Hello and welcome to another exciting edition of the Quiet Mouse Strikes Back! Thanks for joining me today!
There has been a lot of reports in the news lately about the death of the home console gaming market. Nintendo, X-box, and PS3 being the top competitors are being hit right in the pocket book right now. A revolution is going on within the gaming industry. It takes a lot of money and time to put out a blockbuster game for the home console. Let's be honest here... for all those who do own a home video game system you can feel my own personal pain when I tell you it's a BITCH to have to pony up $60 for the newest game at your local retailer, or even $30 to $40 for a used/pre-owned game in the aftermarket battle at stores like Gamestop.
There are a lot of things going on in the world these days: political unrest, famine/food shortages, global pollution, pyramid scams, taxes, rising gas prices, etc. that make your dollar have to stretch farther than it ever has had to before now, well at least in the last 30 years or so.
The market is evolving. This cannot be denied. With the advent of new technologies, namely hand held portable devices, along with the cell phone/smart phone craze (i.e. apple iphone/ipad and android smart phones) it is easy to see why gaming is fundamentally and forever changing. From a consumer point of view it is far more economical to play a whole slew of either FREE or cheaply priced games on these new formats rather than shelling out $60 at the mall or big box store. The price range even for the expensive games on the hand held phones starts from $0.99 to $5, and some huge classics can go for close to $10... but still, by comparison, it is a much better price than a home console game, which you can't even take to-go like the phone. Games like "Words with friends", "Angry Birds", and "Draw something" have made the hand held market the go-to place to get popular new games that can be created and distributed cheaply and reach a far wider audience than the home console market. Then there are the added features of APPS (thousands of them that do any task/game you can imagine). In addition there are features like streaming video sites such as Netflix and Hulu that can be watched from the phone making it an all in one media entertainment device.
The new PSVita and Nintendo 3DS have done their best to combat this hand held market, but even with features like the Virtual Console, a re-hash of old NES, Super NES, Gameboy, and Sega games, it is still a matter of pricing as the operating hand held console is still above the hundred dollar price point, much higher than the average gamer can afford easily.
Cell phones on the other hand have taken off immensely as the home phone has died and become an icon of the past, similar to VHS and BetaMax. Convenience, features, price points, as well as the physical need to be in communication on the go has led to the point where nearly every adult has a cell phone now and the smart phones are starting to be more affordable to the masses. Go out ANYWHERE. STOP and look around. Inevitably you will see dozens of people if not hundreds of people all whipping out their cell phones. These people are talking, texting with friends, playing games, looking up a multitude of information on the internet, talking to SIRI... hell phones now can do almost anything as they are smarter, smaller, and faster than the processors of past console video gaming systems.
Now I want to talk about the DIRTY SIDE of the gaming industry. But stepping to the side for a moment I want to talk about blunders in industry. For example: Blockbuster video. This company was once the formidable face of the home movie industry, but online streaming from sites like Hulu and Netflix have killed this market. Is it entirely the online industry's fault? NO. Despicable corporate greed and practices like purposefully killing competition so they could be on top has come full circle and KARMA is biting them in the ass. The same can be said about the video gaming industry's top contenders of Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. Rather than adapting to the market and jumping in league with the mobile phone boom, as they SHOULD HAVE, these companies have continued with business as usual, trying marketing ploy after ploy and investing large amounts of money into dying video game franchises... OR like Nintendo, investing tons of technology into the Wii U that is nothing short of a glorified iPad, but with none of the features except as an adjunct to the already dwindling retail gaming market. What WOULD have been a cool idea is if you could pause the live t.v. game and take it with you to finish later on the hand held remote with the touch screen. I foresee this as happening soon with the cell phones. I could totally see being able to access television features from the palm of your hand where the touch screen phone acts as the remote control for both the tv and the gaming console.
I got side-tracked, so let's re-focus. Dirty side of gaming industry is that both Sony and Microsoft have decidedly made it their personal missions, as corporations, to KILL the aftermarket re-sale of physical gaming, namely places like Gamestop, Game Crazy, etc. The greed of these companies will ultimately be their own undoing, as KARMA always seems to bite these companies in the ass. It's the consumer that decides game trends, NOT the technology, as ultimately it is the all-mighty $DOLLAR$ that runs the world of gaming as well as the world in general. The greedy move to kill the aftermarket of gaming has NO PLUS SIDE, for the manufacturers OR the consumer. This ploy will fail because people, in their cheapness will just play on their phones or re-adopt past gaming systems that are cheaper and has the physical media they desire. Even IF they were able to kill a retailer like Gamestop, people will STILL trade and sell games on places like Amazon and Craigslist, so really this effort by the gaming GIANTS is futile. Furthermore, people actually enjoy having a physical copy of their favorite games, if not to sell or trade, but perhaps just to allow their friends, children, or family members to try it out before THEY go buy the game. The next generation systems by Sony and Microsoft are intended to be ONLY STRICT DOWNLOADS... NO PHYSICAL COPY!
THAT BLOWS!!!
I guess my overall point is that the new generation of gaming systems will undergo much scrutiny and many of the avid gamers from MY generation are gonna say "FUCK YOU!" and stick with the retro classics of NES, SNES, PS1 and PS2, et. al. Modern, younger generations of gamers that know no difference than PS online store and X-box live will see no major difference as they generally don't know any better. However it is the PARENTS, as they have the money, that will dictate if this non-physical media trend will explode as Sony and Microsoft have predicted. Only time will tell, but MY prediction is that the console gaming industry is setting itself up for failure. Instead of focusing all the time and money on gimmiky systems (that are quirky and over-priced) and games that make you dance around looking like a fool (Kinect/PS move), the focus should really go (like the phone industry has) back to making good quality games for a good quality price... so for home consoles, they should focus on the $20 to $30 range for new releases. If not... then I'm sure we ALL know what the end result will be, because the cell phone thing isn't going away any time soon.
This has been the one and only Quiet Mouse. Thanks for taking this time to hear me talk about something I know a lot about. I hope this has shown you some insight into this topic and got your mind racing to write about or talk about it with friends.
Peace. Love. Respect. Truth. Humanity.
There has been a lot of reports in the news lately about the death of the home console gaming market. Nintendo, X-box, and PS3 being the top competitors are being hit right in the pocket book right now. A revolution is going on within the gaming industry. It takes a lot of money and time to put out a blockbuster game for the home console. Let's be honest here... for all those who do own a home video game system you can feel my own personal pain when I tell you it's a BITCH to have to pony up $60 for the newest game at your local retailer, or even $30 to $40 for a used/pre-owned game in the aftermarket battle at stores like Gamestop.
There are a lot of things going on in the world these days: political unrest, famine/food shortages, global pollution, pyramid scams, taxes, rising gas prices, etc. that make your dollar have to stretch farther than it ever has had to before now, well at least in the last 30 years or so.
The market is evolving. This cannot be denied. With the advent of new technologies, namely hand held portable devices, along with the cell phone/smart phone craze (i.e. apple iphone/ipad and android smart phones) it is easy to see why gaming is fundamentally and forever changing. From a consumer point of view it is far more economical to play a whole slew of either FREE or cheaply priced games on these new formats rather than shelling out $60 at the mall or big box store. The price range even for the expensive games on the hand held phones starts from $0.99 to $5, and some huge classics can go for close to $10... but still, by comparison, it is a much better price than a home console game, which you can't even take to-go like the phone. Games like "Words with friends", "Angry Birds", and "Draw something" have made the hand held market the go-to place to get popular new games that can be created and distributed cheaply and reach a far wider audience than the home console market. Then there are the added features of APPS (thousands of them that do any task/game you can imagine). In addition there are features like streaming video sites such as Netflix and Hulu that can be watched from the phone making it an all in one media entertainment device.
The new PSVita and Nintendo 3DS have done their best to combat this hand held market, but even with features like the Virtual Console, a re-hash of old NES, Super NES, Gameboy, and Sega games, it is still a matter of pricing as the operating hand held console is still above the hundred dollar price point, much higher than the average gamer can afford easily.
Cell phones on the other hand have taken off immensely as the home phone has died and become an icon of the past, similar to VHS and BetaMax. Convenience, features, price points, as well as the physical need to be in communication on the go has led to the point where nearly every adult has a cell phone now and the smart phones are starting to be more affordable to the masses. Go out ANYWHERE. STOP and look around. Inevitably you will see dozens of people if not hundreds of people all whipping out their cell phones. These people are talking, texting with friends, playing games, looking up a multitude of information on the internet, talking to SIRI... hell phones now can do almost anything as they are smarter, smaller, and faster than the processors of past console video gaming systems.
Now I want to talk about the DIRTY SIDE of the gaming industry. But stepping to the side for a moment I want to talk about blunders in industry. For example: Blockbuster video. This company was once the formidable face of the home movie industry, but online streaming from sites like Hulu and Netflix have killed this market. Is it entirely the online industry's fault? NO. Despicable corporate greed and practices like purposefully killing competition so they could be on top has come full circle and KARMA is biting them in the ass. The same can be said about the video gaming industry's top contenders of Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. Rather than adapting to the market and jumping in league with the mobile phone boom, as they SHOULD HAVE, these companies have continued with business as usual, trying marketing ploy after ploy and investing large amounts of money into dying video game franchises... OR like Nintendo, investing tons of technology into the Wii U that is nothing short of a glorified iPad, but with none of the features except as an adjunct to the already dwindling retail gaming market. What WOULD have been a cool idea is if you could pause the live t.v. game and take it with you to finish later on the hand held remote with the touch screen. I foresee this as happening soon with the cell phones. I could totally see being able to access television features from the palm of your hand where the touch screen phone acts as the remote control for both the tv and the gaming console.
I got side-tracked, so let's re-focus. Dirty side of gaming industry is that both Sony and Microsoft have decidedly made it their personal missions, as corporations, to KILL the aftermarket re-sale of physical gaming, namely places like Gamestop, Game Crazy, etc. The greed of these companies will ultimately be their own undoing, as KARMA always seems to bite these companies in the ass. It's the consumer that decides game trends, NOT the technology, as ultimately it is the all-mighty $DOLLAR$ that runs the world of gaming as well as the world in general. The greedy move to kill the aftermarket of gaming has NO PLUS SIDE, for the manufacturers OR the consumer. This ploy will fail because people, in their cheapness will just play on their phones or re-adopt past gaming systems that are cheaper and has the physical media they desire. Even IF they were able to kill a retailer like Gamestop, people will STILL trade and sell games on places like Amazon and Craigslist, so really this effort by the gaming GIANTS is futile. Furthermore, people actually enjoy having a physical copy of their favorite games, if not to sell or trade, but perhaps just to allow their friends, children, or family members to try it out before THEY go buy the game. The next generation systems by Sony and Microsoft are intended to be ONLY STRICT DOWNLOADS... NO PHYSICAL COPY!
THAT BLOWS!!!
I guess my overall point is that the new generation of gaming systems will undergo much scrutiny and many of the avid gamers from MY generation are gonna say "FUCK YOU!" and stick with the retro classics of NES, SNES, PS1 and PS2, et. al. Modern, younger generations of gamers that know no difference than PS online store and X-box live will see no major difference as they generally don't know any better. However it is the PARENTS, as they have the money, that will dictate if this non-physical media trend will explode as Sony and Microsoft have predicted. Only time will tell, but MY prediction is that the console gaming industry is setting itself up for failure. Instead of focusing all the time and money on gimmiky systems (that are quirky and over-priced) and games that make you dance around looking like a fool (Kinect/PS move), the focus should really go (like the phone industry has) back to making good quality games for a good quality price... so for home consoles, they should focus on the $20 to $30 range for new releases. If not... then I'm sure we ALL know what the end result will be, because the cell phone thing isn't going away any time soon.
This has been the one and only Quiet Mouse. Thanks for taking this time to hear me talk about something I know a lot about. I hope this has shown you some insight into this topic and got your mind racing to write about or talk about it with friends.
Peace. Love. Respect. Truth. Humanity.
Since the original posting of this blog, both Sony and Microsoft have switched their stance on the use of physical media discs deciding it's better to NOT piss off your target audience that will be paying big bucks for your new system. Thanks
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