This fall will be all out war on the console gaming front as the new versions of Microsoft XBox and Sony PlayStation will duke it out for market share.
This article introduces us to a probably new combatant in the console war this fall – Amazon. Supposedly Amazon will have an Android based gaming platform likely much cheaper than the established consoles.
Google might also be a long term contender – probably not this year but in coming years it looks like Google Glass could be an intriguing platform for Multiplayer gaming:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/10234260/Google-Glass-the-next-big-gaming-platform.html
I think the market will be shrinking for living room gaming consoles – I think there are too many alternative platforms. Serious games will migrate to playing games on PC’s, casual gamers will use their tablets. However if Microsoft can get game developers to develop games that use the Kinect effectively, that may allow it to build out a stronghold in the living room. But so far, the Kinect has yet to be an effective piece of gaming hardware.
So this fall will be worth watching to see how these large companies fight for the battle of the living room, and how the future of online gaming evolves.