What are consoles today anyway? Simpler PCs with a closed online and distribution echosystem, which we plug into our TVs and play with controllers.
Thats missing some key elements of what makes a console a console though.
* For one thing, they are highly curated marketplaces. With an extremely high standard of quality control on the titles that are released (lengthy TRC's and QA performed on every title), which gives consumers a high level of satisfaction. No other marketplace currently does anything close to what Sony/Nin/MS do in this regard.
* They feature relatively high security for their users, no risks of being hacked or exploited. This offers consumers peace of mind.
* They also offer strong communities, with integrated friendslists across all titles, another core feature in what really defines a 'console' in the year 2015. People wanna play with their friends, and they want to do it easily, without thinking.
* They offer a fixed hardware target, so there is never a need to incrementally upgrade your system, so a consumer can rest assured that new games will always run well, even 8yrs down the road. More peace of mind for the buyer.
Personally, I totally see Steam moving into this space with SteamOS, but I don't think it will have a major impact on console sales. Most people running SteamOS on a dedicated screen, are likely going to be fairly high income individuals who will still enjoy a console, or they were already hardcore PC gamers. I'm a bit hesitant to go too far out on this limb though, as the PC has been improving at an incredible rate, what Steam has done in the last 5 years is pretty amazing. They will only continue to get better.
In terms of Tablets/Phones vs Console. I think the major difference, above all, is just the controls. Nothing will ever really make a
flat piece of glass, a great gaming devices. Period.
There will be 3rd party controllers, for sure, but so far those have all failed to interest consumers on any significant level, be it the Ouya, Mojo, Fire TV, Shield, Android TV, or any of the other myriad of competitors jockying in this space. I really don't see it catching on with you average console gamer, it's just too much screwing around, and for what? A weaker, more fragmented, less reliable version of what we already have?
Barring some major breakthrough in mobile display technology (
like maybe this), it looks to me like the "mobile killing consoles" are were out to lunch. There's just too many genres that plain don't work well. And guess what.... no one buys peripherals! Coulda swore we knew that by now...
/2cents - This should be fun to read in 5 yrs