2025-12-29 18:30:04

Gaming console manufacturers face a persistent challenge: each hardware generation plateaus around 250 million unit sales. The market ceiling hasn't budged for decades despite technological leaps. So what breaks this cycle?

History offers a clue. Look at the videotape format wars—VHS ultimately won not on pure technical superiority, but on ecosystem flexibility and third-party adoption. The winning format became a platform, not just hardware.

Applying that lesson: console makers need to think beyond boxes sitting under TVs. They should build ecosystems that span devices, embrace interoperability, and let developers operate with fewer restrictions. Cross-platform play, cloud gaming, and content portability matter more than raw processing power.

The company that shifts from selling consoles to building an entertainment network wins the next generation. That's where the real growth lives—not in capturing new hardware buyers, but in expanding the addressable market beyond traditional console gamers.

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TokenomicsShaman

· 11h ago

That VHS analogy was perfect. Game console manufacturers are still competing over performance, but they haven't really grasped the main idea.

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WhaleStalker

· 11h ago

NGL, I buy this logic. The reason game consoles aren't selling is because they're still selling "hardware" rather than selling an ecosystem.

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FarmToRiches

· 11h ago

Well said, but the real selling point is still the game library. Sony and Microsoft are now competing in this area. Ecosystem building is important, but ultimately, players still want to play good games. If that's the case, Nintendo should have been eliminated long ago. But what happened? They are still thriving the most. How many years have we been talking about cloud gaming? When will we truly overcome the network latency hurdle? Everyone's right, but the key question is: who will bear the hardware costs? It's really about shifting from selling hardware to selling services, like Netflix's game model.

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NFTragedy

· 11h ago

Ha, whether the VHS logic still works now is really hard to say. Sony and Microsoft have already been working on cross-platforms. But ultimately, content is king. Who cares if the hardware doesn't sell well? The gaming ecosystem has already fragmented. The only thing that can be unified is the content library of major leading companies. This wave of trying to break the circle... depends on who can truly retain people. It's not as simple as just buying a console. The path of platformization has been explored before, just hasn't exploded yet. Maybe something is still missing.

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FOMOmonster

· 11h ago

To be honest, the ceiling problem of gaming consoles has been there for a long time. Relying on stacking configurations simply can't break through it. Console manufacturers are still selling hardware-centric thinking. Sony and Microsoft should have already turned the corner... Ecosystem and cross-platform capabilities are the future. I agree with the VHS analogy. The idea that an ecosystem can defeat pure technology has been proven decades ago. Why are some people still unable to understand this? Honestly, whoever can enable players to seamlessly switch devices and have content follow them will win... Right now, each company is still working independently, which is really a missed opportunity.

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