The player

Reports of the death of console games may be premature, reports CIARA O'BRIEN

ARE CONSOLE games dying? Rovio's Peter Vesterbacka seems to think so. Vesterbacka is part of the team responsible for Angry Birds, one of the most popular mobile games in recent months. At the just- ended South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, Texas, he predicted that consoles were on the way out.

There's no denying that mobile gaming has become incredibly popular. Rovio recently raised $42 million in a funding round, with Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis's Atomico Ventures stumping up cash to invest in the company. Angry Birds, which started on iPhone, recently hit the 100 million download mark (30 million of which was on Android) and has also, interestingly enough, moved to consoles in recent months. Clearly someone in Rovio still values games consoles as a medium.

But does the growth of mobile games mean that consoles are on the way out? Not necessarily.

There are some arguments that hold true. Mobile games are easier and cheaper to make – and cheaper to purchase. It’s possible for small firms with a few employees to develop an incredibly popular game that goes on to make a lot of money. In addition, mobile games can be upgraded easily and cheaply.

But that doesn’t mean that consoles are fighting a losing battle, a counter-argument that was also made at SXSWI. Fellow panel member Tero Ojanpera from Nokia made the point that consumers are not in the habit of plugging their tablets into their big-screen TVs, an advantage that consoles have over their mobile competitors. And games consoles are immersive, particularly with the advent of 3D gaming, something that mobile games may find hard to replicate on smaller screens.

With the popularity of downloadable content and online gaming networks, console games can be upgraded more easily than they used to be.

People are still buying consoles and the required games. In the US in February, about $1.36 billion was spent on games, consoles, portable devices and their accessories. That’s about three per cent higher than a year ago. The figures from market research group NPD showed software sales were eight per cent lower, but this doesn’t include game downloads.

While the industry is experiencing some changes, talk of the death of the console is premature.