Twitch Boss Calls The End Of Games Consoles

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Aren't game consoles already just "set top boxes" designed for a multitude of uses?

Shear, who co-founded the live video game broadcasting platform that now has more than 100m monthly users, suggests that future consoles will be more like set-top boxes: designed for a multitude of uses, and with a much shorter life cycle.
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Maybe, but considering the current set of consoles are the fastest selling yet, I am not so sure. I say this a PC gamer as well.
 
Steve said:
Aren't game consoles already just designed for a multitude of uses?
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Sure seems that way.

I cannot tell you the number of men and women I've talked to who use their consoles as a set-top box. All ages too, from teens to adults in their 40s. Many people have cut the cord and now use their video game console as a media streaming device and a gaming platform.

Of course, we all know the best combination media device and gaming console is the PC, but that's an argument for another thread.
 
crusty_juggler said:
Sure seems that way.

I cannot tell you the number of men and women I've talked to who use their consoles as a set-top box. All ages too, from teens to adults in their 40s. Many people have cut the cord and now use their video game console as a media streaming device and a gaming platform.

Of course, we all know the best combination media device and gaming console is the PC, but that's an argument for another thread.
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It is very true. It confuses me too because I see many of my friends on my friend list using their console for 95% media streaming. It is odd that they would pay so much for it when there are many cheaper alternatives that can perform that better.
 
The Xbox was designed as a Trojan to eventually have future iterations become the "set-top box" and conquers the living room. See how well that went with the Xbox One.
 
I'm ahead of them there. I have a FireTV: game console and video player set top box in one. It's great, and much cheaper than regular consoles.
 
The PC and console market are converging.
Cloud computation will then influence the eventual outcome.
 
dgingeri said:
I'm ahead of them there. I have a FireTV: game console and video player set top box in one. It's great, and much cheaper than regular consoles.
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FireTV isn't a game console, it just happens to play some games. Mostly bad mobile games.
 
I agree with him. My last console bought was a PS3 at launch and I am just using it as a multimedia/ blu ray player now.
 
Kalabalana said:
The PC and console market are converging.
Cloud computation will then influence the eventual outcome.
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It sounds like a nightmare, since we'll have an era of games that die whenever the host company decides it's not profitable to run the servers anymore. There won't be any going back and playing any old games you missed that use this method.
 
crusty_juggler said:
Sure seems that way.

I cannot tell you the number of men and women I've talked to who use their consoles as a set-top box. All ages too, from teens to adults in their 40s. Many people have cut the cord and now use their video game console as a media streaming device and a gaming platform.

Of course, we all know the best combination media device and gaming console is the PC, but that's an argument for another thread.
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As soon as the Sony TV service starts up, and may be an even more common reality!
 
Is this guy living under a rock? Consoles have been multi-use "set-top boxes" for a very long time now...my kids' original Wii played DVDs, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime just fine, as does their XB1 they got this past Christmas. Hell, the XB1 already has an HDMI pass-through to connect a cable/satellite box, and eventually we'll likely see consoles with an integrated TV tuner and something along the lines of a CableCARD slot/port (a USB version of the XB1 tuner is already available in Europe).
 
He has a point though: once features offered by all-in-on devices get good enough, they typically absorb the existing market. Some recent examples include:

Cell phone absorbing the mp3 player market. You can still buy mp3 players, but all but the largest makers (or niche providers of still desirable features) have died.

Cell phone absorbing the point and shoot camera market. And SLR survives, but suffers from stagnation.

Cell phone absorbing the portable gaming console market (specifically casual games), which has made the 3ds sales an inking of the DS (and killed the Vita). Back in the day, people buy stupid games like Brain Training and Nintendogs. And then freemium phone games came along...

Now that consoles have gotten "good enough" that they're not even designing high-end custom chips for them anymore, how much longer will it be before "it plays high-end games" is no-longer a desirable enough feature to get enough sales to survive?
 
defaultluser said:
Now that consoles have gotten "good enough" that they're not even designing high-end custom chips for them anymore, how much longer will it be before "it plays high-end games" is no-longer a desirable enough feature to get enough sales to survive?
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mediocrity.jpg
 
Darunion said:
It is very true. It confuses me too because I see many of my friends on my friend list using their console for 95% media streaming. It is odd that they would pay so much for it when there are many cheaper alternatives that can perform that better.
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Having used many of the cheaper alternatives, I call fiction. For all the major streaming apps I use that are available on multiple platforms (Roku, Amazon Fire, Chromecast, etc.), the Xbox One's versions work better. This is hardly a surprise since the Xbox One has more memory and a much more powerful CPU.

I suppose you could count a PC as a cheaper alternative (if you really cheap out on it, and that could really start to show when a component fails) but I don't think it performs these functions better. Most streaming services run through the web browser. Even full-featured HTPC software [virtually] replacing the rest of the OS is going to be more complicated to set up and use than an Xbox One or dedicated streaming box. And, at the end of the day, it's going to be drawing more power than even an Xbox One; forget about streaming devices that can be powered by as little as a USB port (one thing I love about the Amazon Fire Stick).

Finally, if someone spends only 10% of their time gaming on the Xbox One with the other 90% streaming video, that's still a lot of time presumably playing games they like. A $398 PC may or may not acceptably run a new game. Certainly none of the streaming boxes allow me to play Dragon Age: Inquisition during my 20% of Xbox One time.

So, even if someone uses their Xbox One as a streaming device 100% of the time, it's a reasonable usage scenario. The extra money it costs up front will provide a much better experience than most other, cheaper devices. It's even more reasonable given we're posting on a forum where people will spend [sometimes much] more than the cost of Xbox One on a video card [or two or three] to have a much better experience playing their video games. ;)
 
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