Loose Threads: Will handhelds ever replace home consoles?

[joao]

Okay, I'd better explain this one.

Mobile and handheld gaming is growing as an industry. And technology, as it has a tendency to do, is shrinking.

Is it not possible that one day your games console will be something that you can wirelessly connect to your TV when you're at home and then take with you to play when you're on the move via an built-in screen?

The PSP 2000 and 3000 can both connect to a normal TV screen via component cables and the 3000 model even allows you to use a wireless DualShock 3 controller. Is this the first step in a natural progression that could eventually result in a console like the one described above?

Madness, you might think, but then look at how laptops have managed to replace a significant portion of desktop computers, or indeed how increasingly (for some functions anyway) mobiles like the iPhone or the BlackBerry are replacing the need for certain people to carry a laptop with them wherever they go.

Could gaming soon be facing the same progression?

One, two, three... RANT!

[daab.orion]

Yep, I agree.. been saying this for years. Eventually graphics will get to a point where they are "good enough". I'd imagine in two generations we will see this. So when we all have Wii2, Xbox w/e and PS4s, that hardware will really only need to decrease in size over the next few years as graphical limitations can really only get so realistic (something Apple and Nintendo have an edge on as they are more about control than anything else). After that generation is complete, I would assume the new thing to do is to make a console that is a handheld, which is just as powerful as the previous generation but make it bluetooth capable with controllers. Hook it up to the TV like you suggested, and walla.. no difference.

Considering everything seems to be going towards digital distribution, I doubt disks will be an issue. Even movie formats like Blue Ray seem to be losing to an eventual digital distribution takeover by Blockbuster's new box and Apple's iTV. Well.. everyone shares this opinion basically except for Gamestop, which of course fails to see digital distribution as being a threat... ever. Sure. And global warming is a government plot to trick us all into donating 14 cents a month to WWF to save polar bears lol.

[Mandark]

Hmm...I keep changing my mind on this one but my feeling is that the home console will not disappear entirely. It will merge with the TV set top box to become an all-in-one home entertainment box. I know Microsoft has long been talking about such a device but ironically the PlayStation 3 with its Play TV service could be the first true one. The games on offer on future home consoles might not be as hardcore as those on home consoles today. They might be more like Xbox Live Arcade games or family friendly Wii games.

The serious gaming device might then become the take anywhere handheld/ mobile which could be used at home with a video screen or on the fly. And of course you have to wonder where PC gaming will fit into all this as well? Developers are already saying that apart from some MMOs, it's already not economical to produce major PC only titles. It's a really hard call.

[Accelorata Jengold]

Though I think it will be possible, technologically speaking, before very long, I don't think it's a likely direction for the big console manufacturers. I reckon that integration between handheld and console devices will continue to increase and will become ever more seamless, but ultimately, no manufacturer is going to release one box when they know they can release two, and still have a good chance of shifting large quantities of both.

There's just too much money to be made with manufacturers like Sony and Nintendo having separate handheld and home consoles for them to do away with one of them, even if technologically, the home console becomes surplus to requirements. Then there's the way in which home consoles are set to evolve to think about. Who's to say that home consoles 20 years from now won't necessitate a control set up that's impossible to make portable? We could be talking about VR headsets, interactive life-size holograms or any number of other dramatic changes that wouldn't work on handheld.

I have a good compromise though. If Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft were to release a handheld console that had wireless access to the Virtual Console, Xbox Live Arcade and PSN services respectively, that was compatible with every title on each of those respective platforms and was capable of wirelessly transferring your save games between each platform on the fly so you could go between each console and never have to replay a section you had already completed, I would definitely buy it.

[SetsFireToPoshHammer]

Maybe you're right to say that the big console manufacturers would be reluctant to consolidate their revenue streams and loose money in the process, but could this one console for home and on the go paradigm make for an excellent venture for a new console manufacturer, like EA, or Apple?

It would certainly help them differentiate themselves from the competition and if handled right it could be marketed as a very cost effective way for the consumer to get the best of both worlds. This is all pie in the sky stff, but stranger things have happened I suppose...