Why Consoles Are Going Extinct

Since the creation of video games, no piece of hardware has been more important than the console. It brought video games into our homes in the 80s. Will you be the one to experience the Nintendo Entertainment System? Popularized them in the 90s. 16-bit Super Nintendo. and transformed home entertainment in the 2000s For decades,

consoles

have propelled the world of gaming and technology into the future with many

consoles

combined to create supercomputers for governments or banned in certain countries due to the advanced technology of the console and the PlayStation 2 became the repeated target. of War, the media coverage related to each console generation seemed to propel us forward by bringing something new, powerful or innovative, but in the last 10 years consoles have fallen behind and many people have moved from Shi to PCS and phones, What was once an industry dominated by consoles has now become a niche. where consoles are in third place slowly losing market share year after year and many investors tell new game creators to avoid consoles, we sit in these seats as venture capitalists and I think if a founder came to us and told us that they were

going

to try to start a game and ship it on the console, we would say why, but in the old days it wasn't PC versus console versus phone, it was console versus console and these console wars brought us the best gaming hardware generation after generation. generation, but the constant battle for dominance has taken what we have been fighting for to its level and Microsoft is behind it.

Wars game console. The console. Wars. in console. Wars. Console Wars. Real quick before I dive in, we have to talk about today's sponsor. Nordvpn sponsors are important to the channel because half of all our sponsor revenue goes to help fund independent developers, and unlike so many sponsors who have reached out, I myself contacted Nord as someone who travels around job. I sit in several airports every month and usually my Internet service is in garbage, so instead I spend hours working on the very poor airport public Internet, but thanks to Nord I can use the Wi-Fi. Fi from the airport safely because I don't have to worry about my data or passwords being compromised. flip a switch and that's it, so with the current standalone discount you can get an extra 4 months on a 2 year plan by checking out the link below, you're risk-free with Nord's 30-day money back guarantee and you can get access to all of these great services, so as someone who has used multiple VPNs over the years, I highly recommend nordvpn and want to thank them for sponsoring us and helping us have fun as indie developers long before I was on the first console.

The war began, a war waged. by Atari and on television, although Atari was the first and is the best known, television had better graphics and sounds and it was found that television played much more like real baseball. It sounds more like you should be comparing whiskeys, not game consoles, but this was the beginning of the Console Wars and Mattel commercials were running in the '80s, Intelvision had a real chance of competing with Atari, and as a result of the competition, the console market was on the rise, unfortunately, since domestic games were just strengthening their crisis.

It hit the video game market. The market collapsed in 1983. The gaming market was saturated with low-quality games and people were more interested in buying personal computers. Why buy a $1000 console to play games? You could play something just as bad on a PC. Personal computers were a more versatile option. with the ability to play and work, a problem that we will see Pop Up years later, but with the fall of consoles, income from domestic video games went from 3.2 billion in 1983 to 100 million in 1985, a drop of 97% for what was the first war. of consoles. won by Atari, but in reality it was more like mutual assured destruction, video games seemed more like a fad filling landfills and losing to obscurity like the original console makers, but then a Rose From the Ashes console from a playing card company that we all know today, Nintendo.

Nintendo really was the savior of gaming because when they released the NES in 1985 it completely changed people's perception of video games, so a lot of games produced at that time were expensive garbage and Nintendo didn't want another ET fiasco, every Nintendo title had to be quality and when the NES was released, people were surprised by the gameplay, the stories, the characters, practically all of Nintendo's notable IPs came from this generation and it was actually affordable, the NES was gold , all the kids were begging to get this for Christmas. Nintendo had a complete monopoly on home games. and with only a prize of $300 people were happy to buy Shut Up And Take My Money, other companies saw this success and wanted one company in particular to step into the ring against the King console and they did it in Nintendo style with the release of Sega Genesis in 1989 and media campaigns in full swing, the second console began the war, these two Japanese companies fought for dominance, each fighting over game specifications and intellectual property, with Sega creating Sonic to clinch the mustache , the plumber's commercials, these companies fought incessantly and it seemed like the console industry would be dominated by Sega and Nintendo forever.

Until a third Japanese company entered the picture when Sony joined the fight, the company jumped to first place Immediately the PlayStation was incredible, it was more powerful than anything that existed, any use was CD ROM, not cartridges for its games, in addition to excellent hardware, they had a top-notch cast of characters ranging from Cloud to Crash Bandicoot. Your worst nightmare has arrived. Sony was poised to win the next console war and as the Mexican standoff caused Sega to fall behind, leaving the console industry to never return. Number two for most of the 80's and 90's the Japanese dominated the console industry from Nintendo to Sega to Sony no one else dared to compete or they died trying but then Microsoft and Bill Gates did the unthinkable : Not only did they enter the console market, they entered with this, what the hell is that even though the original Xbox looked like a green monstrosity compared to the PS2, the green box was much more powerful than the PS2 or GameCube, but it was new and didn't have that many games? so it only sold 24 million copies, which sounds pretty good until you compare it to the PlayStation 2, but the Xbox did well enough that Microsoft greenlit the next one and thank God they did because the next generation of consoles would be the biggest in console history.

It's your new Xbox 360, now we have one for PlayStation 3. I had each of these consoles and each one had something I couldn't resist. The technology of the PS3 was incredible. Blu-ray DVD players at the time were close to $1,000 and you got one built into the PS3 for just $600, the Xbox 360 had the best lineup of games in the community, that original interface oozed fun and friends and then there was the Wii, this little white box had the sprawling Wii Sports, Super Mario Galaxy, those games were amazing. I don't remember playing much else, as most of the Wi games were a bit gimmicky, but it was still a lot of fun and the commercials were great.

Where would you like to play. This generation was tremendously attractive. Each console had something unique. Sales were neck and neck, this generation ended up being incredibly important because this was the last real battle of the console wars where the consoles faced each other, each with their own personality and value when the consoles were at their peak, but the next generation of consoles would be quite different 7 years after the release of the 5th generation consoles, it was finally time to see what would come next and Sony announced the PS4. The PS4 seemed like a great console with all kinds of community-driven games and features, not to mention you could use it. as a media player, people were excited, people were also excited, although seeing the new Xbox, the 360 ​​had been incredible, apart from the red ring of death, and gamers couldn't imagine what the Xbox announcement had in store.

Go to Internet Explorer, Skype when exercising, it can read your heart. The ad was bad. People weren't sure if it was a console or some kind of device for watching movies and Skype with your friends. I hope you show the great work we are doing. Our partners at ESPN I felt like Microsoft was talking about everything but normal games. They were so focused on being the technology of the future for the family room that they forgot why people buy consoles in the first place. Fortunately, we have a product for people who can't get them. some form of connectivity is called Xbox 360, even when they were talking about video games, it was controversial because it was not clear if you could play your titles offline or even share them with your friends.

Sony, of course, saw all this chaos and had a bit of fun. with the controversy this is how you share your games on PS4 thanks unfortunately the Xbox One failed at launch and it wasn't the only one a few months before Nintendo released this horrendous thing a console that allowed you to play games on a tablet but I couldn't really travel with it, so it was like this console was portable. I didn't understand it, I didn't understand it and neither did most people. He failed a lot. This was the first time that Nintendo was not profitable and the company.

I was fighting with everything, but the PlayStation crashed and burned. Xbox lost its identity as a gaming console and Nintendo made a console that tried to be portable by simply making a normal console. Sony immediately won the battle, but the Division became even bigger thanks to exclusives the amount of exclusive games PlayStation had was Leaps and Bounds, I better want to play Halo 4, buy an Xbox One or just play it on the Xbox 360, who cares, I want to play any of these games, yes, buy a PlayStation 4, so Sony won the battle. but unlike any other console fight, this one would have lasting consequences, such an impact that the Wii U would be Nintendo's last console, eh?

What about the Switch? Some people are really stupid. The Switch is not a console. It may sound crazy, but listen to me, let's see. in the creation of the Wii U and I think it will explain why the Switch is not what we normally define as a home console, since the N64 Nintendo had been in second place behind the PlayStation losing again and again, so Nintendo diversified with the Wii. We no longer compete on specifications, but instead take a blue ocean approach with a focus on unique gaming experiences. It worked, but like I said before, the Wii was a bit gimmicky and Nintendo knew they couldn't do the same trick twice, so when the new console was released. at ideation, leadership noticed something: Nintendo had been losing the console world to PlayStation for years, but they had been winning the laptop war, no one even came close to Nintendo's dominance in the laptop market , which sparked the idea that people love the Nintendo laptop so much, why not bundle one?

With the console, someone at Nintendo had a great idea with the Wii U, but it was poorly executed. Instead of making a console with portable capabilities, they needed to make a laptop with console capabilities sound like something the Switch is, first and foremost, a laptop. Hybrid on-the-go device that can also be connected to a TV and is great. Nintendo had been playing in two markets for 30 years by dividing resources between the console and its handheld devices, but with the Switch they could focus on creating great games for one platform. mobile hardware for any situation, so Nintendo came out of the console wars in 2017 and I don't see them ever coming back, which leaves us with two duopolies for years, PlayStation and Xbox have fought for the right to say we are the best . games, the most storage, top-of-the-line graphics with adamant fans fighting them, but when the Xbox One fell behind, the leaders of Microsoft's gaming division realized that this loss was

going

to hurt unlike any another generation of consoles this generation introduced digital games. that could be played on any future console, we lost the worst generation to lose on Xbox, a generation in which everyone created their digital library of games, so Xbox lost the most important console battle, with digital games as a driving force and Microsoft realized they couldn't. win the console war against PlayStation we are not in the business of consoling Sony orconsole Nintendo.

There's really no big solution or victory for us so they decided on a different strategy, something that would take years to implement but would ultimately put Xbox on top there's just one problem to be the best Xbox would have to take down the console now this is speculation I want to make sure this is very clear but if we look at Microsoft's actions and the model they are following it makes sense to kill the console because it is a razors and blades model if you are not sure what that means. This is how the model works.

A knife you buy at the store is sold at a loss, but knife companies do this because they get their money back. make money and make tons more selling blades for a high margin, that's why companies like Gillette sue anyone who makes blades that fit their razors. Consoles are just as consoles are typically sold at a loss, often a loss of hundreds of dollars per unit. We're subsidizing that purchase by $1 to $200 with the expectation that we'll recoup that investment over time, but most console companies make their money back in publishing fees for first-party games, so whoever wins the console wars is selling more games, which minimizes those console costs and makes the console company a lot more money because of all the blades or games they sell, but if you are losing the console war and people don't buy your hardware and your games, your cost can kill you, which is why so many companies If you've left the industry or died competing, it can cost billions of dollars to develop a console and you have to develop a new one every 5 to 8 years, restarting the process and going back into the red to be the constant loser on the console.

Microsoft had every incentive to kill the console and the first step to achieve that goal was to buy Minecraft. They are buying Minecraft for $2.5 billion. At the time, many thought this acquisition was an odd choice. If Microsoft was trying to save on Xbox One, why buy Minecraft and then not make it exclusive to keep it available? all platforms, including its rival PlayStation, but as we now know, this was not Microsoft's plan after purchasing Minecraft. More acquisitions were made. Studios like zenc Bethesda for 8 billion and activis Blizzard for 69 billion with more promises that most games wouldn't be Xbox Exclusives Xbox fans saw all these Studio purchases at first and thought this was it, all these great games will revive the Xbox console, but according to Phil Spencer that is not true.

I see it there. I see comments that if you just make great games everything would change, it's just not true, which is why Microsoft spent over $80 billion on game studios and it's not to regain share in consoles, it's to build the Netflix of gaming , this was the first step in Microsoft's plan to become the new market leader and kill off consoles to create. the best gaming subscription service and so far I would say it's the best Game Pass it's cheap and it's versatile it has great games and exclusives it has some problems don't get me wrong but Game Pass can be played on almost any device not to mention which is available on all Windows PCs which, by the way, has 1.4 billion units worldwide and this reach into the mass market highlights the second step of Microsoft's plan to make gaming or, more specifically, Game Pass are accessible everywhere.

In the most recent leak from Microsoft, this photo was released showing the future of Xbox hardware and according to this Xbox infographic, the future is all devices, TVs, phones, laptops, streaming devices, cloud devices, consoles, but it's not the focus of the leaks, the next mid-gen Xbox console to be released will be all-digital and next-gen. The console is said to be a hybrid that combines the power of the client and the cloud, so the future of gaming will be everywhere and in everything, but why is Microsoft still making consoles if this is the future? Because the technology is still not good enough. and we still need consoles, we saw what happened with Google Stadia.

Games are not ready to go to the cloud completely and neither are players. It takes time to move the market. That's why Microsoft is making a hybrid console in 2028. We still need proper hardware to run higher fidelity games, especially online games, but it's getting better. I've been streaming tons of old Xbox 360 games and indie games on my iPhone 13 and with the release of the iPhone 15 Pro you can now play modern games like Resident Evil Village, but what's even more amazing is that you can use your phone to play games. Resident Evil with rate tracking on your TV with a PlayStation controller, you can literally have a console in your pocket.

A $700 console, but this is where the industry is headed. Why buy a console when your phone? can do the job or even better if your TV Can Microsoft recently partnered with Samsung? You can now stream games directly to your TV in 2022, if you're new to gaming this is an easy way to have fun without needing to buy a PC or console, so Microsoft bought up all kinds of video game IP and is making their games are accessible in everything, but one last obstacle has stood in Microsoft's way: the console war with PlayStation. Microsoft needed people to stop fighting over consoles and start fighting. about subscription services and a golden opportunity presented itself in 2017 with the launch of Fortnite.

In 2018, you could play Fortnite with your friends on any platform from PC to Playstation, PC to mobile, Xbox to mobile, except one where you couldn't play with Xbox to PlayStation crossplay. cross-console was not possible, but if anyone remembers cross-play between consoles was available for a hot minute in 2017, when Fortnite released epic games that accidentally enabled cross-play between consoles, Epic claimed it was a mistake and cross-play was solved it, but the players weren't stupid. I saw what was possible and the cat was out of the bag. Cross-platform play between consoles was totally on the table, it was literally just a click away.

Cross-play between PlayStation 4 and Xbox One is very easy to execute, but Sony didn't like that. As a console leader, you don't want to play cross-platform with your competitors. Online exclusivity was a core element of the hardware at the time and helped PlayStation dominate Xbox. If you can only play with your friends on PlayStation Network, then your friends will go. buy a PlayStation, not an Xbox, but if you remove that exclusivity you remove a reason to buy a PlayStation or even a console, which is why Phil Spencer and Xbox saw this cross-play drama as their way forward and Phil Spencer stated in a tweet that you would have liked. see epic games, leave it in reference of course to cross-platform play with PlayStation, so the gamer companies and Phil Spencer asked PlayStation to activate cross-play, which put Sony in a bind, but made it even worse when Fortnite was released for Switch at Nintendo's launch. and Microsoft partnered from Minecraft to Fortnite, most multiplayer games were released when Nintendo's cross-platform platform, of all companies, partnered with Microsoft and people were outraged at PlayStation for not joining forces, tension was high and Sony was finally cornered 2 years after Fortnite.

Sony relented, they agreed to open their Internet blockade. Players could now play against each other on any platform and on any device. It was glorious, but by removing player exclusivity on consoles, cross-play destroyed the reason for a console war. Why fight over which console it is? better when we can all play together, yes specs were still important but most people understood that Xbox and Playstation are basically the same technologically and if you really care about specs you are part of the PC Master race you dumb console peasants , the only thing that still matters. They are exclusive, but with the introduction of all these cross-platform subscriptions we won't be getting console exclusives in the near future.

Now fans, of course, have still fought over which console is best to keep the battle flag flying for years after the Fortnite charade, but Microsoft put an end to it. to that and officially ended the war in June 2023 stating in their lawsuit against the FTC that Xbox had lost the console wars, Microsoft surrendered, they waved the white flag and surprised everyone, no one has ever admitted to losing the console war. consoles, not TV, not Sega, not Nintendo, not even the KFC oven console, they just moved or died, but Microsoft admitted that they lost because they don't care anymore.

The home console is not the future and they know it, which is why Sony was so strongly opposed to the Activision acquisition. Blizzard CEO Sony knew that Microsoft would not exclude Call of Duty and most other PlayStation games. He knew that this acquisition would do little to affect PlayStation gaming in the near future, but Sony tried to block this acquisition because they fear what comes next, a cloud future. Games without consoles, which is what Activision Blizzard's lawsuit was really about, the change is the nightmare of all industry leaders, like Kodak, which had 95% of the photography market but then went bankrupt because it couldn't they switched to digital or Blockbuster, which could have bought it.

Netflix for $50 million, but they didn't do it because they were focused on physical stores, it's hard to innovate when you're at the top, so if you're Sony and you want the console to survive and thrive, you don't want to compete with Microsoft. In new territory, Sony loses all these sources of income when the console dies and they will have to fight to remain dominant competing no longer in the console wars, but in the cloud wars, this is good for the players. Competition brings variety. New competitors like Nvidia will do it. They will be able to compete and new hardware will be introduced, unfortunately for Sony consoles are not the future of gaming and they know it, they just want to extend the life cycle of the console as much as possible, unlike Microsoft, year after year Microsoft has been knocking down slowly the pillars. that hold the console Hardware accessibility player exclusivity Lower cost of entry consoles are no longer the preferred choice for gaming Hardware you don't need a $400 console to play with your friends like you did in the past due to the change in the market , gaming is expanding around the world at an incredible rate and most countries don't have consoles or need them.

China is becoming one of the largest gaming markets in the world and consoles were banned there until 2016, banned externally by the US due to its military use and were banned internally by the Chinese government because it did not want its Young people will play video games, so the console market in China only represents 1 1% of all games. PCs have also been the dominant gaming hardware in Korea since the 9s because of PC bongs and think of India. They have the largest population in the world and the gaming market is growing rapidly there, but what platform do you think they are going to play?

Consoles aren't as accessible in India as they have been in the West, but they do have phones. Televisions and computers readily available What platforms do you think game developers will want to develop for consoles? In no way does it make sense that you can reach a much larger audience on other platforms at a much lower cost. Do I think consoles will disappear completely? Go away, no I don't think so, but I think they will be a fraction of what they are today, a smaller group of people in the world who want an upscale family room. Computing, basically just buying a computer for your family room but having a dedicated gaming device. for your television it is no longer necessary, at least it will not be soon, so Sony and Microsoft will continue making consoles.

I guess they will do it for the next 5, 10, 15 years after that, there is fog. 2028 seems to be the bridge between hybrid Aras. consoles to take us into the future little by little consoles and the console market are declining replaced by hybrid technology cloud gaming and subscription services the console almost died 40 years ago and its resurrection in the 80s brought us some incredible memories, but Unless something changes, I think the console as we know it is becoming a thing of the past hybrid consoles Phones and TVs with cloud hardware this is the future of gaming all signs point to the death of the home console es sad to say but it's also exciting now a lot of this is Speculation about games is constantly changing and it's hard to predict the future, especially 10 years or more from now, but whether IWhether I'm wrong or right, I'm fascinated by the future of gaming and I'm excited to see what comes next.

Thank you all for joining this. This week I want to highlight our Discord community, we are now running monthly challenges and weekly events all focused on building a successful indie studio, so if you are an aspiring indie developer or just someone interested in indie games, join our Discord Thank you and we'll see. you next week