Speaking to Industry Gamers, the Ultima creator cites his reasons as being that games consoles coming under a lot of pressure in recent years owing to mass costs in development and competition from games appearing on smart-phones/tablet devices: "I think fundamentally the power that you can carry with you in a portable is really swamping what we've thought of as a console." When asked about his feelings regarding smart-phones matching the graphical capability of the current Xbox and user's ability to connect them to their own TV, thus making the device for portable and home use, Garriott agreed: "Yes, exactly. That's why I think there may be one more round of consoles left, but not many."
With Nintendo already confirming it'll release Wii U next year and rumours circulating regarding the development/release of the 'Xbox 720' and 'PlayStation 4', does this mean we won't get another generation after those consoles?
What's your viewpoint? Do you agree with Garriott? Why not lets us know in the comment section below this article. You can read the full interview by clicking the source link.
[Source: Industry Gamers]
This guy is producing MMORPGs, meaning he hasn't got any more inside in consoles than average Joe.
People don't want to play high end games on their handys, they want big ass screens and complicated input devices.
But he does make an interesting point about smartphones/tablets. We can already wireless connect our portable devices to our televisions and use them that way so I guess consoles can be rivalled in that sense. Assuming the devices will eventually have graphics that are on par with current, possibly even next-gen, consoles. If that does happen then maybe sales of the consoles will go down as people choose to play game on their portable devices, which they can connect to their televisions, thus getting the 'big ass screens' but then choose to take the game ont he road by continuing to play it on the device when they are say on the bus. That however is a BIG MAYBE! but one that isn't exactly a feat which can be achieved some day.
In my opinion consoles will never die unless they invent VR headsets or something