Nvidia: Consoles are Static, Mobile and PC Gap Closing - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 22 March 2011 / 3,050 Views
Hardware manufacturer Nvidia believes that consoles do have an advantage when it comes to stability, although that also means the hardware is static and the gap to mobile and PC is closing.
Bea Longworth, company senior corporate and Tegra PR manager, speaking with Gamesindustry, remarked that "Already mobile gaming is hot on the heels of what you would expect from console-class gaming."
She thinks that the gap is definitely closing. That, and the console’s greatest strength is its stability as a platform, it’s very much plug and play. You don’t have to mess around with the hardware and be inconvenienced as you would on a PC.
However, she also followed it up with saying that this is also the console’s Achilles' heel.
"But that's also its biggest disadvantage, the fact that they are static from one generation to another, and also that the technology can't improve. Whereas with other platforms like the PC and now mobile gaming, they will be constantly moving ahead.”
She also said that it will be really interesting to see what console technology has to do in order to differentiate itself and stay ahead when it has to compete with a very mass-market-mobile format.
PC gaming with its expensive graphics cards will always have a graphical advantage when compared against consoles that takes anywhere from 3-5 years to see an “upgrade.” However, not having to configure your machine for every game and not having to upgrade graphic cards does have its advantages.
Do you agree with her sentiment? More importantly, are you ok with the current trend where consoles are going with constant firmware updates and game patches slowly being the norm?
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Another person that think mobile will kill consoles... i'll call my Sony Rep and ask him to refrain from launching games because i will just play angry birds from now on.
Moble gaming is not real gaming. I don't think it will be for a long time. Its good to mess around with while your sitting some where bored. Console gaming may stay where its at for 4-5 years but thats what people like about it. They know they can just buy a console and be good for a while not have to worry about updating this or buying a new moble device, because phones are going faster than pc as far as updating.
@FPS - you have no idea what titles the mobile market has had then. Armored Core Mobile to Tomb Raider to Doom RPG. All amazing games.
@FPS_d0mint0r: You really are stupid, an 8800GT can run Crysis at the same level as a console and that card came out around FOUR YEARS AGO. Have fun not having Anti Aliasing. I am guessing that the retards who made these comments didn't realize how choppy and unsmooth games on consoles are. I personally enjoy the smoothness that PC level anti aliasing brings me. I have a GTX260 which also came out two years ago and that can run Crysis 2 at the resolution of consoles ON MAX which looks hell of a lot better than that of a console. Sorry, at least those who bought a PC 4-5 years ago when the current gen consoles came out can play the first Crysis. Oh wait a 8600GT can run Crysis 2, that card came out WHEN? WHEN? OH wait in April of 2007. Even closer to four years ago. Sorry, but you do not have to upgrade your Graphics Card every other year.
I still can't believe how overblown this whole "always having to upgrade your PC" thing is. My PC is 5 years old and it still runs everything better than a console. Didn't cost a pound and a crown either, no upgrades in between.
Anyways, good to see an important stakeholder in the PC gaming business finally sticking its head out publicly like this. Of course it could just mean that it's finally seeing consoles eating into its sales.
i love the modularity of PCs and the raw power they can deliver but directx and developers ports from console games, are slowing down PC as a gaming platform. Console on the other hand, give me cheap gaming possibilities and on-line gaming with non PC friends.
those who bought PC's when xbox and ps3 came out i wish you the best of luck running crysis 2.
i think that says enough about why static hardware > new GPU's coming out every month.
and theres no point spending the money on a new GPU if theres just as good looking games on a £200 ps3 like uncharted, killzone and god of war which will never make their way to pc.
you cant game on a mobile so i dont even consider that a threat. the closest it comes is screwing around tossing birds into bricks and thats currently the most popular so imagine what the mediocre and crap mobile games are like. mobile gaming is nothing more than a joke.
yeah, the big question that disrupted gamers since the very beginning of gaming:
PC or console?
Way to "instable [sic] and way more expensive? Can you quantify instable and expensive so I can properly put you in your place? Consoles had shittier failure rates than the PC this entire generation, especially if you count gaming PCs vs consoles. No PC gamer will just let hims damn PC overheat to death, he'd be laughed at till the end of time.
Where ? Where is there ANY console class gaming on ANY mobile ?
Any Mass Effect 2 ? Any Batman AA ? No gimmick Uncharted or Dead Space ? Shadow of the Colossus to be back to PS2 ? No ?
It will never happen for mobile : the screen is FAR to small.
Also, PC are WAY to instable and WAY more expensive than consoles.
I agree with below. Market diversity does help to create products of varying quality and keep the industry from going stale. One complaint I would like to address with Console makers is that if the price for the creation and maintenance of new IP's further increase, where will the incentive be for developers to develop or further develop titles for that console(s)? Is it only going to be up to the first party developers to work on new exciting stuff that push the boundaries of that particular console? I guess so. And if the 8th generation of gaming sells games at 80 USD. I'm moving over to PC/Mobile gaming.
its important to have both, gaming on devices that have dynamic hardware makes developers use things like directx, which takes a lot of the capability of the hardware away while with static hardware the developers can use every little bit of he hardware as compatibility is a non issue
it creates a market for advancing the hardware while also giving a low cost solution
