The notion of tablets proving to be a potential rival to gaming consoles might seem a little out of left field, as these devices were originally developed and marketed as the missing link between mobile phones and computers. However survey results have shown that the majority of those with tablet devices – like the Apple iPad – use them primarily for gaming, meaning there is a possibility that they could replace the standard games consoles as a gaming tool.
Certainly the president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, considers them to be a serious enough rival to the games console devices his company produces to predict the potential collapse of the games market. He bases this prediction on the fact that downloading top games such as the C & C Red Alert, Dead Space and the kinds of popular casino games available at sites like River Belle, is often a lot cheaper than getting them to play on a console; which he thinks will discourage games developers looking to make money from their creations. However it should be noted that the App Store is one of the most popular marketplaces for games developers, suggesting that the opportunity to sell games apps there for the iPad may not be as discouraging a prospect as Iwata thinks.
Tablets vs. Games Consoles
However, although the fact that they can get some games cheaper for download to a tablet than for a console will certainly make the former a popular option for some gamers, there are serious downsides to gaming on a tablet compared to a console that may stand in the way of the former becoming a serious rival. To begin with there are no physical controls or buttons on most tablets, which can make some games harder to play on them, but in addition, tablets still have smaller screens than consoles. Given that the visual aspect is increasingly important to the gaming experience, this is a major drawback to gaming on a tablet.
Do you think tablets will be a rival to games consoles? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.
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I think for smaller games that don’t have huge graphic requirements and aren’t as engrossing will be more popular on tablets than consoles. For games that will contain huge graphics, memory and storage requirements (think RPG or FPS games), they will be more popular on consoles and desktops. While tablets are good, such large games require huge amounts of power – both electrical and processing – to play and tablets will never have that compared to a console or desktop. You can’t run a high-power graphics processor from a battery for very long.