I'm afraid I largely agree with Zac Jovanovic... Sony, MS, AND Nintendo will eventually turn the tables by turning the screws and locking the users down in each and every way they can possibly get away with!
Hell - as has been done in industries (including ours) in the past: One may well see a situation once parity between them has been more-or-less established where the decision to insert the thumb-tacks is taken as a group - as a means to ensure continued equal ground - only on THEIR terms - going forward!!!
Anyways. That's that out of the way.
As for the other stuff...
I think we're most likely to see a situation VERY similar to the last-gen - pretty much parity or equal-footing between the big boys... It's still VERY early days for the current gen. so WAY to early to make any kind of solid predictions. Nevertheless, that's my view: Until such time as one of them makes some truly serious, long-term booboo that negtively affects them significantly into the future, we're going to see a lot of equality in the market.
Or, as someone else phrased it above, a return to "cold war" circumstances.
Outside of the immediate concern of consoles:
As of January, Steam has over 75 million active accounts.
Then there's Origin; UPlay; Blizzard / Battle.net; offline or non-service gaming from providers like GOG; and so-on.
There are approximately 781 million games registered to Steam accounts as of January.
Right now, and for the foreseeable future, it would seem the PC has come up from behind and snuck into th driver's seat.
Hell - as has been done in industries (including ours) in the past: One may well see a situation once parity between them has been more-or-less established where the decision to insert the thumb-tacks is taken as a group - as a means to ensure continued equal ground - only on THEIR terms - going forward!!!
Anyways. That's that out of the way.
As for the other stuff...
I think we're most likely to see a situation VERY similar to the last-gen - pretty much parity or equal-footing between the big boys... It's still VERY early days for the current gen. so WAY to early to make any kind of solid predictions. Nevertheless, that's my view: Until such time as one of them makes some truly serious, long-term booboo that negtively affects them significantly into the future, we're going to see a lot of equality in the market.
Or, as someone else phrased it above, a return to "cold war" circumstances.
Outside of the immediate concern of consoles:
As of January, Steam has over 75 million active accounts.
Then there's Origin; UPlay; Blizzard / Battle.net; offline or non-service gaming from providers like GOG; and so-on.
There are approximately 781 million games registered to Steam accounts as of January.
Right now, and for the foreseeable future, it would seem the PC has come up from behind and snuck into th driver's seat.