The Console Wars Won’t Be Anything Like You Expect

[HardOCP News]

So this guy says that, among other things, Steam Machines will be too expensive, FireTV is just another OUYA, GameStop will never go away and hardcore gamers won't embrace free-to-play games. Is he onto something or just on something?

“The console is dead” idea is proven false if Xbox and PlayStation don’t immediately die tomorrow. For the time being, you will continue to plug something into your television that puts videogames on it. There is nothing saying that Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo could not provide those sorts of devices far into the future. But the console as we have always known it since the days of Atari is a dead paradigm walking.

 

[PensFault]

It's not often wise to use that word never.

 

[Time2Kill]

I love my FireTV, but only because its the most capable XBMC player for under $100. Never would it replace a console/PC.

I have a Raspberry Pi and a Ouya as well. The Ouya is garbage. The Raspberry Pi is a close second to FireTV but the FireTV offers a better experience than the Pi.

 

[sfsuphysics]

and hardcore gamers won't embrace free-to-play games

Irrelevant, because the number of "hardcore gamers" makes up a rather small percentage of the population of those who play games.

 

[ibm650]

With the power of the firetv, it needs to have dlna, so I can stream and convert video

 

[Dekoth-E-]

I started to point by point pick apart his arguments, but then I realized something. You see basically all of these arguments and battles have long been decided as far as who stands where. The line in the sand no longer exists, because each side knows exactly where it stands and no argument no matter how logical from the other side is going to dissuade them from their stance. So it is entirely pointless to even bother trying to have that argument any longer.

 

[m33pm33p]

I love my FireTV, but only because its the most capable XBMC player for under $100. Never would it replace a console/PC.

I have a Raspberry Pi and a Ouya as well. The Ouya is garbage. The Raspberry Pi is a close second to FireTV but the FireTV offers a better experience than the Pi.

I've been wondering how the Ouya was doing..Heard about it for like 2 days after launch and Ive not heard a SINGLE thing ANYWHERE since lol..

 

[Time2Kill]

I've been wondering how the Ouya was doing..Heard about it for like 2 days after launch and Ive not heard a SINGLE thing ANYWHERE since lol..

Ouya totally fucked their backers/supporters on Kickstarter. Completely unforgiveable.

I was less than 2,000 orders in and didn't get my two consoles until a couple weeks after they were available in retail. Complete bullshit.

It also runs XBMC poorly and everything else for that matter and the controllers are absolute garbage.

 

[DPI]

Ouya totally fucked their backers/supporters on Kickstarter. Completely unforgiveable.

I was less than 2,000 orders in and didn't get my two consoles until a couple weeks after they were available in retail. Complete bullshit.

That Lady "CEO" they had always struck me as pretty clueless.

 

[Kenworth]

With the power of the firetv, it needs to have dlna, so I can stream and convert video

This was the one missing feature that was a must have for me to think about moving away from my PS3. Maybe next time but I don't suspect these devices are wanting you to play your media when they want you to go watch theirs.

 

[SGA76]

Every Ouya update it just gets worse and they try to lock it down more to protect their overpriced Ouya Store.
Media streaming was a selling point to Kickstarters but they've done NOTHING about it. I bought one, hacked it, and Netflix and HBO Go run like shit on it. Kainey is supposed to be able to stream from your pc to your Ouya and it can't sync audio and video, its just terrible.
The ONLY redeeming quality is emulators so you can play all your old 8 and 16 bit games. Every game they had that looked promising at launch to me never made it past demo.
About a month ago my Ouya went into a drawer, just might donate it to a rummage sale after I wipe it.
Seriously, my Viewsonic G-Tablet with dock that started out with Froyo on it (and now has a perfect custom stable 4.1.2 rom on it, thanks XDA!) works better as a media center.
I really, REALLY tried to love my Ouya. I loved the concept, I loved the promise, but the Ouya people just failed at delivering a quality, user friendly experience that pretty much killed it.

 

[Spidey329]

Ouya totally fucked their backers/supporters on Kickstarter. Completely unforgiveable.

I was less than 2,000 orders in and didn't get my two consoles until a couple weeks after they were available in retail. Complete bullshit.

It also runs XBMC poorly and everything else for that matter and the controllers are absolute garbage.

Yeah, that was bs. Dead to me. On top of that, I've read a lot of developers who say they can't make any money developing for them.

 

[erexx]

The 2 big consoles will be around a long time.
PS3 and Xbox360's already have much longer life spans than expected.
They will continue to push that envelope.
The original Xbox still runs XBMC and nearly all the old school emulators perfectly.
The nVidea Shield is really the only left field console worth the time..

 

[BurntToast]

Ouya totally fucked their backers/supporters on Kickstarter. Completely unforgiveable.

I was less than 2,000 orders in and didn't get my two consoles until a couple weeks after they were available in retail. Complete bullshit.

It also runs XBMC poorly and everything else for that matter and the controllers are absolute garbage.

Kickstarter is an investment not a pre-order store. They can offer you the world, but if they flop you are SOL. Consider yourself lucky. But it seemed obvious that it was a fail from the start. Pre-order FTL once more.

 

[temujin987]

i thought a war was srs bsns and not some e-peen waggling between 14 year old fanbois over something as unimportant as xbots vs nogaems

 

[Quix]

If VR is it's own platform, it's going to die out long before it can get started. I don't see enough people buying VR headsets to support a whole platform anytime soon.

 

[HyperMinimalism]

The author of the article doesn't know what a Steam Machine is. How can he say it is too expensive? - It is as though he thinks it is a something other than a computer with hundreds of different price points and thousands of options.

 

[Saist]

The author of the article doesn't know what a Steam Machine is. How can he say it is too expensive? - It is as though he thinks it is a something other than a computer with hundreds of different price points and thousands of options.

Not to mention that some vendors are already testing AMD's new AM1 Kabini processors against SteamOS with eyes on the sub ~$250 x86 market. Quick shot right now is that Kabini should be capable of driving OpenGL 4.x class games somewhere around 720-interlaced without a problem... although that is highly assuming that AMD ever gets their OpenGL rendering issues worked out in Catalyst... or just gives up on Catalyst and drives the X.org shader compiler which is already outperforming Catalyst on older hardware.

I'm also hearing murmurs that Valve is looking at leveraging Debian's development tool-chain to bring existing Linux games into ARM. If Valve does end up pushing for Linux games on both ARM64 and x86-64, that could blow the doors open for Nvidia and the next generation of Shield devices... as well as other vendors like Samsung pushing ARM based laptops.

The scenario this posits is once again a plausible sub ~$250 target for SteamMachines... and improvements in the GPU's available with ARM processors, and High-Resolution / High-Texture / High-Polygon counts on OpenGL 4.x class rendering starts looking possible in 1080p resolutions.

The full take-away, at least now, is that anybody writing off SteamMachines as expensive computers don't understand the history of Debian... nor do they understand where the hardware market is going.

 

[Stoly]

I think many console gamers are starting to realize how UNDERPOWERED ps4 and xbox1 really are. My brother went console only with his ps3 but he really feels disappointed with his ps4 and is considering going back to pc gaming.

As for steam being too expensive, you can already build a steambox that can run games @1080p for less than $500.

 

[Dekoth-E-]

I think many console gamers are starting to realize how UNDERPOWERED ps4 and xbox1 really are. My brother went console only with his ps3 but he really feels disappointed with his ps4 and is considering going back to pc gaming.

As for steam being too expensive, you can already build a steambox that can run games @1080p for less than $500.

I think many PC only gamer's still don't realize that consoles aren't only about power, but convenience and the fact that some games are just flatly more enjoyable played from a recliner on a 55"+ TV.

Seriously getting tired of the incessant console bashing around here. I am primarily a PC gamer, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying my consoles just as much. There are games that I enjoy that I simply cannot get on PC and nor would I want too. There are times when a PC is just too damn much hassle.

 

[ebduncan]

gamers won't embrace free-to-play games

no way is that statement true, the biggest e-sports game right now is Dota 2, which is free to play.

 

[PhoneyVirus]

The PlayStation 3 is the last console I'll ever own, so I guest I'm on something too. I favor the PC any day of the week then a console, Watch dogs and middle-earth enough said.

 

[blandead]

They are capable of using amd mantle too right so it'll just keep getting optimized better

 

[Json23]

Someone needs to tell this guy about LoL, Dota, and TF2. Pretty sure gamers have embraced those free to play games.

 

[Automaticman]

So this guy says that, among other things, Steam Machines will be too expensive, FireTV is just another OUYA, GameStop will never go away and hardcore gamers won't embrace free-to-play games. Is he onto something or just on something?

Guys, I think that everyone here, including Steve, needs to read this article a second time. The author is NOT saying ANY of these things. He is saying:

Here are some of what I think are the mistaken notions about the next few years, and my responses.

He does not think that Steam machines will be too expensive, that FireTV will automatically fail, Gamestop will never go away, etc - but just the opposite. None of the responses make any sense if you think that he believes any of the main bullets.

For instance:

Gamestop will never go away.
I have left the response to this argument outside your local Sam Goody.

 

[SGA76]

Someone needs to tell this guy about LoL, Dota, and TF2. Pretty sure gamers have embraced those free to play games.

Problem is for every FTP done right there's a 100 done wrong.
What I'm PO'ed about is games like Forza where its a PAID IN FULL up front game, then they add in such a massive grind to get anything you have to PAY MORE to unlock tracks and cars already on disk. Complete and total BS and with that model coming to the Xbone, I'll never own one.
I'm going to stick to my PC.

 

[Automaticman]

Someone needs to tell this guy about LoL, Dota, and TF2. Pretty sure gamers have embraced those free to play games.

Again, this is the exact point the author is trying to make:

Hardcore gamers have already welcomed their new free-to-play overlords with open arms. Ars Technica’s recently released data on the Steam service’s most-downloaded and most-played games show Valve’s free-to-play Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2 crushing everything else.