No, say it isn't so! What am I going to do... with my life? I'm already scared.
Sandy Duncan, formerly vice president of Xbox Europe, and now head of casual gaming business YoYo Games, says that our beloved game consoles may only have five to ten years left before they go extinct.
”I think dedicated games devices will die [out] in the next 5 to 10 years. The business model is very risky and the costs associated with creating new hardware are incredibly high,” Duncan said to That Videogame Blog in an interview.
“There is a definite “convergence” of other devices such as set top boxes, he continues. "There’s hardly any technology difference between some hard disc video recorders and an Xbox 360 for example. In fact in 5 to 10 years I don’t think you’ll have any box at all under your TV, most of this stuff will be “virtualized” as web services by your content provider.”
Are you on the same page as Duncan? Do you think that "cloud computing" can replace the console? How open are you to this change?
[Via Next-Gen]
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
Meet the rest of the team
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
64 comments | showing # 1 to 50
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
1:16 PM on 03.28.2008
| 
I want my IPTV!!
How often do servers crash and what not? Too much for me to adapt to that shit. I can see the route that the new PS4/Xbox 420 being the main entertainment system under your TV as that's pretty much whats happening now.
Sam applies with movies as they say they will be done through data only and I don't see this as too smart of a move and hope it doesn't turn that way as I see to many issues, for example: I own around 400 DVD's how much freaking storage would I need HDD wise to store all that...tons the the HDD goes corrupt and I have to DL all those movies again? I say fuck that noise!
That time frame is ridiculously quick.
If you think, for something so big as to consoles to be "extinct" you would see some foreshadow here and i'm not really seeing anything. video games (consoles) are still progressively getting bigger...you CAN'T stop that. sorry buddy.
Dear lord, are we going to wind up using our electronics only for porn?!? :'(
By the way if you want to talk costs & risks, PC gaming places those burdens on the consumer's shoulders. Is that the route he is suggesting?
One word: Plastics.
Maybe much later down the road, this will become the next big thing. But I don't think it'll happen 5-10 years from now. That's way too soon.
This won't happen until, at least, after the next generation. She's out of her mind.
Anyway, I think 5-10 years is much too short for the death of gaming consoles. The console gaming business is booming and most other people are prophesying the death of PC gaming (also not going to happen). What crazy world does this guy live in where enough people have broadband connections (and quality broadband) to "virtualize" all of these applications?
*hugs his PC*
With our lazy, instant gratification society, isn't a prebuilt, functioning console more convenient than a PC? There's no hassles with drivers, wrong parts, or constant upgrades.
If anything, I see it the other way around, with consoles integrating more PC features.
Despite all the smooth talk and whatever about online numbers on xbl etc etc. theres still way more ppl out there that buy consoles and arent online and probably within thier social circles bitchin the crap about how half of the achievements are online etc.
at least in the UK, broadband isnt free like i know it to be in america in some degree of circumstance.
Wii leads the sales figures but has the worst online networking system. xbl is free but you cant do much with it. unless u upgrade at £39.99 a year which is great knowing they are the premium service, [see latest rainbow 6 vegas 2 fiasco on PSNas example.]
PSN just feels like a glorified website selling stuff most psx or ps2 owners already have, but at least sell items as cash prices, rather than microsoft and thier moonpoints.
Hardware is here to stay. Gaming makes more than the movie and music industry, I hear it all the time. The gaming system of hardware aint broke, and isnt gonna get fixed. only improved upon to bring in more money.
"I own around 400 DVD's how much freaking storage would I need HDD wise to store all that...tons the the HDD goes corrupt and I have to DL all those movies again? I say fuck that noise!"
When people talk movies/music etc. as turning to data only it usually is operating out of some sort of subscription service model where you then have access to a full library to be streamed/temp stored at any time, on any device and at any place. I think people get thrown off by this because not only is it a different business model but it also challenges the current 'collector-impulse' based market model for media.
Yes, but in this case they're wrong. ;)
Or...turning on the hadron accelerator in June does create the mini black holes they thought would happen but they become unstable and start devouring time and matter, global panic, general mayhem, quicker games of turnip tick tack toe.
Or, these things might not happen and we might have another xbox and Nintendo system, sony will do a sega.