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"Consoles - Is the End Nigh?"

I had a master system. Bought the games. Got bored of the games Game Gear looked better, bought a game gear. Then after lots of saving I got myself a Mega Drive. Game Gear and Master System gathered dust. Played my Mega Drive for a while. Then stopped. Then let it gather dust. Then out came the Playstation - didn't get it instead got an N64 just for Goldeneye. Then finally decided to get a Playstation. Now both are gathering dust upstairs with me saying goodbye to Mr. N64 after I got stuck on Perfect Dark, and the Playstation? Stopped playing it because of Sony's terrible distribution policies of Playstation 2's. If they are not going to make it easy for me to simply go into a shop and come out with a PS2 - screw you Sony :-P. Now I have turned my attention to the PC.. Why? Because Consoles are dying. Consoles are becoming increasingly better and better and with the quality more expensive. 300 quid isn't it for a PS2? (something like that), yet for a few quid more I can get myself a nice PC.

Consoles are just becoming more powerful because of competition. The competition is going to kill consoles off trust me. I can see it now. What’s happening.. its all going hazy

Microsoft have released their X Box! Microsoft kill sales of PS2. Nintendo release Gamecube! Within months PS2 announce a 3rd Playstation inventively titled "PStation 3". Nintendo's sales are nowhere near X Box. X Box announce plans for a new console “The Super Bill-Gates” Pstation 3 released at £400, Nintendo release plans for a new console code name “Grey Squirrel” Super Bill Gates released at £500. Grey Squirrel released at £550. Grey Squirrel sales pathetic, people turn to PC’s. Consoles die.

Is it just me who thinks this is where we are going? There came a time where consoles were for people to play games on and have fun at a small cost. Now it’s an expensive luxury for people to be cool and have the ‘right’ console – the one that sells the most.

I had a master system. Bought the games. Got bored of the games Game Gear looked better, bought a game gear. Then after lots of saving I got myself a Mega Drive. Game Gear and Master System gathered dust. Played my Mega Drive for a while. Then stopped. Then let it gather dust. Then out came the Playstation - didn't get it instead got an N64 just for Goldeneye. Then finally decided to get a Playstation. Now both are gathering dust upstairs with me saying goodbye to Mr. N64 after I got stuck on Perfect Dark, and the Playstation? Stopped playing it because of Sony's terrible distribution policies of Playstation 2's. If they are not going to make it easy for me to simply go into a shop and come out with a PS2 - screw you Sony :-P. Now I have turned my attention to the PC.. Why? Because Consoles are dying. Consoles are becoming increasingly better and better and with the quality more expensive. 300 quid isn't it for a PS2? (something like that), yet for a few quid more I can get myself a nice PC.

Consoles are just becoming more powerful because of competition. The competition is going to kill consoles off trust me. I can see it now. What’s happening.. its all going hazy

Microsoft have released their X Box! Microsoft kill sales of PS2. Nintendo release Gamecube! Within months PS2 announce a 3rd Playstation inventively titled "PStation 3". Nintendo's sales are nowhere near X Box. X Box announce plans for a new console “The Super Bill-Gates” Pstation 3 released at £400, Nintendo release plans for a new console code name “Grey Squirrel” Super Bill Gates released at £500. Grey Squirrel released at £550. Grey Squirrel sales pathetic, people turn to PC’s. Consoles die.

Is it just me who thinks this is where we are going? There came a time where consoles were for people to play games on and have fun at a small cost. Now it’s an expensive luxury for people to be cool and have the ‘right’ console – the one that sells the most.

As link constantly said in the series.... "Excuuuuuuuuse me Princess"!

Who said that Nintendo's sales were gonna be no where near as good as the X-box's?

Nintendo have more support than X-box at the moment and Nintendo's Gameboy Advance linkup features will keep the GBA going for a long time!

So don't make assumptions like that...even though I just did....

Strange how PC owners use the fact that "consoles get out of date, and PCs don't" as an argument. Thios is rubbish. In fact, Every 5 years u buy a new console (on average). It costs c. £300 to upgrade. BUT u have to upgrade a computer more frequently than this. Usually a better graphics card. These cost £200 alone. Then u may need more Ram for about £150, and every so often u need a new mother board to fit it all on. And remember, all that's useless without a new processor every so many years! So surely PCs are driving themselves out of business cos companyies release better hardware all the time. By your own argument they will die sooner?

SonicRav

Specs for PC games are rising slower than the max available spec are, therefore you don't have to upgrade your PC *that* often.

Still, u have to update your PC as often as a console, and it costs more. And with consoles getting proper Online gaming, the PC has just lost another of its big sellers.

Oh, and MS have made the Xbox. This just proves my point- the worlds biggest software makers for the PC see that the consople market is so big that they want in!

SonicRav

y-es, but I don't think that's just because consoles are better for gaming.

Here's an analogy to clarify my point:
A car manufacturer may for some reason, want to enter the hatchback market. This doesn't necessarily mean it thinks hatchbacks are better for driving.

I used Nintendo as the ones that suffer the most cos they always seem to get bad luck..
SNES.. beaten by Mega Drive
N64.. beaten by Playstation
They r usually always beaten so thats why I made that assumption. And I have nothing against Nintendo. Nintendo rule! They have done great with the Gameboy but now with games for COLOUR game boy only are starting to annoy me.. why cant I play these new games in black and white? :(

I know PCs go out of date, but they are put to more use... internet (i know u can get them on consoles but it is nowhere near as good), writing documents etc.. i think they r more of a sound investment, and I only just updated after 2 years.. increasing prices of consoles are bad, all I want a console for is to play games I don't want to fork out loads of money just to do that. I can do that with a PC and get much more out of it.

I agree that today's PC's are more versatile than consoles, but I have both PC and consoles, and find that for sheer fun and gameplay the console beats the PC hands down, even though the PC can produce better graphics from time to time given the right game (Sim City 3000, C&C, Deus EX as examples).

But the consoles are just so much more convenient. So I do most of my offline gaming on the consoles, and most of my online gaming on the PC because of my free ISP, so in terms of cost, the PC is better for online.

But for fun, you still can't beat the pick up and play type gaming that you get from a console, which is why they are so popular.

Consoles will never die out, but they will 'evolve', and the current trend is to turn each new console into a mini home entertainment device (added DVD and HDTV capbilities in some cases). But that particular trend may die out, and consoles may go back to being purely 'games machines'.

However, the two of them, PC's and Consoles, will continue to run alongside each other for a very long time to come.

Couple of facts and figures here:

I bought my N64 for £200

A couple of years later i bought my DC for £200.

In about 2 years, i'll buy my X-Box, for probably around £200.

Bearing in mind inflation, and the fact that wages continue to rise, this in fact means that consoles get cheaper each time, not more expensive.

True, can we even afford these consoles these days? They keep improving each time so the price always goes up.