"Over the next 12 months, the most powerful piece of technology in the home is likely to be the games console in the living room, rather than the PC in the bedroom." So starts an article on BBC News about gaming consoles and a possibly coming gaming revolution.
With the release of Xbox 360 and the coming Play Station 3 and Nintendo Revolution, it's only fair to wonder how much more important gaming consoles will be. Their presence in homes has been steadily increasing in importance over the years as technology has gotten better and games have become more complicated. They've also started becoming multi-purpose--for instance, my friend uses her Playstation 2 as her primary DVD player.
What I thought was interesting were some stats from the article: "The average gamer in the US is 26 years old, according to analysts, and the industry was worth $25bn worldwide in 2004." As we've been figuring all along, gaming is no longer just for teens. The audience seems to be maturing along with the technology.
Also from the article, "The consoles from Microsoft and Sony go beyond games, offering the ability to play music, watch video and more. They offer the potential to become the entertainment centre of the digital home."
It's interesting to note that the article doesn't mention anything about gaming computers and how those computers, although primarily used for games, already offer the ability to play music watch video, etc…
Do you think the new gaming consoles will eat up the computer competition? Will teens spend more time with their gaming consoles and away from their PCs?
Posted by karell
Gaming | Hardware & Software
Comments
I don't think we'll see PC vs. Console as a true battle for a long time. People that have home PC's do things on it where they sit at a desk (balance checkbooks, research items, uhmmm...surf porn). Things that just aren't necessarily conducive to sitting in front of your tv with a wireless keyboard and mouse in your lap). What we'll see is more convergence, where the two work closely together (which is the main concept behind the XBox 360).
As PC's and laptops drop in price, their increased functionality and, especially with PC's, customizability just make it to easy to have something that can perform a lot more functions. One can customize a PC a hundred thousand different ways but has to rely on a few vendors to make a peripheral they might want for their PS3 or 360.
Posted by: Rick | January 6, 2006 9:07 AM