 
Well that is if you believe the guy who helped push Microsoft into the console world.
According to Alex St John, this is the last generation of consoles as we know it and we are about to see the boom of virtual consoles…
Alex has taken a flying leap straight passed digital downloads and straight into the realms of useless technology. It’s not that I don’t think the idea of a virtual console like Orb is bad, it’s just that it won’t work.
The IT world has been trying to get virtual PC’s going for years and while they exist and work now, they are hardly mainstream or even anywhere near as capable.
He claims to not be wrong often but I can tell you right now that he is completely wrong in this regard and you can bet your ass that we are going to be seeing more physical consoles in the next few years.
Source: Joystiq
Last Updated: August 19, 2008
scotty777
August 19, 2008 at 12:27
um, I don’t quite get this idea? I’m sorry, but personally, I like my console, it’s MINE, it looks pretty, I can turn it on, I can toss it out the window after my 700000th try at a certain level of NFS. I can burn it, i can huge it, i can even f*** it once i remove the hard drive(lol, ironic)
But it might just be me… I mean, I like the idea of having something physical, that way i can do what i want with it… And that way, i can put what i want on the console, and no one will care, or look…
I reckon consoles still have a good 10 years in them, maybe more, coz i’m sure people share a common interest with me here
SlippyMadFrog
August 19, 2008 at 12:31
What about the lesser countries with slow and expensive broadband? It’s way too early for this.
On the other hand, it will have some perks like never need to upgrade, no need to order games, play whole games library from anywhere, play cutting edge games on portable devices like PSP PS3 remote play, ect.
DarthPenguin
August 19, 2008 at 13:48
Maybe I don’t get it… but the way I see it is like this.
They still going to have to have hardware somewhere running the game. Whatever system is running it for you is going to need to have an owner. Surely there will be a “console war†as to who would own it.
Now surely all those “hardware†will cost money, so they going to have to charge for the virtual console. But you try tell a customer to pay a few grand for a “empty consoleâ€â€¦ not going to go down to well… they’ll want them for next to nothing.
People are going to want to see better graphics for one thing… technology must not stop getting better.. what type of incredible bandwidth are they going to need to give out such high picture quality?
What happens if you don’t have an uber internet connection? Surely a majority of consoles sold aren’t active online. Not everyone wants to be online all the time. They’ll be losing a lot of their market.
Well maybe I don’t understand… but I can’t see it working.
xyber
August 20, 2008 at 12:01
Some people buy consoles to get away from the PC. Now he wants you to go back to sitting behind one to play via Orb?
What would work is to deliver an Orb Console which connects to the internet to grab the games.. err. oh wait, PSN and Live.
Anycase, .. only way I can see this replacing the console is if they can provide a “PC” (Console) with all the needed accessories (gamepads, keyb/mouse) in a clean and neat package, which you can hook up to the TV and your broadband. It must be plug and play, boot into something other than linux/windows, some interface similar to PS3 and 360’s.
Some consumers buy consoles because they don’t want to struggle with the mess that is PCs and PC upgrades to play games at good settings, and consoles got an easy to use interface.