Quote:
Originally Posted by Mivo
For casual gaming, maybe. For hardcore gaming, indeed no. That audience owns a Xbox 360 or a Playstation 3, and will get a Xbox One or PS4 later in the year. It's not only a matter of hardware performance, but also (and maybe especially) of gaming franchises.
But the casual market, that is: people who play games on their phones and tablets, or on Facebook, is potentially much bigger than the traditional PC/console video games market (and substantially cheaper to break into).
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Because of their gaming communties it is very unlikely XBOX or PS gamers would switch to a new platform unless the next gen boxes tank and since the two new ones are almost identical that is also unlikely.
However, a good portion of the Wii user base is still up for grabs.
There is a window of opportunity for a new player.
Some would like to see Apple go there:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-31747_7...-a-no-brainer/
Problem I see there is the existing iOS games are designed for iPad screen aspect ratio and resolutions instead of HDTV resolutions and aspect. So the games will have to be ported, not merely patched for a game controller like existing android games.
Google is also rumored to be looking into that general direction for the same obvious reasons and they *have* made at least one (dubious) effort in the STB arena. They'll likely try again next year.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-575...nd-smartwatch/
Anybody looking to get into the low end STB/gaming space has to do it now, though: Microsoft already has a $99 XBOX solution on the market and a diskless XBOX Lite designed and ready to go for next year. They didn't launch it this year because they didn't want to detract from the next gen intro but when it launches it would have eveything from casual games to full AAA downloadable titles in its catalog so any wannabes really need to jump in this year.
Which is why I think the (rumored) Amazon box will be more off a streamer with gaming than a console. Roku and WD are formidable players but its easier to bang heads with them than try to squeeze between the established console players. More money there, too.
