Console Versus Online Gaming

It’s a debate that’s been raging for a few years now. Whilst gaming has overtaken the traditional entertainment forms of music and film as the dominant source of excitement for a whole new generation, there is still a great deal of argument over whether gaming’s future lies with consoles or with the brave new world of online gaming.

Console gaming

For many, consoles will always be the dominant form for gamers and there are many reasons for this.

One is that consoles are very easy to use in that they don’t require a detailed understanding of how computers work to operate unlike many PC games. And this is very important for the mass market of games consumers who aren’t necessarily hardcore gamers but simply want to enjoy a quick game, rather than having to rewire their computer!

And from a business angle, a big reason why consoles will always have a stronghold on the gaming market is that they are massively profitable compared to PC games. This again capitalises on the convenience aspect of console gaming where new products like the Xbox One and PS4 are able to harness the huge marketing power of their new machines that will always be more of a draw than the more anonymous desktop computers.

Online gaming

However, there have been shifts in the way that new consoles operate that signify that the trend of online gaming might be here to stay.

Both the Xbox One and PS4 offer new, but limited online capabilities as the respective companies realise that there is a shift amongst consumers towards mobile gaming.

Mobile gaming is one of the massive growth areas in gaming as it allows a large amount of innovation by developers to release a huge range of products that dwarf the limited range offered by consoles.

So now online gamers can enjoy a range of products from racing games to a vast selection of reliable games that use the casino format, which means that for the casual consumer, it is simpler, more convenient and cheaper too.

Online gaming also allows a greater deal of customisation over how the user interacts with the game. Whereas the release of a new console may occur every few years, upgrades to the operating systems of smartphones, tablets and PCs occur much more regularly.

Despite this, we may gradually see our technology shift to the point to where the boundary lines between consoles and PCs begin to blur as all of our entertainment moves towards the online domain.