Next-Gen: Industry 'Not Sustainable' For Xbox 720 & PS4

Mario Wynands - the developer who claimed next-gen will fail - has clarified to NowGamer on exactly why he thinks next-gen will fail, stating that one of the 'big three' developers will drop out of the console market.

[Chaostar]

Sony have a three for three successful streak going on with consoles.

I believe MS lost a ton of money on the original Xbox and still didn't bow out.

Nintendo have had relatively unsuccessful consoles in the past and are still kicking it today.

I believe the 'big 3' are stronger than most give them credit for. They have a wealth of highly acclaimed development studios under their wings collectively, which will keep them in the top rungs of this industry for the foreseeable future, IMHO.

[TimmyShire]

Sony had a rocky start but the PS3 is great now and I think all the details on the PS4 sounds great.

Microsoft have a ton of money too, so I agree there too.

Nintendo are the ones I'm worried about. I doubt they have the money to survive this slump they're seeing with the Wii U.

[wiium64]

and they are dominating sales in japan, nintendo has stated, they have 13 billion dollars in the bank, more than micro soft and sony who have lost billions on other electronic devices, so nintendo will be fine as well, sorry nintendo haters, and wow admitting nintendo is really next gen, when did it finally hit you?

[TimmyShire]

@wiium64 Ah, I didn't realise they were selling so well in Japan. I'm not a Nintendo hater at all, I just thought the Wii U was selling poorly.

Also, I've never said Wii U wasn't next-gen?

[Starfox17]

Nintendo were reported to have enough money they can take a 20 billion yen loss every year until 2052 heres my proof.

http://www.nintendolife.com...

So this proves Nintendo can get their wallet out and easily stay significant for the forseable future.

[xursz]

I don't want to get involved in this, I'll just say I hope that all 3 do well enough to keep the industry thriving. I'm so ready for next gen.

[camel_toad]

@xursz

I'm with ya on that. The better the big 3 do, the better we (the gamers) do.

[legend0f117]

@Wiium64

Nintendo has more money in the bank? HA OKAY.

[platformmaster918]

the difference could be that MS doesn't care enough in the end. If the next xbox isn't very profitable for them they may just say eff it and focus on their billions of other projects. This would require a marketshare loss which I think is very likely if PS launches at the same price or close and at the same time (very likely).

[Gemmol]

I think you forget something, although gamecube fail in reaching ps2 sales, Nintendo never sold it for a loss, they profit that whole generation, then you have the wii, they profit of that too, only the 3ds and wii u they did not profit off in the beginning.....so Nintendo have money

[user3915800]

You could not be more wrong. Sony its a disaster, its loosing money for the past 6 years and the stocks are garbage, fact. Nintendo could survive due to the 3ds been so strong, but they will loose money with the wiiu no doubt about it. MS entertainment division its awfull and the only thing making money its the 360 and the only reason they have been making money, althought they have 2 billion dollar lost withing the entertainment business. Simple, out of all 3 the healthiest its the 360, they made the most money out of the 3 consoles, its a fact, Nintendos strongest department was the handheld division. People hardware sold and income are 2 different story, just cause you sold the most consoles does not equate the most money earn. Stock holders knows this and if we look at whats the strongest suit and makes the most earn income, ms satisty us all. Although, I hate MS ethics, I most say, when it comes to making money they are second to none. My prediction, nintendo will support wii u out of morals and not cause the platform will be a sucess, Sony its placing all their eggs on ps4, but I see it already, the ps4 might suceed, but their portfolio its so undermined, that out of the 3 company, sony has the highest rate of chapter 11, its a fact, just look at the share praisals.

[unchartedxplorer]

Sony have been gaining profits from the ps3 console ever since 2010. Sony isn't losing money from their gaming division, they're actually profiting from it. It's only the television division that's causing problems. Plus Sony are now stable now (from an article a couple of weeks ago) Oh, and use a dictionary, please. Your grammar is so crap I can't read half of what you are saying.

[HITANDRUN]

@ english major unchartedxplorer.
Sony have been gaining profits from the ps3 console ever since 2010. Sony isn't losing money from their gaming division, they're actually profiting from it. It's only the television division that's causing problems. Plus Sony are now stable now (from an article a couple of weeks ago) Oh, and use a dictionary, please. Your grammar is so crap I can't read half of what you are saying.

Edited: Sony has (subject-verb agreement)been gaining profits from the ps3 console ever since 2010.

Stop been an edtorial major and focus on what was said. I only own a PS3, but I know the stock market well, and no for the past 8 quaters Sony has lost profit, actually they are in the red, do your research before you open your trolling agenda. I dont mind been wrong, nor care for what people write, but personal attacks? What do you gain from it? Sony lost the most customers this generation, I hate to see that happened, but their investment did not paid off as they wanted to. Suck it up and grow up, we Sony followers understand how painfull its been for the past 7 years, we dont need someone like you a little clueless trying to defend us.

[MikeMyers]

Sony may be profiting from the PS3 for awhile now but have those profits offset all of those earlier losses? I doubt it. In fact all the profits generated from the PS2 era have vanished from the setbacks Sony has faced with the Vita and PS3. It was one of the reasons why they dropped PS2 playback on the PS3, they wanted to generate more PS3 sales and still reap profits off of PS2 hardware.

I have been saying this for quite some time now, the market is not sustainable in its current form. Nintendo has never lost money until recently. Sony is in a financial crysis and are selling off assets to stop the bleeding. Microsoft lost a ton of money on the original Xbox and still haven't recoup that investment even though the Xbox 360 has been making money for a long time now.

They need to change the way they do business and because they still rely on the retail end of it and still have to output physical software that has extra overhead. A company like Steam is way more sound. They don't have the overhead the big 3 do. They don't need to sell hardware at a loss and hope that software will make those returns back. 3rd party publishers don't have to pay for retail space or manufacturing costs of their games.

The big 3 are still living in the past who have to invest huge amounts of money into making exclusives, which already limits your userbase, and then sell hardware that is supposed to last 5 or more years while technology evolves around them. It's a much more risky endeavor unlike someone such as Samsung making a blu-ray player that can play any blu-ray movie.

[Dailynch]

I think the big three are still strong, but I do agree that one of them will probably struggle towards the end of the next-gen. Hard to say who, but I'd wager Nintendo will have some issues if its audience keeps shifting to iOS and other mobile handhelds.

[Myx23]

nintendo should drop out and concentrate on a sega-like existence. sony is still powerful with its ps-brand and micky$oft got way too much money to feel the necessity to stop. nintendo is the only logical choice. their inhouse-titles are a far cry from their installments from the last few decades. to me it feels like they fired all of their programmers and just kept the lowpaid leveldesigners. it almost feels like they are squeezing everything out of it before they will be calling it quits as a hardware-manufacturing entity.

[wiium64]

@timmyshire sorry man, but you know how the haters are, they are just dying for nintendo to fail, and the wii u is really next gen, but they will never admit it.

[NobodyImportant]

Does it really matter whether people call it current gen, next gen, Gen 4...?

You can see where the confusion comes though can't you?

The hardware of the Wii U is close to that of the 360 and PS3 current gen systems.
But then it's being released within a year of the two consoles that have hardware representative of a next gen machine.

Like the Wii was close to Gamecube, PS2 and XBox. But launched alongside the PS3 and 360

It's Nintendo's 7th gen console. Let's just all get along!

[Starfox17]

Nintendo have lots of money.

http://www.nintendolife.com...

[DeadlyFire]

Well Nintendo has been using cheap hardware since its conception to sell a console for a profit from day 0. WiiU is their first console to launch at $300 bucks.

[Lucreto]

I think the person is overestimating they ability of smartphones and tablets to take away from console gaming.

These games are good when you are waiting for a bus or out and about but it can't take away from a full 15 to 20 hour experience. Just because angry birds have 1 billion downloads doesn't mean the industry is heading in that direction.

People have been buying less games because of the economy it will improve over the next 5 years.

This could be doom and gloom like 6 years ago about PC gaming dying out and it is back now.

[DeadlyFire]

PC gaming didn't go anywhere. Just now people can see some numbers thanks to STEAM and Origin services. There are still many who game without steam, and without origin, and without xfire. So its still a crowd on the PC unaccounted for in the mainstream eye.

[wiium64]

and check out this story http://venturebeat.com/2012... yeah, along with the bombing vita, sony's future is not looking too bright, and yet with all the money that nintendo has, the video game media, and the sony and micro soft fahboys think nintendo is the one in trouble? how stupid and blind can you be?

[zebramocha]

Try to use something up to date.

[solidboss07]

The only problems that PS3 really had were:
Launching in a global recession
Media mistruths and bias against PS3
Its competitors short changing gamers by not trying to push the envelope and
forcing Sony to launch the PS3 before they wanted.
PS3 was still the best console IMO, even with the initially high purchase price, remember that to bring the cheaper 360 hardware up to par you needed to buy a yearly subscription to play online, HD-DVD add on, HDD, Wi-Fi adapter ect and loads of batteries for the controllers.
Sony were arrogant yes, but they still delivered a sucessfull piece of hardware, competing against Microsoft who desperately paid what? £50,000,000 for timed exclusive content for GTA4, and other offputting things.
The big three will do fine. I am just happy to stick with Sony, they provide what I want and they are launching on an even field to their compeditors this time around which should mean a sucessful PS4.

[koehler83]

I think they'll do fine if they open up and remove the barriers for content creators. I have a feeling that's not going to happen though.

[MasterCornholio]

Wow the Nintendo fanboys are extremely defensive recently. Maybe they are not that confident in their company and they are afraid of Sonys announcement.

Motorola RAZR i

[Twinzclipz]

IOS/Tablet/Smartphones=CASUAL GAMERS
CONSOLE/PC=REAL GAMERS

[fonger08]

I love how the fanboys on here can't stand facts, Sony and Microsoft have lost money, a lot of money, and Nintendo hasn't. Sony can't afford to drop the Playstation brand because, as of right now, it's most recognizable brand. Microsoft could lessen the importance of video games and focus more on an all in one-media box. Honestly any of three could bite the dust unless they find creative ways to fight against the ipads/androids, steamboxes of the world.

[Gr81]

About 2 months ago, wrote that this coming gen, we would lose a console maker.

I agree with him; And now Wynands is singing a similar tune. At the end of the day, the only thing that we can look at is finances. Who is in the most financial trouble out of the big 3?

It certainly isn't Microsoft, and regardless of how Nintendo treats the Wii U, it will most probably become profitable for them. Take into account Nintendo has a higher market cap than Sony and the writing is on the wall.

I understand many would want to keep their heads in the sand, but the industry is declining, rapidly. Sony has junk status stocks, they posted a loss during the HOLIDAY quarter, Vita is trending BELOW the dreamcast. And if people expect a super spec machine from Sony to cost $400 they are warped. Unless Sony decides to eat a loss.

Also don't forget the economy is in the shitter. There are many factors going against next gen. Look at all the closings and dev bankruptcies happening now, and next gen has barely started.

Whether any one wants to acknowledge this or now, the industry is in trouble, as we know it. Change is coming, and not many will survive.

[lovegames718]

All three will be fine. Nintendo has it die hards as does the other big two who will buy and buy. Every company has had systems that have taken losses that doesnt determine if a company will go under or not as they have enough capital to take a hit and come back. What determines if a company goes under is if they keep making a loss consistently on every console they drop which neither of these companies have.

[millzy102]

if one dropped out (although i doubt it), i think it would be microsft, nintendo do nothing but games and had failed systems in the past but there still here, besides there quite a rich company and sony would drop another department before playstation goes as its now one of there few profitable devisions and both of them have alot of strong ips. microsoft on the other hand could drop xbox and focus on surface or another media device if the next xbox doesn't sell and just by the rumours about the next xbox alot of people are jumping ship.