No gaming platform is dying.
Is gaming on console dying?
The big win of consoles for me has always been the couch cooperative opportunity. I'm a little sad that the recent generation of titles has seen more and more exclusively online play, so I'm vaguely hopeful for the Ouya or something similar to push back and provide a healthier niche for having two or more people in the same room playing the same game without also needing two TVs, two consoles, two copies...
Look at me dreaming.
The big win of consoles for me has always been the couch cooperative opportunity. I'm a little sad that the recent generation of titles has seen more and more exclusively online play, so I'm vaguely hopeful for the Ouya or something similar to push back and provide a healthier niche for having two or more people in the same room playing the same game without also needing two TVs, two consoles, two copies...
Look at me dreaming.
This!
Online multiplayer is great, but the fun to be had on split screen or coop with you friends in a basement is a whole other story. You don't get that with on a computer. You technically could, but no game is made like that since they expect you to be ON your computer, not hooking it up like a console lol.
But in defense of the OP (not for his initial reasoning), this aspect of consoles is definitely dying. 
And I think it is a huge factor in console > pc, besides the game library itself.
I can't tell you how many times my friends and I would pick up some awesome looking used games in the past few years, only to come home and find out it only has online multiplayer, or only 2 player split screen (really???), or a very limited version of multiplayer if you're doing local..
No gaming platform is dying.
Well, except maybe BlackBerry OS as a gaming platform...
Next year will be the year of BlackBerry OS gaming.
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@tychon and @FuzzyRhombus, who says you can't do that kind of gaming on a pc?
I'm not arguing against a living room machine played with controllers, I'm simply saying that it's no longer really necessary to limit yourself to an xbox or a ps4 to do so.
I kinda regret the post title now, which I made as a throwaway joke reference to the "is pc gaming dying" thread.
My point is that two are starting to converge more and more and the console business model as now know it (big corporates creating fixed hardware platform at a loss) is increasingly untenable in a environment where spiralling AAA development cost force cross platform development.
That coupled with the failure of the new generation to play the current big titles (Ghosts, BF4, etc) at HD resolutions... well, I just don't think it's viable long term.
That coupled with the failure of the new generation to play the current big titles (Ghosts, BF4, etc) at HD resolutions... well, I just don't think it's viable long term.
The Steam hardware & Software Survey looks to be showing about 35% of players using 1080p or higher resolutions. So while the technical capability is there, it looks like a pretty decent sized majority of PC gamers are also failing to experience the games at HD resolutions.
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/
While certainly not scientific, it's probably about the best stash of info on PC gamers as a whole...
Also, an Ars Technica article about the apparent 720p and 900p resolutions that the XBox One and PS4 are running BF4 at, respectively.
Sony's gaming entertainment division profits dropped last year because of lack lustre sales.
You have to remember that mobile gaming is hitting pc's and consoles.
However, I don't have the figures, but I think valve's profits are continually going in the right direction.
I think the ps4 / xbone generation will see a tough battle, especially in their later years.
I think there are also diminishing returns on graphics improvements. The amount of effort to improve the graphics by 10% is quite high and consumers are now looking for content. I don't think hardware will remain a bottleneck for the industry and, in a few years, you might be able to pick up a steam box for £250 which will play everything except PS4 exclusives. As mentioned above, your likely to see exclusives less and less as it becomes harder to make profit on a single platform.
Why do people use consoles? It's easier. There's no need to worry about anything. Get the game, put it in the console, and it runs.
Sony's gaming entertainment division profits dropped last year because of lack lustre sales
Of course profits are down in a transition year. People are spending less as they are waiting for the new consoles, and Sony is spending more on marketing, developing and manufacturing the PS4.
It doesn't really represent any sort of trend. If it continually declines over several years then it represents a trend. Most AAA publishers are likely operating at a loss over the last two quarters, compounded by the expense of transitioning to new hardware, and will make most of their money in the current quarter, mostly on current gen games due to the initial low install base of the next gen platforms.
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