Thatvideogameblog.com is currently running an interview with the CEO of YoYo Games, and formerly of Microsoft Europe, Sandy Duncan. The interview shows Duncan’s feelings on the videogame market’s current direction, and more specifically, his belief that videogame consoles will die out within 5 to 10 years.
"The industry is fundamentally driven by technology. I think dedicated games devices i.e. consoles (and handhelds) will die [out] in the next 5 to 10 years," said Duncan. "The business model is very risky and the costs associated with creating new hardware are incredibly high."
Duncan later commented, "There is a definite "convergence" of other devices such as set top boxes. There’s hardly any technology difference between some hard disc video recorders and an Xbox 360 for example. In fact in 5 to 10 years I don’t think you’ll have any box at all under your TV, most of this stuff will be "virtualized" as web services by your content provider."
The idea of conversion in regards to television set tops, and other devices, is totally logical. It’s been happening ever since they built TV’s with bunny ears built in, and don’t forget those ugly TV’s with the VCR in the front.
But it starts to get a bit harder to imaging when you start talking about all of these things being integrated into the television’s technology. I can imagine an HDDVD capabilities being built into a TV for the display of movies downloaded online. However, I have a harder time imagining a television with a multi-core processor and advanced graphical capabilities built in.
Will it happen? Sure, but not in the narrow time frame Duncan provides. When you start talking about projects like full integration of games and online services into the living room, it’s not an advancement of television technology, but rather a growing acceptance of media center PC technology already available in the market.
[via Thatvideogameblog]
