190°

Calm down. Mobile isn't going to kill consoles.

Michael Futter writes: No gamer, pundit or casual observer can deny that mobile platforms have become serious contenders in the realm of interactive entertainment. My own children have driven that point home for me, with my three-year-old able to deftly manipulate touchscreen devices as if he were born with one in hand.

This is a stark contrast to my own childhood, when only a single weekly encounter with my assigned Apple IIe in the computer lab, glowing a dim monochrome green, meant I would have the chance to chase down Carmen Sandiego one more time.

bfenty4815d ago

Great article! This is something I've been concerned about for a while.

Burning_Finger4815d ago

Mobile games will just kill itself. lol

Skywalker1234815d ago

the 3ds is the number 1 system in the world. That shows you how little impact mobile has

LOGICWINS4815d ago

????

U being serious with that comment? Mobile phones are the most popular electronic devices in the world...hence also making them the most popular gaming devices in the world by default.

Skywalker1234815d ago

Are you being serious with your comment? Mobile phones are not the most popular electronic devices in the world. The computer beats it easily..........

And even if they did technically sell the most there primary function is not gaming so no way in hell would that make it the most popular gmaing device by default.

LOGICWINS4815d ago

"And even if they did technically sell the most there primary function is not gaming so no way in hell would that make it the most popular gmaing device by default."

You said nothing about gaming in your comment.

"Are you being serious with your comment? Mobile phones are not the most popular electronic devices in the world. The computer beats it easily.........."

Nope, there are more mobile phones in the wild than desktops, laptops, and tablets combined. If you disagree, prove me wrong.

Skywalker1234815d ago (Edited 4815d ago )

1) When I saw system = game system.

2) Its statistical fact. I dont need you to prove you wrong. I am right

The point is doom and gloom, sensationalism, generalizations are fun on the internet, but real gaming and real life is different

Fylus4815d ago

@Skywalker... wow, just wow... Go ahead and check Android's or Iphone's appstores. The top few games in each of them have been downloaded and played hundreds of millions of times by unique users, and thanks to this, the amount of casual gamers using mobile devices is growing rapidly. At this day and age, mobile gaming is by far the most popular way to game world wide. That is a fact. YOU are wrong.

I'm not saying mobile gaming is the best way to game (it isn't even close); it's just the easiest, most accessible way to game, thus the huge user-base of mobile gaming.

4815d ago
LOGICWINS4815d ago

Hylus, u say that the most popular way to game are dedicated devices? Sir, u and reality don't coincide with each other do they?

Btw, u disproved ur own argument. By the very fact that a lot of these games are free(your words, not mine) is what makes them more popular than the games on dedicated handhelds.

Vahn894815d ago (Edited 4815d ago )

LOGIC, uh, who are you talking to? Fylus or Hiten? Cuz you kinda blended both of their names together lol.

Outside_ofthe_Box4815d ago (Edited 4815d ago )

He meant dedicated game system.

What he was trying to say is that a dedicated PORTABLE gaming system(3DS) is the number one selling dedicated gaming system in the world so if mobile phones were impacting the dedicated gaming market(especially the portable one) it wouldn't be the number one selling dedicated gaming system in the world.

That is what I gathered from his comment.

+ Show (5) more repliesLast reply 4815d ago
Haduken4815d ago

@LOGICWINS

"By the very fact that a lot of these games are free is what makes them more popular than the games on dedicated handhelds."

I think gamers enjoy quality more than free shovelware. just my take

LOGICWINS4815d ago (Edited 4815d ago )

That depends on the gamer. For me, console gaming is the way to go because I demand that high level of gaming as a hardcore gamer. Would most people want Uncharted like games on their phone? Of course...but here's the problem, most people are not willing to pay $250 + a memory card+the cost of a game to do it.

Everyone and their mother want "quality"..the question is how much people are willing to spend to experience this "quality". Download statistics have shown that most people gravitate to free crap as opposed to springing $40 on 3DS/Vita games with better production values and deeper gameplay. I enjoy gaming on my PS3, but as far as what most people want, the answers pretty clear.

In the end, ur right. Gamers want quality...its just that most of them aren't willing to pay for it. They are more concerned with being frugal than having the best gaming experience they can.

Fylus4815d ago

I have to agree with Logic again here.

Just because a game is free doesn't mean it lacks quality. I mean, Angry Birds is free and look at ITS popularity. There are also plenty of other examples, for instance; games that I personally enjoy that I've picked up for free on Google Play's appstore would be Zenonia 4, Demon Hunter, and Immortal Dusk.

Also, look at DUST 514; a completely free AAA MMOFPS on PS3. From just the looks of it, I can tell that game will be revolutionary.

Skywalker12344814d ago

@fylus, he was agreeing with haduken

Usually when its free thats exactly what it means

angry birds is an example of a flash game thats been around forever selling well.

_Aarix_4815d ago

Feel sorry for the idiots who Reacted by trashing ios and android games. Smartphones have good games and is as convient as can be but they are in no relation to consoles.

lastdual4815d ago

Look, I understand that most mobile gaming devices aren't killers who ascribe to a radical ideology, but a disturbing number of them are, and they receive little in the way of ridicule from supposedly mainstream mobile gaming devices.

Innocent consoles are dying! This senseless violence needs to stop.

vortis4815d ago

mobile is a completely different market, it's the fleeting casual market.

A lot of people keep thinking the core audience are abandoning consoles/PCs for mobile crap but it's just the fickle casuals. Those sheep would follow a wolf into it's den if it was a wearing a shirt with an Apple logo on it.

joeorc4814d ago

"mobile is a completely different market, it's the fleeting casual market."

you an many others are just not getting it..look while i respect your opinion this perception about the mobile smartphone an tablet devices not being "hardcore" gaming and just casual market are overlooking one very important fact.

developers make the games right?
so developers use APi's and SDK tool chains to make those games right?

so if you and others have not noticed where is the main 3rd party game development tool chains an game engines being released now?

that's right the mobile market. This is not the mobile market of the Ngage, these devices today are more than viable to run more than just casual gaming experiences. The mobile market has changed quite alot since than.

epic's unreal game engine with advanced shader model's an lighting, physic's etc..and that game engine is now running on mobile chipsets that are in tablets and smartphones. Now its not just Epic, Unity 3D, Havok, idSoft's, Hell even Square's Game engine is now running on mobile chipset's.

the Mobile market just like it did to the Dedicated PDA market is absorbing the largest share, that does not mean the dedicated mobile game devices are less viable, it just means their no longer the largest chunk of the market.

why do you think both Microsoft an Sony are investing heavy into the smartphone market by making a unified game development platform's for game development on smartphones,Tablets an new low power chip laptops.

the reason is very simple the hardware these new smartdevices has is more than viable to run much higher quality game's than what mobile development platforms 7 years ago could not do. The change happened to be when your SOC..IE: system on a chip has a GPU core or multiple GPU cores that enable it to run such directX 11.4 , AND ADVANCED SHADER MODELS the exact kind that run on the PC.It was bound to Happen.

this is not the mobile gaming of 7 years ago!

vortis4814d ago

@joeorc,

Really, Sherlock?

Of course more engines support mobile devices, it's a viable platform. But remember what the Rovio guys said, they had failed with like what, 50 something games before they hit gold with Angry Birds? It's a pot-shot in a big canyon for success.

A lot of people are jumping in but it doesn't guarantee anything because as I mentioned, it's the fleeting casual market.

How many other games like Infinity Blade made it past the 1 million mark? How many core games running on the Unity, like Shadowgun have even gone mainstream?

There's a lot of upcoming support for HTML5 as well but it doesn't mean Flash is just gonna die or people are gonna stop using Unity, etc., etc.

The API/SDKs are simply being used for multiple/cross-platform support, it's to help make development easier across a broad range of gaming devices and for easy port (something that just wasn't doable five years ago).

You can pop an iOS game onto PC or vice versa with a lot of engines. It's got nothing to do with "moving an entire market" into a different market space, it's just that they're expanding. But if you look at the sales, overall sales, MMOs is really where it's at.

Show all comments (36)
240°

‘I think Xbox hardware is dead’, says Microsoft gaming veteran

One of the founding members of the Xbox team has questioned Microsoft’s multiplatform gaming strategy, and said they believe the Xbox hardware business is effectively “dead"

Read Full Story >>
videogameschronicle.com
1d 8h ago Replies(3)
Goodguy011d 6h ago

Think that rumor that they'll still make a new console but at a profit at $1000 will be true though. The series consoles will remain their cheap alternative throughout next gen I would say. Keep in mind that game pass and pretty much going 3rd party is their main focus. They want to bring xbox everywhere.

1d 6h ago
GamerRN10h ago

If they don't maintain some kind of console presence, I think they will lose gamepass subscribers and just become a 3rd party publisher who eventually sells everything off

Cacabunga9h ago

Xbox games are releasing on all platforms. Who needs this hardware? PS or PC is all you need

Flewid6388h ago

I've never owned an Xbox in my life and I have GamePass.

thorstein6h ago

The only Xbox I owned was the 360. I have gamepass for my PC.

GamerRN2h ago

Majority of Gamepass users are currently on console...

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 2h ago
crazyCoconuts8h ago

Even if they could get it down to $800 for a box that can run with comparable performance to a PS6 (at, say $200 cheaper) the population of people willing to buy such a thing would be so limited.
It would be the worst of both worlds.

1d 4h ago
Futureshark19h ago

A slow, painful and public death too.

Show all comments (62)
300°

Looming Xbox layoffs threaten Microsoft's reputation

Even as the company sets out to overhaul the very definition of Xbox, cuts at its studios risk creating a negative image reminiscent of EA's worst era

Read Full Story >>
gamesindustry.biz
Jingsing3d ago (Edited 3d ago )

I appreciate the article but this guy must be living in a delayed universe, The reputation was ruined 10+ years ago and hasn't recovered since. As such people have voted with their wallets and stopped buying Xbox products in large amounts.

YourMommySpoils2d ago

Their reputation was lost way before that. From the moment Microsoft said they entering the console business, we all knew it would be a downgrade.

Bathyj1d 15h ago (Edited 1d 15h ago )

That's not true at all the OG Xbox had drive and they had hunger and they wanted to accomplish something. It was a great console.

they didn't quite reach their goals and they gave up prematurely because they couldn't win. It was halfway through the Xbox 360 when kinect released and that was when they lost their way and we're a rudderless ship ever since

Agent751d 12h ago

In all fairness, Xbox had some great games with online play, Xbox 360 even better. Xbox consoles started to die with the Xbox One. Ditch consoles for the PC and PS.

YourMommySpoils1d 4h ago

@Bathyj hard to compute ay. Xbox was never better than a PC and that's all they ever were. A demo box. Doesn't get more true than that.

3d ago Replies(1)
isarai3d ago

What reputation is this threatening exactly? 😂

Lightning773d ago

Rumors of Turn 10 being either shut down or hit with massive lay offs is on the horizon.

The issue is MS will do something right only to do something very, very wrong. And they do this what seems calculative at this point. Doesn't matter what they do the Investors and leadership want more and more money an endless bottomless pit of purr insatiable greed. A company that acts like it's broke or hurting is what really, really infuriates me. They've surpassed apple again well over 3 trillion who acts like they're a million dollar company is fk stupid. Pivots and changes for no reason and can't do things for more than a year with out a pivot or changing their metrics.

Christopher2d ago

That would be really bad since Phil just hyped up next year as a big Forza year at Summer Game Fest.

1Victor2d ago

@christopher: “ That would be really bad since Phil just hyped up next year as a big Forza year at Summer Game Fest”
The key word big can be ether good or bad 🤷🏿only time can tell

DarXyde2d ago

First Forza being generated entirely via AI?

If any company would do it, it'd be them.

Nacho_Z1d 20h ago

Isn't the point that it's irrelevant how profitable MS is, the suits have decided it's time that the Xbox division started making them money. Hence the layoffs, the pivots.

hennessey861d 15h ago

That wouldn't surprise me, as motorsport has been heading down hill since the great number 4. Where as playground have consistently put out better games. I think the two studios will be merged under playground games banner.

2d ago Replies(2)
Show all comments (63)
660°

Microsoft planning “major” Xbox layoffs next week

The cuts are expected to be announced next week.

Microsoft is also planning thousands of job cuts that will impact other parts of it businesses

Read Full Story >>
theverge.com
6d ago Replies(1)
6d ago Replies(1)
Obscure_Observer6d ago

MFs has been beating their chests over great quarterly results and big profits to shareholders while firing people by the thousands just like Sony.

I wonder if at the top of those rumored layoffs they´ll also cancel upcoming or unannounced games while shutting down more studios as well.

6d ago
pwnmaster30006d ago

Always got to throw shade at Sony smh.
Yes we get it,
MS good Sony bad
MS bad Sony is also bad lmao

6d ago
Obscure_Observer6d ago

F* them both!

Just for the record, I don´t care about your victim complex crap either. Find someone else who cares.

blacktiger6d ago

He was talking about both. Why you getting offended when he's using both names

pwnmaster30006d ago (Edited 6d ago )

@Blacktiger

Im not offended , that’s just his formula lol
He can’t help help himself, he needs to bring Sony down when the topic involves MS.
Whether is good news for MS or bad, it some how leads to Sony doing bad lmao.
It’s actually hilarious.

InUrFoxHole6d ago

He's not wrong but im tracking what youre saying. In this case is should just be MS bad. Thats a lot of people fired

+ Show (4) more repliesLast reply 6d ago
Tacoboto6d ago

"just like Sony"

Gosh you're insufferable, not everything needs to be both-sides'd. Sony's had layoffs, but nothing like what Microsoft has been doing and is continuing to do.

CrimsonWing696d ago (Edited 6d ago )

I mean, no offense, but this is why you’re not some corporate business person running a major corporation. Big profits don’t mean jobs are safe. Do you understand why things like this happen:

Cutting jobs to maintain or increase profitability, especially in underperforming divisions like parts of Xbox like other gaming divisions.

Corporate restructuring and relocating resources for strategic stability in ever changing markets and consumer behaviors.

Investor expectations and optimizing operations to maintain investor confidence. Whatever boosts stock prices and improves future margins.

And there’s many other factors at play. It’s never as simple as business doing well, everyone’s safe. That’s just you not understanding at all how corporations work and have been working since the beginning. This isn’t something that’s specific to Xbox, you can bet your ass Sony and Nintendo do this and if it’s not clear by now, game development is not a stable job nor has it ever been for many. A lot of developers are contractors and guess what happens when a project is done?

Ganif6d ago

Nintendo said they have no plans for layoffs, and you can't seriously claim that the scale of Sony's layoffs most of which involved Bungie which is self managed as even close to the same scale as what Microsoft has done since they purchased Zenimax. And that significantly less layoffs would have happened if those publishers had stayed independent. Keep in mind that much of these layoffs have been due to redundancies specifically related to these buyouts.

CrimsonWing696d ago (Edited 6d ago )

@Ganif

Nintendo:

https://gamerant.com/ninten...

Sony:

https://gamerant.com/playst...

https://techxplore.com/news...

I don’t think it’s realistic to treat Sony’s layoffs as somehow outside the norm for the industry right now. Even if Bungie is self-managed, Sony’s cuts went far beyond that like Naughty Dog, Insomniac, London Studio being shut down completely, and multiple teams across the globe took hits. These weren’t just minor adjustments.

Nintendo, I had to look up and you’re right. They seem to be an outlier, but rest assured at some point it happens. And even then there’s been layoffs, albeit a smaller amount and contractors.

Would fewer layoffs have happened if studios from acquisitions stayed independent? Maybe. But even independents have been hit hard and look at what’s happened with Embracer’s fallout, or smaller devs like Digic, Roll7, or Volition. This isn’t just a “Microsoft problem” or strictly tied to acquisitions; it’s a broader correction happening across the whole industry, and unfortunately, layoffs are a big part of that process right now.

Ganif6d ago

From your article:

"According to reports, Nintendo of America restructured its testing operations, leading to layoffs of about 120 contractors, part of a strategy for global integration.

Nintendo of America, publisher of iconic franchises like Mario and Zelda, is shifting some contractors to full-time roles for better development integration."

Contractors are not employees, and even if you want to count them as that, it's 120 people vs around 7500 since Microsoft purchased Zenimax.

In an era of game industry layoffs, Nintendo is hiring more people
https://automaton-media.com...

Nintendo Announces 10 Percent Pay Raise For Devs Despite Lower Profits
https://kotaku.com/nintendo...

Nintendo CEO’s refusal to layoff staff goes viral following industry-wide cuts
"Satoru Iwata took pay cuts to ensure staff didn’t have to be let go"
https://www.nme.com/news/ga...

And as for Sony you're comparing less than 1000 total jobs to an estimated7500

Has the industry faced layoffs, yes, but that still doesn't account for the mass layoffs due to redundancies that was easily predictable, or that fact that at least 1/3 of Microsoft's layoffs and studio closures happened before the industry downturn.

thorstein6d ago (Edited 6d ago )

Take the L, Crimson.

People hate Nintendo, but Ganif proved why they deserve support.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 6d ago
-Foxtrot6d ago

It's like banging your head off a wall, he just can't help himself.

Microsoft can do no wrong, Sony sucks at everything and Nintendo is bigged up because it's less hassle than trying to defend Microsoft all the time

What's going to happen when Microsoft finally turn completely third party, then what?

anast6d ago

I enjoy Obscure. Obscure does good work.

crazyCoconuts6d ago

Did you know that the first n4g was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program.

Tacoboto6d ago

I wouldn't be surprised at this point if anast and osbcure were both alts for the Admin.

We know how Obscure especially drums up additional comments and clicks with his spam-worthy remarks that somehow never get moderated

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 6d ago
Profchaos6d ago

Thats business present a strong front to your shareholders while your company burns around you.

Keep shareholders happy at all costs andnif not happy keep them numb to the reality of you organisation

Angyobangyo5d ago

" Just for the record, I don´t care about your victim complex crap either. Find someone else who cares. "

Just for the record, you clearly you do if you have to vent this hard.

TheExecutioner5d ago

Basically you think like kids when it come to choose between candy or chocolate.

Sonic18815d ago (Edited 5d ago )

Are you and Anast the same person?

+ Show (7) more repliesLast reply 5d ago
6d ago
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