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[Rippa]

Which of the BIG 3 stops production of new consoles/handhelds/mobile and goes solely by way of developing multi platform games only?

I ask this because I’m still unsure why exactly SEGA stopped making consoles. Is it a question of who’s in the most trouble selling consoles?

I don’t mean this to be a console warring poll/thread. I’m just curious to know what GAF thinks.

 

[kretos]

last place obviously

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Soyny

 

[Vagswarm]

I suspect none of them. That should've been an option.

Sony's a monster who never fails to sell less than 100 million units per console.
Nintendo somehow always manages to turn things around and annihilate everyone after each disastrous console.
Microsoft simply has too much money and is doing their own online / cloud / gamepass thing.

I would say Microsoft if they weren't loaded, but if that was the case, they would've already opted out during or after their first console.

 

[TLZ]

Currently none of them look like they're in trouble.

PS brand still hugely popular and PS5 consoles selling great and people want their games.

Xbox consoles selling well relying on Gamepass.

Nintendo selling great relying on portability.

The one who can go the SEGA route without caring much is Xbox. Their reliance on Gamepass allows them that easy transition on not being affected by consoles going away. You can clearly see their strategy of play Gamepass anywhere.

Sony can survive since they already have an online service that works. Still needs more work imo.

Nintendo though cannot afford losing hardware and just relying on software. Since everything looks like is transitioning to online services, theirs is abysmal. You can say non-existent. They cannot rely on their own online service. So they'll have to put their games on other established and reliable services.

 

[Dream-Knife]

None of them as the market has changed. Sony and MS have discovered that they can sell games on other platforms and still have their own to make money. Nintendo is too stubborn to get rid of their hardware, whether it sells or not.

 

[Faithless83]

Considering how MS is turning more and more a publisher... it's kinda the obvious choice.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

MS is closest, they don’t really need to stay in the hardware business even if they want to

 

[Captain Toad]

None. Sega was in trouble with every console they ever put out. Their only real success was the Genesis, and they ruined that by adding additional consoles onto it with the Sega CD and 32X. Then things just kept getting worse.

None of the other three are going anywhere anytime soon - as in many decades, at least.

If I had to pick one, it would be MS seeing as they've never been higher than third place and their company is the least dependent on videogames to survive.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

They all will once streaming matures.

 

[cartman414]

Currently none of them look like they're in trouble.

PS brand still hugely popular and PS5 consoles selling great and people want their games.

Xbox consoles selling well relying on Gamepass.

Nintendo selling great relying on portability.

The one who can go the SEGA route without caring much is Xbox. Their reliance on Gamepass allows them that easy transition on not being affected by consoles going away. You can clearly see their strategy of play Gamepass anywhere.

Sony can survive since they already have an online service that works. Still needs more work imo.

Nintendo though cannot afford losing hardware and just relying on software. Since everything looks like is transitioning to online services, theirs is abysmal. You can say non-existent. They cannot rely on their own online service. So they'll have to put their games on other established and reliable services.

This. MS always had the most set-top box based strategy.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

They all will once streaming matures.

Even in their worst-case scenario, Nintendo could continue to thrive as a portable & family company. As a parent of this persuasion, I know that a ton of us refuse on principle to give our kids always-online devices or throw them iPads and watch their brains melt to nothing with all the trash ad-driven content that fills mobile stores.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Even in their worst-case scenario, Nintendo could continue to thrive as a portable & family company. As a parent of this persuasion, I know that a ton of us refuse on principle to give our kids always-online devices or throw them iPads and watch their brains melt to nothing with all the trash ad-driven content that fills mobile stores.

Bookmark this thread. If Nintendo still makes hardware in 50 years I'll buy you a beer.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

Bookmark this thread. If Nintendo still makes hardware in 50 years I'll buy you a beer.

35 years ago I was playing Nintendo games and it has only gotten stronger.

Statistically, it is unlikely that I’ll be alive in another 50, I’m afraid.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

35 years ago I was playing Nintendo games and it has only gotten stronger.

Statistically, it is unlikely that I’ll be alive in another 50, I’m afraid.

I'll pour some liquor out on your grave. Disney will make a hugely successful biopic about our interaction here and both of our families will acquire generational wealth. Deal?

 

[PhaseJump]

Nintendo.

They never really played nice with 3rd party developers.They still have no serious online infrastructure. They had to streamline development between handheld and consoles because they were losing out. The lead talent that creates their games are all old enough to die of natural causes if a slight breeze picks up and chills them.

 

[CitizenZ]

 

[kretos]

Bookmark this thread. If Nintendo still makes hardware in 50 years I'll buy you a beer.

in 50 years you'll be dead

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

I think I the answer is obvious. Microsoft. Why stay in the hardware business when you are trying to put your service and software on other consoles? Why buy future Microsoft hardware when you can essentially get the same experience on other platforms? That screams third party to me.

 

[ManaByte]

Imagine people thinking that Microsoft has the money issues Sega did.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

in 50 years you'll be dead

In 50 years I'll be in my prime.

 

[AJUMP23]

If Sony and MS got out of the HW business they would divest their game companies and no longer make console games. Nintendo would not because they make games for HW. Their software sells the HW.

right now I don’t see any of the 3 main HW manufacturers leaving the gaming Business.

 

[NahaNago]

Probably Microsoft the most. Aren't they like working on their own roku stick for gaming so if they can pretty much stick that in every store then I could see them slowly phase out the consoles. Sony would go next since they have been pushing into computers lately so I could see them going this route but they would lose all of that console platform money selling every one else's games. Nintendo gonna Nintendo.

 

[bender]

Microsoft is priming themselves to be out of the hardware business. It's by their own design so I wouldn't say they are going down the Sega route.

 

[DarkMage619]

None. Sega was in trouble with every console they ever put out. Their only real success was the Genesis, and they ruined that by adding additional consoles onto it with the Sega CD and 32X. Then things just kept getting worse.

None of the other three are going anywhere anytime soon - as in many decades, at least.

If I had to pick one, it would be MS seeing as they've never been higher than third place and their company is the least dependent on videogames to survive.

I agree with you that no one is going anywhere. You may have been too young to know but the original Xbox outsold the Gamecube and the X1 outsold the Wii U. X360 also outsold the Sony juggernaut PS3 in the US which few companies can say they've done. Again all companies right now have their own lane and there is plenty of money out there for all to be successful.

 

[Chiggs]

I chose Nintendo because the other 2 have much more in their coffers, and while I initially wanted to vote MS, I no longer believe they're going to exit the hardware business, especially since they've become so good at it...and it's a point of corporate pride.

 

[Codes 208]

The one who’s already got their foot half way through the door with multiplats and switching focus to GaaS and variation of available hardware

(not to say i wish that MS drops out but currently theyre definitely the most likely to of the group)

 

[Bryank75]

Hardware is essential to gaming, absolutely essential.

You buy games because you have the hardware.... I would feel no impulse or motivation to get on a cloud app or whatever to look through a catalog and try to find something good if I hadn't bought into some hardware platform.

Whoever tries to go the non-hardware route is gonna get a rude awakening.

Microsoft could become a publisher or go gamepass only IF PlayStation allowed them on their platform OR if they just bought Steam.

PlayStation would die without hardware....they are terrible at services. Their customer service is pathetic, They need to know why they are successful and stick with their core competencies.

 

[pqueue]

they are all making money.

and lots of it.

no one is going sega

 

[Captain Toad]

I agree with you that no one is going anywhere. You may have been too young to know but the original Xbox outsold the Gamecube

Yeah, I forgot. I was only 22 years old when the original Xbox released. I guess it was ahead of GameCube. It felt like they were all third place when they sold between 9 and 24 million and PS2 sold 155 million.

 

[bender]

Hardware is essential to gaming, absolutely essential.

Eventually ease of use takes over which is why we have things like Netflix and Spotify.

 

[Magnific0giganticus]

None of them, but I think it's more possible for Sony. If Xbox Division fails MS would clean house and sell all the studios and IPs, which would do them no good to keep since all the talent would have left anyway.

 

[pqueue]

Plus MS is all in on cloud gaming; just their timeline keeps getting delayed.,

they have the studios, they have the cloud infrastructure. it is coming as the standard vs hardware, the question is when.

MS wants to be there and have that market captured, whether it is their Xbox platform, or is used by Sony/Nintendo/others.

 

[Hobbygaming]

I don't think any of them are leaving consoles but if we ever got a rumor from a credible source that one of the manufacturers are leaving

I'd guess MS, they don't need Xbox

 

[01011001]

Sony... they already were close to being bankrupt ahead of the launch of the PS4, neither Nintendo nor Microsoft ever came close to that.

if sony releases a console that bombs they are done. I don't think they have the means to ever financially compensate for that as well as Nintendo or Microsoft could.

one of the reasons is because they don't have any IP that can hold them up outside of selling games. Nintendo has a whole Mario theme park, they can make money off of their games without selling actual games. Sony can't.

and Microsoft is such a giant that they can brute force their way into whatever they want.

 

[dano1]

Nintendo would be 10 times richer but there too stubborn.

 

[Speedwagon]

Nintendo will buy SEGA and make all their IP Nintendo console exclusives

 

[MrFunSocks]

Sony's a monster who never fails to sell less than 100 million units per cycle.

Apart from the PS3, PSP, and Vita, of course.

On the topic - I think Microsoft have a chance of going that way by choice, not because of "coming last" or lagging sales. If Game Pass hits tens of millions of subscribers and hardware gets harder and harder to make money on, it would make sense for them to look at going full third party publisher and have their subscription on Nintendo and Sony consoles. They could end up making more money by being on those consoles than those console makers do.

Sony are one generation of coming third away from being forced to go third party. If they have another generation like the PS3, or their brand popularity takes a massive hit, they'll be in trouble as an entire company, not just the PlayStation brand. They could probably sell 30 million copies of Spider Man across all consoles if they went 3rd party.

 

[Crimson_Fate]

Nintendo will always be the console for Kids and Adults in their second childhood.. its never going away.
Microsoft can fail for a1000 years and still have enough cash to move foreward, so they aren't going away.

I Think Sony will begin selling more games day 1 on PC and eventually they will have less people buying their console because of it . At that point I can see them becoming a software only company ( like sega)


I

 

[ManaByte]

Sony... they already were close to being bankrupt ahead of the launch of the PS4, neither Nintendo nor Microsoft ever came close to that.

if sony releases a console that bombs they are done. I don't think they have the means to ever financially compensate for that as well as Nintendo or Microsoft could.

one of the reasons is because they don't have any IP that can hold them up outside of selling games. Nintendo has a whole Mario theme park, they can make money off of their games without selling actual games. Sony can't.

and Microsoft is such a giant that they can brute force their way into whatever they want.

 

[Jigsaah]

Which of the BIG 3 stops production of new consoles/handhelds/mobile and goes solely by way of developing multi platform games only?

I ask this because I’m still unsure why exactly SEGA stopped making consoles. Is it a question of who’s in the most trouble selling consoles?

I don’t mean this to be a console warring poll/thread. I’m just curious to know what GAF thinks.

This is an odd way of answering your actual question. Why did SEGA stop making consoles?

How does us speculating about which of the Big 3 will follow in SEGA's footsteps answer your question?

There's so much different about the gaming industry right now that whatever happened with SEGA likely doesn't apply to any of the Big 3 now.

This definitely feels like a console warring thread. Not playing into this dumb shit.

 

[Zero7]

None of them and nor should they. The more fierce the competition, the better it is for us gamer's

 

[eyesabitdull]

All of them it you ask me.

Not now, but in a few decades, for sure.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[Gameplaylover]

All three at some point. Streaming is the way to go sooner or later and i think Microsoft will be the first to do so, because they are already working on it. Not this gen, but maybe in 10-15 years.

 

[Team Andromeda]

There's only ONE of those that is exclusively dedicated to games.

Of the other two, one works with cloud services and the other with movies.

I love that when MS alone have more In-House studios than NCL and so far the corp that is 'dedicated to games' only has been able to make 3 In-House games this gen.. Laughable really.

If it's all about doing a SEGA (funny how NEC never gets brought up) then the closest is SONY (even that is a million to one shot) given like SEGA, Sony has big historic debt, while MS and NCL have more actual cash reserves in the bank than most countries
Let's face it there is more chance of the Jaguars winning the Superbowl than either 3 pulling out

 

[drganon]

As of now, I dont see any of them going that route just yet. But if one was going to go that way eventually, I'd put my money on it being Microsoft. That or they'd just shit can the entire division.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[Danjin44]

None and I hope it stays that way.

 

[YoshiMadness]

If I had to pick one, it would be MS seeing as they've never been higher than third place and their company is the least dependent on videogames to survive.

I'm gonna be that guy, but the original Xbox actually came in second place at the end of the sixth generation if you only count home consoles, just barely outselling the GameCube and well outselling the Dreamcast. Although if you also include portables, then yes, Xbox was 3rd after the PS2 and GBA.

However, Microsoft is the only company out of the big 3 to never end a generation in 1st place, and I don't know if they ever will.