The game landscape has shifted dramatically since the introduction of Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT ) Xbox 360 and Sony's (NYSE: SNE ) Play Station 3. Smartphones and tablets have dramatically increased in popularity, and many casual gamers have shifted their gaming habits toward these mediums. To make matters worse, the total U.S. population of gamers has also been shrinking. According to NPD, even when accounting for the shift to mobile, the overall U.S. population of gamers has declined by 5% between 2011 and 2012. In this video, Fool contributor Steve Heller explains why he believes that next-generation gaming consoles may be dead on arrival.
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Report this Comment On June 10, 2013, at 10:30 PM, badkat7 wrote:
Not a bad article. Much will depend on whether microsoft has provisioned for 4K TV. If they have, this will bode well as the switch over the ultra high definition TV will inevitably see high prices on normal set-top boxes and TV's - a gaming console that is ready-to-go with streaming media and high definition bluray will be a nice bonus. But microsoft have also chosen to diss their customer base by making the new machine incompatible with xbox 360 games. Not sure why this was necessary but microsoft should've found a way to reward customer loyalty - it seems that concept is alien to them. As for the machine itself, well it's expensive and it needs a killer game or two to cement its launch. It also needs features which set it apart, above and beyond the competition. I didn't see that in the announcement. Microsoft is full of miss-fires these days which makes me nervous about their leadership. Office 365 was ALMOST good but microsoft are still hung-up on the concept of per-machine rather than per-user licenses. Game and application loading should be a transparent (or very nearly transparent) process. Which means no disks and almost-instant installation mechanism - something microsoft is not yet set up for even though internet games started in this mindspace! I think the new xbox will sell quite well but to-date it isn't a game changer and it doesn't make a compelling case for the non console gamers (like me) to make the jump. Much the opposite in fact.
Report this Comment On July 25, 2013, at 10:17 PM, NickD wrote:
PC... get one
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