Many industry analysts and developers are convinced that the next generation of consoles will be the last, following which people would completely shift to an alternative platform for their everyday dose of gaming.
While the speculation is not entirely without merit, the boss of Team Ninja, the studio behind the Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive franchise, does not see the consoles going anyway in the foreseeable future.
In an interview published in issue 124 of Xbox World, Yosuke Hayashi asserted that the consoles are there to stay and will continue to cater to the gaming needs of the people even if there are alternative platforms on offer.
According to him, there are still millions of people who love sitting in front of their television sets with a controller in their hand, enjoying the experience to the fullest.
He used the Call of Duty franchise as an example to support his point that console games are still very much in demand.
“I don’t think consoles are going to disappear from gaming. You still have millions of people playing videogames with a controller on a box in front of the TV. Just look at Call of Duty, for example: it’s everywhere. There are millions of people playing it.”
Hayashi further went on to add that as long as people continue to play games and the cost of development is within the sustainable range, companies such as Team Ninja will be there to make games for the consoles.
Despite the advancement in technology, the traditional forms of entertainment are managing to hold their own.
The Team Ninja boss noted that the case of consoles is pretty similar to that of cinemas.
According to him, despite the advent of smartphones and powerful TV sets, people are still regularly visiting cinemas to watch films on the big screen instead of settling for the home entertainment or portable entertainment medium.
“I think you can compare it to movies,” he added. “People still go to the cinema after all this time. I don’t know how long cinemas have been around but it’s not like cinemas are completely gone and everyone is watching movies on their TV or smartphone.”
The console market, however, appears to be facing a serious threat because of the extended life-cycle of the likes of Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360.
The developers and analysts are becoming increasingly concerned about the fate of the industry if the two industry giants wait too long to introduce their high-end consoles into the market, since the alternative gaming platforms are beginning to steal gamers at a significant rate due to rapid technological advancement.
It seems that the fate of the consoles lie entirely in the hands of the very companies that manufacture them.
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