Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it has
stopped producing Xbox 360, a gaming console it
launched in 2005. According to estimations, the company sold more than 85 million Xbox 360 units worldwide. Quartz has an insightful story today, in which it compares the shipment numbers of Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, the current generation consoles, to conclude that the
"golden era" of video-game console sales is over. According to estimations, citing data provided by Nintendo, CNET, GameSpot, and Giant Bomb, the crown for the most popular gaming console goes to the Sony PlayStation 2 (2000) with 155.1 million inventories shipped. Sony PlayStation (1994) saw the movement of 102.49 million units, whereas 101.63 million Nintendo Wii inventories were dispatched. In comparison, Sony has sold 35.9 million units of PlayStation 4 so far, and Microsoft has sold roughly 10 million Xbox One units. From Quartz's report:
It does seem, to some degree, that the golden age of home video-game consoles may be over. The previous generation of consoles was the last generation that didn't have to contend for users' time with mobile games. And you could make a strong case that a large portion of the casual gaming audience that Nintendo attracted for the Wii was almost entirely wiped out by mobile gaming. After all, the Wii was released in 2006 -- a year before the iPhone launched. Nintendo's next console, the Wii U, has been the company's worst-selling of all time. The average consumer may now feel more inclined to just pick up their phone and play Candy Crush or Temple Run than to get up and swing a controller around. The home console's saving grace could well be virtual reality. Just about every major tech and video-games company is working on a VR headset -- apart from Nintendo, it seems -- and early reviews of Facebook's Oculus Rift and HTC's Vive headsets have reduced non-gamers to tears. None of the top 10 most popular games consoles of all time have been released in the last 10 years, and VR may well be what turns the slowing console market back around.What's your take on this?
Can someone please translate?
By Radical Moderate
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2016-Apr-21 14:45
• Score: 5, Insightful
• Thread
"early reviews of Facebook's Oculus Rift and HTC's Vive headsets have reduced non-gamers to tears."
What exactly is that implying? The headsets are so awesome that non-gamers will start gaming? They're so awesome non-gamers are crying because their gaming loved ones will spend all their time playing games again? Motion sickness? WTF?
Self inflicted
By jxander
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2016-Apr-21 14:55
• Score: 3
• Thread
These losses and failings are the result of console developers own shortsightedness.
For years, they've been creating consoles based on the worst aspects of PCs with none of the PC benefits. No couch multiplayer, required internet connection, long boot times, frequent software updates, all while being completely unable to compete with PCs on graphical fidelity, multitask capability or input selection (PCs support keyboard/mouse, console controllers, etc, up to full HOTAS setups with rudder pedals and such). Consoles also lack the markets like Steam, GoG, GMG and Humble Bundle.
So yeah ... all the weaknesses, none of the strengths from both sides. Are we surprised that they aren't doing so well?
The fatal flaw was making them "serious".
By Opportunist
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2016-Apr-21 14:55
• Score: 5, Insightful
• Thread
What was the big selling point for consoles over PCs? Simplicity and "just works". Seriously. Put it up, plug it in, plug it into your TV, throw that CD or cartridge into the thing and here we go. Game on. Wiggle those thumbs 'til your eyes fall out and your brains rot.
That huge advantage was lost when consoles became essentially PCs without keyboard. Because hey, it's so much easier to produce games that way and you can produce games that play on consoles AND PC that way. Well, nobody wants to play them on a PC because the controls are ass-backwards if they are designed for a controller and you have to use them with keyboard+mouse, but who gives a shit about customers?
And the console jockeys were pissed to. Pop that CD in and ... install an update for your system. Go online to register it. Download some shit for that online content you don't give a fuck about. Install some more shit. Update the system once more because you changed your sitting position. Choose your avatar. Upload it to some server. Customize your avatar. More time to upload it again. Here, buy some bling! Or some new levels! Reboot your console after the update. And FINALLY you get to ... oh fuck it's bedtime.
Get consoles back to what they were. Simple, easy to use and most of all NO FUCKING LOAD TIME! For fuck's sake, given that these games come now on BluRay discs and most PCs have a SSD HD, load times are SHORTER on PC than they are on consoles!
Re:They still make game consoles?
By Mattcelt
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2016-Apr-21 14:56
• Score: 5, Insightful
• Thread
I can't speak for anyone else, but for my own purposes, I have avoided the latest generation of consoles for reasons that have nothing to do with mobile gaming.
Wii: If Nintendo had released a more-powerful, HD version of the original Wii for a similar price point, I would have bought three. Instead they added and required that ridiculous controller, which IMHO completely ruined the experience.
Xbox: Requires a subscription for playing on-line, which I simply won't do.
Playstation: I own three PS3s, but the PS4 went the MS route to require a subscription for on-line play, so I've refused. And Sony's repeated feature regression over the years isn't exactly enticing.
For myself, the draw of console gaming has always been 1) the real-time interaction (including audio) with other gamers throughout the world and 2) and off-line (i.e., completely-disconnected) single-player mode. Both of those experiences have grown steadily worse of late.
If any manufacturer releases a console that allows for offline play and free interactive online play, and doesn't require an absurd controller, I'll buy it in a heartbeat.
Re:They still make game consoles?
By Anonymous Brave Guy
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2016-Apr-21 16:30
• Score: 5, Informative
• Thread
So, your #1 draw for console gaming is real-time multiplayer, and you're not willing to pay for it. I'm not going to argue about whether MS or Sony are making a huge profit off their subscription prices, but I'm sure that the infrastructure that they've put in place did not come free and the cost has to be covered somehow.
Yes, it does. It's called your Internet connection, and you pay your ISP for it.
You can have high-end online games with 10-20 simultaneous players working just fine with a regular Internet connection. No phoning home. No subscription. No lock-in. No expiry date. I know, because I was there when we started writing them. That was around the 1990s, back when broadband was still a dream for most of us and people on the academic networks were called LPBs.
Given the advances in technology of the past 20 years, I don't for a moment believe that it's actually necessary to have a centralised server as a core dependency just for most multiplayer online gaming today. In fact, I can see only two reasons to write your game that way.
One reason is because you really are co-ordinating massive numbers of players in a shared world or otherwise dealing with huge amounts of content that changes over time. If that really is the nature of your game, that's fair enough, but in most cases it is not.
The other reason is just about keeping control, so you can do things like limiting second-hand markets and making it harder to pirate. That's an entirely understandable goal from a commercial point of view, but there is no advantage for legitimate users who just want to enjoy a game with their friends and there are a lot of potential problems or disadvantages.
I didn't like paying for it as well at first, but I don't really see it as that big of a burden anymore.
And that's exactly what a lot of these services are banking on, but apparently quite a lot of customers are getting bored of being exploited in that way now. I can't say I'm overflowing with sympathy for the services in question, because I remember the days when games were about having fun and not just about squeezing as much profit out of the customer base as possible. Ironically, I bought a lot more games in those days.