BombermanBoard

Hammer Bomber · #4 Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 10:34 am

Aye these rumours have been knocking about for a while, I wouldn't bet on it not happening but it feels like the removal of one of the core USPs of a console, being able to swap games around manually and shop around for the best price of a game in various on and offline shops was an important consumer choice factor. I don't like buying things on the PS3's store because i feel the prices are inflated for the bigger games, and the smaller ones are more suited to my Android.
If they pursue this business model they will also be competing against set top boxes and smart TVs, particularly during the middle of their lifespans as more Smart TVs are sold and internet speeds increase. I already play games in my living room on my iPad streamed through the Apple TV unit onto the Toshiba Telly and if that sort of thing was to become commonplace the idea of shelling out £50 (whatever that is in $) per game along with an expensive console base unit becomes pointless when everyones mobile phone can do it cheaper.
Computers have arguably been like that for ages already, half my games are from the Mac App store, Blizzard have their own system and Steam is popular. The only reason it hasn't caused any flapping was because it has been gradual.

I'm very interested to se how the console makers approach this with their revenue model/marketing and whether they see each other as the biggest competitor, or Apple/Google.