Red 5 Studios CEO Slams Publishers, Consoles - Says Free-To-Play Is The Future Of Gaming Industry

At a quick glance, it looks like it could be “game over” for the video game console business. Sales of consoles in the U.S. dropped 21% in 2012 to just over $4 billion, and the figures from the manufacturers of the three top systems were lackluster over the crucial holiday season.  When announcing its quarterly earnings last month, Microsoft said its Xbox division revenue dropped 29%. At Sony, lower PlayStation 3 and PSP sales were responsible for a 15% drop in revenue for its video game division.

At a quick glance, it looks like it could be “game over” for the video game console business. Sales of consoles in the U.S. dropped 21% in 2012 to just over $4 billion, and the figures from the manufacturers of the three top systems were lackluster over the crucial holiday season.  When announcing its quarterly earnings last month, Microsoft said its Xbox division revenue dropped 29%. At Sony, lower PlayStation 3 and PSP sales were responsible for a 15% drop in revenue for its video game division.

By Midnight Analyst:The9 (NCTY) recently announced earnings, and if you were listening to the translator on the call instead of the CEO, you might have missed some interesting insights!

Paolo Gorgo submits: Tablet devices and smartphones could soon represent the replacement for consoles as the most attractive platform for the gaming sector. This is at least the opinion of several insiders in the multibillion industry – here is a quote from Heiko Hubertz, chief executive and founder of online gaming firm Bigpoint, taken from his recent interview with Reuters:

By Malathi Nayak and Bill Rigby SAN FRANCIS

By Philip Saglimbeni:The current console generation has been the longest in the relatively short history of video games. The most popular console of this generation, Microsoft Corporation's (MSFT) Xbox 360 was first released in late 2005, over seven years ago.

Can MMORPGs make the leap from PC to console? Zenimax Studios is mostly keeping quiet when it comes to the future of its upcoming Elder Scrolls Online MMORPG. Will it be subscription-based? Free-to-play? Nobody knows, and nobody's saying. Another question on many gamers' minds is whether or not ESO will be a cross-platform title, [...]