游戏硬件设备发展趋势编辑本段回目录
在2013年国际CES展会最后48小时，新公布的各类产品中，涉及游戏的产品类型则比过去两届展会加起来的还要多。这一现象无疑提醒了我们，如今的游戏行业不再只是主流游戏主机与其制造商的天下。
过去几年，CES展会并不是游戏行业公布新品的终极目的地。在此涉及的游戏新闻基本属于小众市场商品，有时是游戏PC组件（比如新图像显卡），有时是全新周边设备（游戏邦注：比如第三方输入设备与附件），而最近，更多新型移动处理器与GPU的涌入意味着将会出现更多具备高密度图像的移动游戏。微软与索尼也是该展会的常客，但他们通常更关注科技业务客户，而非游戏领域（后者通常保留到E3大会）。
CES 2013_logo(from thorens.com)
新型游戏硬件问世
然而，今年我们目睹了大量主流游戏产品席卷整个展前新闻发布会。无论是Nividia的Project Shield这款掌上游戏机，GRID公司的云端流媒体服务器，GeForce Experience的优化软件，还是Valve与Xi3针对Steam合作开发，可以在客厅享受的基于PC模式的Big Picture Mode，总之，今年的CES展会对游戏行业而言将具有非凡意义。如果留意展会上媒体的表现与用户的反应，我们不难发现，游戏硬件制造商在此将获得比前几年更多的关注度与反响。
即便是那些不以游戏中心产品为重点的公司也做出承诺，其新配件将更关注游戏性能。游戏也是英特尔每项新品的配套功能之一，无论是瞄准新兴市场（与游戏市场）的新型Atom智能手机处理器，还是芯片制造商第三代与第四代酷睿系列的低耗能平板电脑与超级本处理器。为了展示高通公司全新Snapdragon 800系列的强大性能，其首席执行官Paul Jacobs展示了借其体验高品质3D游戏的模式。LG与Vizio也带来了他们内置谷歌TV的新型高清电视机，它支持包括OnLive在内的流媒体游戏客户端。
nvidia-project-shield(from androidandme.com)
不同趋势
现在，CES展会的铁杆粉无疑会注意到，今年展会上发布的新品与样本与以往无多大区别；过去，我们也曾在CES展会上见过新型主机设备、令人振奋的游戏原型、全新流媒体服务，以及其他类似产品。那么，为何今年存在差异？
我认为，今年展会与往届的部分差异在于我们游戏行业人士对这些新品的反应。在此之前，人们容易忽视涉及小众市场的PC硬件升级版与专门输入设备的增加，从何忽略潜在大客户，因为他们难以获得拥有大量用户基础的开发商的支持，而不断涌现出的云端流媒体服务则总是被贴上“明年趋势”的标签。如果三大游戏主机制作商中的某一家没有参与，那么此次展会便无多大看点。
然而，就在我们继续等待微软和索尼带给我们全新系统，同时期待任天堂的Wii U让我们兴奋之时，我们也对其它比当代游戏主机进化更快的游戏、设备、平台以及系统投入更多金钱和精力。从情感上看，我们越发习惯主流之外平台上那些显著、有趣且迷人的游戏。换言之，我们之所以对这些新发布产品感兴趣，是因为我们本身已经做好接受它们的准备。
与此同时，Valve、NVIDIA、英特尔与高通这些游戏行业巨头也发现，只需将移动设备制作成潜在游戏机，让流媒体服务更加稳定可行，并开发出新型的整套游戏主机，他们便能慢慢抢占主流游戏机制造商的风头。
（讽刺的是，在CES展会对大众而言越发有趣，真正消费电子产品则对CES越发兴味索然；而游戏行业中发生的大部分精彩新闻报道更多是关于苹果、谷歌与最近微软公司的事件。）
如果要总结2013 CES展会，那便是游戏硬件市场的准入门槛去以往更低：处理器制作成本更加低廉，移动带宽速度加快，且覆盖面变广，而触摸屏、加速计与GPS接收机等专门组件更具实效性，开源操作系统更具活力。现在可以说，针对任何平台开发游戏的准入门槛将变得更低（多亏Unity和虚幻引擎这些开发工具），显然，2013将会成为游戏行业相当狂热的一年。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，作者：Patrick Miller）
Opinion: What CES 2013 says about the state of the game industry
by Patrick Miller
Game Developer magazine editor Patrick Miller argues how the influx of game-related announcements at this year’s CES hints at a tumultuous — yet exciting — 2013.
This year’s International CES has had more significant game-related announcements in the last 48 hours than the previous two shows have had combined — reminding us that now, more than ever, the game industry isn’t just about the major consoles and console manufacturers.
CES hasn’t really been a destination show for game industry announcements over the past few years. Game-related news that does break there is typically relatively niche stuff related to gaming PC components (new graphics cards), peripherals (third-party input devices and accessories) and more recently, new mobile processors and GPUs meant to drive more graphically-intensive mobile games. Microsoft and Sony are there, but they’re usually focused more on their consumer tech businesses, not games (which they save for E3).
Bring forth the game hardware
This year, however, we’ve seen a wave of major games announcements hit during the pre-show press conferences. Between Nvidia’s Project Shield handheld console, GRID cloud streaming game server, and GeForce Experience optimization software, and Valve’s partnership with Xi3 to develop a PC-based game system for Steam and its living room-friendly Big Picture Mode, this year’s CES has been an unusually notable one for the game industry — and all those announcements happened before the show floor opened Tuesday morning. When you look at the way the press at the show and their audiences are reacting to the news, it’s clear that game hardware manufacturers at CES are getting more buzz and bigger reactions than they have in the few years prior.
Even companies that don’t focus on game-centric products are making sure to at least pay lip service to the importance of playing games on their new gadgets. Games figured into each of Intel’s new product announcements, from its new Atom smartphone processors meant for developing markets (and for playing games), to the chipmaker’s third- and fourth-generation low-power Core series tablet/Ultrabook processors (shown playing Civilization V). When Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs wanted to demonstrate the power of the new Snapdragon 800 line, he showed it playing a high-quality 3D game. LG and Vizio are both bringing new HDTVs with built-in Google TV support that includes an OnLive streaming game client.
So what’s the difference?
Now, CES veterans will no doubt notice that these announcements and demos aren’t drastically different from much of the usual fare; we’ve seen new consoles, exciting prototypes, streaming services, and other similar stuff show up at CES in the past. So why is this year different?
I maintain that part of the difference between this year’s CES and the CES of years past is in how we, as industry members, react to these announcements. Before, it was easy to dismiss incremental PC hardware upgrades and specialized input devices as only relevant to a relatively small market segment, ignore would-be console upstarts because we knew they wouldn’t get the developer support needed to attract a significant user base, and continually refer to cloud streaming services as “next year’s trend.” If one of the Big Three wasn’t involved, it probably wasn’t that interesting.
But as we continue to wait for Microsoft and Sony to show us their new systems — and we wait for Nintendo to wow us with the Wii U — we’re getting more and more invested in other games, devices, platforms, and ecosystems that are evolving faster than the current generation of consoles can keep up. Emotionally, we’re getting more and more used to the idea that noteworthy, interesting, entertaining games can be made for platforms besides the major consoles. In other words, we’re interested in these announcements because, as one man put it, our bodies are ready.
Meanwhile, industry powerhouses like Valve, Nvidia, Intel and Qualcomm are discovering that they can start to steal the spotlight, if only by inches, from the major console manufacturers by making every mobile device a potential game console, making streaming services more viable, and developing new consoles entirely.
(Ironically, as CES is becoming more interesting for us, it’s getting less interesting for actual consumer electronics; most of the cool things happening in that industry are increasingly being relegated to company-specific press events by Apple, Google and more recently Microsoft.)
If there’s one takeaway from CES 2013, it’s that the barrier to entry in the hardware game is lower than ever: Processing power only gets cheaper, mobile bandwidth only gets faster and more widespread, specialized components like touchscreens, accelerometers, and GPS receivers only become more readily available, and open source operating systems are more viable. Now consider that, in parallel, the barriers to entry for developing games for any platform are just getting lower (thanks to tools like Unity and Unreal Engine, for example), and it’s pretty clear that 2013 is going to be a pretty crazy year for the industry. (source:gamasutra)
