The future of consoles

[PSman1700]

While images like these show the wider landscape and consoles' dwindling significance, although in real terms it's bigger than ever, just gaming has expanded to new audiences who are dumb when it comes to paying for mobile titles:

That image doesnt just show the numbers for consoles and PC, it shows also how big mobile is.
Also in general, PC is doing very well considering when talking consoles its usually Switch, PS, Xbox and maybe even some handhelds.

 

[Karamazov]

i hear that consoles are on the verge of extinction since the release of the first 3DFX.

So even if it happens in 10-15 years, you'll see the people saying this for 30 years telling you "AH ! SEE ! TOLD YOU !"

 

[Deleted member 11852]

At the moment all I play is Apex.

I don't play it so don't know how it works but if you leave it running whilst in sleep mode, there are settings would can prevent it auto-updating. My PS4 is long gone to check but there are few PS4 settings which give granular control over which games will auto-update and whether they'll automatically install or not. I always assumed this was to give the user control over a game auto-updating in sleep and losing progress you have not saved.

 

[PSman1700]

i hear that consoles are on the verge of extinction since the release of the first 3DFX.

Heard the same thing regarding pc gaming, since before that timeframe even.

 

[pjbliverpool]

One only has to look at the monthly records Steam is repeatedly setting for concurrent gamers to know that PC gaming is far from shrinking right now.

 

[see colon]

One only has to look at the monthly records Steam is repeatedly setting for concurrent gamers to know that PC gaming is far from shrinking right now.

This and the fact that the biggest 2 games of recent history (Minecraft and Fortnite) aren't even on Steam, so that wouldn't include those numbers.

 

[pjbliverpool]

The consoles are generally more immediate. Even last generation you could suspend/resume almost all games, which meant playing for short periods were viable. As a parent this was without a doubt the most valuable feature of PS4 for me. The new generation of consoles are as good, whilst tossing in the bonus of offering better load times. Some games, like Spider-Man and Miles Morales and Ratchet & Clank on PS5 basically have load times of around 5 seconds. From menu into the game. No loading screens, no Unreal/Ubisoft/Havok splash screens - just BAM!

If you think that's fast you should try sleeping a PC while a game is running and then waking it. Off to in game in a few seconds. Granted it only works for the last game you were playing and not for all games (it's no quick resume substitute) but it sure as hell works great in my current game - HZD.

 

[mr magoo]

The consoles are generally more immediate. Even last generation you could suspend/resume almost all games, which meant playing for short periods were viable. As a parent this was without a doubt the most valuable feature of PS4 for me. The new generation of consoles are as good, whilst tossing in the bonus of offering better load times. Some games, like Spider-Man and Miles Morales and Ratchet & Clank on PS5 basically have load times of around 5 seconds. From menu into the game. No loading screens, no Unreal/Ubisoft/Havok splash screens - just BAM!

I dont share this view at all, playing many games on ps4 was just plain simple PITA. Witcher3 had insane loading times on ps4 (almost 4 minutes) and i swapped hdd to hybrid ssd disk. Loading times were simply brutal.
I say now we are in very good spot with ps5/series consoles and experince is as good as on PC. I can stand low res and sub 30 fps on many ps4 games but loading times and general responsiveness was simply not there.

 

[PSman1700]

I say now we are in very good spot with ps5/series consoles and experince is as good as on PC.

Atleast in loading yes.

 

[zed]

think you need to upgrade your data science skillz.

From looking at your numbers, Seventh gen sold a whopping ~235 million consoles. PC in its pre-Covid slump struggled to sell...260 million units...more than seventh gen...in one year.

Yes I know this, I posted the numbers, what Im talking about is old mate was implying consoles were gonna go away, yet the data shows they have gotten strong and strong over time, PC sales on the contrary have stagnated and in fact declined (surprising cause in india / china etc over the last couple of decades theres been a growing middle class, now they dont buy consoles in these countries but do buy PCs, why is PC growth not higher?)
If you're looking at the trends consoles dont look like they are going anywhere soon.

You wouldnt apply the same logic to Electric cars vs ICE would you shifty? even though ICEs greatly outsell electric (more than the ratio of PC vs console) :smile:


am I implying PCs are gonna die out like ICEs? No. Im just saying based on the current data consoles are in no danger of dying out soon, same with PCs
in 2050? Who knows. Its possible home consoles or home PCs dont exist except out of small niches. i.e. Its all on the cloud and we view with a screen/google glass/contact lens, input is with thought or motion or some other device

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I dont share this view at all, playing many games on ps4 was just plain simple PITA. Witcher3 had insane loading times on ps4 (almost 4 minutes) and i swapped hdd to hybrid ssd disk. Loading times were simply brutal.

Load times last gen were a low point because of the cruddy 5400rpm HDDs. That said, I also bought Witcher 3 on PC and played it off of a 10krpm WD Black drive and it also had slow load times on PC - slower than when I began replaying the Xbox One version on Series X over Christmas.

Yes. I have bought Witcher 3 three bloody times now!

 

[mr magoo]

Load times last gen were a low point because of the cruddy 5400rpm HDDs. That said, I also bought Witcher 3 on PC and played it off of a 10krpm WD Black drive and it also had slow load times on PC - slower than when I began replaying the Xbox One version on Series X over Christmas.

Yes. I have bought Witcher 3 three bloody times now!

Welcome in the club! ... The worst part is i totally burned out on withcer when i forced myslef to finish it on ps4, i bought all expansions and i cant stand this game right now.

 

[pjbliverpool]

All consoles sold are for the gaming market. Who knows what % of PCs or video cards sold are for gaming.

Steam can offer some general insight into that. I remember doing some calculations a few months ago which took the percentage of GPU's on Steam that were at or above PS5 level capability (using a 2070S at the lowest entry point I believe) and then multiplied that by the number of active Steam accounts which from memory I think is around 200 million. The resulting number was definitely comparable to current gen console sales despite how difficult it is to get hold of such GPU's.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Welcome in the club! ... The worst part is i totally burned out on withcer when i forced myslef to finish it on ps4, i bought all expansions and i cant stand this game right now.

Same. I also played it initially on PS4 and loved the first 60 but the final 20 were hard and I had to push myself along. I then rebought later to enjoy it at 60fps and gave up quickly. I was going to wait for the next gen console versions but gave up and bought it for £7 on Xbox because its 60fps and performance is pretty snappy. I got to the end of Act I again and burnt out. I love the game but it's too damn long. It's why I never finish JRPGs. I've played the first 30 hours of Final Fantasy XII about six times.

 

[techuse]

Steam can offer some general insight into that. I remember doing some calculations a few months ago which took the percentage of GPU's on Steam that were at or above PS5 level capability (using a 2070S at the lowest entry point I believe) and then multiplied that by the number of active Steam accounts which from memory I think is around 200 million. The resulting number was definitely comparable to current gen console sales despite how difficult it is to get hold of such GPU's.

Does an active Steam account require a game was played recently? If so how long is that window?

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Does an active Steam account require a game was played recently? If so how long is that window?

Does Steam require a game was played recently to do.... what?

 

[eastmen]

Steam keeps growing
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/...or-online-users-once-again-hitting-29-million

Over the weekend it seems that Steam once again managed to break some records. Where do all these new people keep coming from? Only two weeks or so ago Steam just hit 28 million online, now it's already blasted through 29 million to hit a new high of 29,201,174.

At that time there we 8,505,375 people actually in-game too, which is a nice bump over when the previous record hit so it's clearly not just people idling away.

What was popular this time with players? Mostly the usual suspects, with one newcomer being Yu-Gi-Oh:

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
• Dota 2
• PUBG: Battlegrounds
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel
• Apex Legends
• Grand Theft Auto V

What do we think, an easy 30 million+ online by the end of 2022? Absolutely, considering the way it's been repeatedly smashing through it wouldn't be a surprise to see it hit 35 million by end of year. When you take the Steam Deck into account, there's going to be more people playing on the go too keeping the numbers up perhaps even more.

It's safe to say that competition elsewhere certainly hasn't eaten much into Steam's user-base.

So 29.2 million accounts were online and 8.5million people were in games. That is a huge amount of people .

 

[techuse]

Does Steam require a game was played recently to do.... what?

To be considered an active account. What are the criteria?

 

[Deleted member 11852]

To be considered an active account. What are the criteria?

Ah right. No, currently there is no period of time where a Steam account will expire if not used.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Yes I know this, I posted the numbers, what Im talking about is old mate was implying consoles were gonna go away, yet the data shows they have gotten strong and strong over time, PC sales on the contrary have stagnated and in fact decline...You wouldnt apply the same logic to Electric cars vs ICE would you shifty?

I'm just saying you need the right comparisons and choice of data. eg. Let's say PC sales were doubling every year and someone posts a mighty graph showing this. If the gaming use of these is non existent and less and less people are using PC to game, that graph of PC sales is useless.

The argument needs to look at the size of the gaming markets, not the hardware install bases. Potentially, if people bought consoles only to play F2P titles, that market could shrink despite higher hardware sales than previous generations.

It's in the financials where we see consoles' worth or not. When companies stop making money from a platform, they'll drop it. All the platforms are healthy at the moment. Ergo, the future of consoles is really in what form they take, whether closed platforms or open standards or streaming boxes or what. The desire for a simple machine that plugs into the TV and games will likely always be here (until perhaps streaming is embedded in the TV?).