think it'll happen. And I welcome it, so long as Microsoft handles it well. Having competitors to Steam is a great thing, and frankly at this point there is none. Origin and UPlay are incomparable.

[DLM_012]

We will be playing games on potatoes in 5-8 years.

 

Brb running Crysis 10: Kill the Aliens One Mo Time Deluxe Edition at 16K res maxed out

[ATLEAGLE579]

I think they will die out due to the costs of marketing, hardware that is already dated and many other reasons. xbox went to shit, Nintendo is like the blackberry of the gaming world and sony is just broke. in the case of sony its not cause of the gaming devision but due to low sales in their other products. now don't get me wrong I would love to own a ps4 and will someday but due to sony closing down 20 out of 31 of its US based stores, discontinuing sony vaio computers and laying off developers has me worried so I may only use ps4 for exclusives and get multiplats on pc. Pcs are getting cheaper and easier to use and the steam machines and cloud gaming will only speed up the death of consoles. I can play games on my laptop and take it with me anywhere I want, and if I want a console like experience I can hook my laptop up to my smart tv, get a xbox 360 controller and use steam big picture mode. same does for desktops, all in ones, phones, smart tvs and tablets. this is the last generation of gaming consoles so enjoy the consoles while you still can.

[MontBlanco]

Gaming consoles in the next few years i think might change into a cheaper alternative for HTPC just like what Xbox One tried to do. With people watching less TV and have no use of PVR (for me), HTPC might replace cable and be the living room entertainment system.

Also the new console shows how their technology are harder to be optimized seeing that they still run 30 fps 1080p or 60 fps 720p while PC gaming are starting to run 120hz 1080p, 60 fps 1440p, 60 fps 4K. Games are also easier and cheaper to be made for PC because of WAY less optimization.

[GeathX]

Gaming consoles in the next few years i think might change into a cheaper alternative for HTPC just like what Xbox One tried to do. With people watching less TV and have no use of PVR (for me), HTPC might replace cable and be the living room entertainment system.

Also the new console shows how their technology are harder to be optimized seeing that they still run 30 fps 1080p or 60 fps 720p while PC gaming are starting to run 120hz 1080p, 60 fps 1440p, 60 fps 4K. Games are also easier and cheaper to be made for PC because of WAY less optimization.

 

The HTPC thing though, the ps3 and 360 got very close to having almost the same capabilities, PS3 had the option for TV recording with a add on, they both had network streaming and many internet streaming services. The PS3 and 360 we have now, feature wise, is far above what the 2 consoles started out as.

[Brazsty]

Consoles wont die. They will just change form and what they do. For example N64 pretty much only played games, PS2 could play DVD's, PS3 can stream video from the internet and now the next gen is going to have video calling.

For dedicated purist gamers they may be more interested in PC, but consoles are still going to be a thing you can go out and buy, slap down in front of your TV and just blob out with.

You're right.

[BrightCandle]

The current generation of consoles are PCs just with a different operating system skin on the top. Incompatibility is built into the core of what makes the consoles but if they weren't so locked down they could both run Windows and Linux with a little extra effort from AMD on drivers.  I don't think consoles are going to disappear, but in themselves they don't generate enough revenue to keep investment in hardware upgrades up so they will always have to be based on something that is already mass market, its not a self sustaining market place.

 

Equally the sales of the xbox and ps3 aren't all that impressive compared to the PC gamers around the world, with some 650million discrete graphics cards out there and 70m+ Steam users its difficult to care what a niche market like the consoles do in the future.

[Admire]

Hell no. Less popular? Hell yeah. Obsolete? No.

[GeathX]

The current generation of consoles are PCs just with a different operating system skin on the top. Incompatibility is built into the core of what makes the consoles but if they weren't so locked down they could both run Windows and Linux with a little extra effort from AMD on drivers.  I don't think consoles are going to disappear, but in themselves they don't generate enough revenue to keep investment in hardware upgrades up so they will always have to be based on something that is already mass market, its not a self sustaining market place.

 

Equally the sales of the xbox and ps3 aren't all that impressive compared to the PC gamers around the world, with some 650million discrete graphics cards out there and 70m+ Steam users its difficult to care what a niche market like the consoles do in the future.

 

Those are some very bold claims to make about the validity of the console market and sustaining its self. How are you coming to those conclusions? If they weren't profitable why would companies still make them? Would doubt that Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo would keep releasing consoles as a charitable service. 

 

Where did you get the 650 million number from? Not saying its a lie or anything but actually interested in the total sales of GPU broken down into models and what not. Cause yeah there could very well be that many GPUs out there but what % is made up of lower/mid and high range models? And that number must be over a fair few years of data as I SERIOUSLY doubt Nvidia and AMD sold that many cards in the last year and being more than mid range cards, though would be pleasantly surprised if they had but then confused again about how AMD would be having any kind of financial troubles moving that many GPUs in a single year.  

 

I would say the 70m+ from steam is a closer representation of active pc gamers to be honest. If your a dedicated gamer and don't use steam there really aren't that many other alternatives in the sense of a large market place and community. There is Origin and Uplay, though people seem to have accounts on those services more to just have access to games that have to use it, rather than an exclusive outlet for their PC gaming.

 

And consoles being a niche market? If your referring to the ps4 and X1, well then yeah I suppose they would be considered niche, but they have only been out for around 3 or 4 months and combined aren't too far off the 10m mark. But if your also talking about ps3 and 360...They have combined sales of 160m+. Even if that is compared to the 650m number you suggested (which again I doubt that number represents the number of PC gamers) its not quite a niche is it really.

[UltimateDave]

Yes, consoles will be obsolete in 5-8 years (they are obsolete now), but no, it won't be the smaller, mobile, processors that kill them.

I think Cloud Gaming will be the final death blow to consoles. 

Internet sucks around the world now, but that won't be true forever. Give it a decade.

Cloud gaming can suck ma nuts, PC 4 EVER

[Averykindguy1998]

They are already mostly obsolete right now.

A similar priced PC can easily out perform both the new consoles.

This will be the last console generation (as in a dedicated box next to your tv)

Pc that would cost the same are better and have bettef games too

And better graphics

Also is mostly little kids playing console

[FakezZ]

If I may ask, why?

Because they are like low end to mid range gaming pc's at best. Take a look at a pc from 2004. Now take into account how fast tecnology is getting better and there you have the consoles struggling to keep up with very low end pc's in 4-5 years at most.

[sand0oski]

I don't think consoles are going to become obsolete, but the idea of creating a system and not upgrading for the better part of a decade might go out of style.  Eventually people are going to be playing with their new phones that they just got that's 20% faster then their old one, and begin to wonder why they can't upgrade their consoles for better performance too!  It'll be an epiphany lol!  Crap, I just realized the Xbox 360 came out 2 years before the first iphone came out, 2 years!!  And people wonder why it can't play GTAV smooth lol.

[paras]

I really don't think consoles are going anywhere anytime soon

[AcidElite]

Everyone who says that consoles are obsolete are stupid. FUCKTARDS. Did you know that there are more Xboxs than PCs and more Playstations than PCs. Consoles completely outnumber the PC community. The PC is just a sliver in the giant gaming community.

[Meteora]

yep nuff said

[GeathX]

I don't think consoles are going to become obsolete, but the idea of creating a system and not upgrading for the better part of a decade might go out of style.  Eventually people are going to be playing with their new phones that they just got that's 20% faster then their old one, and begin to wonder why they can't upgrade their consoles for better performance too!  It'll be an epiphany lol!  Crap, I just realized the Xbox 360 came out 2 years before the first iphone came out, 2 years!!  And people wonder why it can't play GTAV smooth lol.

 

I Get where your coming from for this point of view. But if you look at the games, they do seemingly improve despite the non upgradable hardware. GTA V is actually a good example of this. While yeah it isnt buttery smooth, compare that to launch titles (for 360 or ps3) or even just GTA IV. There is a substantial improvement despite the same hardware. A lot can be said about the advantage of a locked down hardware spec in that respect and how under utilized high end PC hardware actually is.

[tacticalpanic]

the word console is becoming Obsolete , there Entertainment systems now that do everything , in the future all you'll need is one box under your tv , and that's clearly what Microsoft are trying to market towards.

 

consoles are not obsolete just because an enthusiast thinks you can only play a game at 120 fps across three screens at extreme detail.

[sand0oski]

I Get where your coming from for this point of view. But if you look at the games, they do seemingly improve despite the non upgradable hardware. GTA V is actually a good example of this. While yeah it isnt buttery smooth, compare that to launch titles (for 360 or ps3) or even just GTA IV. There is a substantial improvement despite the same hardware. A lot can be said about the advantage of a locked down hardware spec in that respect and how under utilized high end PC hardware actually is.

That's a good point.  Regardless, It'll be a sad day when Nintendo and Sony aren't making Consoles anymore, which hopefully never happens. 

[Caspur]

No. Consoles will never be obsolete. There is a convience to not having to deal with computer issues such as drivers, hardware upgrades, software downloads etc. I know most of us PC people may forget, but not everyone can do what we do. My wife loves gaming, but if she had to build a computer and install the games and drivers, she would not play games anymore cause she wouldn't be able to, and noone wants to dish money out to fix computer issues everytime one arises.

 

Consoles are convenient for non techies becuase the most they [non techies] ever have to do (excluding hardware issues) is simply hit a button, accept an agreement and let the console download any patches or fixes.

 

I am a huge computer gamer, but I am also a huge console gamer, probably more so than computers and I guarantee that consoles will not die, they may evolve and become glorified computers, but they aren't going anywhere.

[othertomperson]

Consoles are already obsolete but they're not dying. They are a mid-range pc sold at a loss with the difference made up by inflated game prices. If there weren't so much misinformation spread around about the expense of pc gaming and fanboyish tribalism people wouldn't buy them. But they do out of ignorance and I think they will continue to do so.

[ShadowCaptain]

Small devices get more powerful

 

But big devices will always be MORE powerful. You can fit more inside bigger things and dissipate more heat, have more connectivity

 

 

But as far as mainstream devices go, games consoles could be considered obsolete already. Compare how many people play games on iphone/android compared the the paltry number of console games sold

 

But the core demographic will always be there, and power and performance will always be better on bigger dedicated hardware