Console prices are a hot topic right now. So let’s take an objective look at just what the sweet spot should be for each player in the market.
With just four days left until E3 2009 kicks off, Microsoft’s press conference first out of the gate, speculation runs rampant, fanboy bunkers are being built, and countdown clocks come ever closer to death.
The topic for this month’s Blogs of the Roundtable has led to some fantastically diverse answers: “What role will gaming play in your familial relationships in 5 years? 10 years? 20 years?”.
We mentioned Pascal Luben’s series on the ‘megatrends of gaming’ back when it kicked off with part one; since then, he’s done a second part and is now back with part three.
The Montreal International Game Summit recently wrapped up, and keynote speaker David Braben of Frontier Development really took the industry to task on everything from the business model (broken!) to retailers (killing longevity of games!) to the ‘online myth’ of the next gen consoles. He makes some interesting points, though I’m not at all convinced of the veracity of some of them. Here’s his take on the retail model:
Over at the Escapist, they’re taking a look at the future of gaming — Hal Halpin, president of the Entertainment Consumers Association, looks at a number of ‘maybe, maybe not’ predictions with his own take. Ranging from the mundane (‘Game prices will go down!’) to the political (‘Things will get better once gamers become politicians!’) to the industry-focused (‘Publishing structure is stuck in a rut and won’t change!’). It’s a fun read with some good points on the present and future directions of the gaming industry. On the publishing structure, Halpin has this to say:
