Could Xbox One and PlayStation 4 actually fail?
The truer test comes next year when the race begins in earnest. “The two big guys desperately want to beat each other,” said Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter. “The race is on to be the first through 10 million.”
He said that both companies view early adopters as a rich stream of customers for their online subscription models, that work out at about $5 each per consumer per month. A large community of active players is a selling point as well as a profit center.
Assuming “gamer” referes to an aficionado of gaming culture.
Your’s truly, Polygon Comment:
I’m just going to lob this out there and say that today’s “gamer” prefers mobile and PC over console. Consoles now seem more fixated on “casual” experiences under the guise of “hardcore” (ie. CoD, GTA), taking advantage of the membership cash-cow and annual guarantee (ie. CoD, Madden).
Assuming indies traditionally begin on mobile and PC platforms and grow to console if successful, they tend to focus ground-breaking and innovative ideas, albeit at the cost of small sales figures. This is similar to the pre-internet console days of yore.
I am going to get eaten alive for this ABSOLUTE generalization but I thought I would entertain the idea.
Re-thinking this comment, I don’t understand why I originally thought it was a revelation that MSFT and Sony aren’t after “gamers”. Of course they aren’t. They want the “casual” masses.