Possible new New-comers?

[Guden Oden]

Seriously guys, I'd sooner expect Google to launch a console (along with web browser and god knows what else the rumor mongers are going on about) before any of the other names you've mentioned so far. It simply isn't feasible to go from scratch and become successful.

Look at how much money MS has thrown at their attempt, are they even making an overall profit yet these days? Only a decade more of that then before they've earned back their initial investment and accumulated losses!

Even back when the console market was much less complicated it still wasn't easy, as witnessed by the ultimately ill-fated namesake of our current biggest forum troll. Today? Forget it. Won't happen.

The day the bottom finally goes out of the console market, that's the day consoles die. Fortunately I don't think that'll happen, but we could absolutely lose one or two players along the way.

Nintendo could get marginalized until the point where their only presence is in the handheld market, and then I'd expect them to become a 3rd party, probably for Microsoft. If Sony doesn't become profitable again things could go badly for them.

MS will never run out of money, so they're probably the strongest at this point, even though their machine isn't doing all that good compared to PS2...

Ok, that's my loony predictions. I could very well be wrong, but hey, it's fun to speculate!

 

[London Geezer]

I keep hearing the "If Nintendo stops making hardware, they'll go with MS..."

Now, IF it ever happens, why would Nintendo decide to go with MS, of all people?

Personally i see them much better in the hands of another Japanese company. they might have been fierce rivals, but so were Sega and Nintendo and also Sony at one point.

Why would a very traditional Japanese company ally themselves with an American with a completely different agenda than they have?

Just a few doubts that's all, it's not gonna happen anyway so...

If anything, they could just focus on the handheld market and make super powerful handheld machines (compared to today's), with the money they would save from exiting the Console Market.

 

[Guden Oden]

Now, IF it ever happens, why would Nintendo decide to go with MS, of all people?

Coz of bad blood between them and Sony...

Nintendo has shown to hold its grudges for a very VERY long time, I don't expect them to EVER forgive Sony for usurping the console throne from them.

 

[London Geezer]

Now, IF it ever happens, why would Nintendo decide to go with MS, of all people?

Coz of bad blood between them and Sony...

Nintendo has shown to hold its grudges for a very VERY long time, I don't expect them to EVER forgive Sony for usurping the console throne from them.

And MS not being able to do the same would give them credit over Sony?

Cause really, MS didn't usurpe Nintendo's (or anyone's) throne, first cause they were kinda late, second cause they were not able to, surely not because they are more friends with Nintendo or anything...

All these companies compete for one final thing, being market leader.

 

[Evil_Cloud]

Look at Gizmondo, they said they only had to sell 100.000 to break-even...

Maybe if hardware for consoles becomes cheaper one day it might be possible to do something similar with a games console?

 

[Fox5]

I once thought EA would head this route, but i no longer think that. The extra money thy spend on porting between platforms is well worth teh return in sales. In most cases (not always) a port team doesn't cost as much as a full dev team.

If EA had thier own platform with addional hardware costs and a smaller chance of selling thier games, I honestly think they would make less money then they currently do.

Depends on its success. Up until gamecube Nintendo was kicking EA's ass by quite a bit.

Personally i see them much better in the hands of another Japanese company. they might have been fierce rivals, but so were Sega and Nintendo and also Sony at one point.

Sega allied themselves pretty strongly with microsoft, and even microsoft's policies towards xbox seemed model after dreamcast.(similar controller, xbox live and sega.net)
Sega was never really a traditional Japanese company though, they weren't even founded by a Japanese person.

Look at Gizmondo, they said they only had to sell 100.000 to break-even...

They're gonna need some real luck with that, I doubt they'll break 20,000.