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Comment by socialist_coder | Hacker News Reader

Apple announced their controller standard as well so we will see more and more iOS games come out that support the controller.

I have been saying this same thing for about 2 years now- the age of consoles is almost over. A Sony/MS box is not going to be the thing that delivers your living room entertainment, it will be a mobile device, ipad, or set top box from that same ecosystem.

Disc based games need to die but Sony/MS won't let them quite yet. Android/Apple are coming into the living room gaming arena from a completely different perspective that fits better into the current times. 100% downloadable, integrated with your smart phone / tablet, no more 5 year product cycles, etc. The advantages for being able to just ignore 3 generations of past consoles and come up with something completely new are huge.

Now we just need to see what the Steam Box is going to do.

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Disc based games need to die but Sony/MS won't let them quite yet.

No, the gamer demographic won't let them die.

Microsoft had a push in the right direction with the moves they were experimenting with for the Xbox One: unfortunately, they had to backpedal on them because people were too outraged.

I disagree. MS didn't explain the value prop well and weren't courageous enough to take a stand. If they wanted to get rid of discs, they should've done so. Discs and downloadable content are two completely different paradigms. It's no doubt that MS wants to go the Steam route, but by mixing the "rules" for downloadable content with physical discs, they made a huge error.

Gamers didn't see the XB1 as a move towards disc-less consoles. They saw it as additional rules to their current disc-based paradigm.

Removing HDDs and optical drives from laptops was a bold and risky move by Apple, but it worked. MS had the chance to show leadership in consoles, but chose to play both sides instead.

Exactly. MS failed in the PR battle. Completely and miserably failed. They had a great idea and its unfortunate they caved in so easily.

A disc-free iOS game costs $0.99 to, usually at most, $19.99. A disc-free xbox game costs $59.99 for as long as possible; MS doesn't discount prices on digital games very frequently.

The "gamer demographic" was upset because they felt like something was being taken away (easy used game sales and purchases) without any clear benefit in return (same old prices). Making them out to be luddites who don't want to get with the disc-free times is unfair.

An example: A digital copy of Darksiders II is $59.99 on XBox Live (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Darksiders-II/66ac...), and a physical copy is $16.99 on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Darksiders-II-Xbox-360/dp/B0056WJA30/r...). Darksiders II came out nearly a year ago, and MS still charges as if it were a brand-new game.

Google's going to manufacture smart watches and consoles?

Another wannabe-knee-jerk-lets-copy-Apple product from Google. Why am I not surprised.

Apple still haven't even released a console and Apple apologists are already quick to jump on the "Apple invented everything under the sun" train. Why am I not surprised?

If anything, it's Apple that's copying others here.

You're right. Google's going to be first to market by releasing crappy, half-baked beta products and Apple's going to "copy" them.

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