Very nice post, you cover a lot of business aspects, which is the core of the video game industry. The general consumer isn't as familiar with the games industry from a business standpoint, and tend to base their decisions on brandnames.
Here's a little more filler to throw into the stew:
MS Portable Rumor
Some food for thought which has been in the Microsoft Rumor-mill for a while concerning the Xbox/Portable. The next console's HD has been up for debate, and one rumor is that it will be a portable device that will dock with the xbox. While not a fullfledged portable, the concept was dubbed the "ipod killer." This might be all MS needs to introduce more consumers to the premise of having a portable device on them for more than entertainment value, and usher in a new wave of PPC users.
PocketPC = MS gaming portable?
If you fancy emulation, and have deep pockets, then I whole heartedly agree that MS is already in the portable business, albeit not as a hardware manufacturer. PPC's have come a long way in appeasing the entertainment aspect of their capabilities. We can press two buttons at the same time on ipaqs now, which should lend some credence to PPCs being used as gaming devices. Why just emulation? Because that's where the big name franchises are. Not to step on anyone's toes, but the PPC's gaming scene is rather lack luster, with most of it's "best games" being knock offs of already established console/PC games, with just a spattering of actual ports, like Age of Empires.
Game Franchises?
Something I didn't pick up in your article is Microsoft's aggressive stance in securing high margin triple A titles as Xbox Exclusives. This might not mean a lot to a casual gamer, but exclusive titles are what sells consoles to the hard-core generation Y gamer. Exclusives are what distinguish one console from another, it's no longer about system specs, as any gamer will tell you, if you want to play Legend of Zelda, you
have to buy a Gamecube, if you want Doom III, you need an Xbox. In this respect, it's a safe bet that MS would procure the same exlusive titles for it's home console as it would for it's portable.
In the case of the N-Gage, form and function were only half of it's problem, the thorn in it's side was it's lack of exclusive titles. What gamer is going to spend over 300 dollars and sign up for a cellphone contract to play the same Sonic game they can on a gameboy for less than half the price of an N-Gage?
Smartphones?
To look into the future of phone technology, one only has to look at Japan, and their strong phone market. Phones with the power to display polygons have been out in Japan for literally years. Interstingly, with that level of power, it was never tapped into for more than animated avatars on your phone's display. What's interesting to note here, is that this is in Japan, the nation who resurrected the game industry here in the US, and noone outside of Capcom and Larry Banks have ventured to make games for phones. Personally, I think smartphones will not have any impact on the portable game market, just as the current batch of powerful phones hasn't either. While the game industry generates more money a year than Hollywood does, that doesn't mean it's consumer will buy anything, and that said, Smartphones are not in line with the pricepoint gamers have come to expect from a portable, $79-$199 dollars. You can argue you get a smartphone free when you sign up for a contract, but let's be honest, nothing is free in this world, and as an ex-airtouch employee, you're still paying for the phone, trust me
In closing
I welcome MS into the portable gaming market. They have the money, and exclusive game titles to push such a product, and if it's combined with any semblance of a windows CE OS, it's safe to say, that said portable would reign supreme in the
Homebrew community. Case in point, Korea's GamePark 32. The aspect of "doing more" with your device is a very lucrative one, especially since it already applies to the Xbox, which you can modify to be an all in one digital media center, linux node, web browsing, game emulating powerhouse and more. In my case, an actual PPC made for gaming, with actual exclusive titles by established developers like Blizzard, Rockstar, or EA, all of which are MIA in the ppc community.
x999x
"Game Industry Vet since '96"
Play Magazine Staff/Net Monkey