'Mobile will push console gaming into a niche'

EA founder says console market will become 'more like a hobby market' due to smartphone and tablet gaming.
Trip Hawkins founded Electronic Arts (EA) back in 1982, worked closely with Steve Jobs in the early days of Apple and founded Digital Chocolate, and although he doesn't have the same power today as he once did, his words still carry a lot of weight.
In an interview with IGN, he said that he sees console gaming becoming a hobby:
"The console market is always going to be with us, because there’s always going to be a hardcore segment, a segment that likes innovation. But it’s going to become a smaller market, and it’s going to be more like a hobby market. You look at airplanes. Most of us just want to be a passenger, but there’s a hobby market for people who are really into aviation and want to take flying lessons and maybe someday have their own airplane. I think that’s what’s happening to the console market.
"But there are billions of people now playing games. The gaming industry is finally becoming mass-market. It’s across two billion PCs and four billion mobile phones, and within a few years a billion tablets."
Hawkins continued: "Games are going everywhere. Plenty of people are playing for social reasons and playing when it’s convenient. It’s a trend towards mobile- and browser- and cloud-based games. You contrast that with what happens when you have to either purchase or download a specific app that runs native on a specific device and you only ever play it when you have that platform in front of you.
"In the old days I’d go down to the basement to play Grand Theft Auto. But the Facebook gamer is able to play at work, at home, in a hotel on a PC. They can get access to a browser just about anywhere. People are thinking about convenience first."
What do you think? Is mobile gaming going to push the console market back underground?

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/read/...a-niche/019611