Console gaming in troubled waters

[Skybird]

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/09/tech/gaming-gadgets/console-gaming-dead/index.html

Interesting. Have no console, don't want one, didn't know they were in troubles. My first and only console was a PS-1, many many years ago... Would not have one now. Prices for the console too high, obviously planned obsolence issues, and games cost too much, too.

[Oberon]

It'll pick up again, I think the problem that we're hitting now is that we're getting to the point where a simple TV screen is limiting the game. The next stage is virtual reality, and the first company that can nail a home based version of that will make a fair bit of money. We've come close with the old headsets that made you look like a Breen from Star Trek, but since then it's been a very specialist area because of the costs involved in getting a full set up.
Costs are another area where it has become limiting, I would like to get a PS3 for games like Red Dead Redemption, which have not, and will not, be ported to PC, however the cost of a PS3 is...ridiculous, even now six years after the first one was launched, and it will probably remain that way until the eighth generation PS device is launched. There's also the matter of internet connections and Hard drives, which to someone who was a PS2 offline player is a bit confusing, but I guess if I can figure out PCs, I can figure out online stuff through PS3s and Xboxes, not that I really need to because I can't foresee myself getting back into the console gaming scene for a while.

[the_tyrant]

Why do people say consoles are expensive?
When the Xbox 360 first came out, it was around 500. Can you find me any computers from 7 years ago that can still play modern games?

Consoles are much cheaper than PCs

When the PS3 came out, there is NO WAY you could buy a PC with a competitive graphics card under 1000$

The only thing you can say is that Microsoft charges for live, but than, for many games, there are no official dedicated servers for pc gamers, unlike Xbox gamers

[Sailor Steve]

Why do people say consoles are expensive?
Because a console is for playing games and nothing else. Most adults spend less that 10% of their time playing games. I'm on my computer most of the day, doing a variety of things. After working on my own game (live tabletop, not video), doing research, reading and coming to Subsim, playing games comes in a distant fifth. Buying a machine that does nothing but play games is indeed expensive.

[Skybird]

Because a console is for playing games and nothing else. Most adults spend less that 10% of their time playing games. I'm on my computer most of the day, doing a variety of things. After working on my own game (live tabletop, not video), doing research, reading and coming to Subsim, playing games comes in a distant fifth. Buying a machine that does nothing but play games is indeed expensive.
X-Box to 40% is used for accessing some internet services but for gaming, says the article.

I know somebody who used a PS as movie player almost exclusively, for years.

[Sailor Steve]

X-Box to 40% is used for accessing some internet services but for gaming, says the article.
Fair enough, but I couldn't use it with the desktop publishing program I need for my own work, and if I could, and if I could play Silent Hunter and other sims I like on it, wouldn't it then become a PC?

I know somebody who used a PS as movie player almost exclusively, for years.
Again a good point, but a simple DVD player is cheaper. I also use my PC exclusively as a television and as a movie player. Not portable, but then I never go anywhere.

[the_tyrant]

Fair enough, but I couldn't use it with the desktop publishing program I need for my own work, and if I could, and if I could play Silent Hunter and other sims I like on it, wouldn't it then become a PC?


Again a good point, but a simple DVD player is cheaper. I also use my PC exclusively as a television and as a movie player. Not portable, but then I never go anywhere.

I would actually recommend a ps3 for movies. It makes a great Blu-ray machine (100$ worth), and a Netflix/Media player (like a roku, Google tv, or apple tv, another 100$ worth).

At the average price of 250$ for the ps3, you are only paying 50$ more for a damned good gaming machine too!

[Sailor Steve]

I would actually recommend a ps3 for movies.
I watch movies on a 28" monitor sitting three feet from my eyeballs. What could be better? A big-screen TV ten feet away?

At the average price of 250$ for the ps3, you are only paying 50$ more for a damned good gaming machine too!
$50 more than what? I would also have to spend more than $500 for the TV. Where's the advantage in that?

The only 'games' I ever play are a very small handful of simulators. I'm not a netbaby or a 'gamer'. When the PS3 has Pagestream (the best desktop publishing program I've ever used) and SH3 and Rise Of Flight, maybe you'll have something worth offering.