Thursday, January 22, 2009

Gaming Consoles Follow up Interview with Intel's Randy Stude

Thank you Randy Stude, Director, Intel for participating on the "Connected Game Consoles: King of the Digital Home" at the CONNECTIONS Summit at CES.

Which of the three game console vendors is in the best position to lead in the content and value-added services offerings?

Sony. Sony’s platform is much better equipped by way of its support of Blu-ray. Consumers buying new consoles are connecting them (or will be soon) to high definition tv’s and are looking for high definition content to play on them. The combined sku (gaming & Blu-ray) offer the PS3 a unique long term advantage. Additionally, if Sony is successful in bringing its Movie, Television and Music content to the PS3 they will have an even deeper advantage vs Microsoft who does not own or distribute content directly.

Which of the console vendors is most closely aligned with service providers?
None of the above. Microsoft has strong relationships with Telcos who are developing IP/TV services, but the Telcos don’t want to support consoles directly as they don’t offer a turnkey solution (set top box + services) business model.

Will console manufacturers continue to add value-added functionality such as home monitoring, home controls, home productivity functions (budget software, health and wellness utilities), essentially becoming an infotainment platform alternative to the PC?

Why would they. PC’s are much more adept at performing these functions. The ability to perform these functions is not something inherent to a television…

No comments: