Microsoft, Apple, Sony, Nintendo and OnLive are the large players in the next-gen gaming war, and we are purposely calling it a "gaming war" as opposed to a "console war" because it's moved well beyond the lounge. And, it's more complicated than ever before.
Consoles are hardly consoles anymore; they're more like set-top boxes that try to be the center piece of your home's theater. Samsung and Apple smartphones pair up with TV sets and set-top boxes to act as controllers for games that run on the phones themselves. Some of these platforms can connect to OnLive, giving game players access to Computer games on smartphones, tablets and PCs at home or on the go. And before all this happened, Nintendo helped to catalyze the fondness for casual gaming (that Apple has harnessed as a cash monster) with the Nintendo Wii and the DS. Casual gaming has never been as successful as it is now.
Now, it's insufficient for a company to build a console with the best hardware available, and then simply supply that console with quality titles. That was the original formula for success, and it worked throughout the 80s, 90s, and 00s. But this is a new day, and everyone's making it tougher for everyone else to play.
As we discussed before, Apple has harnessed as a cash cow the popularity of casual gaming, a market category invented and improved on by Nintendo. Apple games can run on iOS devices, which can wirelessly connect to the Apple TV, making it sort of Apple's faux console. But Nintendo seems prepared to resume the successful formula of the Wii because it's working well. Microsoft spotted this, and it's prepared to unleash the Xbox Lite by the end of 2013. It's supposed to be a set-top box with puny specs that may sell media, games and programmes to users, and it'll be a direct rival to the Apple TV and the Nintendo Wii.
And then there's Sony. This company owns movie, music game and studios, so it can develop and publish fine quality software, hardware, media, and games in house that it sells on smartphones, tablets, PCs and consoles that it builds in house. From end to end, Sony can ensure a high-quality experience for the end user. No other company produces literally everything in house, and that puts it in a unique position against its competitors.
Of course, it'll potentially be Apple that comes out on top of all these corporations. It's now considered the most important company globally , so it can likely buy OnLive and perhaps even Nintendo if it wanted.
Consoles are hardly consoles anymore; they're more like set-top boxes that try to be the center piece of your home's theater. Samsung and Apple smartphones pair up with TV sets and set-top boxes to act as controllers for games that run on the phones themselves. Some of these platforms can connect to OnLive, giving game players access to Computer games on smartphones, tablets and PCs at home or on the go. And before all this happened, Nintendo helped to catalyze the fondness for casual gaming (that Apple has harnessed as a cash monster) with the Nintendo Wii and the DS. Casual gaming has never been as successful as it is now.
Now, it's insufficient for a company to build a console with the best hardware available, and then simply supply that console with quality titles. That was the original formula for success, and it worked throughout the 80s, 90s, and 00s. But this is a new day, and everyone's making it tougher for everyone else to play.
As we discussed before, Apple has harnessed as a cash cow the popularity of casual gaming, a market category invented and improved on by Nintendo. Apple games can run on iOS devices, which can wirelessly connect to the Apple TV, making it sort of Apple's faux console. But Nintendo seems prepared to resume the successful formula of the Wii because it's working well. Microsoft spotted this, and it's prepared to unleash the Xbox Lite by the end of 2013. It's supposed to be a set-top box with puny specs that may sell media, games and programmes to users, and it'll be a direct rival to the Apple TV and the Nintendo Wii.
And then there's Sony. This company owns movie, music game and studios, so it can develop and publish fine quality software, hardware, media, and games in house that it sells on smartphones, tablets, PCs and consoles that it builds in house. From end to end, Sony can ensure a high-quality experience for the end user. No other company produces literally everything in house, and that puts it in a unique position against its competitors.
Of course, it'll potentially be Apple that comes out on top of all these corporations. It's now considered the most important company globally , so it can likely buy OnLive and perhaps even Nintendo if it wanted.
About the Author:
Fausto Mendez is the editor of ReleaseDates.co, a free website and email-subscription service that updates its readers only about the devices, video games and brands they want.
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