Claims arise that Microsoft or Sony will quit consoles at E3. Here's why that's not impossible

Well, yesterday I saw a rumor that Sony was bringing a streaming service for the PS3, and 2 of the biggest possible partners were OnLive and Gaikai, so I'm gonna say Microsoft's dropping out, not to mention the Motorola lawsuit threating to ban Xbox sales.

Their investment in the R&D still owes them too much to let it go so suddenly. We may see a step back, but never a full withdrawal. Besides, neither side wants to give their market share to the other FOR FREE.

And now everyone knows the "answer" to the rumors now. This all feels too hectic seeing everyone debate this stuff. There will always be games and game consoles, because it's a profitable business that will be capitalized on when you consider tons of people would gladly trade some cash for their preference. Therefore, consoles will not die and this is not as big a deal as it seems. Just enjoy the gaming. Oh, and anyone championing pcs right now should at least say "I'm not biased on this subject, just to clarify" before they go off saying pc is the best and console fanboys should get over it. I'm gonna go get some coffee.

In the end, the PC will reign as the one and only adaptable gaming platform. I mean seriously. Consoles are forever stuck to whatever specs they had when released, and are by no means upgradable (as of now). So every console release that comes must have better specs and new features to satisfy the people, and until they do, while the hardware of the world evolves, the consoles do not. This is why I must say that, truly, the PC is king of gaming platforms. Need an upgrade? Fork some cash for a good processor and video card and you'll easily move with the flow of technology. My apologies, console fanboys, but the PC will be the survivor of gaming platforms.

Still though, a console has the advantage of being relatively plug and play. Many gamers dont want to have to spend excessive amounts on a gaming PC. A mate of mine who is a gamer, albeit not an avid one, said he' happy to buy a console, then not have to spend more money adding to it, as long as the games are good and the graphics acceptable thats fine. A high end PC can throw out graphics that makes the 360/PS3 look obsolete, but in all honesty I can't see the PC being the only survivor, console gaming simply won't die out. And this is coming from someone who plays both in equal measure, but prefers split-screen Halo than sitting in front of a monitor by myself.

Something tells me Microsoft might drop out of gaming after pushing it to the back in the 360 menu redesign, if what Gaikai says isn't some lame business grab.

I think it's very unlikely that any one of the three would drop out at this point, only because gaming (such as the Call of Duty series) has finally surpassed movies in the entertainment industry for holding the title of fastest profit gains over the shortest period of time. Now that everyone's eyes are on video games (the media, investors and young adults willing to shell out for more expensive games), I can't see how it would make any sense for Microsoft to make a gamble with something like the original Xbox and pull out of the industry after all the money that went into the 360. That's a lot of potential money to lose after having to make an initial break into the gaming industry, THEN follow it up with competing and veteran companies such as Sony and Nintendo. Sony won't drop out because they don't have any other competitive products on the market right now other than TVs - they're 2nd or 3rd place in the TV industry, no one is purchasing full audio entertainment systems anymore, they're not at the front of computing, and only a small margin of people have purchased bluray players (separate from the PS3). Their hay-day was in the 80's and 90's when VCR's and tube televisions were all the rage. If they can continue to compete against Microsoft (albeit better than they're doing now), there's a lot of potential for a solid revenue stream with their new system 3 or 4 years down the line. And that's my 2 cents.

I think Sony should focus on portable entertainment while MS should focus on a home entertainment box. Nintendo should continue to develop new ways of gaming while Sega should make its own hybird console/streaming device.

You know what this means? DREAMCAST 2!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!

OR this is just a stunt to get is cloud gaming thingy on the map, which will fail i could claim shiet like "OMG, HITACHI IS MAKING A GAME CONSOLE. why i know that? i work at a place well sell hitachi equipment" so thats bullshit

we sell* also, working in the game industry =/= game guru/master/prophet if gaben tell stuff like that, i might listen, but since its coming from a nobody, this claim is irrelevent

It would be a terrible strategy for both companies. Whichever one who dropped out would lose tons of money not just by quitting gaming consoles, but also, their stock numbers would drop more than black Friday back in '29. Neither companies will "drop out" because they're businesses, and businesses make money. Dropping out of the "Console Arms Race" will be devastating to any company that does it.

Explain the Wii's success then. One could definitely argue that it dropped out of the "Console Arms Race" based on it's barely moving the graphics needle forward since the GC in addition to the introduction of a wildly different control scheme. It was definitely a winning strategy for Nintendo, who smartly realized that trying to compete directly with Sony and Microsoft on the "traditional new console expectations" bandwagon would have been suicide (as no doubt learned during the Gamecube's run). I don't think what we are talking about here is the likelihood of Sony or Microsoft dropping out of the video games business altogether (which I agree is quite unlikely to happen unless one fumbles Sega-style), but rather the traditionally very expensive (and often trouble-laden) console development and manufacturing side of things. Just look at the woes that befell both the XB360 (RROD) and PS3 (Jailbreak hacking), all of which has cost their respective manufacturers millions, let alone the loss of customer confidence. And as consoles become more elaborate and gamers' expectations rise, I only see the chances of faulty hardware increasing over time. Considering the growing trend towards cloud operations (especially with the likes of Gaikai and OnLive serving as welcome guinea pigs during this technology's notorious first gen trial-and-error stage), I don't see it unlikely that one of these gaming giants will eventually move towards that, especially since the development and manufacturing of the consoles themselves tends to be the biggest money sink for these companies. As such I am willing to bet that as streaming technology improves by leaps and bounds it will only be a matter of time before Sony, Microsoft and/or Nintendo put their eggs in that basket. Which, btw, whatever happened to GameStop's streaming game platform? They made such a big deal over Deus Ex:HR's inclusion of a free copy for OnLive, citing that doing so would actively compete with their own at-the-time-non-existent streaming service. At the time and now months later, their website says NOTHING about this service, despite giving the impression that it was right around the corner when DE:HR was released. Unless I'm mistaken I believe they have officially perfected the art of bullshitting.

Welp, time for PC gaming

Microsoft should stop making consoles If it went back to Sony/Sega/Nintendo maybe I'd take them seriously

Amen

This is just an example of somebody saying something outrageous in the opes that people will talk about them. Has anyobdy honestly heard of Nanea Reeves or Gaikai before this statement? Now people are at least familiar with their company. I'm surprised so many gaming sites have allowed themselves to be baited by these cheap tactics.

*hope

Here in Canada, most ISPs outside major cities are limited to DSL speeds and have bandwidth limits of around 70-100 gigs per month. Cloud based gaming would really hurt the industry here and a lot of big budget video games are made in Canada (eg. Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, EA Sports titles, etc.) Give it another decade or two and maybe most first and second world countries will be ready for streaming games that are 20+ gigs in size. Who knows, only time will tell.

I completely agree. We don't have the internet tech to reliably pull off cloud gaming just yet. We have OnLive trying to do this right now, and it does seem to be working, but it needs a lot more work before it can be considered as a more mainstream medium. If they are looking for a better format, though, maybe they should take a look at using USB sticks or SD cards, since they're able to run faster than a disc, and are generally more reliable.