Topic: In the event the console/handheld market dies or becomes niche, how should Nintendo respond (read first post)

I think we're a lot closer than that (scarily), bandwidth is already there for a lot of cities (with UHD film/TV streaming being available on fibre connections now), latency it the major roadblock (for controls). With FTTP rolling our over the coming years in developed countries I think the gen after this (perhaps even this one) will be the last console gen (possibly coexisting with its replacement ala blu-ray and digital delivery of films).

I don't think people will be willing to give up offine play so soon, especially with the backlash that occurred with the Xbone. The future might see small consoles created by many different hardware manufacturers (like DVD/Blu-ray players) but I don't that will happen for a long time.

This gen we might see sreaming PS4 games on PS TV butit won't be a replacement. In 7 years or so with the next gen there will probably be two systems sold in stores next to each other, the cheap always online stream box and the expensive massive hardware with a hard drive (probably will still have a disk drive) and 8 years after that, depending on how well the stream box does, we might see the first console devoted to just streaming but I still don't think it will happen

We'll never know what's going to happen till it does (i.e. I am speculating and like hollywood films that predict the future will probably look stupid in 10 years when predictions are compared with reality). I can see gaming being deeper integrated into TVs and streaming being the form it takes. The TV becomes a thin client allowing any type of game to be played with it (online or offline in the sense you are the only player) via a controller communicating with the tv.

I honestly think we're on the verge of a lot of traditional forms of entertainments going this way (radio/tv are going that way with Spotify/Netflix etc look how fast they have grown) and becoming on demand and streamed to devices, the old delivery mechanisms dying (albeit more slowly for em spectrum stuff) and freeing up even more spectrum for data transmission over the air. Gaming is just one aspect of it, we're seeing it with phones and handheld gaming and I think home based gaming is not far away. Technology seems very close to making this happen right now, which is why I think it'll happen quicker than you say.

Once the right delivery is in place (I expect an open platform that any TV manufacturer can use) I think it will be adopted quickly which in turn will push developers and publishers to move to them as the market size will draw the number of people owning consoles which in turn will cause a vicious circle pushing people to the new platform. Don't see the backlash with the XBone because it's a secondary feature of the TV and until the TV channel broadcasting is shut down you won't be forced to be online to use the primary function of the device.

Honestly - continue to be niche. When many of us were young and gaming on Atari machines, NES, or in arcades, our hobby was definitely considered niche. Video games were NOT cool and mainstream AT ALL until the last decade-15 years or so, and with the advent of smart phones, some may argue has even become "popular."

By niche, I mean more like how the NEOGEO was niche. Not like only 60-70m total consoles sold in a generation.

Honestly I think right now we are at branching points in the industry. There is so much tech that is being used to deliver unique experiences that we might see each current console manufacturer branch into a different part of gaming future. I think Sony is going to push VR pretty hard, Microsoft is most likely going to move towards Stream boxes, while Nintendo is going to continue to make dedicated gaming machines with unique controllers. This might be the last "console war" as we know them. We will see what happens in the future but I don't think the 3 giants will be butting heads for much longer, Nintendo is already trying to distance themselves from the other 2