From Game Consoles to Apps: The Transition

As well noted, Apps such as tablets and androids will someday replace hardcopy playing machines in favor of digital distribution and app style menus. However, today's apps are not well equipped to handle hardcore games due to both lack of hardware to meet demand and unfocused purpose on gaming, leaving casual games to dominate apps. Advantages of replacing home consoles with smaller app based ones include far lightweight, lower cost, and higher advantages for independent developers. Disadvantages include lack of hardware for more complex games, unorganized plan for accomodating both touchscreen and button controls gamers have enjoyed, and concerns over ability to be played on TV screen. There are several microconsoles on the market but neither have been able to have major elaborate games produced for their systems due to a more limited spec hardware than Wii U, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. How can these microconsoles advance to becoming major consoles that could play the same games as Wii U, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC? First, how much memory can it accomodate? Ouya and Nvidia Shield respectively have 1 GiB DDR3 SDRAM and 2 GB DDR3L RAM, which are about the same as Wii U(which has 2GB DDR3 Ram). Memory however doesn't cut the cheese as central processing units are needed to handle such high powered games. The objective here would be to upgrade the central processing unit power of these android based consoles so they can be as competitive as PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Plus, what form would they be in? Would they be much like Apple TV but with more processors fit for hardcore gaming. Nvidia Shield can play up to 29 streamed PC games and has an HDMI port to play on your TV Screen. The OnLive microconsole is interesting as it is like a small TV adaptor that streams games purchased on the internet to the adapted TV. The reason the OnLive microconsole can work like an Xbox 360 is due to cloud computing in which processors are run by another further source and generated to the player via adaptor. The OnLive microconsole was only $99.99 when it was released in either 2010 or 2011. Word from Wall Street Journal is Google plans to reveal an android console this fall and for gaming sake I hope it's not just another microconsole because Google could give Androids a chance to be as competitive and as powerful as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One or above the Wii U at least. If Google's android console becomes just another microconsole, then it won't market as well as PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. If it's just as much of a console as Wii U, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One however, it will bring a new punch to the console wars and create a new media format for home consoles beyond merely being casual in nature. The most powerful of the microconsoles is Nvidia Shield so Google will need to make it more powerful than that. The Google android console will be called the Nexus Orbit and it will have features like no other. I will write another post about this next blog.