I’d buy that for a dollar!
In a world where some of the most capably convergent entertainment devices are found right in your pocket, the traditional game console producers find themselves in a bit of a quandary. This is, of course, the fact that their margins are being eaten into by mobiles. After all, when most people find that they can get a whole lot more bang for a literal buck on the app store, it just becomes that much harder to charge hundreds for a portable game console, and another $50 or so per game. While this is not 100% attributable to the rise in mobile gaming, the numbers were somewhat lower than expected for the PS Vita and Nintendo 3DS.
The argument, though, is that the dedicated game consoles are for the hardcore. Big budget games, with a price to match, But as indie game and app sales show, there’s just as much to be made (if not more) from a low-cost yet high-volume product. But what can these console manufacturers do? For now, the new breed of portables are starting to offer phone-like features (as already seen with Skype implementation on the PSP). So too with low-cost casual, downloadable games, 3G implementation, AR features and apps of their own with all the usual suspects in tow. Well, I guess if you can’t beat them, join them, eh? It’d definitely be interesting to see how this shakes out.
