Alex St. John: 'Consoles as We Know Them are Gone' Options

[Xbox-Scene]

Alex St. John: 'Consoles as We Know Them are Gone' Posted by XanTium | March 22 21:58 EST | News Category: GamingGeneral

From extremetech.com: [QUOTE] Alex St. John is co-founder and CEO of WildTangent. Before he founded the company in 1998, he was one of the writers and essential in the creation of Microsoft's DirectX libraries. St. John was also Microsoft's "games evangelist" and pushed the PC and Windows as a key gaming platform. WildTangent plans to release the Orb, a new PC-based "console," in April, and offer its lineup of indie games plus games from major publishers like Sierra, THQ, and more. We interviewed Alex St. John to get his take on the future of gaming. St. John believes, among other things, that the console is doomed, and that PC gaming is due for a renaissance. * ExtremeTech: I understand that at WildTangent, you're working hard on the Orb, which is technically a console for the PC. Now, Epic Games' Tim Sweeney, I'm sure you heard, put forth a very widely posted quote, "PCs are good for anything, just not games." That was taken out of context; he'd been asked about mainstream computers that lack graphics and audio power. How do you react to that quote? * Alex St. John: I've known Tim Sweeney a long time, and he makes a very important point. To be clear, PCs are fantastic gaming platforms, in spite of Intel and Microsoft. And they should absolutely be pinioned for the stupid stuff they've done to make the PC not as good a gaming platform as it would inherently be without their help screwing it up. And so the shame of it is, the PC's a fantastic gaming platform, superior to anything anybody's every imagined, superior to every console, and Microsoft and Intel put crap in the PC that make it not so good. And so if you see a PC that is not denuded by things interfering with it by Microsoft and Intel, in many cases like an Intel crappy graphics chip, or a bloated Vista operating system, it's a fantastic gaming platform. And the shame is, if the low end of the PC market, the mass market PCs that everybody buys did not come with these crappy graphics chips on them and was not burdened with a fat OS, that the PC would be a larger contiguous gaming platform than all the next-generation consoles combined, probably would be clearly superior; the PC is the home of the most profitable game in history generating more revenue than the top 10 console games combined--that's World of Warcraft generating a 1.2 billion dollars a year in revenue, that's a pure PC game. So it is clear that PC gaming absolutely killed [the market] in terms of revenue, killed it in terms of consumer usage--the average console gamer, according to Powers Associates, spends more time playing PC games than console games. [/QUOTE] Full Story: extremetech.com (3 pages)

[Merc178]

Riiiight

[Bandit5317]

That article wasn't biased at all . I think one of the biggest points that he missed was the power that you get for the price with a console. The 360 came out over 2 years ago, and you still can't build a PC anywhere near as powerful as it is for $350. I figure it would be more like $650 to build a PC equaling it in power, and that's if you build it on the cheap, not even including mouse, keyboard, or the operating system. Same goes for the PS3. Heck, you can hardly buy a blu-ray player for the price of the low-end PS3 . The reason this will never happen with a PC is because no company will ever sell a PC at a loss. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all rely on game sales for the bulk of their profits. Don't take this as me bashing PC gaming, I do some PC gaming myself, but I don't see consoles ever becoming obsolete, especially with the ever increasing profits made from the console gaming market.

[luther349]

theres been gameing pcs oh i don't know forever. and console pc hybreds as well the hybred pcs all failed.

[AWD Bus]

Wild Tangent, arent they the same company that includes spyware with all there stuff. I think so....

[eeboarder1984]

PC games are fine for the times you are alone. Most of the time, I am with my wife or my friends. We all enjoy my 360, Wii, and a few beers on my couch. The PC can't match that.

[h_2_o]

Wild Tangent, arent they the same company that includes spyware with all there stuff. I think so....

LOL i was thinking the exact same thing. if this is them then i guess these console/pc things will be spyware/malware ridden for our own safety and protection

[-PK-]

So basically he's developing a console (hardware + OS kit) for the PC. This already exists, it's called a graphics card and better yet, it's upgradable! They should just release a brochure with what you need to play modern games with DIY installation instructions. Or if he's confident enough in his gaming platform, release the OS for free to gain a user base. As a PC gamer, I don't think I would enjoy being forced to use his recommended settings and screen resolutions for every game, this is the freedom where PC gaming dominates . . . for a price of course.

[Mike4]

You guys made some good points that I agree with. I'd like to point out some more.

I thought this guy might be on to something until he showed his support for DRM and started making some incorrect statements about piracy. He believes piracy is one of the culprits standing in the way of PC gaming's success, which is ridiculous. According to him, one of the reasons consoles are still necessary is because developers can publish games for them and not worry about them being "stolen," whereas, a PC version will be "stolen" easily. He doesn't appear to understand exactly what he's arguing. There are plenty of pirated games for the Xbox and the 360 (basically, every single one of them), yet that seems to be doing pretty well. I'm pretty sure the Wii has also been hacked for playing pirated games too (and we all know about the profit they see). I'm not sure about the PS3 yet, but pretty much every console in the last 10 years or so has been hacked for playing pirated games. Don't get me wrong, I understand that a PC doesn't need any special hacking to play a pirated game (although this doesn't appear to be part of this man's argument), but that doesn't mean piracy is more likely to occur on a PC. A person who intends to play a pirated game will do so on any platform. Piracy can't really factor in to the success of any particular format.

If it actually did play a role, it would most likely have a positive impact on a specific format, especially when piracy has proven time and time again to in fact boost sales. I'm not trying to promote piracy here, but it bothers me when people use the blanket answer regarding piracy, that it can only have a negative impact. Microsoft Windows is one of the most pirated items ever, yet even Bill Gates has acknowledged in the past that piracy helped Windows get to where it is today. Once computers became more widespread, Windows was the de facto standard operating system, so not only did all those pirates become paying customers, but so did everyone who was new to computers. Also, just because something is downloaded illegally, that does not necessarily represent lost dollars. There is no way to determine if an individual would have spent money on something if they weren't able to download it for free. On the contrary, there are many stories of people who download games/movies/music they had no intention of buying just because it was free, only to find they actually liked it and then wound up spending their money on the same product or, better yet, additional products made by the same developer/artist/studio.

That aside, he still needs to understand there is a difference between theft and copyright infringement. Unless someone walks into a store and literally takes a copy of a boxed game and walks out without paying for it, it is not "stolen." If someone illegally downloads a copy of a game and doesn't pay for it, they are infringing on the author’s copyrights. There is a big difference between the two scenarios. In the first, a store is physically losing money from the product being stolen. In the second scenario, nobody is losing a physical item or the money they may have gotten for it. If I go to your house when you're sleeping and take your car, clearly I have "stolen" it. If I somehow make an exact copy of it and drive my copy home, I haven't "stolen" it. You most likely won't even care that I've made myself a copy.

That being said, this guy may actually be correct in what he's predicting - but he's made some faulty statements that don't support his theory. He's also made some accurate ones, which is why I won't say he's flat out wrong. Obviously, he has an agenda, so I understand why he says the things he does, but I just think he needs to do a little more research before making such bold statements.


As far as the big picture about the demise of consoles as we know them, I just don't think this will happen as soon as he thinks - if ever.

In my experience, console games are more convenient because you never have to worry about whether or not your system meets the required specs. He says the Orb will address this because it will automatically tell you what games are compatible with your system and hide the games that aren't. This may be nice for casual gamers, but it would only piss me off every time I found out a new game couldn't be run on my PC. With a console, I know that every available game will work on it. I don't have to keep upgrading it with new parts just so I can play the newest games. With PC games, I would probably have to do just that.

What I see happening in the future is the same scenario with what we have for DVD players - a standard device that can be manufactured by a number of different companies, yet play all of the media produced. All of the games would be playable on all of the "consoles," regardless of whether you own a Panasonic or an LG brand. This way you wouldn't have to worry about only reaching a certain number of potential customers when creating a game - you can simply reach every person who owns a game system. When you think of console manufacturers, some of them have given up on that particular piece of the market anyway and instead focus on just creating games (e.g. Atari, Sega). For a market that makes so much money, it's actually baffling that the video game industry is still so fragmented. With a standard like DVD, everything could be produced much cheaper, so profits would simply go up for all companies that play ball together. Though the standard would probably be updated more often than the movie industry updates their formats (VHS -> DVD -> Blu-ray), it could still stay on the same pace as the video game industry is now (where the "next-gen" consoles are released about every 5 years or so) and be hugely successful. I'd be much more inclined to buy a new video game system the minute it was available if I didn't have to think about what games would be available for what system.

Sorry for such a long post. I don't know what came over me.

[ausmods]

Eh, these guys will try, and they will fail like all the other companys who tried to make a hybrid PC-game-playing based console...

If they want to do anything, just give normal console making a go... My 2 cents...

[Mike4]

So basically he's developing a console (hardware + OS kit) for the PC. This already exists, it's called a graphics card and better yet, it's upgradable! They should just release a brochure with what you need to play modern games with DIY installation instructions. Or if he's confident enough in his gaming platform, release the OS for free to gain a user base. As a PC gamer, I don't think I would enjoy being forced to use his recommended settings and screen resolutions for every game, this is the freedom where PC gaming dominates . . . for a price of course.

I probably just misunderstood since it's so late, but I didn't comprehend it the same way. To me, it simply sounded like a program that runs on Windows.

[bucko]

I struggled to read his article, maybe it's to early in the morning, but console gaming is better at least you don't get crappy securom stuff on the DVD's like my Crysis clicking my £50 Sata DVD Burner, trust me go google "Crysis DVD Clicking" if this happens in PC Gaming more often then PC gaming is doomed.

[HotKnife420]

What I see happening in the future is the same scenario with what we have for DVD players - a standard device that can be manufactured by a number of different companies, yet play all of the media produced. All of the games would be playable on all of the "consoles," regardless of whether you own a Panasonic or an LG brand. This way you wouldn't have to worry about only reaching a certain number of potential customers when creating a game - you can simply reach every person who owns a game system. When you think of console manufacturers, some of them have given up on that particular piece of the market anyway and instead focus on just creating games (e.g. Atari, Sega). For a market that makes so much money, it's actually baffling that the video game industry is still so fragmented. With a standard like DVD, everything could be produced much cheaper, so profits would simply go up for all companies that play ball together. Though the standard would probably be updated more often than the movie industry updates their formats (VHS -> DVD -> Blu-ray), it could still stay on the same pace as the video game industry is now (where the "next-gen" consoles are released about every 5 years or so) and be hugely successful. I'd be much more inclined to buy a new video game system the minute it was available if I didn't have to think about what games would be available for what system.

Excellent post. I gotta disagree with the quoted part, however. The reason the console industry is so fragmented is because a company proposes a piece of hardware for the purpose of gaming, but another company proposes something of similar magnitude, but different architecture, so competition ensues. 3rd party developers make games for multiple formats to make more revenue, but because of that (and the fact that a loss is taken on consoles during their initial life most times), they have a licensing system. This is part of the reason game prices are so high (though there's other reasons that are just as over-inflated).

In the respect that there was a generic format, where different manufacturers could offer essentially the same thing, consider that all standalone players (DVD/BD/etc) have different technical specifications. With movies and music, there's universal formats that are based upon quality, and the player just has to play them. Games (and any advanced software, for that matter) require certain parts of the system to be utilized at certain times. If you have varying manufacturers, you're likely to either have ones that attempt to cut corners on design (resulting in certain games being incompatible), or making ones with "additional features" that some games will utilize, rendering some hardware obsolete. Games would then have to state what kind of setup you need in order to play it, or maybe enjoy it the most... In fact, the more I go into this, the more I realize I'm just describing PC gaming...

[Giga_Death]

Alex St. John: 'Consoles as We Know Them are Gone'

I thought this article was going to be about how newer consoles resemble less traditional consoles and more like PC's or "supercomputers" which have to be upgraded like PC's with hard drives and mandatory 5 gig installs (which corporate loyalists spin as a good thing).

[Heet]

Long live the "Phantom" lol. Whatever, just give me an xbox in a few years that works for 2 months and I'll be giddy.