The future of Gaming
Recently we’ve been hearing a lot of rumors about new consoles being released: a new Xbox, a new Playstation, a Valve console, but none of them have been confirmed yet.
Still, we can outline how the gaming industry will look like in a few years.
First of all, mobile consoles are failing. Hardcore gamers are the ones keeping the industry alive these days, but I don’t think any hardcore gamer would play 8 hours straight on a 5″ screen (especially if there are only casual games for that console…).
Sure, the PSVita and the 3DS have nice hardware, and they’re surely innovative, but a double touch screen or a 3D camera may impress developers or casual gamers, but those features are barely used, and a true gamer only needs a keyboard and a mouse.
What does that mean? Mobile gaming will disappear? No it won’t. Smartphones are the way, smartphone games were probably the most successful casual games in the last years, just look at Angry Birds.
The reason why those games are so successful is because you can play it wherever you go, no need to carry a console with you. No matter how small and light that console is, it still takes space, and you always carry your phone anyway.
Also, if you watched E3, you may have noticed that even Sony isn’t very convinced about how the Vita is turning out…
The OUYA received 8,596,475 dollars on kickstarter, which makes me feel positive about this console. I’m not sure how this will turn out, it has a lot of potential, but is the industry ready for an open source console?
The only thing this console needs is support from big software houses, because, again, a console can’t just rely on casual games.
But anyway I’m going to get one: it’s cheap, it has nice hardware, and it runs android; even without hardcore games, it can make an awesome device.
Blizzard, Valve, Notch and many others criticized Windows 8 recently, and Valve is FINALLY porting Steam and L4D2 (Left For Dead 2, in case you don’t know) to Linux, and from their first tests, they confirmed what we always knew: everything runs better on Linux.
The Linux port of L4D2 has better performances than the Windows version, according to them.
I’m very excited about this, a few years ago even gaming on OSX was impossible, now seems like we, Linux users, are finally getting some love from software houses.
So what do you think? Will you get an OUYA too? And are you as excited as me about Steam for Linux?
– Freddy
How much ouya will cost when its out in the market?
99$
Price is undisclosed but if you pledge 99$ you get the console for free.
i heard the ouya will be a *** system that can only play android based indie games and no 3rd party companies want to make games for pirates. so expect old emulation that a psp can do.
Sounds like *** to me. That can be said about every console ever made. Ouya will have dedicated games coming to it. And plus it will have Onlive and out of most consoles ouya seems have the best specs for what consoles you usually have.
If anything I would get an Ouya for the emulation aspect. Although as has been shown, Android’s sound code makes the games have sound lag. I don’t know if it’s been fixed by any of the new updates, but I’ve seen a few videos around, and have confirmed it with my own Android phone playing Sonic.
It’s still too early though, we can’t judge the product until we get our hands on one ourselves.
I would much rather play emulators on my Vita, but let’s be real we probably won’t see any progress until way after the launch of the Ouya, so I’ll probably end up buying one…
yeah because deadspace, nova and mass effect don’t exist on android.
I took the kickstarter limited edition. I really hope OUYA will succeed, it has the potential to do so, and the support from companies such as Square-Enix and Bandai-Namco is really a great thing !
Wasn’t Half Life developed to be compatible with wine? or was it pure coincidence? I think I read something about that in wikipedia but I can’t find the page.
The big problem about OUYA is, that it is a device with controller input for a marketplace of games made for touch-input. And I don’t think, that will change alot just for OUYA. There are some gamers (I’d say the more-core-ish gamers) who want to have a consistent controller standard for Android devices, and that would be, what OUYA could deliver. But if you ask me, those people are just half-hearted and should get a real gaming handheld device. No matter how far technology evolves when it comes to graphics, you will never get the depth of gameplay and story that you can get on a PSP or Vita when riding a train.
I’d even say the biggest DS titles couldn’t even deliver that level of console-like feeling on the go. (Don’t have a 3DS yet, so couldn’t tell if it’s any different with Resident Evil for example. I’d say Zelda OOT feels very good and immersive)
If you need a consistent controller standard for Android devices, I’d say Playstation Mobile is the way to go here.
About Playstation Mobile, I’m pretty sure one of the heavy requirements of the contract is that whatever you create has to be playable without a gamepad, so that phones that are playstation certified can actually play your game. As a result, Sony is *not* helping with creating a physical controller standard for Android.
I’m aware of that and don’t see an objection here. That’s a good thing, if you ask me. It wouldn’t work otherwise anyway, because the majority of Android-users do not want to play via gamepad anyway, so it’s the only option to have a gamepad optionally.
The important thing is, that if developers want to make something for a controller, they need some standard and that might be what many people hope, OUYA will be.
I think you missread the post. It does say it’ll have a touch pad too
I’ll get an OUYA too, even if I don’t play with it 😉
And I’m very happy to see steam in Linux.
What worries me about PC Gaming, is that every Big Software house wants to have each own obligatory digital shop for their games, And I hate that.
The future of gaming…
I’ll just be happy with a PS4 and some more great games for the Vita.
I don’t need an Ouya or anything fancy. I’m just happy to watch console games growing in sophistication and maturing to what I am sure is a promising future. Well after I finish University (once I get in) and get myself into the games industry it will be promising.
$99 console? Fancy? Fancy compared to what? A game boy?
4-core Tegra 3, 1 Gb Ram, HDMI, Bluetooth, 8 Gb internal memory (can be expanded, I’m pretty sure). For 99$, I think it’s a good deal.
no thanks .. it’s just wasting room space..
we have portable android devices anyway..
Lol? Wasting room space? What box are you living in?Its the size of a fricking rubik’s cube!
Ok, well by fancy I meant more so gimmicky and different. I just rather to stick with Sony or a mainline console where you know what to expect.
After all thats been happening recently, i really dont even care about future consoles. Ill still take thr newest portables, but in truth, im more of a retro gamer. So DC for me IMO.
The OUYA idea is one of the most amazing things happened during this period in videogame’s world.
As an electronic engineering student I’m feeling very exited about it.
As regards Steam on Linux all I have to say after 15 years of PC gaming is: Everything is better than MAC!
I use Windows and Linux.I think that Windows is better for videogames only for experience: it has been the main reference to PC gaming in these years.
You guys want hardcore? Get Nintendo’s Wii U
That made me laugh really hard…literally. Thank you, I needed a really good one today.
First of all, you’re stuck in a cage and therefore can not view the current gaming scene?
You’ve read the last posts of this blog, talking about the release of many cool games?
Second, I’m a hardcore gamer and i can say: sure psvita can provide many hours of play for any player more demanding.Do not judge something just by having a screen 5″.Ridiculous metaphor.
I recommend: that you should update,
that you do not waste your time writing something like this,
that you get out of this cage.
attentively, me 😉
This post was written BEFORE Sony GamesCom conference. And still, they presented only a couple of new games, and a lot of spinoffs, you could get a ps3 for less and play the same games with better quality, basically. If you enjoyed AC: Bloodlines more than any other AC, good for you, stick on mobile consoles.
Smartphone gaming is the future of mobile gaming? Are you serious? I hope you enjoy playing your games with your fingers covering 50% of the screen at all times. There is no way this is true.
Why would you come to a website that you know is most frequented by Vita users and start talking about how mobile consoles are dying and cite the Vita’s showing at E3 while completely ignoring its more recent spectacular showing at Gamescom?
Wololo asking you to write some controversial articles that will stir up some conversation?
Phone screens are getting bigger. I am holding a 4.3″ screen in my hands right now, and if you ask me, I’d love to have more mobile consoles instead of playing on smartphones, but this is what is happenning right now: smartphone games are selling more than mobile console games, unless Sony keeps releasing quality games (and this GamesCom gives me a bit more of hope) the situation won’t change.
Phone screens can only get so big until they start being as big of a burden as you say carrying a console is. Also, in order to get anywhere near the graphics and processing power as current day mobile consoles, phones would have to burn through SO much battery power.
I don’t think anyone would play mobile games if the tradeoff was having your phone die by the end of the day every day. There will always be a market for high-powered mobile gaming. Look at current console sales. The 3DS has been killing everything else for ages.
Smartphones already day by the end of the day, even sooner. And consoles’ batteries don’t last much longer.
And carrying one 5″ screen takes less space than carrying two, don’t you agree?
About graphics, the PSV has a good GPU, of course, since it’s a videogame console (PowerVR SGX543MP4) but smartphones are getting very powerful GPUs such as the Tegra 3 GPU, which supports up to 2560×1600.
You have to worry about the quality of smartphone games, though. In a world that’s used to paying about $5 max per mobile phone game, do you think developers would be willing to put enough work in to make titles powerful enough to utilize these new GPUs only to sell the game for under $10 in order to stay competitive?
Speaking also of current trends in video gaming: everything is sequels. I don’t think big gaming companies would risk the legitimacy of their big box titles by dumbing them down enough for mobile phone graphics and controls.
Those games aren’t made for quality, they’re just fun. Mobile gaming is for wasting time MOSTLY, and when you’re wasting time you don’t look for awesome graphics or a good plot, you just want to have fun.
Also, the difference between a mobile console running out of battery and your phone running out of battery is huge. One means you won’t be able to play games until you charge, one means you’re sc*** in case of an emergency and can’t make calls or texts until you charge.
As far as portability goes, I agree. The Vita is very bulky. I believe that they’ll release a Vita GO soon that has a smaller OLED screen that will be about the same size as the PSP GO, which is like carrying around nothing. That being said, I carry my Vita everywhere I go and rarely do I even notice the bulk.
If you play 4 hours straight, both the PSV and an average smartphone will run out of battery.
I think any clever person would stop playing before running out of battery on both devices.
Im a PC Gamer really, Mainly just play Counter-strike: Source and now GO… I dont really need a PS Vita or PS3 but its nice to have anyways 😛
Same here but I still play PSP up until now. I couldn’t care less about other consoles except I would buy them just for the sake of collecting consoles.
wake up people!!! today´s phones got 4 core CPU, 1 or 2 GB of ram, usb host for keyboard-mouse-joystick and HDMI 1080 output and a lot cheap storage space (Micro SD card)…
That would be great if the iPhone actually used it’s full processing power. For 95% of apps, the iPhone processor runs hugely underclocked. For the other 5%?… Ever tried playing Infinity Blade for hours on end? Your battery level will be in the red zone before noon.
well, u can’t gaming on OUYA while walking outside anyway
For those that worry about OUYA having games
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1217060
There were over 300 xperia play supported titles.
“The reason why those games are so successful is because…” those are cheap (~0.99$ / game).
That too, but there’s piracy on smartphones too, sadly.
Linux gaming ? beside HB games i don’t see it happen soon. Sadly. Microsoft is making games on windows easier then on linux, and they will keep doing so. Windows 8 is gonne fail, for obv. reasons allot people will turn to ubuntu/fedora and note that ubuntu din’t do a very great job on unity … beside that there “old” games won’t work out-of-the-box nor there m$ office or there uber epic hardware drivers …
Windows 9 will fix the windows 8 issues and we (dumb customers) will embrace windows again.
Or macOS though i dislike them even more then m$. Dual boot is a good way to go, but tomuch software is yet 1-OS-ware.
You have summed up the history of PCs ever since windows in 10 lines. Congrats 😉
I still don’t see mobile consoles dying. And if major developers (especially online games) would embrace linux and even just half of the games that are released can be run on linux natively, I would drop windows instantly and go full linux. Unfortunately I feel that is still going to be many years away from coming close to happening.
I think with ouya were gonna see the same thing as the nes 50000 crappy games 500 decent ones before it gets a version 2 that’s not open sorce.
Some very awesome information to think over Wololo. Rather interesting that as we all know Linux yet everything (Most Things) runs better on it. Just amazes me how windows have become the “Norm” of essentially what a Computer “OS Is” Microsoft trying to control the PC market, a system like Apple, controlling what you buy and so locking into whatever the heck they want.
Gaming is still such a young Form of Media, it is like the argument of “Are video games art” and why shouldn’t it be ? Music,Movies, Pictures, Art they all get praised and celebrated by us yet Video games in it’s current form doesn’t get recognized on the same yet arguably some Video games are on such a beautiful level that they could be considered a art.
Because it is going through a “Proving Stage” it is still in it’s early days” and I’m hoping we as gamers get that same level of feeling about video games that we felt when we were younger. Tripple AAA games these days alot of them just feel like the same game, they have nonfeeling or personality to them.
Indie games are slowly growing and moving away from Big Corporations like Sony and Microsoft, PC gaming has seen huge growths over the years while Console gaming sales are slowly gtging worse and worse over the years.
People are just getting tired of dealing with horrible DRM and treatment console gamers get, PC Gaming is such a open platform that perhaps not casual gamers but “hardcore” gamers are moving towards PC gaming. Building your own PC is no longer a impossible task for some. heck don”t know how to put a graphics card in ? Just YouTube it. We are living such a world where finding information is no longer a task. We as Video Gamers are able to put our money where are mouths are and choose something like Kickstarter for us to put faith in these developers that want to make games FOR GAMERS, for the few of us that don”t think Point and Click games are dead, we as consumers can devote our money towards developers we know that won’t make a game depending on whatever the *** a Publisher Says.
I hope we are Gamers and Video Games as a media can go and break free of the corporations and give more praise to indie games and a more open system, like Linux. That once video games have become not just a way a entertain ourselves but a way to experience a level of immesserion that no movie has ever been able to portay, nothin immerses you more or brings such emotional feelings depending on who plays.
Just dome insane ramblings of a video gamer.
“Windows” is the only reason I own a 360 and PS3.
Sure PC gaming looks better but if it is on Windows you end up spending to much time on drivers and configuring software/hardware.
At least I know I do because it turns into me looking to get best performance/quality/control out of the system.
Handhelds? well as far as they are concerned. I just want to be able to play my favorite games on the go. May it only be 2-3 hours a week. I need something to keep me amused and not sitting there looking at a wall.
Maybe I should take up reading books.. Yes, Maybe I should, but I do not want to.
The only reason that makes me buy an ouya at first is for the emulators(I really want an n64 with great compatibility and speed on a console)
Linux FTW
I’ll stick with windows. I like it’s better coz it’s easier to use.