Tablets are all the rage these days, and with so many on the market, it can be hard to find the perfect one for all of your needs. While many use tablets for productivity, or for watching movies on the go, mobile gaming has always been an interesting, though very underutilized extension of the industry. With tablets becoming more and more powerful every day, while continuing to become more accessible to the average consumer, it’s no surprise that game developers are interested in exploring the options that these portable computers offer.
The gaming industry is going through a rough time, and the rise of app stores and streaming content are making things much harder for portable systems like the 3DS and Vita. Services like OnLive provide easy access to hundreds of games, with the ability to pay a low monthly price for unlimited gaming delivered directly to your TV, or tablet, through the internet. In order for the gaming industry to survive, it’s time for developers, and even companies like Microsoft and Sony, to start investing in the gaming aspect of tablet devices.
Not too far from now, tablets are going to be able to rival home consoles in terms of graphics and power, while still being very affordable. Currently, through the OnLive Gaming app available for Android, anyone with a tablet can play a touch-controlled version of Darksiders and L.A. Noire, among other major titles. If more developers like Rockstar and Vigil/THQ supported the mobile gaming industry, tablets could, eventually, replace home consoles altogether. Rather than seeing a ton of Angry Birds style of games, it would be nice to see more games like Darksiders and L.A. Noire hit the mobile market. Don’t get me wrong, I love Angry Birds, but it’s a fact that mobile gaming is so over-saturated with casual games that developing titles for “hardcore gamers” is a very risky thing. However, from what we’ve seen in the past with Epic Games’ Infinity Blade series, and the recent release of the original Max Payne on mobile devices, it could end up being the best form of gaming.
Imagine being at home, playing your PlayStation 3, when suddenly you realize that it’s time to head to the airport to hop on your flight out to visit family on the other side of the country. Rather than saving your game and packing up the system, or leaving it at home for the week, you simply unplug the HDMI cable and continue playing on a built-in screen. Along with the ability to sync a blue-tooth controller, the HDMI output allows you to easily hook up the system on any TV that supports it. This is the future of console gaming, and ultimately, is the way to save a struggling industry. There is the issue of playing physical copies of a game on a tablet, especially when home consoles use DVD and Blu-Ray discs. This is where the growing OnLive service comes into play. With rumors that Sony is supposedly signing a deal with the streaming service, allowing gamers to have unlimited access to any game they choose for a low monthly price is going to change the industry.
Mobile gaming has always been a touchy subject with developers and gamers because it has never been able to provide the same quality that home consoles or portable gaming systems can. However, with the accessibility of the technology at an all-time high, along with the impressive capabilities of tablets, it seems to be the perfect time for the two industries to collide.
I love to see you have such a well-thought out argument against tablet/mobile gaming.
…The video game industry is doing fine. If anything it’s way up from last generation and this ones still not over. Last generation the total of video game consoles/handhelds sold 294 million units, this generation were already at 452 million units sold! The industries gone up big time, over 150 million new gamer’s. It’s only going to keep getting bigger and bigger regardless whether tablets are around or not.
The industry is a lot worse off than you think. This generation has seen a record number of development studios downsize, or shut down completely. Yes, there has been an amazing number of hardware sales, but software sales are fairly low. There are a lot of people who buy the Xbox 360 only for Call of Duty games, and that’s it.You also have to take into account that a lot of Microsoft’s supposed “sales numbers” are people buying a system to replace one that died. I agree that we have seen a huge increase in the number of handhelds sold, but have you checked software sales? Its a low number. The 3DS barely sells games, except for Mario Kart 7 and Ocarina of Time, and the Vita isn’t off to a great start either. Tablets, however, have had a major increase in sales. I’m not saying the industry is going to suddenly die out tomorrow. But it’s struggling, and considering consoles are making smaller hardware leaps than other electronics, they’re eventually not going to be powerful enough for gamers who want more.
Still doesn’t address the fact that tablets and touch screens are terrible for core games. If you want to game on the go, get a Vita.
I own a Vita, and while I love it, it would be awesome to combine the gaming aspect of the system with the productivity and functionality of a tablet. You’re missing my point, though. With Tablets becoming as powerful as consoles, and with mobile gaming on the rise, it would be wise for a company such as Sony to invest in make a tablet that could also act as a home console. You could easily sync a controller to the tablet via bluetooth, which means simply plugging into a TV and streaming games directly to your tablet console. In case you didn’t know, there are some major developers backing that idea. Darksiders and L.A. Noire both run exceptionally well on tablets, and prove to be an incredible gaming experience. And who says that it has to be exclusively touch control on the go? It could easily have buttons and analog sticks, similar to the Nintendo Wii U’s tablet controller.
Software is just as great? The X360 has one of the biggest software to console ratio this generation, the average consumer has about 10 games, the PS3 and Wii are around 8 – 9. Like you said some people only buy Call of duty games for there Xbox, well there’s like 7 CoD games you can get for the X360. Now last generation sold about 2.511 billion games, and a huge amount of that was from the PS2 alone (1.6 billion). This generation is now at a little over 3 billion games sold that’s only consoles/handhelds and this generation isn’t over yet still another few years. Do your research gaming is bigger then ever and tablets have nothing to do with it.
It’s amazing how you still fail to see the point of this article. I have done my research, have you actually done yours? Look into why so many game companies have closed their doors or laid of large numbers of people. Check out interviews with developers and industry analysts, and they’ll all say the same thing. The gaming industry is in a rut. You can argue all you want, but when Nintendo alone has posted a $430 Million loss for the past year, and many developers continue to post less-than-stellar sales numbers, it’s pretty hard to deny that game sales are way down.
And I never said that tablets had anything to do with the gaming industry YET. I’m saying that they SHOULD. It’s an untapped market that would help revitalize the industry. Did you happen to know that even at 99 cents to $10, App sales for iOS alone have far outsold regular video game sales? Mobile market sales are increasing at an incredible rate. The point is that it would be awesome to have a powerful console that can also go mobile. How can you deny that?
90% of the companies that shut down or is laying off people didn’t make very great games anyway (other then Ensemble), and we did go through a recession this gen. The main reason for Nintendo’s loss is Wii U and 3DS R&D and Nintendo is selling the 3DS at a loss because they had to cut the price on the 3DS, something Nintendo never does since they always sell there consoles at a profit. And game sales have never been higher, Nintendos first party studio games smashed many records for most sold games, not to mention how huge Call of Duty has gotten.
I just think that there’s a still and always will be a big number of people out there that’ll want that physical controller and to play on that big expensive tv that they just bought with surround sound.