Having the latest, greatest game console in your living room is a badge of honor. But that badge may be going the way of your CD player.
With the increase in broadband penetration, and the increased robustness of digital delivery services, we may not need game machines much longer. Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision, said as much this week in a presentation at the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco. As Gamespot Australia reports, Kotick "told attendees to 'expect many of our products to be playable independent of a console,' specifically saying he'd been impressed with media hub functionalities shown by 1080p TVs that let users stream content from their PCs. He also suggested a day in the not-too-distant future where players' Facebook profiles will be integrated into Guitar Hero, letting them make songs to share with friends, post high scores or favorite songs on their profile pages, and so on."
Meanwhile down in Austin, Texas, a company called Spawn Labs is doing its share to break down the wall between consoles and PCs. The company has a settop box, the Slingbox, which lets you stream console videogames from your TV to your PC.
David Kushner is the author of many books, including Masters of Doom, Jonny Magic & the Card Shark Kids, Levittown, The Bones of Marianna, and Alligator Candy. A contributing editor of Rolling Stone, he has written for publications including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Wired, and The New York Times Magazine.
