游戏机为何没被淘汰？

游戏机为何没被淘汰？

人们很早就认为智能手机会抢走主机游戏的生意，而事实上，不仅主机游戏的市场份额在复苏，分析师们还预言它将迎来一个“黄金时代”，那些惊讶于主机游戏长盛不衰的人都应该试着玩一玩。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

lunatic 疯子['luːnətɪk]

underplay 不充分的表演；秘密行动[ʌndə'pleɪ]

gadget 小玩意；小器具['gædʒɪt]

commuter 通勤者[kə'mjuːtə(r)]

genre 类型；种类[ˈʒɒnrə]

epic 史诗的，叙事诗的['epɪk]

impenetrable 不能通过的；顽固的[ɪm'penɪtrəb(ə)l]

bifurcate 分叉的['baɪfəkeɪt]

spectacle 景象；场面['spektək(ə)l]

lag 落后；迟延[læg]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为： 那么，您的阅读速度相当于 每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分49秒 母语为英语者的朗读速度 140

2分22秒 母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度 250

1分7秒 母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度 350

0分5秒 母语为英语的速读高手 1000

How consoles survived the rise of the smartphone （657words）

By Helen Lewis

-----------------------------------------------------

In 1925, John Logie Baird wanted to convince the public that his latest invention would be a great success. Unfortunately, when he arrived at the London offices of the Daily Express, his sales pitch was quickly dismissed. “For God’s sake, go down to reception and get rid of a lunatic who’s down there,” a news editor reportedly told staff. “He says he’s got a machine for seeing by wireless.”

This illustrates our inability to predict the appeal of a medium, and particularly the problem of making a judgment without hands-on experience. “Seeing by wireless” sounds impossible — until someone shows you a television set.

And that is why anyone surprised by the continued success of console games, with a revival of market share and analysts forecasting a “golden era” — long after smartphones were supposed to have stolen their business — should try playing a few. Appreciating the difference between the experiences makes it easier to see how they can happily co-exist.

Of course, we should not underplay the explosive rise of mobile gaming. A decade ago, playing a game on the go meant buying a dedicated gadget such as the Nintendo DS or PlayStation Portable. Now commuters tap away on their phones at Candy Crush or Clash of Clans, while answering emails and checking the weather on the same device.

This year, for the first time, mobile games sales are predicted to be higher than those on consoles and PCs. But that is down to the creation of a vast new market, not the cannibalisation of an old one. Many of those playing games on their commute go home and switch on the Xbox One or PlayStation 4.

The two genres are quite distinct. Mobile games are friendlier — not least because their revenue model depends on players sticking with them. They are often free to download, making money from advertising or in-app purchases. They often tend to focus on repetitive puzzles or slow-building strategies, which lend themselves to small pockets of time and imprecise, stab by fingers.

Console games, however, need to justify the purchase of the machine itself, at about £250, and of the game, at £30. So they tend to be epic — sweeping plots, gorgeous graphics, storylines that unfold over many hours. (I have personally saved humanity at least a dozen times, and each time it looked beautiful.) They often deal with war or its peacetime substitute, sport. And they demand precision and dedication, making them almost impenetrable to anyone who did not start playing as a teen.

This brings us back to Baird and his great invention. Television did not kill the movie industry; we did not all decide there was no point going out when we could watch what we wanted at home. Instead, the mediums bifurcated: each focused on content suited to its form. Films, like console games, can do spectacle in a way smaller screens cannot. Captain America is a very different experience from Mad Men. So is Grand Theft Auto from Fruit Ninja.

That also means films and console games are open to the same criticism: their high production values are a barrier to innovation because so few companies can invest the tens of millions it takes to make them. Hollywood is dominated by the Big Six studios, themselves owned by conglomerates, and the top-grossing films of last year — Star Wars Episode VII, Jurassic World and Avengers: Age of Ultron — are all sequels. In games, the 2015 US bestseller list was topped by Call of Duty: Black Ops III (a sequel to a spin-off, no less). Minecraft was the only original title in the top 10.

Even as the console world celebrates confounding its doubters, it should reflect on this. Hollywood studios try to encourage smaller, independent films but the games industry has lagged behind. Expanding the middle of the market, the space between space operas and addictive puzzlers, should be its next big challenge. Where is the Woody Allen of console titles?

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1. What would replace the game consoles as people thought?

A. smartphones

B. DVDs

C. computers

D. televisions

2. When mobile games sales are predicted to be higher than those on consoles and PCs firstly?

A. 2017

B. 2018

C. 2019

D. 2016

3. Which one is not right about mobile games, compared with console games?

A. their revenue model depends on user agglutinant

B. they often deal with war

C. they often tend to focus on repetitive puzzles

D. they always make money from advertising or in-app purchases

4. What is films and console games’ same criticism, as a barrier to innovation?

A. high production values

B. advertising & publicity expenses

C. complicated making process

D. hard to swallow

[1] 答案 A. smartphones

解释：人们很早就认为智能手机会抢走主机游戏的生意。

[2] 答案 D. 2016

解释：今年，预计移动游戏的销量将首次超越主机游戏或电脑游戏。

[3] 答案 B. they often deal with war

解释：移动游戏相对更友好些——主要因为其盈利模式取决于玩家的忠诚。移动游戏通常是免费下载的，其收入来源于广告或玩家购买游戏内嵌的应用程序。

[4] 答案 A. high production values

解释：二者高昂的制作成本成为创新的障碍。