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

[Wolfram23]

What "race"? Slowest freaking race ever, if it takes 8 years or more to come out with something better.

 

[Conza]

Basically, we all know sony is currently in a shitstorm of epic proportions. I doubt very much it would cause bankruptcy, but on the other hand, Sony closing the videogame section (specially since it is such a huge money drain, at least console wise) seem like a very plausible scenario.

Thing is, well, we all know Nintendo, though I wuv them so, has lost a shit ton of cred among the more active gamers and well, that pretty much leaves microsoft alone till Nintendo gets it's act together on that front. Basically, there is a big fat void, and somebody is probably thinking of how to fill it. My big q to you people is who do you think might have a chance to get into the race and try and recover the usual third front?

Maybe apple tries to branch into the gaming market? Though they don't really need to, but hey, would allow more penis contests with microsoft. Maybe one of the big japan boys like Capcom or Konamy or even an alliance of a few will get ballsy and give it a try? Maybe it will be the advent of onlive what will cause the flow to change?

Or maybe we get worse scenario and get pseudomonopoly.

Anyway, come on in and discuss what you feel might happen.

Wow, great thread title! Nice subject. I do however doubt the plausibility that Sony will close its VG dept. down any time soon, but I still like the idea! Even though I have owned 5 of the 6 PSXs (all bar PS2 slim), and plan on getting the next one.

Its a tough choice in a Nintendo vs. Xbox market, honestly if it happened today and suddenly no new games came out or whatever, I'd leave my PS3, and just say 'ah well, no online, so no more DLC, I don't use online gaming', and wait till the Wii2 came out then assess my options.

Then, when Microsoft releases it's Xbox 720, it would depend on launch titles, future titles, system cost, technology, but if everything was there and they had somehow managed to plan to/ release all the titles the PS4 should've had, then 720 no question, I just hope in third console generation they don't make shit hardware like the past two have been.

Remember Razhem, throughout history, there has scarcely been a true third competitor, dare I say even today's race, its really PS3 vs. 360, the Wii is popular for a different reason, going back it was (sort of) PS2 vs. GC vs. Xbox, but even the GC wasn't that competitive there, then there was PS1 vs. N64 vs. Sega's whatever, and Sega didn't really count there, it died out in the following generation, ect. I also believe its extremely unlikely that Capcom would form a band and make a console, they make enough from the games, they wouldn't be interested.

So it would come down, in the market, to Wii2 vs. 720 - these days most would probably buy both anyway, with the Wii2 scheduled to come out soonish(?) and get the 720 later, and if the Wii muscled into PSs former market, before Xbox could, Wii2 would have a serious edge, even if the 720 out performed it technology wise by its launch, which given its 2-4 years + on the Wii2's launch, is a no brainer that it will.

 

[Atmos Duality]

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

Since Nintendo doesn't even bother directly competing with Microsoft and Sony's market anymore this is actually plausible. Microsoft has already cut off PC gaming as nothing more than a secondary market for its console games.
How pathetic is it that the new "console wars" could end up between Nintendo and Apple?

This upcoming E3 will prove to be interesting because of this debacle with Sony. I didn't give a toss about Nintendo's new console before; but now it looks like I'll watch simply out of morbid curiosity.

 

[faefrost]

Basically, we all know sony is currently in a shitstorm of epic proportions. I doubt very much it would cause bankruptcy, but on the other hand, Sony closing the videogame section (specially since it is such a huge money drain, at least console wise) seem like a very plausible scenario.

Thing is, well, we all know Nintendo, though I wuv them so, has lost a shit ton of cred among the more active gamers and well, that pretty much leaves microsoft alone till Nintendo gets it's act together on that front. Basically, there is a big fat void, and somebody is probably thinking of how to fill it. My big q to you people is who do you think might have a chance to get into the race and try and recover the usual third front?

Maybe apple tries to branch into the gaming market? Though they don't really need to, but hey, would allow more penis contests with microsoft. Maybe one of the big japan boys like Capcom or Konamy or even an alliance of a few will get ballsy and give it a try? Maybe it will be the advent of onlive what will cause the flow to change?

Or maybe we get worse scenario and get pseudomonopoly.

Anyway, come on in and discuss what you feel might happen.

You are thinking in the wrong direction. Part of the problem for SONY is Japanese gaming is in a dead zone and facing hard times. This PSN thing just accelerates that. The likely contenders for the next generation should SONY fall or exit the market will most likely be from a different direction.

1. Apple - Apple experimented in this direction a long long time ago. And Apple does not often give up on an idea. (Yeah! The Newton may be viewed as a failure and ahead of it's time, but look what it led to). Now picture a beefed up Apple TV unit with some sort of touch controller that gets its games from the recently improved Apple store (you know the one that now supports major software release products for the Apple download only laptops). It would drop an iOS platform into the heart of the living room. I can see them considering it.

2. Chinese game system from a manufacturer unknown in the west - China has a lot of gamers. They really do not like buying game systems from either Japan or the US. Their is a market. someone will fill it. And if the product is robust enough it will find itself in Walmart.

 

[badgersprite]

Ha, no. Sony isn't going anywhere. Will this incident take some time to recover from and affect developers who work with Sony and other tech developments at Sony? Sure. But it's not going to be the end of the world.

But I definitely wouldn't be shocked if Apple enters the console race in some capacity regardless, be it by merging with Sony or Nintendo against Microsoft or producing their own console, although I think it's more likely at this stage that they would just stick with making iPads and iPad 2's hugely successful casual gaming platforms and not risk entering the console race.