Gameplay Today - Because You're Always Gaming

Gaming seems to be one of the most interesting hobbies in that more debates surround it than some political races. The most recent conversations that have gamers lobbing insults back and forth is that the increase in the popularity of mobile gaming on non-traditional hardware will be the fall of console gaming. In particular, people look at the bevy of games released for the Apple iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android-enabled devices as a sign that companies have shifted their attention to the growing mobile market. That might be true to a small extent, but honestly the people making these assumptions aren’t looking at the big picture.

Much like the Nintendo Wii and the recently tapped “casual” market, the games being released are more a case of quantity over quality. Also like the Nintendo Wii, there are some shining examples of addictive quality games, but they are the exception. The most appealing thing about mobile games is the low royalty rates and even lower quality control. While I’m not one to say every title released on home consoles is a high quality blockbuster, there’s no denying that the ratio of quality games to those released on consoles is higher than that of PC or mobile games. Once again there will be those that instantly take offense by that statement because they favor their iPhones or PC gaming. But I’m not talking about games like Angry Birds on portables or Half Life on PCs. Those are great games, but for every one of those there are ten cookie-cutter matching and/or find the object titles released. You won’t find two hundred different find the object games on the Xbox 360 or PS3. The same can’t be said for mobile gaming and that’s proven with a simple scan of the Apple or Android app stores.

Mobile gaming is great and the surge of new titles and ways to play games is never a bad thing. What is a bad thing is the constant itchy trigger finger of gamers and so-called “bloggers” who are ready to pull the trigger on the death of a platform or entire gaming medium in this case. If there is one thing we should have all learned from the constant and ongoing fanboy wars; it’s that there are plenty of gamers out there willing to back their favorite platform, hardware manufacturer or publisher. Just look at SEGA. They still have legions of fans who beg for a new console from them with the dedication and delusion of a psychopath army. If a company that hasn’t released a console since 1999 (not even in this century) can have gamers begging for a new console, how can anyone who calls themselves an analyst or legitimate journalist believe that console gaming will die because of mobile phones?

It seems like one of those things that goes without saying, yet for some reason there is one ridiculous article after one ridiculous analysis after another projecting the doom of console gaming. It only takes a little research to see that the same has been said about PCs and various other mediums of entertainment in the past. There were actually people who said that television would be the death of movie theaters. Don’t tell that to hundreds of thousands of Twilight, Harry Potter and Transformers fans who spent billions in those archaic dinosaurs known as cinemas. There will always be those who say one thing or another is coming to an end. The truth is that you have to look past the nonsense and do a little research for yourself before believing some as outlandish as console gaming coming to an end.