Wild Tangent CEO: This is the Last Generation of Consoles
By Chris on Sunday, May 25th, 2008 at 6:30 PM PST In Computer, Game Companies, Game Consoles, Game Platforms, Gamer Life, Games, Games Industry, Hardware, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, World of Warcraft
Last time Wild Tangent CEO (and one of the creators of DirectX) spoke up, he was voicing his prediction that PCs are the gaming platform of the future. His most recent comments at an annual Wedbush Morgan Securities were fairly similar in nature, according to GI.biz, as he said, “I think you’re looking at the last generation of game consoles, and I think it’s easy to defend that position.”
“The thing that’s interesting is, a console is not a game enabling device – it’s a game blocking device, unless you’ve paid for it. So, the principle value of a console is as DRM technology to solve the piracy problem.”
While that’s true in some regards, I think he’s understating the preference many people have, that they’d rather sit on their couch and play games on their television.
But St. John contends that we’re at a point that consoles can differentiate themselves with nice graphics, and that communities are going to be what separate games from one another.
“Community-based gaming is going to dominate the market and the economics. And community-based games don’t need DRM, because communities can’t be stolen, and therefore nobody needs to share any revenue with the console manufacturer.
“World of Warcraft is the most profitable game in history. Pogo is, I imagine, wildly profitable, and not a console game. World of Warcraft will generate 1.2 billion dollars this year in online subscriptions, and nobody can pirate it.”
One of the other reasons he believes that PCs will become the standard for playing games is due to the large number of laptops being sold. He explained, “…And kids who must have a laptop in the next ten years to go to school do not pick their laptop because it is great at doing their math homework. That’s not why they’re going to choose that laptop. His PSP’s going to be confiscated at school; no one’s going to take his laptop away from him because they need that for their homework.”
He summed things up by saying, “So, I think ten years from now, there is a consolidation of platforms, mobile devices, predominantly PC, probably nothing like consoles as you know them any more, and advertising and microcurrency-based economies.”
Where do you think the future lies?
He makes a good point about the laptops. What the kids play on their desktops can easily work on their laptops. On the other hand, console games have the benefit of dedication, where a PC in a home may be shared for multiple uses. Also DRM is on consoles, and hard to break.
Where his argument loses credibility is where he boasts about WOW’s success yet there is absolutely no reason at all why that couldn’t also be on a console. He also ignores the online community’s of millions that are building on the current gen consoles. WTF does he think are going to happen to all of those people? Does he think that Live and Home will be dropped for the next gen?
You could argue that the next gen will actually be even bigger than this one because of the same community argument he uses. For instance there will be far more reason for a Home using PS3 gamer to move to the PS4 than there was for him to move from PS2 to PS3 because he will have an online community moving with him just like the XBL gamers who moved from the Xbox to the 360.
Umm… Consoles are here to stay. They’re just too easy to use. Consumers don’t have to worry about whether or not their games will run on their systems and publishers don’t have to worry about piracy… as much.