Console games are much harder to pirate than PC versions, as the console hardware needs to be modified.
If Microsoft releases its next-gen console in 2013, you might also get stuck with an out-of-date console subscription.
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Gamers have become used to a business model where the next challenger in the console wars is always another console.
Worse still, Sony, which dominates the household-console market, has announced plans to launch its own handheld console, the PlayStation Portable, in 2004.
Atari, which dominated the console business in the early 1980s, morphed into a game business and grew without the console for several generations.
Sony's handheld console the PlayStation Vita is set for a price drop - ahead of the widely-rumoured launch of a new PlayStation console.
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Now that a console like PS3 is deeply integrated with Facebook, this might also enable games played across the social network and the console.
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That may no longer be the case: The next challenger is not a console but an open platform anyone can build a console for.
In May Microsoft effectively stopped treating Live like an add-on for a videogame console and started pricing the console as a loss leader for an entertainment platform.
The prices for NES and Super NES Virtual Console games for Wii U will be the same as they were for the Virtual Console on Wii.
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The veneers will be used on the fascia, console, waistrail and roof console and in a y humidor with a humidification system, cigar cutter and ashtray.
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That it can be used as a standalone tablet, as well as a portable game console, as well as a home game console is extremely appealing.
Greater console sales also helps impacts game and console chip makers such as nVidia and provides insight into consumer demand as we approach the holiday season.
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Still, Iwata said the Wii would not be marketed as an entry level console marketed towards new customers, or the Wii U as a console for dedicated gamers.
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The first thing we noticed about Nintendo's next console when we last got our hands on it was the length -- the Wii U is Nintendo's longest console yet.
The Wii U will open to a lackluster console market aching for a new console, and it will do so with the full suite of first and third party games.
They lower the financial barrier to owning a console for many gamers, but they also allow console manufacturers to launch next-gen consoles at a lower, but still profitable, price point.
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The company has issued conflicting statements about whether installing a game on a second console would require a fee, or whether doing so would lock the game on the original console.
Part laptop, part tablet, part home console, and part portable console, the Razer Edge is the fruition of Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan's dream to create a "true" portable PC gaming machine.
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Here we go again.. without fail, when ever there is an article or a discussion about a good looking console game..some PC fanboy always must through low blows on console games.
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And historically, no new console has ever been able to keep up with the number of global gamers willing to pay whatever price to be the first to own a new console.
Love it or hate it, the conceptual Ouya console has stirred up the pot of video game publishing in recent weeks, as the hackable console promises to change the landscape of gaming forever.
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Players will be able to use the hand-held console as a camera, take pictures of themselves and automatically convert their images into Miis -- personalized in-game avatars like ones from Wii console games.
This year the company signed deals with LG and Samsung to power separate cloud gaming services that will allow these companies to enter the console games business without needing to build a console.
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It's interesting that Nintendo chose this year to unveil the controller ahead of the console, a 180 degree twist from the E3 unveil a few years back, where we saw the console first.
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Truly a collector's item for Xbox 360 and "Gears of War" fans, the console is incredible value with more storage than any other Xbox 360 console, and includes two customised limited edition wireless controllers.
The games merge toy figurines with RFID technology to allow in-game avatar representations of the toys to move from game console to game console, all the while storing unique information about that character.
Console-based games giants Nintendo and Sony have steered clear of China, though privately imported boxes are available and Nintendo recently unveiled a games console designed especially to protect against the country's rampant software piracy.
Namely, the console will ship with a new version of Microsoft's motion-sensing camera controller, Kinect, and that the device, "must be plugged in and calibrated for the console to even function, " the piece says.
In the past, game console makers spent lots of money developing the next piece of killer hardware, and even would lose money on each console unit sold, expecting to make it back up in sales of games and accessories.
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