Consoles are under attack, from smartphones, tablets, browser-based gaming, full-on PC game downloads and cloud gaming. Technologies and business models, like free-to-play, are rapidly changing, and according to God of War and Twisted Metal creator David Jaffe, the days of the console are numbered.
“Look, consoles are going away. I think in 10 years – probably sooner, but 10 years is always the safe thing to say so you don’t sound like an idiot – but here’s what I’ll say: I’ll go on the record and say that the next generation of hardware will be the last consoles. And they should be,” Jaffe asserted.
“It doesn’t mean you won’t buy a piece of hardware from Sony, but you’ll probably buy a television that streams the stuff. And you’ll still have Sony, loud and proud and strong making these great, big, epic games like God of War and Uncharted, and they’ll be making great little games like Sound Shapes, but they’ll become more like movie studios for video games. I’ll be able to stream in the next Uncharted and Plants vs Zombies and you won’t even think about it. It’ll just be like I can watch a public access show on my TV or I can watch Avatar.”
Jaffe continued, “So this is the last generation of consoles coming up. I’m going to go out on a limb, because why the f**k not I don’t care if I’m wrong, I’m not a business guy. I think next-gen consoles are going to do 40 percent of [the sales volume] of the current gen hardware.”
Ultimately, games with AAA graphics and budgets will live on, but they just won’t be on consoles anymore. “The asteroid has hit the Earth, the dust cloud is covering the sun and the dinosaurs are on the way out – but not the games! We’ll always have great games and bleeding edge graphics… it’s just going to be a new delivery mechanism,” Jaffe concluded.
Source: GamesIndustry International
