Angry Birds Dev Says Console Games Are "Dying"

After last week's strange revelation that Rovio Mobile wants their company to become "Disney 2.0" we expected them to quiet down a little bit. However, that's certainly not the case this week as the same representative, Peter Vesterbacka, fired back at Nintendo president Satoru Iwata for saying that mobile games are "disposable."
Vesterbacka, also colloquially known as The Mighty Eagle, responded by berating the entire console gaming industry. He primarily targeted the $40-$60 price tag that modern console games carry. He said that innovation has now clearly moved into the mobile arena, and that smaller games allow mobile companies to be more "nimble" when it comes to providing a better experience. He said that updates can be provided more quickly in the mobile industry and thus developers can listen more closely to their customers requests.
It's hard to understand either of the complaints coming from these two high-powered gaming industry figures. There's no reason why Iwata should be talking down to mobile gaming in such a way. It's understandable that he wants to set the tone for the industry, and have them write-off mobile gaming as a disposable fad, but it's clearly false as there's no evidence to suggest that iPhone gaming is plateauing or falling. Angry Bird's 100 million mobile downloads are clear evidence for that.
Vesterbacka too has very little cause for saying that console games are "dying" either. There's a lot of excitement around console gaming still and they're still selling millions upon millions of units (Microsoft's Xbox 360 has sold over 50 million units since 2005 and sales in the 2010 holiday season were up 67% over the previous year.) Again, there's no evidence to suggest that console gaming sales (or its fans) are decreasing.
In this case it looks like this may just be a case of two coporate egos battling it out as each tries to position themselves as the leader of the "best" gaming sector.
Mr. Happypants
March 16, 2011 at 3:04pm
Great, two egomaniacs posturing & throwing up dirt like rutting elk. Send them a memo to shut up & get back to making games would ya? Angry Birds is quickly reaching the level of repetitive nonsense. The free levels are fine, but I doubt I'll buy any other add-ons from them, time for something new.
CCardarelli
March 15, 2011 at 1:22pm
Angry Birds is great for what it is, but if that's the future of all of gaming, then the medium as a whole is dead. Which it isn't. The last Call of Duty (though I shudder at even mentioning the name) came out in November and has made over a billion dollars. So I'd argue that consoles are doing fine. The future of handhelds? Well, that's a tale yet to be told.
Roberto Baldwin
March 15, 2011 at 11:58am
Call me when they got Mario Kart on the iPad. Until then, I'll game on my console and my iPad.
dakoster
March 15, 2011 at 10:41am
i Play Xbox at least 2 Hours a day. I havent played a game on my ipad in weeks.
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