All gamer eyes will be focused on the E3 show next week to see what the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One have to offer. Nintendo will also be hoping to renew interest in the Wii U with announcements of upcoming games. But there are other consoles that will be at E3, and the revenue generated from them may be greater than the revenue from next-gen consoles. Keep your marketing sensors tuned for these other consoles, and see what may be The Next Big Thing.
First off, there are the portable consoles from Nintendo and Sony to look at. Nintendo’s 3DS line, after a rocky start, has gone on to become a solid replacement for the aging DS line. Nintendo is continuing to expand the software lineup, and with more impressive titles the 3DS looks to generate some welcome profit for Nintendo this year. Expect Nintendo to devote a fair piece of its E3 marketing effort to the 3DS lineup; judge for yourself how impressive it looks.
Sony has the opportunity to relaunch the PS Vita at this E3, and the company has already shown the PS Vita as a remote player for PS4 titles. The big question is this: Can Sony generate some serious sales energy around the handheld console Many expected a price drop after Sony cut the price in Japan, but prices in the Americas and Europe remained unchanged. Watch for a price drop to be announced at E3 if Sony is serious about giving the PS Vita a boost. More importantly, what sort of software lineup can we expect The titles so far have not been real system-sellers, much to Sony’s disappointment. Has the company been able to generate some third-party enthusiasm Can smaller developers show the platform some love Does Sony have a killer title or two of its own to show off Examine the Sony event and the Sony booth to see what percentage is devoted to the PS Vita; that will tell you just how important Sony thinks the PS Vita will be going forward.
Beyond those two obvious consoles, though, we have some serious contenders from left field. The Ouya, the GamePop and the GameStick represent the first Android-based consoles, and the pricing represents a serious challenge to the established console business. The Ouya is priced at $99, the GamePop at $129 (with a $6.99 per month subscription to all the games you want) and the GameStick at $79. That’s not so far off from where the Wii, the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are headed (they may all have a version at $99 by Christmas) — until you consider the price of games. True, for older consoles you can find classics or used games for $20, but Android is awash in free games, or games priced at just a dollar or two, or free-to-play games. Casual gamers, or families interested in getting a simple gameplaying solution, may well be interested in these alternative consoles.
Expect to see all of these consoles at E3 in some form or other. Ouya will be conducting a guerrilla marketing operation outside the convention, symbolizing the company’s strategy as being outside of the . . . conventional game industry. Android consoles may not be inside the halls, but their shadow will be falling on the show. Android has thousands of casual games, and developers are busy crafting more hardcore experiences for mobile platforms. Over the next six months, the titles available for Android platforms will continue to increase. The graphics may not be next-gen, but gameplay can generate great sales — just look at Minecraft.
The final console to watch for is quite possibly the biggest one of all: The Tablet. Whether Android or iOS, 7 inch or 10 inch, tablets are growing at an astounding rate. Tablets have already reached the size of the largest console installed base, and estimates show tablets will continue to grow rapidly. Companies like Supercell have shown there are tremendous profits to be made with tablet games; Supercell is looking at an estimated $500 million in profit for this year on just two games. Every game publisher is either developing tablet games, or at least thinking about it. Blizzard will be showing a tablet game at E3, and that should be a clear indicator that this platform has truly arrived.
As you look at what E3 has to offer, look to see what tablet games are being offered up. While tablets may or may not have much of a presence on the show floor, they are exerting tremendous power in the marketplace. Even the next-gen consoles will be acknowledging the ubiquity of smartphones and tablets with initiatives such as Microsoft’s SmartGlass. Sony’s PlayStation Suite is already making classic PlayStation games available on Android tablets. The rise of the tablet gaming platform is inevitable; the only question is how fast revenue from tablet games will surpass revenue from traditional console games. It may take a year or three, but the trend lines are impossible to ignore.