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Who will be the next hardware maker to exit the market?


Rick Dangerous

Who will be the next hardware manufacturer to exit?  

100 members have voted

  1. 1. Who will be the next hardware maker to exit the business?

    • Microsoft
      43
    • Nintendo
      44
    • Sony
      13

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I know this has been discussed already but i was curious to see the results of a poll.

 

In todays competitive marketplace, three is a crowd, especially when your market is slowly becoming a niche when compared to mobile gaming (sadly.)

 

Each company has pros and cons:

 

Microsoft

 

Pros: Combined entertainment device, has captured mature gamers

Cons: Has always had issues with profitability of the Xbox devision, which shareholders/executives can't be happy about

 

Nintendo

 

Pros: Cash rich company, has captured youth and loyalty niches

Cons: Shrinking market share, minimal adoption of Wii U (to put it kindly)

 

Sony

 

Pros: Market leader, top notch devices

Cons: The rest of the company has been hit HARD by competition from South Korean manufacturers.

 

Who do you think will be next, and why? I see it being a two-console market by the next generation.

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I think it's a little early to say. I think for this generation, both Sony and Microsoft are fine, and presumably for the next generation, i.e., to get them into the next generation. Nintendo is in an unusual place. As you say, they still have solid cash reserves, but Wii U adoption has been poor and the 3DS is in decline for various reasons (partially age, partially having its role usurped for the average person by smartphones). Nintendo is trying to diversify more, which is a strength of the other two competitors (in that they can absorb losses, if necessary, in their videogame divisions), but it remains to be seen how well that works out. Their mobile software initiatives, lifestyle stuff, and NX platform are not yet on the market. Once all three of those are fully executed, we'll have a much better idea if Nintendo's future remains in both hardware and software, or just software.

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I voted Nintendo, although I would consider their next system (supposedly a cloud only tablet style smartphone-like device) to be an official departure from consoles already. I really love the Wii for it's broad selection of games and backwards compatibility (although I always considered it a suped up, repackaged Gamecube from the start), but had no interest at all in the Wii U. I still haven't bought a PS3, PS4, or XBOX One. I did just recently get an XBox 360 Slim with LT 3.0. I went through quite a few of those back when hacking and modding them was the craze. After so many X-clamp mods, iXtreme firmware updates, and eventual RROD's regardless of all the work, I lost interest. I recently found the software to be inexpensive enough and the claims of no breakdowns for the 'S' systems and beyond, to find it approachable again. It's been a lot of fun. I still play my N64, NES, and SNES quite a lot (Rogue Squadron is still as fun as it ever was). I hope the best for Nintendo, but fear the worst for a cloud-only tablet of any kind.

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Nintendo first, then M$. Sony is and has been an electronics manufacturer for decades, so more natural for them to continue on.

 

Through death comes life, so figure after people get tired of the same old shit rehashed time and time again on generic consoles or PC's, a Phoenix will arise and offer up something new!

 

Maybe then it'll be time for the RetroVGS. :lol:

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There have been enough rumors about Microsoft selling/spinning off the xbox division that I could see that happening before either of the other two exit the market. xbox would live on... just not from Microsoft.

 

Honestly, with the new regime, there's little reason to think they'd even consider jettisoning the Xbox brand. It's too ingrained in Microsoft now and is a critical living room play. The only thing they'd be likely to jettison eventually is their phone division, and that's for obvious reasons.

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Sony and Microsoft's worst nightmares : Samsung and Apple decide to get into the video game console market!

I think Apple has already been down that road and they won't be in a hurry to do it again.

I do think they could get a following based on brand name.

Samsung... I don't think they have the brand loyalty or cash Apple has and wouldn't stay in the game market.

 

I keep hearing about Microsoft losses but it's pretty obvious they are in this for the long run and they have the money to back it up. Plus most of the losses were written off in the first generation of 360s, I think they are making plenty of money now.

 

Sony has the most sales this generation, no way they are getting out short of some catastrophe.

 

Nintendo... you can only get so far behind in power in this market and Nintendo overestimated the attraction of unique controllers. One look at the management turnover and it's clear they have to turn things around with their next machine or they will be relegated to a niche market. I don't think the new machine was horrible but the key titles it needed at launch weren't there and their lead at release time was wasted. They needed a lot of machines out there before the competition launched to be attract game developers and they blew it.

If their next console isn't at least as fast as the XBOX ONE, I think they are done.

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No option to votes apple? :dunce: The fanboy inside me would not permit me to select Nintendo so I voted evil Microsoft. I hate their consoles and still can't believe people trust them to make hardware after the 360 RROD and Xbone's pre launch "diarrhea of the mouth" regarding game ownership. I can't support that type of BS. Sony still makes good hardware though.

 

The Wii-U has sold poorly despite the good times I've had with it. I get the impression the Wii-U is Nintendo's Saturn and NX will be it's Dreamcast. 3DS is still going strong but lets face it, mobile has greatly deminished the market share of handhelds, so a successor isn't likely to fare well. And Nintendo is currently testing the waters with "free-to-play" 3DS games that include microtransactions as part of the game. Sorry, I don't want to wait 4 hours to earn more free play credits, or buy a bunch of them right now for 99 cents. If I spend real money in a game, it had damn better well be a permanent unlock with something that adds value. The two extra cups in Mario Kart 8 for $11.99 was DLC done right.

 

Call me old and cynical, but I remember a time when buying a game meant it worked right out of the box, no online update bullcrap or losing access to key features or even the entire game when servers inevitably get pulled. Not have DLC shoved in our faces or free games nagging us to spend microtransactions for in game disposables. When you bought a game, you got the whole game and nothing but the game. Buy it, sell it, trade it. Bury it in a landfill. Set it on a shelf for thirty years and it will wait patiently, ready and willing for someone to play it.

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I'd expect the console market to just self destruct before either of them leaves before the others - so give it til next gen or so.

 

The only benefit a console has over PC right now is the ability to trade discs with friends - something Microsoft (And secretly Sony before they changed their mind after MS got booed) already tried to remove on the xbone. If they go ahead and try that again next gen there's not going to be any reason for people to really stick with consoles and they'll just flock to PC gaming for better or worse. Seriously, there's little difference between console and PC gaming right now other than consoles having lower res, lower frame rates, and more aging hardware, and less ability to mod games. Otherwise their games are just as buggy and half-finished as PC games these days so...

 

Yeah you'll have holdouts clinging to their favorite console maker, but those likely won't be enough to make the next gen consoles profitable (well, unless they all start spending 800 bucks per game. They're already over 100-200 so anything's possible.)

 

Yeah, I'm cynical. :D

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I went with Nintendo myself, having ditched the New Nintendo 3DS awhile back in favor of playing the Xbox 360 again. However, I do have an older Nintendo console that I like and play on occassion...but mostly my Atari 2600 gets the workout and enjoyment. I have no desire to go back to Nintendo, or upgrade to an Xbox One...I would rather retro game at this point, as there are so many games I haven't played yet from the previous generations I should be busy until I retire (or die...whichever comes first).

 

Funny story...I went in to buy a copy of Fallout: New Vegas (collectors edition) and got a good speech from the Gamestop Employee on buying an Xbox One. He said, "Well, you'll be able to play all your 360 games soon, just put the disc into the machine and rip a copy to your hard drive"...uhm, yeah. Not interested, and have no desire to play the "updated" games (Fallout 4, Halo 5, and the list goes one). He even tried to tell me that I'll get a FREE copy of Fallout 3 digitally! :-o But I still declined. I like my Xbox 360, have tons of games to get for it still, and have my other systems to play that will keep me busy for a good long while.

​​

If I won a free Xbox One? Sure, I'd take it...but I don't relish the thought of shelling out $60.00 per game when I can get one for $5.00.

Edited by wolfpaw1966
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I actually went with Nintendo. Hard to believe that the video gaming giant from the mid 80's to the mid 90's is not like it once was. Most of the games target kids and families. And for many gamers a lot of their games doesn't suit what they enjoy to play. For example first person shooters, racing, action/adventure, and so forth. I have every Nintendo branded console and am pleased to own all of them. And I do enjoy the Wii U and happy to own one as I purchased it due to it's lower price and games like NES Remix, Mario and Luigi U, DK Tropicak Freeze, and Mario Maker are worth owning. Other than the 72 pin connector from the front loading NES. Nintendo made It count when It came to durable and reliable systems. As I have yet to encounter something other than a 72 pin connector from a front load model system Sony has blew them out of the water for the last 20 plus years and they have teleased a plethora of better games and especially third party support. I have yet to get a Playstation 4 and still leaning over the fence whether I may get one or not. And I have not been the least bit of disappointed with their gaming products other than a couple Disc Read Errors on some fat model PS2 systems. Microsoft on the other hand. I absolutley enjoy the original Xbox and own a few of them as I have them modded and are very reliable systems. But after going through a number of 360's plagued with hardware failures and some shoddy customer support. I am shying away from Microsoft consoles. And only consider original model Xboxes and nothing later as you can mod these systems with multiple emulators and jam pack it with roms.

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Someone just needs to figure out how to integrate some buttons on a phone in a sleek manner. I know it's been tried a few times at least but not enough to stop the 3DS from a pretty successful run. If Nintendo partnered to put out a decent handset with physical controls that paired somehow with a home console I'd be sold. I feel like at this point Nintendo would seem most likely but I'm not sure it's likely any of them will as part of the construct that Sega, Atari, etc went. The industry itself may leave them behind, though. The 'esports' growth may end up having a pretty interesting impact as well.

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Ugh, it's hard to call. Honestly they all seem too strong to fail right now.

 

Yes Virginia, even Nintendo, because 3DS and massive cash reserves make up for weakness in the Wii U. We don't know enough about their next system to have a clue. They're making neat moves in software and I wouldn't rule out a comeback, at least on a "boutique" scale. They're probably never going to dominate again like they did with the NES.

 

Microsoft doesn't have the strength in software studios from where I sit, but I suppose a lot of the dude-bros like the head-snooty games like Halo and Gears of War on XBOX. We shouldn't count out Windows as a game platform. They're still on top of the PC scene despite better-than-ever support of Mac and Linux at places like Steam and GOG. They're essentially software-only on the mobile side as it stands now. I chose them as next to exit, but don't feel strongly about it.

 

Sony seems to be top of the game, but these things can change quickly. I really liked the indie games on the Vita, but that seems to be winding down. Their efforts at mobile platforms have been half-assed, just like Microsoft.

 

Honestly, I'm not too interested in the horse race aspect of this business. I like the games I like, and the older I get, the less I gravitate towards the popular flavor of the week where most of these companies make all their money. Maybe we will see big software houses like Activision (with Blizzard and now King) yoke themselves to a single hardware platform or company?

 

Or maybe, just maybe, there's enough food at the table for all of these players (plus mobile, which I still think is the future) to coexist.

 

If you are going to answer this question based on you feel about each company, remember you're just one person at a particular point in your life, and your experience is probably not representative of anything!

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I didn't vote because I don't have an answer, though if it were up to me it would be Microsoft. I agree with Stardust - I have no idea why anyone would buy a Microsoft console and videogamespace would be better off had they never entered the market.

 

That's an interesting opinion. Maybe people buy a Microsoft console because it's a good, feature-packed console with lots of games and is also a good media center?

 

And the market would not be better off if they never entered the market. You'd have an unchecked Sony then. Competition in this case is very good.

Edited by Bill Loguidice
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Microsoft bought their way into the console world with a $500 million marketing budget (!!) and the purchase of Bungie so they could have a killer app for their system. Halo is of course now establishment, but imo I've seen Microsoft themselves really do nothing innovative since they have been in the console market. In fact, I feel they've done quite the opposite with many horrible missteps and decisions. I certainly know that Sony isn't without fault, I suppose no company is, but Microsoft's consoles have always smacked of mediocrity and lack of artistry or passion.

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That's an interesting opinion. Maybe people buy a Microsoft console because it's a good, feature-packed console with lots of games and is also a good media center?

 

And the market would not be better off if they never entered the market. You'd have an unchecked Sony then. Competition in this case is very good.

 

It definitely wouldn't be better off but let the kiddie's not forget.

 

What your saying could be (very) easily turned the other way around. It wasn't too long ago how Microsoft had no plans for BC. Had no plans for Games for Gold (thank Playstation for that) and had extremely controversial decisions on DRM, licensing and broadband requirements (no internet, no console). I'm still annoyed with them at work concerning VM licensing. It's awful. (I'm a network engineer and have worked with Microsoft products since NT in the 90's). Regardless of what some might have thought that "its the way to go in the future"...the public and the gaming world is far from ready for it. It took Valve years to earn that trust. There's many people at Microsoft who wondered the same thing. Hence how many people left with conflicting ideas. Nadella and Yushida IMO are the best things to happen to both companies. I particularly agree with Nadella's vision and hope things get even better. The recent dash update and BC on Xbox One prove some of that on the gaming side.

 

What Glazball was saying probably goes way back to the Dreamcast. There's always animosity towards anyone who invades someone's space especially when Playstation dominated in the late 90's. When Microsoft entered the fray I knew it was only a matter of time before Japanese competition would be in some trouble (Sega and to some extent Nintendo as they look like today)....except for Playstation since they had such a huge install base. The arrival of Xbox and key PC developers like Bethesda and Bioware making console games for the first time really took a knife to Japanese games. They looked, played and outperformed everything.

 

In my opinion Microsoft and the Xbox ushered in a fantastic era of gaming. Without them we certainly wouldn't be where we are today. There's some warts there though lest not forget and Sony has a ton too (PS3 era mainly...how awful was that?)

 

Change is good. Competition is good. You learn from it and hopefully become a better company that has gamers in mind first.

 

Console hate and fanboyism....to me it's a thing of the past like some relic that's best left buried forever.

 

As to this thread. I don't know, I can't predict anything for the life of me. Why I'm not a rich guy.

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Microsoft bought their way into the console world with a $500 million marketing budget (!!) and the purchase of Bungie so they could have a killer app for their system. Halo is of course now establishment, but imo I've seen Microsoft themselves really do nothing innovative since they have been in the console market. In fact, I feel they've done quite the opposite with many horrible missteps and decisions. I certainly know that Sony isn't without fault, I suppose no company is, but Microsoft's consoles have always smacked of mediocrity and lack of artistry or passion.

 

Well, that's of course your opinion and you're entitled to it, but I always find it a shame when people have such unbridled and seemingly irrational hatred for a company, be it Apple, Microsoft, EA, or whoever else it might be, that they're unable to acknowledge anything positive coming from such entities. It's like the masses of people who like those company's products are idiots or something, which of course is not true. Needless to say, in this case, to say that Microsoft has done nothing innovative in the three console generations that it has participated in is rather silly.

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Microsoft bought their way into the console world with a $500 million marketing budget (!!) and the purchase of Bungie so they could have a killer app for their system. Halo is of course now establishment, but imo I've seen Microsoft themselves really do nothing innovative since they have been in the console market. In fact, I feel they've done quite the opposite with many horrible missteps and decisions. I certainly know that Sony isn't without fault, I suppose no company is, but Microsoft's consoles have always smacked of mediocrity and lack of artistry or passion.

Sony isn't much better. Say what you will about Nintendo, but I find it damning that over the past 20 years, there has been little innovation on controller design since the original Dual Shock for PS1. Set all four controllers side by side, and there's very little difference. PS3 added accelerometers and PS4 added a touchpad, but besides that they are pretty much equivalent.

 

Don't get me wrong though, the Dual Shock is an excellent controller with a good Dpad unlike Xbox or Game Cube. Paired with a USB adapter, the Dual Shock 2 is my favorite controller for use with PC emulators.

 

Now look at Nintendo for instance. They have done nothing but innovate, and got a lot of flack for it. N64 shipped stock with an analog stick, despite it's issues. Sony added dual analogs to the redesigned PS1 controller, but many early games don't take advantage of it.

 

Nintendo set the trend for motion gaming with Wii. Sony added accelerators to the PS3 Dual Shock at the last minute. After the runaway success of the Wii, Sony tried to copy it with Move and Microsoft with Kinect.

 

Nintendo started with a touch screen in the DS, a good couple years before Apple released the iPhone and iPod touch.

 

Both the DS/Wii were runaway hits which left the century old Kyoto firm with a nice cash flow. The Wii-U kind of combined the DS with console / tablet gaming, and I love the Gamepad despite the poor public reception. But it did seem like for once Nintendo was trying to capitalize on the tablet phenomenon, copying a trend rather than creating it.

 

Point being that Nintendo has been the only company over the past umteen years to innovate. Dpad NES, diamond SNES (which Sony all but stole), analog N64, motion control Wii, tablet Wii-U...

 

But casual gamers have left console market for good with smart phones and tablets. This market segment is gone and not likely to return. But between Sony's 20 year old controller design and Microsoft's and Sony's arms race, there really isn't much to their consoles. Xbone and PS4 are both budget PCs with closed source.

 

NX will likely run on ARM architecture meaning easy ports for mobile and indie developers, but alienate the third party AAA publishers. No surprise there. And with the very likely possibility of downloads only for all three companies during the 9th generation, it will spell the end of the resale market. Gamestop will likely need to diversify and go through a restucture and corporate downsizing.

 

Either way, a downloads only future doesn't bode well for later generations of retro gaming... :ponder:

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I think they will all make it into the next generation. I think they will all suffer do to nostalgia and the current world wide retro gaming craze. Look at ebay prices on most retro consoles. I love the idea of the homebrew market, and I hope the popularity continues to grow. I am certainly not playing any of the newer consoles , and I dont know any of my friends that are. That doesnt mean there not selling new consoles, but I do think it says a lot about the retro market when walmart gets involved. I think the idea of one person making a game is amazing, and the focus is usually on great gameplay and improved graphics and sound for that particular platform. Whats not to like! I find the whole thing motivational and I cant imagine most gamers not wanting to be involved in the current retro/homebrew gaming scene. Not to mention the new innovational hardware thats being created for all of the older consoles. Maybe sony, nintendo, and microsoft should spend some quality time lurking on the atariage forums. Personally I would like to see them compete in some kind of new arcade style business. I would love to take my kids to a great arcade of any kind, and thats where most of the games people love came from was the arcades.

Edited by adamchevy
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I think they will all make it into the next generation. I think they will all suffer do to nostalgia and the current world wide retro gaming craze.

I agree that all of them will be around for next gen. What happens after? no idea. But you do realyze the CoD and Batmans out there are making huge ammounts of Money right?

 

A couple indie games here and there get huge, but These companies can't Count on that. They must Count on the gullible People, Teens and others who are susceptible to advertisements and such, so they can make a Fallout 4, or a Destiny, and with 0 Innovation and not that much effort guarantee the financial return.

 

Gaming is growing and moving more and more Money. I don't see why consoles would be gone. Now what I consider a real gamer is getting pushed out of the Mainstream of the Hobby, because companies don't give a damn about that 1% of the customer base. So for that the homebrews and Indies step in. Real gaming is a small niche, and yeah, those will be playing a lot of old games and niche games. The Mainstream doesn't care though. For them it's all the same.

 

With even Valve, Nvidia, Amazon and other companies trying to get into the console market I don't understand why People think any Company would be wanting to get out? The WiiU "failure" sold over 10mi Units. That's not that bad at all.

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I can't vote for anyone of them either. I think they will all make it through to the next generation. Also, I think there will be at at least one more generation with some sort of physical media is used to distribute large games. The broad band situation (at least in the US) is still crap with slow speeds and small data caps, so it still isn't feasible to distribute game that take up a blu-ray disc on a regular basis.

 

I see a lot of votes for Nintendo, but I think they will make it through. We really need to see what is going on with the NX platform and how it shapes up before they can be declared dead in the water. How they handle this and not piss off their fan base is a bit of a sticky wicket for them though. They can't just suddenly stop supporting the Wii U next year. Honestly, I wish the money that had been put into the tablet was put into the console itself so it had power somewhere in between the Sony and Microsoft's last offerings and the current ones (making it as powerful would have been too expensive at the time). Given the choice, I happy enough just to use pro controller. But what is done is done.

 

MS and Sony have both had enough miscues have have done things I do not like that I can't really like or dislike one more over the other. They have also gotten other things right. Same applies for Nintendo, actually.

 

I am with Cimerians in that I don't understand console bashing and fanboyism in this day and age either. Either a console has something to offer me or it doesn't, but that is going to be different for everyone.

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We are talking about a multi-billion dollar industry which is why nobody is in a hurry to get out.

Most manufacturers make just enough exclusives to draw people to their console and let 3rd parties pull most of the weight.
The problems I see with each successive generation, is that there are fewer and fewer visible differences over the previous generation and the price of the games goes up $10-$20 while consumer wage growth is pretty stagnant in the biggest markets. Fewer and fewer people are going to buy titles on launch day and companies are going to have to wait longer to recoup their investment.

We all hate those price increases but the level of detail in games, while not always obvious, has gone up considerably along with development costs.
There aren't that many popular games that a small group (aka "indie" developers) put out in their spare time.
For every Angry Birds or Flappy Bird there are hundreds of indie flops.
Most of the big selling titles cost 10s of millions of dollars to develop and even many "indie" titles run over $100K in development costs.
I'm afraid having a flop is too costly to the game companies and that will have more and more of an impact on how titles are made.

I think the Android/iPhone game market is likely to continually eat into handheld gaming where Nintendo and Sony have ruled and Nintendo's cash cow market will continue to shrink.

 

Android tablets can be had under $50 these days and play some pretty awesome games. They also do things a DS or PSP can't or at least don't do.
​Without the handheld cash cow that puts the most pressure on Nintendo to perform with their main console.
I think Nintendo may have to put out more exclusives to draw people to their console if they don't match the competition on performance because 3rd parties will be less likely to port their premier titles to the machine. This will be great for hardcore Nintendo fans but how many updated Mario Cart games can people stand? I think they will need to dig through the back catalog in order for that to be successful or create new game franchises. I think they need more to attract hardcore gamers.

Edited by JamesD
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