The rise of smartphones and tablets may spell the end of video game consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, changing the landscape of the gaming industry.Video game pioneer Richard Garriott, creator of the role-playing franchises "Ultima" and "Tabula Rasa," said he believes home consoles are "fundamentally doomed." Garriott believes the power of portable devices will catch up to traditional gaming systems, significantly dipping into the in-home market.
Mobile gaming has surged over the past year due to the increasing popularity and power of smartphones and tablets. A combined nearly 1 billion Android and iOS devices have been sold since 2007, and games like "Infinity Blade 2" on the iPhone sport visuals that rival the graphics of recent home consoles like the PlayStation 2.
In addition, traditional portable gaming systems like Nintendo's 3DS and PlayStation's upcoming Vita go one step further, merging great graphics with gameplay that rivals their home console cousins.
The Vita will also reportedly support remote play of PlayStation 3 games, allowing users to play games from the home console on the portable system and further blurring the lines between at home and portable gaming.
However, despite the surge in the volume and power of portable devices, several analysts disagree with Garriott's prediction. High-profile games like "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" are selling faster than ever, and system sales have also been steady. The Xbox 360, in its seventh holiday season on the market, sold more than one million units over the Thanksgiving weekend.
The portable game market may be growing thanks to the quality of the title users can now get on-the-go, but consumers still continue to show a preference gaming on the big screen in their living rooms. The Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii hold a comfortable advantage in graphical strength over current portable devices, and they are all near the end of their life cycles.
A new Xbox and PlayStation could be announced as early as next year, and Nintendo has already confirmed it will launch to the successor to the Wii U in 2012. These new devices will likely build upon the gap in quality that exists between portable and home console games.
Portable devices may eventually evolve to a point where they can challenge home console gaming, but as of right now, no definitive signs suggest Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo should panic.