Poll: CNN: Console Gaming is Dying

[Avaholic03]

I'm obviously in the minority here, but I voted "no" in the poll. As misguided as this attempt was to cover gaming, at least they're willing to give some attention to the subject and probably start some discussion in places other than just this gaming-related website for a change. Isn't that better than keeping it as some fringe pseudo-culture that some people are still ashamed of?

 

[oliver.begg]

considering you have to sit down, install a game, download patches, etc now days for a console the only differences between consoles and pcs seems to be some exclusive titles, and consoles use controllers by default.

i can see what CNN are saying and when you start getting deep, involved games on things like tablets, etc consoles will loose their main advantage to them and thats plug and play

this is a point that has been coming up more and more, why buy a console, when a decent laptop is the same price as a console + TV (which are becoming less main stream among young people), yet can often play games better, and do so much more?

also the games are cheaper, often by sizeable ammounts.

now consoles arn't dead, but its very understandable people saying they are dieing, 8 years without significant hardware changes, and a extreme unpreformence is not helping either.

the best part is that unlike the last generation of consoles the new ones are looking to be less powerful then a mid range PC, yet will launch for more (for 1200 NZD (the PS3 launch price) + 600 (the TV i would need) i can pick up a amazing gaming rig

 

[katsabas]

CNN. Gaming ? Really ?

Anywhooo, I gave up on consoles after witnessing what a gaming PC rig can do. This gen was defined mostly by games that were released on the PC first and on the consoles second. A number of games looked phenomenal on PC but had crazy frame drops on PS and XBOX.

For me, these are limitations to hardware built specifically to play games. PS3 and XBOX are built just for that. When they can't even do that correctly (which shows in cases of most PC ports, like Fall Of Cybertron), yeah, one can see why consoles should be dying. They are not however, because of the awesome exclusives.

As long as we keep having things like RDR, Infamous, Gears, Halo 4, God Of War, Uncharted, Forza, consoles will stay alive.

 

[Giftfromme]

Thank you for this post. I see that "adjusted for inflation, games are cheaper hurr durr" thing all the time around here, and it really gets annoying.

$60 in 1997 represents a higher sum than $60 in 2012.
Salaries were also lower on average in 1997 than 2012 so the $60 represented a greater portion of one's expendable income.

That's basic economics and not at all "hurr durr derp" as you claim.

Especially because the old games people list as being expensive are not only cartridge games, which had a huge premium on the unit price over disc based games thanks to manufacturing costs, but usually special cartridge based games that had either larger than usual ROM chips (think SNES RPGs) or special onboard processors (like the Super FX chip). Not to mention, the market was much smaller back in those days, so they didn't have the economy of scale going like we do today.

I've been gaming for far longer than you've even been alive, so I think I know that cartridges (chips) cost more than disks, as well as a smaller market caused those games to be more expensive.

And what of it?
Does this change the fact that games are cheaper today than they were then? (No)
Does this change the fact that even without inflation adjustment $60 is less than $70 - $100 we used to pay? (No)

So what was the point of your post again, cause I don't see one.

False. If you want to see huge budgets in entertainment, go look at what it costs to make a blockbuster movie. AAA games tend to cost about $50 million to make. Blockbuster movies start at around $100 million. Yet they make their profit back charging no more than $20 (the cost of a DVD; movie tickets are much cheaper) a pop.

Really? This is your argument? Really!? (rolls eyes)

I'm just going to use your quote from above:
"Not to mention, the market" is "much smaller"

Honestly, your entire argument is childish.
The $60 price tag that has been stable since the days of the PS1 (lowered from the 16 bit era) is a fair price.

If you don't like it, that's fine. I don't often buy newly released games. Older games have price drops. Wait 6 months and most games will see their cost slashed in half. If that still doesn't do it for you, I hear iPhone games like Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja are inexpensive...

Edit: I will agree on one point (I assume you agree). DLC is overpriced garbage that should be provided at no extra cost. Most DLC bullshit this gen was unlockable content in previous gens (extra characters, colours, stages, etc). You unlocked it by playing well, or by completing the game, or through a code.

Now it's "gimme $5 and you can unlock this extra costume!"
Fuck that noise.

Yeah all your points are fine but are negated by the fact that Owyn_Merrilin is an intellectual genius and deserves praise for being such a mastermind. I agree that games should not cost $60!! THATS OUTRAGEOUS. They should $20 AT MOST because we all deserve games and cannot live without them. Development costs are an invention of someone else's mind and don't compute in my reality. The cost of making a game SHOULD NOT be factored into price! That's just bad business and Owyn Merrilin is here to save this industry from itself. Someone hire this man please

Ever notice its always the BIG AAA games that ask for 60-80$? Never middle games which make profit even as low as 25 bucks?

...You're asking why the games with the largest production costs BY FAR cost more than games that don't even have a fiftieth of a AAA budget?

Did Hotline Miami make a ton of money while being priced at $10? Almost certainly. Did Hotline Miami cost at least 1/6th of what AAA games did to develop? Hell no.

Which, as mentioned, is part of the problem. Production values are too high on some AAA games to even make a profit at charging $60 anymore, like Dead Space 3. Carl on Duty: Black Cops 2 can get away with it because it will break every sales record known to man and then some (if it hasn't already).

dude you need to realise ultrawinkle has all this figured out. He has worked in the industry and knows how the pricing works. Game companies SHOULD NOT be making money for their investors because really they're different when you think about it. When they charge $60 a game, well those developers are just plain evil and are in bed with the devil. That is why everyone is taking a stance on those games and no one buys them anymore. Over the next few years games will drop in price BUT the production value will go up and we shall enter a golden age of gaming and everyone shall rejoice. This will of course be on advice from ultrawinkle because he already knows all the sums. So yeah don't try arguing with him, it's no use, he has already won

 

[xPixelatedx]

...Gamers' tastes have evolved to include quick, bite-size gaming sessions -- something consoles have never been good at. (Gamers must go to the living room, wait for the console to power on, load the game from the main menu, wait for it to boot.) It's much slower than tapping an icon on the smartphone you already carry in your pocket."

ROFL OMG! No, not even close... So, wait, let me get this straight. The new kids (I use that ironically) on the block who entered this gen purely on the appeal of exercising with the toy their grandchildren bought them; they're getting bored of it? ...THIS is what spells the end for console gaming? CNN, I think you are forgetting something.. like, oh, I don't know, how about the people who have been buying video games since the days of the NES and even prior: the people who choose to sit down and spend 10 hours straight on the newest title from the franchise they enjoy? They do this not because it's quick and cheap, yeah, they do it because they love to willful and purposely spend their time this way. Do you know why these people will ensure consoles won't die? Because I do... and if you really want to know come close...

...closer

Spoiler

Angry birds isn't enough

People who really enjoy gaming aren't satisfied with the cheap, quick-bangs for little bucks phones provide. If phone games were the only games, gaming would lose most it's audience. There are people out there spending THOUSANDS on top-of-the-line entertainment centers just to expand the home-experience further. Gaming on consoles has been around long before the phone games, and it will be around long after, because it is fundamentally an entierly different experience. They are not competing, because if they were phones would have to be offering an equivalence of some kind to Gear/Halo/CoD/etc. They aren't... I haven't even seen a decent iSo Mario competitor for crying out loud, and it seems like that would be the first easy thing to emulate. Nintendo is pretty safe.

Perhaps CNN should actually investigate why wii's aren't selling instead of just looking at numbers and then making broad assumptions. Could it be that the core releases are far and few? Could it be the mountain of shovel-ware the wii is now famous for? That's what killed Atari, after all. It could also be that Nintendo stopped supporting the wii after Zelda, and some people could argue they weren't supporting it much right before then, either. or hell, most people who wanted one might *drumroll* actually have one already. There is only so many people interested in wiis, and now that everyone has one somewhere in their family, it seems pretty unrealistic to believe they would still be selling like they were when they were new. Anyone in the business will also tell you that hardware sales aren't quite as important as software, to which Nintendo is making none for the wii right now. The wii's decline makes absolute perfect sense, and in no way should be feared. Even Nintendo is fine with it, they have a new console coming out and a rejuvenated library and new exclusives on the way.

 

[Twilight_guy]

CNN makes a lame and report that boils things down more then it should and is somewhat ignorant. Yawn. News reports do this all the time. I think this just got to you because it was game related.

 

[Eddie the head]

Just take out voice acting and "cinematic EVERYTHING " and we are good to go .

Also, since when is CNN a valid source of gaming news?

Since when has CNN been a valid source of news? As John Stewart pointed out the only people who watch CNN are the people at MSNBC.

 

[Doom972]

I don't think that they should stop, but they should definitely get people who actually know what they're talking about. Console gaming isn't dying because of smartphone games. Smartphone games are for casual gamers - people who's main hobby isn't gaming, but play videogames occasionally, while console games (like PC games), are for core gamers. With consoles slowly becoming limited PCs, I don't think that there will be more than 2 generations of consoles after this one.

 

[Defenestra]

Console gaming is dead, PC gaming is dead, Cthulhu is dead...

Whatevs. I say you call it dead after it's stopped twitching, not while it's still juggling huge bags of money. But hey, what do I know?

 

[Starik20X6]

And YouTube has been the killer of films. Who can be bothered watching a whole movie when you can reach into your pocket and watch a dude get hit in the nuts with a football for so much less effort? Stupid analysis is stupid.

 

[Karoshi]

And YouTube has been the killer of films. Who can be bothered watching a whole movie when you can reach into your pocket and watch a dude get hit in the nuts with a football for so much less effort? Stupid analysis is stupid.

Good comparison. Angry Birds are hardly going to sate my thirst for epic adventures.

 

[Yopaz]

OK, so the market for smart phone games are up... maybe because more people have smart phones?

As to the poll question I don't think CNN should stop writing game articles, I just think they should get better at checking facts and sources and do more when it comes to statistical analysis. In fact if they do those three things it will actually merit all news not jus the gaming related ones.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Funny how CNN reports this and the vidyagame press doesn't.

In fact, what importance is it to people who don't read the gaming press or are involved with the industry?

Even if it's of importance to shareholders, they've got to have a better source of information than that, surely...

 

[Frezzato]

Yeah, for anyone wondering why I even bothered to read the article, it's on Google News. Kinda the only game article currently.

It's interesting, I was reading the blog of the author, Blake Snow, and he's got bits with titles like "Teeth beware: Dental diagnodents are shady".

Seriously.


The comment tree at CNN is growing quite large, and here's a good one:

"You know what is dying? CNN.

Consoles (and PC gaming) are strong, the hardware sales are not stellar, but there is not much real hardware out there that is interesting...it is all old. The handheld garbage is not much better than phone and tablet games, which are a joke.

When the next generation of consoles come out they will sell like crazy. Anyone who wanted a PS3 or 360 or Wii bought it years ago...games are still selling just fine.

Next time you have a deadline and have to post something preposterous about technology just spit up another 'Apple is perfect' pile of bile."

 

[Frezzato]

In fairness, CNN doesn't cover global macroecon trends any better than they cover gaming trends.

You're right about that. Honestly, I don't know what CNN covers lately except famous murder trials and junk like that.