Do we still not understand the new playing field?

All this talk the last couple days about Sony's conference and what can Microsoft do to keep up or beat them... That's all well and good, and us, as the core gamers or whatever they're calling us now, are obviously interested in what will happen this next year, but Playstation and Xbox isn't the fight.

The real future is Microsoft, Apple, and to a growing degree Google.

Google already has Chrome and dozens of services in the computer market, They're growing rapidly in the phone and tablet market, and hell they're even working on streaming boxes for the TV now.

Apple of course dominates the phone/tablet market for the moment and with things like Airplay they are capable of doing some pretty solid media and potentially gaming experiences.

So with all the money Microsoft has been pumping into Surface, Windows 8, and sure their phones, why would the next phase be any different? They're rebuilding their entire ecosystem right now to be more inline with this other market, Xbox Live is already a major part of the App store on Windows, they've ditched Games for Windows Live.

Whether this is good or bad for us I don't know. It may mean we get cross platform (PC/mobile/Xbox) gaming, that'd be great! It may also mean we get charges for apps and add on services. That's all in the air still, Microsoft's focus this generation, however not though.

When Apple and Google releases their own video game consoles let us know.

Because having a dedicated box is the only way to make a profit in the games industry now...

@zfubarz: We're into games. If the companies you mentioned aren't providers of platforms why are they relevant parts of a playing field? They're the support staff if anything, not the players.

Apple don't dominate the smartphone market, they have the most apps but not the largest install base. (iOS)

Well yes it is if you want to compete with consoles.

What do phone and tablet games have to do with anything? Nobody is buying a phone or a tablet to game on instead of a console, that type of person probably wouldn't be buying a high end machine in the first place and would have either picked up a DS or another older machine.

Xbox Live isn't a major part of Windows, it's merely other services re-branded using a single login.

Apple and Google aren't competitors to Microsoft and Sony in the gaming market right now. Airplay is not even close to rivalling gaming on a console or PC, again the people that would do that instead of a console or PC aren't going to be the ones buying a PS4 or Nextbox.

I personally don't care for mobile games, sure they are huge at this point but that doesn't mean the consoles are going away because they provide a service you simply can't get on devices from Apple and Google

@sooty: A 700 dollar ipad isn't a high end machine? And with the speed of mobile development you think the current consoles will be able to keep ahead in terms of the computing power needed to make damn good looking games? Hell the current games already look pretty great on mobile devices. there's GTA games on mobile, hell the entire SNES library can be emulated pretty smoothly. Chrome can run Bastion which is one of my favourite games of the last couple years.

My point is not that we care about these things, but that Microsoft does. They have a vested interest in expanding their brand, and the ability to accomplish it that Nintendo and Sony do not. It's why those two have handheld consoles but Microsoft never has.

Sure as a rule we would rather lay on our couch with controller in our hands and let our retina's burn with a great looking game on our 50" screens. Like it or not though we aren't the whole market anymore. Sure the consoles aren't going away yet... but I don't think Microsoft will have the same focus on our type of gaming that Sony or Nintendo do because they have bigger fish to fry.

Crap I deleted my post by accident.

To sum up:

- A 700 dollar iPad isn't high end, and that 700 dollar version is only 700 because you're talking about the 64GB with 4G LTE, the innards otherwise are the same. 2012 model iPads are still far behind 2005/2006 console hardware. It's high end for a tablet, it is not high end in comparison to a console or PCs from 6+ years ago.

- GTA 3 and Vice City still look old, so what if they run on tablets? They're over 10 years old...

- Some mobile games do look good, yes, such as Infinity Blade, but it's incredibly shallow and limited and not comparable to anything on a console or PC such as Assassins Creed or Demon's Souls

- What's Chrome got to do with Bastion? Yeah you can run the game from within Chrome but it's still a computer doing all the computing, that's like being impressed that Windows can run Dishonored...

- Wh-what? Who cares about SNES emulation? Low end PCs have been able to emulate SNES games for over a decade, the PSP can do it, hell the PSP can even emulate PS1 games with no hiccups.

Guys, guys, guys, guys, guys... GUYS.

I think movies are dead. You see, there's this new thing called "YouTubes" where you can watch infinity things for free! Sure 99% of it is total trash and the gap in production values is wider than a rift valley, but since they are both things you passively absorb with your eyeballs and ears they are clearly competing for the exact same market share.

Take that, Hollywood!

A videogame console is a high end dedicating gaming machine, an ipad simply isn't. I have an ipad and i fucking love it, and I play games on it yes, but given the choice between picking up my dualshock 3 and playing sleeping dogs or playing Gta 3 on my ipad, I am going to pick the console everytime I am able to.

For the iPad every game I play was built with the limitation of the platform in mind. I'm not playing a first person shooter because it doesn't work. If i buy an Xbox 360-2 and the new Call of Duty game, I couldn't care less if I could continue playing the game on my windows phone for a small fee.

the same goes for Apple and Google. And yes you can hook up all sorts of control inputs to these devices. But let's be realistic, would you rather play GTA San Andreas essentialy running on a phone or would you play GTA V on a console. I know what I would pick.

I'm with Funky on this one.

I definitely agree that the mobile space is the biggest thing happening in tech at the moment - but it isn't the biggest thing happening in gaming, or at least not the type of gaming that Giant Bomb and sites like it revolve around.

Other markets and forms of gaming are on the rise, certainly, but I'll always want a console or console equivalent experience from games. I want massive, engrossing games which blow my mind, in addition to great, small, twitchy stuff like Super Meat Boy and Bastion that will always be better with a mouse/keyboard or console-like controller.

People can chase the money whereever it goes, but I'm not alone and this slice of the gaming market - no matter how much it grows or declines - will always exist.

So I'd argue that we understand that the playing field has changed, it's just that we also understand our place within it, and it's changes to that part of the field that we give a flying F about. Not Apple or MS Surface or anything of that sort.

Unless they become consoles of course.

Don't worry @Sooty I saw it before it went away, the new version is a lot less harsh ;)

the point of the GTA, SNES, etc. mentions are to bring up that real quality gaming experiences are indeed possible to achieve in that space. platformers, RPGs, sports, driving, even shooters are all possible and can play pretty well. Sure touch controls are not as precise, but the majority of people making use of them don't really know the difference, or if they have picked up a controller besides a wiimote probably find it overwhelming.

You're claiming people who would spend money on a mobile device aren't gonna spend it somewhere else, or would skimp somewhere else. What makes you say that? infact apple fanboys are fucking ridiculous with how much they spend on overly expensive apple branded crap. A Macpro in the office, an Ipad on the coffee table, maybe a mini in the bedroom now, airplay on the TV, an Iphone in the pocket, and hey why not a macbook air in the briefcase, these people exist in droves. They are not cheap, maybe dumb, but not cheap. What possible reason would MS have to not go after this type of market synergy? (yes I know it's a god awful word.)

You think our community is the be all and end all of this? Microsoft has stated for years now that the goal is to have the Xbox be the media hub in peoples homes, it's why they've continually been making the dashboard shittier for actual gaming, focusing more and more on music, movies and apps. Hell the simple fact that MS now calls everything an app should be sign enough, remember when there was files, programs and executables?

Yes they will announce games, if we're lucky they'll be new and exciting ones. I'd guess that they aren't too worried about having more exclusives and more options for play than Sony does though, I'd bet they focus on services and integration, on smartglass, kinect (because if it works this time waving your hand is a lot friendlier than a controller), I bet the interface looks like the Modern(Metro) interface.

Because that's how they spread the need for the box outside of our little corner of the market. and if you follow the chemtrails MS has been leaving the last couple years it points right towards that.

@zfubarz: I don't understand your point. The next xbox is going to be made to compete directly with the PS4. If Microsoft want to develope the mobile/tablet side of gaming, they already have a device for that, it's called the Surface. They already have a huge cut of the core gamer market, why would they give it all up so that they can cannibalize the market that the surface is targeted to? You make no sense.

Yeah somehow I don't think there are too many people out there deciding to forgo an Xbox because they have an iPhone. Now if interest wanes in the big game experience because people don't want to sit down and dedicate their time to it anymore, that's a problem.

I don't understand what you're arguing here. It doesn't matter if we're the 'whole market' or not, the people who have been paying a good amount of money for boxes dedicated to games and the people who are fine using touch controls are two different crowds. If you think Microsoft chooses to focus more on the latter that should be the focus of this thread, as the rest of the stuff isn't really relevant to a site like Giant Bomb.

Have you ever tried to play a shooter on a touch screen without any buttons? I've got Doom on my iPhone and it is impossible to play. And your only actions in that game are move, run, shoot, use, and change guns - and running and using are done automatically on the iPhone. I cannot even begin to imagine how you might play GTA or Bioshock or Call of Duty on one of those screens.

Do I think it's possible for a touch-screen game to exist that I can enjoy? Maybe. But it will never replace the kind of experience I can get on my PC or Xbox or anything meant for gaming, and there are enough people around the world like me that companies can make a pretty good profit. Look at the likes of Call of Duty and Madden and Battlefield, those sorts of games, while hardly the cream of the crop, make tons of money and no one that has played them with a controller will ever want to replace that with a fucking touch screen.

If they give me an experience as good as what I get from my PC or 360 then I could care less who makes the device I'm using. Ultimately the 'playing field' is decided by us, the users, not the device manufacturers.

99% of the games i play and the way i like to play them are only available on these "old outdated platforms called consoles and PCs" and couldn't be played this way with that level of fidelity anywhere else.

Yep that should cover it.

Why is owning a phone and a console a mutually exclusive thing? I own both and buy games on both. Naturally I spend way more money on video games than phone games.

The Game Has Changed!

It seems that it is you my friend who does not understand.

We aren't talking about Apple or Google, or any of these companies because we're discussing the console market, which while it has at least some overlap with what those guys are doing, is largely a different animal, and in the console market the competitors are still Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.