Fox News: ‘Angry Birds’ killing consoles
That damn Angry Birds. It’s killing console gaming, you know. Seriously, it is. Fox News says so.
There is no doubting that the emergence of smartphones and free games available to download through app stores has turned more people into gamers. Alongside Facebook and other social networking sites. People who would never buy a dedicated games console and spend a Saturday night gaming are now raving about these small games they can play for free on their mobile. Amazing.
However, while casual gaming is definitely on the rise, is it, could it ever, supersede console gaming entirely? Some non-experts think so. As, according to Games Thirst, Fox News Science and Technology Editor Jeremy Kaplan recently explained:
Big changes coming to the world of console gaming. So we have a couple of major gaming systems out there right: Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Wii, if you don’t use it, at least you know what it is – massive powerhouses and these are companies that have built large fortunes, let’s be honest, on the backs of console gaming.
Recent changes indicate, that console gaming might be going away and I think it’s a lot because of things like the iPhone and the Google Android. If you’re one of those people that does gaming on your phone, you’re not alone. Angry Birds, anyone heard of this thing? A million – billion people are playing Angry Birds.
Angry Birds is a cute little time-waster. You have these birds fly and they hit bricks, whatever. It’s time-wasting, a lot of people call it casual gaming, and the power of casual gaming has taken a lot of emphasis away from consoles. Very interesting because for a long time, consoles were these incredible powerhouses. When Sony put out the PlayStation 3, their latest version, they built a special processor just for this thing called the Core. Now we haven’t heard anything from Sony about the next generation in years.. Market has moved. People are doing things very differently these days.
It goes without saying that Kaplan is a bit of a tool who knows very little about gaming and the industry as it stands today. But then he does work for Fox News so that’s to be expected. But does his wider point that the growth of casual gaming amongst the mainstream have any merit whatsoever?
Possibly. Although I hate to admit it. While I believe there will always be a place for dedicated gaming machines, there may come a point when the majority of gamers are happy to make do with the kind of titles they can play for free online and on the move.
If you think how quickly mobile phones have moved on, and what they’re no capable of compared to what they were just a few years ago, the obvious assumption is that they’ll continue to grow ever more powerful. And at some point they could swallow handheld consoles, making them effectively obsolete.
Home consoles are a different matter, however. Angry Birds doesn’t really compare to Uncharted 2 or Gears of War 2 now, does it.
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64 Responses to “Fox News: ‘Angry Birds’ killing consoles”
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June 27th, 2011
LMFAO
Is that CAD working for fox?
But angry birds kind of did kill the 3shitty by causing MS to go the Kinect rout. I’m soooooooooooo glad Sony didn’t shove move down our throats like kinect.
There is a difference between the PSP and the iPhone. But Sony isn’t sitting around ignoring the smartphones either. I know, I have a little playstation phone called the xperia play.
June 28th, 2011
The title should read like this “Fox News Employs Idiot as Their Video Games Expert” at least then it would make sense.
June 28th, 2011
“Fox News Science” those three words are one of the funniest things I have read today. Fox news makes Kim Yong Il’s propaganda machine seem like a bunch of amateurs with the amount of crap they make up. I wouldn’t even trust the time and dates they put on the screen they are that dodgy.
June 28th, 2011
“But angry birds kind of did kill the 3shitty by causing MS to go the Kinect rout.” Ncaissie – seriously? Even for you that is a rather pathetic attempt at xbox bashing. and” I’m soooooooooooo glad Sony didn’t shove move down our throats like kinect.” yeah, you’d much rather have them stuff pointless 3D down your neck?
June 28th, 2011
The only thing smart phones achieved in this respect is creating more gamers that would usually never touch a Console.
Now you have people that used to think gaming was nerdy (etc) gaming on their phone.
If anything this will help the consoles as casuals less likely to buy into gaming already broke that barrier.
Now the opposite is completely difficult to believe. I simply just can’t see someone opting out of a console purchase because they get a gaming fix from their 1.99 apps.
They wouldn’t have been buying a console to begin with.
Like the MS cast doubts story, people need to realize that phones cater to a completely different larger market. It’s success does not translate into consoles or dedicated portables demise.
June 28th, 2011
“Home consoles are a different matter, however. Angry Birds doesn’t really compare to Uncharted 2 or Gears of War 2 now, does it.”
I wouldn’t mind curb stomping some of those ugly angry birds.
June 28th, 2011
Angry Birds success is based on millions of downloads but that barely tells the whole story
1.Price from “free” to 0.99 it will take 60 “paid” Angry Birds app to get to price of a single console game. that’s not taking into account all the free ones.
2.It’s available on smarphones, tablets, pc, laptops, TVs, MP3 players etc. while console games are just limited to consoles which has a very limited and low install based compare to the products Angry Birds is available.
3.No Every mobile gaming app is as successful as Angry Birds, in fact you can count them with one hand which means that’s a 1 in a million chance.
June 28th, 2011
@Rimmer – “yeah, you’d much rather have them stuff pointless 3D down your neck?”
3D is optional and is included an included features in most PS3 games just “in case” you want to play in 3D – they are not releasing 3D-only game so your argument pretty stupid.
The fact is that Sony is still releasing hardcore games on a monthly basis and at a much faster pace than 3D games or Move games….on the other hand MS is just shoving Kinect down your throats since last year lmao
June 28th, 2011
“2.It’s available on smarphones, tablets, pc, laptops, TVs, MP3 players etc. while console games are just limited to consoles which has a very limited and low install based compare to the products Angry Birds is available.”
And it’s available on consoles too.
June 28th, 2011
Spot on Roca.
At no point as the inclusion of 3D hindered the game or games in anyway.
Kinect on the other hand obviously has a detrimental effect on the core 360 titles.
June 28th, 2011
@Rimmer I’m not forced to use or buy a 3d tv so what in the fuck are you talking about? Are you jealous?
June 28th, 2011
@ncaissie
Rimmer is trying to cast doubt on you and 3D gaming
off topic – my gf is going to give a Galaxy Tab next week as an anniversary gift and she also agreed to buy me the Playstation Vita for birthday
June 28th, 2011
Lol cool but don’t get the 7 inch one. It sucks.
June 28th, 2011
3D gaming is not useless. 3D gaming is awesome. I’ll take 3D gaming all day and all night over crappy Kinect games. Kinect sucks.
June 28th, 2011
@ncaissie
“Lol cool but don’t get the 7 inch one. It sucks”
yeah I’m going the 10″ one..do you have the 7″?
June 28th, 2011
“Rimmer is trying to cast doubt on you and 3D gaming ”
haha, that put a smile on my face
June 28th, 2011
Why did they make another version of street fighter IV?
Fucking idiots. Can they at at least play together between the different versions?
June 28th, 2011
Rimmer is just an idiot xbot so it doesn’t really matter what she says.
June 28th, 2011
The only credible/potential threat I see to consoles in OnLive.
And that still has a long way to go.
June 28th, 2011
Hey guys, Google just announced and Facebook-like social service and it looks good.
https://plus.google.com
June 28th, 2011
@phranc
One definate threat to consoles is that some high profile devs are slipping.
Perfect Example: Square Enix.
FFXIII did not live up to its potential and Square has just slipped up on many other games. Then oddly enough they decide to make a sequal to FFXIII.
I only hope that Square redeems itself. They are currently working on another RPG, Final Fantasy Type-O and it looks pretty good. I’m hoping that it is everything that fans want it to be when it comes out.
June 28th, 2011
All the original devs may have left square fahk. We might never see a good game from them again.
June 28th, 2011
Ever since Squaresoft and Enix merged their games have not been the same.
btw guys I got a beta invite for Journey. downloading right now.
June 28th, 2011
Uncharted 3 beta is live in the UK in 3 minutes (10.00pm).
June 28th, 2011
Square’s future is uncertain. FFXIII wasn’t the best FF in the series but it was still a good game in its own right. FF fans can only hope that Square listens to us and learns. Maybe we will get lucky and they will make XIII-2 into an incredible game worthy of the FF name.
BTW FF Type-0 was originally supposed to be FFXIII Agito. They canned in for mobile and are making it exclusively for PSP. It will be interesting to see how it turns out since it is set in the 13 universe.
Which is another interesting thing…
The 13 universe is expanding so much and I am wondering why.
13
13-2
Type-0
Versus 13
I cant help but wonder why square is focusing so much on the 13 universe.
I’d be happy if they expanded 7,10, or 12 more. Or even 6 would be awsome. I’d even take a 3D remake of 6.
June 28th, 2011
@FahKin
they said some bullshit about making a new FF from the scratch will take alot of time so making direct (FF13-2) and indirect (Versus & Type-0) sequels is much faster to develop.
I wonder why they didn’t have much trouble making a new games from scratch during the PS1 and PS2 days.
June 28th, 2011
Probably because they have been wasting alot of time and resources split between 13, 14, Agito, and VS.
Usually they work on 2 at a time. IE while they were working on 7 they were doing a little work on 8.
June 28th, 2011
14 was finished prior to 13 if certain podcasts are to be believed.
June 28th, 2011
The 13 universe was the plan from the start. There’s noting quick about it (except for 13-2 – which is made of stuff cut due to the 360 port).
-Final Fantasy Type-0 – was originally Agito. Unveiled at E3 ’06
-XIII VS – started in 2006.
- XIII – started 2005.
- XIII-2 – made up of stuff cut from XIII, plus some extra stuff.
June 28th, 2011
“XIII-2 – made up of stuff cut from XIII, plus some extra stuff.”
@LMAO @ BJ
June 28th, 2011
http://us.playstation.com/ps-news/innovations/
June 28th, 2011
If any of you biggidy bitches wanna get owned, download the Uncharted 3 beta and hit me up.
Not you Jojo, with your laggy ass.
June 29th, 2011
June 29th, 2011
“If any of you biggidy bitches wanna get owned, download the Uncharted 3 beta and hit me up.”
Doing it now. You’re gonna beat me?
Wow, I feel some memory impairment coming on.
jk
June 29th, 2011
Back to 3D.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Interest-in-3D-Gaming-Is-Rising-3DS-No-Longer-Attractive-208855.shtml
“A new report from research firm Interpret shows that interest in three-dimensional powered gaming is still high among those who own a PlayStation 3 or a Xbox 360 home gaming console, but also that gamers are no longer interested in picking up the new Nintendo 3DS handheld.
The 3D Entertainment study says that the purchase intent for the 3DS device has gone down by 27 percent between the official announcement from Nintendo, which came in 2010, and the official launch date, which was set for February of this year in Japan and March in North America and in Europe.
Michael Cai, who is an analyst with Interpret, has said that the decline is linked to Nintendo’s inability to announce video games that take advantage of the unique abilities of the Nintendo 3DS hardware.
The handheld was a best seller when it was originally put on sale, breaking records set by the initial versions of the DS, but has since performed more poorly, prompting Nintendo to unveil a number of new video games for it at the E3 trade show.
Cai has said declining sales intent for the 3DS “does not reflect the overall interest in 3D gaming” and the study points to owners of the Sony and Microsoft home consoles, who are “much more likely” to spend money on a three-dimensional enabled television set in the next twelve months.
Interpret has based its study on surveys conducted in late March and early April period of both 2010 and 2011.
The 3DS has recently received a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which has managed to push sales up, and a new Super Mario game will also be launched for the handheld before the end of the year.
If the declining sales of the Nintendo 3DS continue the company might also announce and implement a price cut for the device.”
June 29th, 2011
I’ve been trying to convince myself to buy a 3DS because let’s be honest, it does have some cool games to play on the go (but not enough yet) but its outdated graphics, online network, lack of trophies is what’s holding me back
June 29th, 2011
Aww Roca, you’re kind of growing up
So proud of you!
@Dans
“Wow, I feel some memory impairment coming on”
So that explains why you believe you’ve beaten me numerous times on GT5… I understand now
On that note, I’ve finally gotten around to downloading it.
June 29th, 2011
@Roca
I admit that trophies and achievements are addictive but the lack of them didn’t stop us from buying and playing games before.
June 29th, 2011
@FahKin
did I say the lack of trophies was the sole reason why I’m not getting a 3DS? geesh you guys always like nitpick stuff from my comments and based your entire reply on just that one thing you didnt agree with.
Lack of trophies one of the issues I mentioned…
June 29th, 2011
Don’t be so sensitive Roca. Fahkin means that we had no problem buying games without the trophy/achievement system, circa 2004. I don’t think he was nitpicking, just making a statement. One that I agree with.
Anyway, I agree with you Roca, that I believe Nintendo should go ahead and add a reward system, a la achievements. Like how the trophy system is broken down into Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze, Nintendo can break theirs up like this (using pictures of the following):
SNES or NES- Earn all rewards, basically a Platinum
Green Mushroom (from Mario)- analogous to Gold trophy
Star or Coin- analogous to Silver trophy
Red Mushroom- analogous to Bronze trophy
Or something similar. It couldn’t hurt, and adding objectives would increase replay value.
And make Pokemon so much fucking sweeter.
June 29th, 2011
OoT is an amazing game, but it’s like 20 years old now. The fact that this is the only good game for the 3DS at the moment is pretty lame.
Mario 3DS looks pretty good though. I’d wait a few more years, and a few price drops before even considering a 3DS. There should be more compelling software by then also.
June 29th, 2011
He was nitpicked the trophy issue but forgot I listed other important issues like outdated graphics and a piss poor online network.
I could on and on about all the issues about the 3DS that is holding me back from getting one. The trophy issue was NOT the one and only reason why I’m not going crazy for the 3DS.
June 30th, 2011
Speaking of Trophies, is it just me, or are earning Trophies more satisfying than earning achievements? I hope I’m not coming off as fanboyish, but when I only had a 360, I wasn’t really arsed about getting achievements… But the sound of getting a Trophy and the little coloured picture as well as the leveling system and Platinums make them so much more fun to earn (excluding Gran Turismo 5 and Super Street Fighter 4 grrr!! I just earned 4 of the hardest Trophies of my life in SSF4. ), and better in my mind.
June 30th, 2011
@ Bird: It’s not only you. I nevered bothered with achievements but trophies just seem more rewarding. I mean it is a trophy! lol
June 30th, 2011
I think the Trophies / achievements thing is probably linked to your preferred console. I go more for achievements, and for now have not bothered to play for any extra trophies. If I didn’t get them on the play through, then I won’t get them.
Unlike roca, I don’t play through games using a guide, so I won’t be plating any games first play through
June 30th, 2011
I wasn’t too intersted in trophies until I hooked up my PS3 to the internet last August. Then something inside me clicked.
When I first signed up tp PSN last August I think my trophy level was 7 so I was a regular player but not a trophy hunter.
Since then I’ve gradually become more ‘addicted’ to getting trophies and I’m now halfway through level 12 with 5 platinums.
I don’t see the point of playing a whole game that you don’t enjoy because it has easy trophies. I’m not that bad yet.
June 30th, 2011
@Roca
When I am playing on a handheld game the last thing I usually care about is an online network. Its a friggin handheld. Its not like you can pack in everything that you can in a full size console.
As for the graphics they can take a back seat to gameplay anyday. Give me a game with a great story, great playability and ok graphics and im fine. Graphics never have to be totally eye-popping.
Like Cap said. Chill out. I was indeed making a STATEMENT.
The reasons why I won’t be buying a 3DS anytime soon.
Still too costly for my budget and there is not enough amazing games to justify my buying it. There is a Samurai Warriors game out for it and thats the only 3DS game I want to play right now. I certainly am not going to spend all that money just to play 1 game.
June 30th, 2011
Godless – “Unlike roca, I don’t play through games using a guide, so I won’t be plating any games first play”
I always play my first playthrough for most games on hard and then play them again on easy to earn the trophy I missed. I don’t use guides for completing a game, I use trophy guides to see how to earn a specific trophy because, you have to admit most of the time you really don’t know what exactly you need to do in order to earn a trophy.
I didn’t use any guide for Infamous 2, they were are pretty straight forward. For God of War 3 I only used a trophy guide to see the location for the collectibles.
Stop hating on my trophy collection Godless.
I have to agree Trophies are much more rewarding because it adds that “RPG” experience and it has more depth than achievements.
Achievements are just to boost your gamerscore which is just a number that means little to anyone…on the other hand trophies are categorized in bronze, silver, gold and platinum..all of it goes towards your trophy level.
CarlB, when he was an Xbot (and a achievement hunter) used to think achievements were better but now that he mostly play PS3 he knows why trophies are better.
dans303 – “I don’t see the point of playing a whole game that you don’t enjoy because it has easy trophies. I’m not that bad yet.”
same here.
June 30th, 2011
@FahKin
“When I am playing on a handheld game the last thing I usually care about is an online network. Its a friggin handheld. Its not like you can pack in everything that you can in a full size console.”
I used to think the same thing about home consoles in the 1990s, too bad we’re not in the 90s so I won’t care if a handheld gaming has an online network. But were are in 2011 and I expect more from a gaming handheld.
As for graphics, I’ll take awesome graphics + awesome gameplay & story anyday…and you can’t deny that better graphics mostly transtale to better gameplay + story because the level of details allows the gameplay to run as smooth as possible and make the whole experience more enjoyable.
Sorry, but if graphics and online network was as important to me as it was in the 90s I would still be playing PS1 & N64 games. (oh and DS games since the 3DS doesnt add much over the previous model)
June 30th, 2011
I still hate trophies, although I will admit, when I get one,and it pops up with that cling sound on the top right corner with its name/description…i feel accomplished…even though I have no u
Idea what I did to get said trophy…
June 30th, 2011
Limbo heading for PSN and Steam!!
http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/118/1180005p1.html
I can’t wait!
June 30th, 2011
While there are barely any games to play on 360, we PS3 owners can barely keep up with all the games coming to PS3.
June 30th, 2011
hopefully this won’t be like that stupid game Braid. It was hyped as one of the best XBL title when it came to PS3 and I wasted $15 on that crap becasue of the hype.
I haven’t been buying as many PSN games as I used, there are just too many retail games taking all my time.
June 30th, 2011
“Unlike roca, I don’t play through games using a guide, so I won’t be plating any games first play through”
LMFAO… Godless we think alike, very occasionally.
@Roca
Limbo is a brilliant game. I think your tastes are sometimes a little warped, but I hope you can pick it up. It’s really gothic and dark, and kind of sad. It’s also pretty gruesome, which is surprising given it’s art direction.
My advice: give it a chance at least.
June 30th, 2011
Limbo is day one for me. Watching some of the vids on YT it looks really cool, especially the art style. And there are some pretty horrible deaths.
June 30th, 2011
I was speaking of Braid Birdman.
I like artistic games like Limbo such as Rez, Flower, Pixeljunk series, etc…
I was just saying that Braid was pretty boring imo, have you played Braid?
June 30th, 2011
Yeah, On Xbox. I thought Braid was OK, just overhyped.
June 30th, 2011
I waited awhile before I bought Braid. I think I got it when it was on sale for 400MS($5) or something close to that. I had checked out the demo of it and I thought it was pretty cool but no where near worth $15. I never even finished it though. I guess there just isn’t enough there to keep me occupied long enough.
I checked out Limbo before and it was pretty friggin sweet. Don’t think thats worth $15 though either.
July 1st, 2011
@ Roca
“While there are barely any games to play on 360, we PS3 owners can barely keep up with all the games coming to PS3″.
Give it a rest Roca, I still have several games unopened to play on the 360, Yes there is a shortage of AAA exclusives. .but that does not mean a shortage of games, far from it.
Limbo is a good wee game,played the demo, but didn’t think it was worth the £8 asking fee at the time,
If they’d keep the cost of these arcade titles to £5 or less I’d buy a lot more of them, but when you can get many full games for £10 once they’ve been out for a while they just seem a bit over priced.
Braid I thought was poor, felt like one of those crap Amiga platformers that flooded the market back in the early 90s
Good thing is on xbox, you can download & play a demo of 95% of games, so you know if you’r going to like it or nor before parting with any cash.
I personally, would never buy a game I hadn’t tried first
July 1st, 2011
@Godless
“Good thing is on xbox, you can download & play a demo of 95% of games,”
Actually on XBLA games its 100%. MS actually makes it mandatory that every game released on XBLA has to have a demo mode.
Thats one thing that MS certainly got right. It bugs me that Sony doesn’t have demo’s of the majority of its games released on PSN. A demo can often make a huge difference in sales numbers.
July 1st, 2011
FahKinSuPah
Yeah, you’re probably right, now that I think about it everything I’ve ever bought from XBLA has been after playing the demo.
It’s a few of the full retail games that don’t have demos, only the option to rate or buy, with a few screen shots to show the game.
July 1st, 2011
“Give it a rest Roca, I still have several games unopened to play on the 360, Yes there is a shortage of AAA exclusives”
Yes there is, and most of the game you have yet to play or open are old ass games that you are buying now for a cheap price.
We PS3 owners can barely keep up with the new stuff. Just now that Sony doesn’t have a game in July I found some free time for Socom 4 (new), Uncharted 3 beta (new), Infamous 2 (new) , and LA Noire (new).. I still have some other games from Feb & March that I have yet to open…in the coming months Sony will continue throw us the shit load of exclusive with Uncharted 3, Resistance 3, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, Twisted Metal, ICO Collection and GOW Origins
July 2nd, 2011
“Thats one thing that MS certainly got right. It bugs me that Sony doesn’t have demo’s of the majority of its games released on PSN. A demo can often make a huge difference in sales numbers.”
There is something we can agree on.
July 2nd, 2011
“We PS3 owners can barely keep up with the new stuff”
but at least we get a variety to chose from.
I can’t keep up.