All Hail The PC: Console Gaming Is Dead

The bell is tolling for console gaming, according to WildTangent CEO Alex St. John, who has predicted that the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii will be the last successful consoles to come onto the market.

Speaking at the Casual Connect conference in Seattle, St. John predicted the extinction of game consoles by 2020, saying console makers will no longer be able to handle the massive investments required to create and market successful systems. Further, he said, a desire for gaming beyond the confines of the living room will fuel a rise in more portable options.

"We are looking at the last generation of consoles right now," St. John told his audience. "I am going to predict to you that the PS3, the Wii and the Xbox are the last generation of consoles that you either see or that anybody regards as successful in the market."

He added that Nintendo's success with the Wii was due exclusively to its innovative controllers, but then compared that to coin-op arcade machines of many years back, which attempted to fight the onslaught of powerful home systems by adding new controllers and other devices. The console business is "starting to behave like that dead arcade business," he said.

St. John predicted the future is in PC gaming, specifically laptop systems that are becoming more powerful than consoles, offering a completely portable gaming experience on par with the best consoles. His comments echo statements made in a recent interview with Edge-Online, in which he said, "Consider how laptops have changed the market. You have PCs now that can compete graphically with consoles, if not with with 360 and PS3 then with Wii. So kids can play anywhere, or they plug in a gamepad and plug into a TV for that 'immersive' experience. People in our generation might cling to the idea of the console running BioShock, but laptop gaming is going to dominate the market for this next generation."

Source: Edge-Online, SeattlePI.com

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Wow, WildTangent... I didn't even realize they were still a going concern. Learn somethin' new every day.

I love PC gaming much more than consoles, but even I know that this is a bunch of horseshit. Consoles are stronger than ever and are showing no signs of receding.

It would be great to see the PC back on top, but not at the expense of proper games. If stuff like wild tangent could run the consoles out of the market, that would be lovely, but if those sorts of the things were the only thing to play, it probably would not be worth it.

Has anyone ever thought that movements like this come in waves? First, the PC was the best gaming platform, then Consoles came along. Then the PC was re-fined and took back the top, then Consoles got better. This entire idea is a yo-yo trick, a different side will take the top in a different age. Their is as much a competition between Console and PC as there is between the Three Consoles. And it is just as pointless; honestly, go with what YOU like and f*** anyone that disagrees.

I believe that the correct term of response to something like this is , in short form, no. In long from it is roughly: no, no no no no no, don't you realise that this appears every few years anyway (no) etc etc etc.

EDIT: didn't they do a'All hail the consoles, PC gaming is dead' a few moths ago?

This is actually pretty interesting, and I'd be inclined to agree about all except the timeline. I don't think we'll see the extinction of consoles for a few generations yet, but I do think console sales will gradually begin to diminish, why? Because console prices continue going up, while equally potent computer hardware is dropping in price. When we reach the point that a laptop that costs the same amount of money as a console, with similar or more power, I think that's when console gaming will really hit a downturn, because consumers are usually smarter then everyone gives them credit for and if you can get more power and more usage out of a laptop that costs the same I think that's the road consumers will take.

I haven't mentioned desktops because although consumers are smarter then most people give them credit for, they aren't that much smarter, as I believe even when a desktop for the same price as a console can beat it in gaming capabilities there will not suddenly be a huge downturn because desktops are difficult to market to the console crowd.

This is one of the few things I absolutely despise about gaming culture: Doom-sayers. They remind me of the idiots we saw around the turn of the new millennium, who many regarded with mixed looks of contempt, pity, and annoyance, wondering what kind of sick smack-addicted existence they had as they swung their Bibles around, screaming something about the number of the beast.

The main difference between those idiots and these idiots is that gaming doom-sayers have doom prophecies that vary more than the bloody weather from day to day! One minute the PS3 is evidently going to die, next its the 360, the day after it's casual gaming, a week later it's the professional gaming, then its games are arts crowd dying out, then it's the Wii coming on top of the other two systems, then PC gaming is dead, then home gaming is dead, then just consoles are dead, then handhelds are dying, blahblahblahblahblahBLAH!
Jesus Christ, people! If all these things are dying and no one but the crazy bastards going on about it have seen it yet, then I guess I must have a hidden case of cancer - in my ass!

Eh just another DOOM! prediction. What about the casual gamer that doesn't want to fight with "Is this game compatible with my OS? Is my graphics card up to par? Wait, it needs what .dll file to run??" Not to mention a gaming computer can run up to and over 2000 dollars while a console, while expensive, is less than half that.

The death of the console would only come if the world shifted more and more to the hard core gamers willing to become tech experts and shell out obscene amounts of money for their gaming.

It just isn't going to happen. What world is this guy living in?

I think he is both very right and incredibly wrong at the same time. I don't reckon consoles have that much more potential for growth in their current form (bar the maybe the Wii). .
Also, like skrapt says consoles are getting more expensive whereas PCs/laptops are becoming more affordable. I can see in the not too distant future, assuming the economic troubles don't escalate futher, an affordable laptop computer that is also that generation's console. I don't think consoles are going to die. I think PCs and Consoles are going to converge further and further (exibit A, PS3) and get cheaper and cheaper. In time the PC market and the Console market, probably won't be that dissimilar, with huge cross-overs in hardware.

Darkauthor81:
Eh just another DOOM! prediction. What about the casual gamer that doesn't want to fight with "Is this game compatible with my OS? Is my graphics card up to par? Wait, it needs what .dll file to run??" Not to mention a gaming computer can run up to and over 2000 dollars while a console, while expensive, is less than half that.

The death of the console would only come if the world shifted more and more to the hard core gamers willing to become tech experts and shell out obscene amounts of money for their gaming.

It just isn't going to happen. What world is this guy living in?

The problem comes when PC Gaming is cheaper then console gaming, which is certainly the way it's heading and your figure of $2000 is way off, you can easily make a system powerful enough for Crysis for around $1200 US dollars. And when you factor in the cost of a browsing PC on top of a console the costs start to add up to more then a gaming PC, the only reason I agree slightly is because the next generation of consoles will cost even more then the current one and they will continue rising in cost each generation while PC hardware costs generally stay static or drop.

you can easily make a system powerful enough for Crysis for around $1200 US dollars

Which considering the life of a gaming PC is either as long or longer than a console unit, and that once you have the hardware you can upgrade small bits at a time which will increase the lifespan further.

A friend of mine has spent somewhere in the region of £600 this year on Xbox-360s, they keep breaking on him. He says if the one he has got breaks he will not be replacing it.

I am and always have been a PC gamer, but I don't believe that consoles are going away in the forseeable future. Nor do I want them too.

I found this bit quite interesting:

You have PCs now that can compete graphically with consoles

... now? Don't you mean like, since forever? Unless of course he's using the P as "Portable" instead of "Personal"

OH, this is a nice change of pace....

instead of console or PC taking over...

IT'S THE LAPTOPS!

-but he forgets about the handhelds, which are the ultimate in portable gaming.

I guess the DS will be king of the gaming universe.

Let's not forget that Wild Tangent has a vested interested in the PC becoming the dominant platform in gaming, as his network's success depends on it.

Honestly I think the notion that every house needs a console is really starting to gain traction and barring a really compelling PC solution in the next five years, this trend will continue.

This post is pretty confusing to me. Now honestly, I have been and always will be a PC gamer, but predicting the future like this with little to no reasoning behind it seems foolhardy.

Now that we have gaming systems that are expected to get content from the internet, isn't it logical that the lines between "console" and "computer" will blur more and more? Even now most people buy computers the same way they buy consoles... as a one-time purchase that never gets upgraded but which eventually gets replaced after a couple of years. Maybe someday we'll have consoles that can surf the internet and store content on hard drives... oh wait, we already have those!

Moreover, what will we HAVE for computers in 15-20 years? Will we still buy a home/laptop main computer or will we buy a small box that connects into a neighborhood server or your ISP? Will on-demand television be duplicated in on-demand internet and on-demand games and such?

The point is, anyone who claims that future computers and consoles will have any resemblance to their present-day brethren is assuming a great deal. Good luck arguing which one will "win out" in the end.

Wow, I got to tell you, I don't see the console going away any time soon. The home console is becoming more of an entertainment center. The PC can not replace that.

None of this matters.
Life as we know it will end October 2012.
Bet on it.

Consoles nor PC's are on there 'death bed', you simply can't 'predict' this kind of 'economic cycle' You need to know demand, and you can't really 'know' what the demand will be in 10 years. You would need to know of everything every company has planned in the next 10-20 years to actually get a solid picture, and even then actually predicting it is about as successful as a weatherman actually saying the summer weekend is going to be sunny. (which is about a 20% chance that it actually will be, and if he said it was rainy it has a higher chance of being sunny, than it being rainy, particularilly if your in an urban environment...)

Anyways, the future isn't console gaming, or pc gaming, But in Nano-Technology.
I have Five words for you.
Wireless
Nano
Contact
LCD
Lenses

The moment someone is able to make, a contact lense, with nano-technology, that acts like an LCD monitor, that operates like a Contact Lense, Is the day PC/Console Gaming dies, and the revolution begins.
It would be the closet we'll ever have to virtual reality, and the very idea that we could encorporate such technology with some kind of wireles/computer/hub, that runs all the tasks, as well as uses a type of 'overlay', that can be used outside of gaming, but also for media like 'TV', or 'Movies'. Is just pure geeky awesome heaven.

Listen, if your a guy, and you have a wife, a girlfriend, or a very talkative mother (or if your very big nerd), that always 'talk' about there day with you.
All you need to do is now imagine an 'overlay' overyour vision of that football game your missing, or family guy.
Tell me that is not pure awesome awaiting?

Of course such technology is at least 30 years away, assuming nano-technology doesn't get hampered as bad as 'stem cell research' has been...
But we should be seeing news papers/magazines, that are re-useable, bio-plastic, that automatically 'updates' the news/magazine. (They had a show that featured some proto-types, completely in black and white, but 5-10 years, the LCDs we have now will be 'giant' in comparison... You can pratically 'paint' the crap on your wall if they get the tech down pat. ;) )

I totally agree with jergarmar. Sooner or later, someone (probably Microsoft) will work out a Console that runs MSWord and Powerpoint, and that'll be it in terms of distinction. Consoles are playing movies/music/games, and PCs (especially laptops) are doing the same thing. They're beginning to overlap. Right now, PCs are super versatile in comparison to Consoles, but that doesn't mean that within the next generation, we won't find a console that's able to function as a minor work machine, with word processors and internet browsers. It'll be a major coup for the consoles too, because it means people will be able to program third-party software wholly w/in the console, no PC required.

I see it less as the death of either species, so much as it will be a convergent event. A few years from now, we won't argue over whether or not Console gaming is dying or PC gaming is dying, we'll argue about who won.

I dream of that day.

Hah, he wishes. Then more people would buy his arcade game clones.

And SinisterDeath, I believe Organic Light-Emiting Diodes would be more suitable for a contact lense style display than Liquid Crystals.

And Archaeology Hat, will your $1200 computer continue to play the most computer intensive PC games at High settings for ten years? And will you have your entire library of PC games available to play on it whenever you feel the desire?

TheEggplant:
None of this matters.
Life as we know it will end October 2012.
Bet on it.

I think you got the month wrong. You might want to check your Mayan calendar.

Whoa... deja vu.... did the Matrix just reset here?

As a person who enjoys both his PC (Dawn of War, Company of Heroes, Starcraft, Flashpoint, Falllout 2) and his PS2 (Resi 4, MGS series, FF series, Killzone, BLACK) I can no more visualise the demise of either sector. This is just another propagandist piece of horseshit, from another propagandist horseshit-spewer trying to one-up his competition with words instead of hardware.

The only way either gaming method will die is if one gains significant superiority over the other in terms of both performance and cheapness, and then a recession hits.

Eldritch Warlord:
And Archaeology Hat, will your $1200 computer continue to play the most computer intensive PC games at High settings for ten years? And will you have your entire library of PC games available to play on it whenever you feel the desire?

Will you still really be playing the same console in ten years time? As a regular thing, that is. Not like now when I regret passing on my SNES.

I prefer the PC for gaming, I favor strategy and the occassional FPS and I find the good old keyboard and mouse to just be a better input method than a gamepad for such, but if I want to come home from work, kick back and lose myself comfortably in a game for a few hours, I'm more likely to turn to a console for it... the console is a home accessory now in the same vein as a TV or DVD player, but the PC currently - and will presumably continue to - function as a decent enough hybrid. The only time this is going to change, I think, is when consoles start moving towards being more like PCs anyway, and there we're honestly just looking at a reduction in size.

I think I lost my point. I don't know if I had one to make. Everything is fine I guess?

For god sake every sodding month either PC gaming is dying or consoles are dying. As someone has previously said it's a yo yo. Competition is healthy.

Proclaiming laptops as the future of gaming is a new one on me. It's definately going to happen though, I mean forget the fact that the vast majority of laptops sold can't even play games that are 2 or 3 years old.

Good to hear a change from the 'PC is dead' story, very odd article though.

huntedannoyed:
Wow, I got to tell you, I don't see the console going away any time soon. The home console is becoming more of an entertainment center. The PC can not replace that.

Wha... the PC can do all the 'entertainment centre' stuff a console can do, and tons more as well.

TheEggplant:
None of this matters.
Life as we know it will end October 2012.
Bet on it.

Pfft. Heard it was December 21.

Anyway. I find few real significant differences between a PC and a current gaming console. The only thing you really need a PC for nowadays is work related. Games are better on the console, mostly for the lack of upgrades needed to play them.

From where I see it the Pc's are better than consoles because if you buy a 1200$ pc now in about 2 years you can upgrade it and still play games on high and so on ... whereas for a console you have to wait for the next console to apear in about 5-6 years , yeah you won't have the games imediately like a console would but you just have to pop in the disk and install the game wich takes about 5 min . Probably the next series of consoles will have a windows or some other OS with them but then they won't be consoles would they? they would just become PC's(but probably by then the pc's will be about the same size , and about the laptops , yeah sure they can play new games but they are more expensive and you can't change components(yes , I know you can add ram).
And about the hand-held consoles , they might be fun but i don't see them as a competition to consoles or pc's or laptops , to me they are just like "kids" you play with them for a while and then you go to their big bro wich is more fun , at least that's my opinion
p.s.:Sorry about the bad grammar but i'm not english

*Yawn*

Another guy with a vested interest in one side of the Platform Wars gets his shoe out and starts pounding on the podium. "We will bury you!"

Seeing as that worked out so well for Nikita... yeah, right.

The truth is that no one can reliably predict the future of game platforms, but I strongly doubt the uncontested dominance of any platform in the next ten years... or, if there is One True Platform by then, it ain't going to be one that's around today anyway.

-- Steve

He actually thinks portable gaming is the way forward? I hate portable gaming, and i'm definitely not going to whip out my laptop in the park and start playing Team Fortress. My partner bought me a DS for my birthday but I only ever use the thing on the train to work, and since I now cycle to work is basically just sits there gathering dust. I agree that consoles have their limitations, but they have the advantage of knowing it won't be obsolete within weeks of buying one.

I think you've got it backwards, nobody wants to spend thousands of dollars upgrading a PC for a game they could spend 60 bucks on for a console

He seems to forget laptops aren't really for gaming since once the components are out of date you have next to no choice but to buy another laptop, whereas the desktops can constantly be upgraded, which kinda invalidates the portability argument somewhat. That aside, this is identical to the 'PC gaming is dying' shit I've heard thrown around, imo as long as we have children, Nintendo at least will survive with it's gimmicks and one trick wonders, and as long as we have 18-30 year olds, PC gaming will survive too, and of course, the 10-17 year olds will keep microsoft and sony in the business

It would take a radical reformation of the way laptops are manufactured and marketed for these predictions to occur. Laptops would have to be built with upgrades in mind, similar to desktops. Users would have to be able to upgrade video/sound/ram when needed, instead of opting for a completely new laptop.

Could it happen? Sure. I'd much rather have a laptop that can be upgraded rather than a desktop. But will it happen by the next console generation? Highly doubtful.