A day may come when the likes of Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony no longer reign supreme.
If your reading this, then it’s very likely you own a gaming console of either the current or previous generations. If not, odds are you’ve at least owned one at some period in the past (whether you bought it yourself or it was given to you as a gift from a parent or relative). The point is, video gaming on our home consoles has been a staple for much of our lives, in what has been a golden-age spanning over three decades and 30+ years of success and fortune.
But is it inevitable all of this may one day come to an end? Empires have risen and fallen throughout history, with even the most prevalent societies being reduced to nothing more than trinkets in the ground (waiting to be uncovered by an archeologist somewhere). While the folks of a little community called Pompeii were likely oblivious to their impending doom, I’m wondering if we too are also blinded by the success of our industry today. Are we foolishly focused on the space found five feet in-front of our faces rather than being forward-thinking? Those at the hardware giant NVIDIA certainly think so. For those of you who may be unfamiliar, NVIDIA is the biggest manufacturer of video cards for the PC ever. During a recent financial Q&A, they happily touted yet another boom period, which they feel signifies a taste of things to come. Here is what Jen-Hsung Huang (the company’s chief operating office) had to say regarding the future of videos games during the earnings call; “…my sense is that the game console platform is not likely to enjoy the hay days when it was really unambiguously the only and the best game platform to enjoy games. It’s just not true anymore. There are just too many other ways to enjoy games” he states.
Naturally Jen-Hsung has a vested interest in down-playing the influence of home consoles, as their goal is to target PC gamers and sell desktops. So in that regard, it’s important to take his lofty-projections with a grain of salt. However, that’s not to say he doesn’t have a point. After the video game crash of the late ‘70s-early ‘80s, there was ONE company who pulled our industry out of the fire. Nintendo first came along with the NES and revolutionized what a home platform could mean, building a dynasty in its own right. Churning out one successful piece of hardware after the other, it seemingly could do no wrong. It would apparently remain a staple in our lives for the indefinite future. Fast forward to 2014 and things have unfortunately shaken out quite differently. In the present we find a company who’s barely holding on to their position, looking for any way they can to retain some type of relevancy (and not exactly doing a great job in that regard). I use Nintendo as an example, as I feel they’re reflective of what’s happening right under our noses.
Just a few years ago, Microsoft was the pretty girl at the party with the Xbox 360. Then, with a single generational shift, the PlayStation has unseated them with ease. So much so, many fear the blow could result in Microsoft’s game division evaporating altogether (if a much needed up-swing doesn’t take place very soon). Even though Sony is currently on cloud nine, what could the industry look like five years from now (and will transitions we can’t anticipate unseat them just as easily)? With innovations in tech like the Oculus Rift and the mobile market exploding beyond many analyst’s wildest dreams, are we truly destined to stay glued to our couches in the same old way we’ve done for countless years?
I don’t necessarily buy into the idea that PC gaming will one day become practical (and accessible) enough to replace our consoles. Having said that, I have to feel there’s something greater on the horizon than just more thumb sticks and touch pads. Don’t you?