Speaking at the Cloud Gaming USA conference in San Francisco yesterday, Michael Pachter discussed the future of mobile gaming and consoles, which he considers to be a dying breed. Comparing today’s modern dedicated gaming machine to the compact disc, Pachter says it took a while for the CD to die, but no one is denying it no longer has a real impact on today’s music industry. Citing sales of 10.1 billion in 1997 and down to just 183 million in 2013, Pachter says dedicated gaming hardware will go the same way as the compact disc.
Of course, Pachter had a few choice words for Nintendo as well, stating that the company is behind the curve with no desire to catch up to its competitors offerings on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.
They are more than a decade behind the curve, and they are so insular that there is no desire internally to learn from others. Nintendo hardware goes away. There is a place for their content. There is no place for Nintendo hardware. Nobody cares. They will have to abandon hardware.
According to Pachter, Nintendo’s franchises are a gold mine but keeping them tied to dying hardware will only continue to set the company back. It’s not surprising to hear this out of Pachter, especially considering the whole talk focused on how nearly 15% of internet users are considered gamers now thanks to mobile games like Clash of Clans and free to play endeavors from larger studios, like Blizzard’s Hearthstone.
If you want to read Pachter’s thoughts on how the gaming industry is shifting, you can find the full talk here.
