Discussing real possibility. Sony leaves the race, who covers the hole?

[Onyx Oblivion]

Apple.

Apple will takes all those complaints about Macs sucking for gaming to heart, look at the profits from iPhone games...and make a console. To great business success, and to insult PC users simultaneously.

 

[RheynbowDash]

Apple. Hell they have their hands in everything else, Why not?

 

[DocBalance]

Apple, most likely. They've already expressed interest in creating a console, and are getting into the hand-held market at the least with the iPhone and iPad. They have the capital, interest, and commercial motivation to step in.

I know that some seem to think Sony falling through isn't going to happen, but you have to remember: We aren't talking about Sony as a company collapsing here. We're talking about shutting down their gaming division. Sony does a lot of other stuff, and with PS3 sales being as lackluster as they are, the last few PSPs bombing like the Fat Man, Move being a commercial wash-out, and now the very real chance that they are going to lose billions on a security breach that they didn't think to prevent, I can see the Board of Directors at Sony pretty much going, "Well, F*** this guys, let's do something else," and moving on.

 

[Bags159]

Apple.

Apple will takes all those complaints about Macs sucking for gaming to heart, look at the profits from iPhone games...and make a console. To great business success, and to insult PC users simultaneously.

The controller will have one button, sequels will be released bi-yearly, and they will be more expensive than normal games, but claim to be virus free! Oh, and they'll have the same hardware as other consoles but tell you that it's more optimized for their operating system.

 

[MurderousToaster]

It's probably not a good thing that I began giggling like a little schoolgirl at the words "covers the hole".

 

[EllEzDee]

The death of Sony might help PC gaming. Right now they develop for the two consoles and then port to PC, since there's more money to be made pleasing 2/3 of the fanbase than spending the money to please all 3. Maybe without Sony, they'll develop games equally for the PC and the Xbox rather than leaving the PC with shitty ports.

 

[Tony2077]

i don't think the broad will risk closing down sce since it may lose more then they will gain from doing something that stupid so keep doing this what if stuff its not going to happen

 

[Wolfram23]

Sony could leave the game right now and it wouldn't leave a "big fat void". Vast majority of people who want a console already have one, and if your PS3 dies then ok you might get a 360, but Nintendo's coming out with a supposedly more powerful console in a year or less so it's not a long wait or anything.

Anyway Sony is a ridiculously massive company there's no way they'll close up. Would be nice though if this pushes them to release their next gen console sooner, especially if they can learn to actually make some money on each one sold right off the bat lol.

 

[The-Epicly-Named-Man]

A real possibility? Like f*ck is it! It isnt the end of the world, certainly isnt the end of Play Station. Chances are, it'll just change the Network security, maybe introduce more terms of service.

Sony is making a loss on the PS3 and this new thing could cost them billions. Honestly it may not be worth it for them.
I agree with this, I don't like it (PS1 was my first console and the PS2 was the best console) but the PS3 ain't doing great and with Nintendo entering the fray with their new console so early Sony will only fall further behind.

It's a sad day but TS makes a good point.

XBox will fill the gap, it's not like we need another similar console. When the PS1 and PS2 were around there really wasn't anything else to compete with, no one was making similar games. Now with Xbox we have 2 consoles essentially putting out the same types of games. There isn't a single game type on either the Xbox or the PS3 that wouldn't work just as well on the other, not including peripherals.

Sony are making a loss on the PS3? Pretty sure that Sony started making a profit as of the end of 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ps3#Sales_and_production_costs

 

[artanis_neravar]

If Sony quits the video game industry, that's it for console gaming for me, I will just stick to my PC

 

[Rednog]

I personally don't really see the need for someone else to step in and take Sony's shoes in this theoretical scenario. The PS3 and 360 are so similar now that it is (arguably) pointless to actually have both in our current case. In the end the consoles (360 vs PC vs PS3) just end up being a few exclusive titles and different controllers. I personally wouldn't mind seeing the PC make a comeback and getting more solid games (less ports) in the market should Sony make a fall.

 

[airrazor7]

Microsoft will be a few steps closer to the monopoly it always wanted.

 

[Fooz]

If they do go out of business, at least in the gaming section, i can see more PS3 users getting a gaming PC or something

 

[AugustFall]

simply because of the amount of time, they'd be working against Xbox and Nintendo, both of whom have more money, existing market share, and existing reputations with both consumers and game manufacturers, both of whom know what the consoles can do, and what they want from them.

Replace the word Xbox with Sony and you have Microsoft before the release of the Xbox. One gen later and many people prefer the 360 to the PS3, even plenty of self-proclaimed PlayStation fanboys have made the jump, myself included.

This is true but the first xBox had a one up on both of those consoles in xBox live. The online on the original xBox was like nothing we had seen before except on PC. The only thing they were missing was the games to go with it.
The 360 comes along and people know it has PC-like online but now with a good selection of games too and they get a far bigger piece of the pie.
Sony could have continued they're dominance or at least kept up with xBox if they had put out a similar console but they took a risk and threw out an absolute behemoth that no one wanted to pay for. Massive mistake because it was also too hard/not cost effective to make games that use it's immense power and so now we have every game just coming out for both consoles with the only difference being people paying more for the PS3.

 

[artanis_neravar]

I personally don't really see the need for someone else to step in and take Sony's shoes in this theoretical scenario. The PS3 and 360 are so similar now that it is (arguably) pointless to actually have both in our current case. In the end the consoles (360 vs PC vs PS3) just end up being a few exclusive titles and different controllers. I personally wouldn't mind seeing the PC make a comeback and getting more solid games (less ports) in the market should Sony make a fall.

Actually I believe the PS3 is much more powerful than the 360, and the only reason the games tend to look the same is because developers have to reduce the required power of them so they can still work on the 360. Although I do completely agree with the PC part

 

[Kaizer_Panda]

Do you really think Sony will stop making videogames consoles??? LOL
Ok even if they lost a lot of money, they can simple Skip the next genration of consoles no problem, Sony is everywhere from headphones to movie studios, they have enough money to survive if the PS3 burns to the ground, they can return to the console market at any time.

The only company that would actually be on risk of leaving the console market is Nintendo since they only make videogames and nothing else

 

[DrOswald]

I would love to see apple put out a console, but it would be so expensive. It would probably look really snazzy, though.

 

[TornadoFive]

I doubt Sony will stop. This is a rough patch for them, yeah, but I think they're a big enough, and respectable enough, company to handle this.

Having said that though, I'm kinda surprised Apple haven't already gotten into the mix. I guess the iPhone/iPad line DO have some gaming potential, but if I was guessing about another company joining the console war, it'd be Apple.

I doubt it'll happen though. I think cloud gaming will start to take off in the next decade or so. A new line of consoles wouldn't survive very long IMO.