Will Gaming Consoles Go the Way of The Point and Shoot Camera ...

Will video game con?soles be made irrel?e?vant by iPads the way point and shoots have been killed by smart phones?

Point and shoot cam?era sales are plum?met?ing. They?re squeezed at the top by DSLR?s that are get?ting cheaper and bet?ter. They?re? squeezed at the bot?tom by smart phone cam?eras that offer more flex?i?bil?ity with shar?ing and photo manip?u?la?tion directly from the device. A?sim?i?lar storm is brew?ing for gam?ing con?soles like Playstation 3?and Xbox?360.

There was an eye-opening arti?cle on how the iPad is being regarded amongst the video gam?ing industry?s busi?ness elite in Reuters last Friday:

?It is quite easy to imag?ine a?world where an iPad is more pow?er?ful than a?home con?sole, where it wire?lessly talks to your TV and wire?lessly talks to your con?troller and becomes your new con?sole,? [Mike] Capps said in an interview.

Meanwhile, the indus?try is brac?ing for change. Frank Gibeau, pres?i?dent of Electronic Arts? Labels (EA.O), who over?sees the company?s biggest games such as ?Battlefield 3? and ?Star Wars: The Old Republic,? said the com?pany is eye?ing Apple?s moves closely.

?When the iPad gets to the pro?cess?ing power that?s equal to an Xbox 360 and it con?nects to a?tele?vi?sion, that?s no big deal to us. We?ll put the game through the iPad and have it dis?play through the tele?vi?sion.? Gibeau?said.

Mike Capps is the pres?i?dent of Epic Games, mak?ers of a?lit?tle title you may have heard of called Gears of War. Electronic Arts is the 800lb gorilla Microsoft Google of the gam?ing indus?try. If these guys are talk?ing about turn?ing the iPad into a?gam?ing con?sole; Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo bet?ter be listening.

The new iPad has bet?ter screen res?o?lu?tion and more mem?ory than Microsoft?s Xbox 360 and Sony?s PlayStation 3:

Console pric?ing was taken from the most pop?u?lar model sold by Amazon?.com as of writ?ing. The new iPad (3^rd gen?er?a?tion) pric?ing is from their entry level model, which I?assume will be their best seller???but there are no sales num?bers?yet.

The new iPad is? in good com?pany when it comes to hard?ware specs and pric?ing, even best?ing the con?soles in a?cou?ple crit?i?cal areas. iPad proces?sor speed is still slow by com?par?i?son. Although if we return to our point and shoot cam?era anal?ogy, the iPhone cam?era also lack in specs com?pared to most point and shoots, but the iPhone 4?is the most pop?u?lar cam?era on Flickr.

The iPad costs more than the cur?rent gen?er?a?tion con?soles, but iPads are in the same ball park and are even cheaper when you option up some of the con?soles. The next gen con?soles on the hori?zon will also be more expen?sive and much closer to price par?ity with the?iPad.

There?s also a?nasty chicken and egg prob?lem with game plat?form devel?op?ment that insu?lates the cur?rent con?tenders from dis?rup?tion. It takes a?huge mar?ket to per?suade devel?op?ers it?s worth their time and money to bring the AAA Games to the party. (AAA Games are those like the Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto series? that cost tens of mil?lions in pro?duc?tion.) The iPad plat?form has a?huge installed user base already, so they bypass this road block to con?sole gam?ing entirely.

Sales num?bers from Reuters and Wikipedia.

In terms of sales and mar?ket share, the iPad has a?ways to go to match Nintendo?s num?bers, but it?s already right there with Xbox and Playstation. iPad sales growth is also still accel?er?at?ing. The current;y avail?able con?soles are in their twi?light and gamers are look?ing to the hori?zon for the next gen?er?a?tion of con?soles. Of course by the time they come out, there will be a?new iPad, and Apple will have another 50 mil?lion or so in sales under its?belt.

One hun?dred mil?lion or more iPad own?ers by the end of 2012 means the iPad has the exact same advan?tage as the smart phone over the point and shoot???which is that a?lot of peo?ple already have one. If a?tech savvy con?sumer house?hold has an iPad with AAA Games that they can view on their TV over Air Play while using the device itself, an acces?sory or an iPhone as the con?troller, whither the con?sole pur?chase? It?s an excit?ing thought for the hun?dreds of mil?lions will?ing to buy into Apple?s eco system.

Like smart phones and point and shoots, iPads can com?pete or best the con?soles on hard?ware specs while absolutely whip?ping them on plat?form flex?i?bil?ity and porta?bil?ity. I?don?t know the con?sole equiv?a?lent of on-device photo edit?ing????but between app, acces?sory and periph?eral sup?port for iPad, the con?soles have their work cut out for them (Kinect was a?good start, Playstation Move was?not).

The other side of our metaphor here is DSLRs that are drop?ping in price and expand?ing func?tion?al?ity. Just like hard?core pho?tog?ra?phers are going to skip the point and shoot, so too will hard?core gamers skip the con?sole and go to more and more pow?er?ful PC?s will the quickly grow?ing main?stream gamers with an iPad will have no need for a?con?sole. I?don?t know as much about PC gam?ing as I?do iPads and con?soles, so I?ll leave it at that. (I play Starcraft on my Mac, but it?s a?set up that would get me laughed out of most PC gam?ing circles.)

New con?soles are on the hori?zon and they?re going to be beasts when it comes to per?for?mance. Xbox live keeps get?ting bet?ter and better.

The main?stream tablet iPad mar?ket is still very young, but the new iPads are truly amaz?ing when it comes to specs, price point and plat?form flex?i?bil?ity. You can also bet that Apple has a?few more tricks up their sleeves when it comes to iPad lineup in the years to?come.

As with most tech pro?jec?tions there are few cer?tain?ties, but the cur?rent state of affairs points to accel?er?at?ing change in the gam?ing mar?ket in gen?eral. The only thing absolutely cer?tain is that it?s a?great time to be a?gamer.

Source: http://mfshot.com/2012/03/will-gaming-consoles-go-the-way-of-the-point-and-shoot-camera/

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