Mobile Gaming Exec Predictably Predicts Console Gaming Death
Not exactly surprising look into the future.
"There's a potential for mobile gaming to kill console gaming. I'm talking about a significant reduction of market share with no chance of return." Guess who said that? Go on, have a guess. Nope, it wasn't EA, a console manufacturer or an independent analyst. Predictably enough, these words come from Ben Cousins, general manager of mobile company Ngmoco.
To be fair on the chap, he has previously served in similar roles with EA DICE, Sony and Lionhead. So he probably has some idea of where things are going in the games industry.
Cousins does, however, become the latest voice in a collective of mobile and social gaming companies that is trying its best to shout down the home console's future reign. The exec gave a keynote at GDC Taipei which predicted five big trends in the industry over the next decade. The big takeaway? Freemium and mobile will kill traditional gaming as we know it.
"When I'm talking about mobile, I'm talking about the operating system, not the device," Cousins said. "I believe these operating systems will start to appear in other classes of devices, other than just mobile phones and tablets. In the future I think mobile gaming maybe won't be so mobile, and we may need a new definition for them."
Post-PC gaming?
Gamasutra notes that Japanese social and mobile gaming companies, GREE and DeNA, already generate more money than the entire console software industry in the country. Cousins thinks this will be true for the global market. "I believe that sometime during the next console generation, globally, both the revenue and the market share for games will be larger in mobile than it is for console.
"I believe Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo won't produce dedicated hardware past the next generation. Further, I believe traditional game companies like EA will be purchased by existing digital companies, or close entirely."
Bit bleak for home consoles, isn't it? What do you reckon? Weigh in by commenting below.
To be fair on the chap, he has previously served in similar roles with EA DICE, Sony and Lionhead. So he probably has some idea of where things are going in the games industry.
Cousins does, however, become the latest voice in a collective of mobile and social gaming companies that is trying its best to shout down the home console's future reign. The exec gave a keynote at GDC Taipei which predicted five big trends in the industry over the next decade. The big takeaway? Freemium and mobile will kill traditional gaming as we know it.
"When I'm talking about mobile, I'm talking about the operating system, not the device," Cousins said. "I believe these operating systems will start to appear in other classes of devices, other than just mobile phones and tablets. In the future I think mobile gaming maybe won't be so mobile, and we may need a new definition for them."
Post-PC gaming?
Gamasutra notes that Japanese social and mobile gaming companies, GREE and DeNA, already generate more money than the entire console software industry in the country. Cousins thinks this will be true for the global market. "I believe that sometime during the next console generation, globally, both the revenue and the market share for games will be larger in mobile than it is for console.
"I believe Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo won't produce dedicated hardware past the next generation. Further, I believe traditional game companies like EA will be purchased by existing digital companies, or close entirely."
Bit bleak for home consoles, isn't it? What do you reckon? Weigh in by commenting below.
Companies:
Ngmoco
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Comments
DrkStr 27 Jun 2012 11:50
1/1
Define "the market" because if mobiles keep selling and being included in gaming numbers then they will grow "the market" and by default take market share from consoles. However, they won't reduce the number of consoles being sold.