On Mobile Gaming and Consoles
Five years ago, if someone would have told me I could be playing Rainbow Six in HD, online on my smartphone, I wouldn’t have just laughed, I would probably have thought they were out of their mind. Such are the leaps and bounds of mobile gaming, though, that the standalone mobile consoles we once all worshiped are now plummeting down the pecking order, with consumers now far more interested in when a big title is hitting iOS or Android.
This in reply to comments from Mike Rayfield of NVIDIA, who helps run said graphics card manufacturer’s mobile business.
This is something I’ve discussed before, mostly at Old Aiera, and the basic points made echo ones that have been made by myself and others previously. Devices like the PlayStation Vita and the new iPad boast powerful, multi-core processors and GPUs, and — in the case of the Vita in particular — rival consoles like the PlayStation 3 for raw performance. But the Vita is only half the picture; it’s the iPad, the iPhones, and the various Android smartphones that will see more frequent revisions, and will likely surpass the power of the Vita by the end of the year (2013 at the latest).
It’s also true that Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo do have more powerful “next-gen” systems coming out in the near future, which will in turn surpass the likes of the Vita and the new iPad in terms of performance and power. But if those same consoles see no significant hardware updates for a period of five or more years (as has typically been the case with consoles), they’re likely to be surpassed by mobile devices again…and probably a lot sooner than has happened for the current console generation.
Moreover, apps for mobile devices have more frequent update cycles and tend to see more frequent pushes of additional content. They also tend to be cheaper…which can in turn mean that more copies get sold. Couple this fact with the advancements in hardware, and it’s quite reasonable to speculate that at some point in the near future, mobile devices will not just eclipse consoles in terms of power, but also in terms of their share of the gaming market.
Consoles have the problem of not being upgradable. Phones aren’t either, I suppose, but people change them much more often. Will phones take over for gaming? Of course not. It’s a different play style.
The next generation of computing is going to be interesting. We are already starting to see apps that cross-over between platforms. I think that is going to take off once the next generations of OS, consoles and tablets make an appearence.
Imagine an RPG that you play on your PC/XBox. You then have to go on an hour long train ride to work… so you whip out your tablet and start crafting in the tablet version of the game. Later on you’re at lunch and you get ingame messages on your phone. Imagine games that you can “play” 24/7. Or, putting it another way, imagine how big some of them are going to be.
I’ve opined about similar things before. Indeed, with game engines like Unreal and Unity supporting publishing to multiple platforms, we could well soon see the day in which you could play the game on your smartphone whilst on the bus, then pick up and run with it on your home gaming system after supper. All your progress and achievements are stored in the cloud, and are imported seamlessly between devices.
One continuous game experience; the game is where you are. Heady times ahead!
The best thing is that they are NOT upgradable. When you buy a console you now it’ll get every game you’ll ever buy runing for years to come and that’s the good thing about it.
Personally I really got sick of upgrading my PC every couple of years or suffering from poor performaces because the upgrade craze they used.
I’m very grateful the multiplatform approach of the PS360 era has considerably slowed the PC upgrade craze. I’m come to a point in my life where I don’t need to get a WHOA graphical factor every six month.
Regarding the ability to play a same game on every platform, I can see the appeal – some publishers like Sony are pushing toward this. But on a personal level I’m not very fond of the idea, because frankly I WANT to play big AAA games on my 46″ TV and certainly not on my smartphone or my handheld.
Also there is still one major issue with this stuff at this point: you need to buy the game on every platform. For instance I bought Metal Gear Solid HD Collection last year on my PS3… I’ll be able the use its savegames on the PS Vita version that comes out this year… but I’ll need to buy it full price (indeed the same price as the PS3 version!). That definily slows the appeal here. At the very least it would be nice if the other versions could be cheaper if you already have one but I don’t see that happening, and I think it’s gonna be a major issue in term of putting these multiplatform single experience, unless they beginning offering extras versions in the package (much like say if you buy a blu ray disc you sometime get the DVD and digital version of the movie)