On a snowy night in 2005, my mom brought home an Xbox 360. For my brother and I, it was love at first sight; it was the next big thing. After word got out that I had one, I noticed I had a lot more friends in general, which was an interesting correlation, now that I look back.

Xboxes, Playstations and Wii’s gave a whole lot of young kids a lot of great memories and experiences not only with the products, but with brothers, sisters and friends alike as they gathered around the television. And they still have a huge following.

But as far as popularity goes, those systems collectively bow down to the app store on the iPhone. Mobile games have enjoyed unabated growth — 66 percent increase in sales in 2013, according to a Dec. 12, 2013 report by the Wall Street Journal — since the devices became popular, whereas video game sales were sinking — a 24 percent drop in 2013 according to the researcher NPD Group — until next-generation systems resuscitated them.

Gamers scoff at the idea that mobile gaming is overthrowing the traditional form, insisting that they would never abandon highly advanced gaming systems to play Angry Birds.

But traditional gamers don’t represent a large enough demographic to single-handedly save a product. An Oct. 2013 Common Sense Media report showed that 50 percent of children aged 0 to 8 in 2013 have used mobile apps (a 34-percentage-point increase from 2011), with 43 percent of that demographic regularly playing educational games and 42 percent playing “just-for-fun” ones. That same report shows that video game usage for that age group has decreased by about four minutes per day, whereas mobile game usage has increased by five minutes.

The same way many of us grew up on Xboxes and Playstations, the kids just getting into technology now are still creating memories with family and friends, except they are holding a tablet or phone in their hands instead of a controller.

Paired with that trend, many of those who grew up with consoles will grow older and settle down with families. They won’t buy many new games, let alone systems.

It isn’t that Angry Bird and Co. killed the console — gamers aren’t abandoning the “Call of Duty” experience in favor of their phones — it’s that traditional video games could be losing their grip on that young audience that they received decades of loyalty from in the past.

But I don’t think this is the end of days for the console. In the future the Xbox One and Playstation 4 will become more about general media consumption than about playing EA Sports games and first-person shooters.

In an Oct. 2013 interview with The Atlantic, Hank Adams of Sportsvision talked about revolutionizing how people watch sports, and how consoles could play a role.  “Once we’ve got what are generally called connected TVs — smart devices like Samsung is making, or an Xbox, a Playstation, an Apple TV — there’s an awful lot we can do,” he said. “I’m going to be able to interact, predict and compete against my friends in ways that are much more involved than sitting back and watching a three-hour broadcast.”

A Nov. 9, 2012 CNN article states that 40 percent of all Xbox activity is non-game related. That’s where Neflix, Hulu, Amazon streaming and other entertainment apps hang their hats. I think that number will continue to increase.

Game consoles will eventually become known as home entertainment systems. Not necessarily bad news for Sony and Microsoft, but game developers and game retailers should be wringing their hands. What will happen when the mainstream franchises of “Madden” or “Battlefield” fizzle out? Their target market will implode.

Microsoft and Sony are safe for now. If they can transform their products and reinvent their marketing strategies to emphasize video streaming and adapt to ambitious plans like those of Sportsvision and other tech companies, they can still control the living room. But with younger kids attatched to their phones, traditional video games are left flaunting their incredible technology and design to an audience looking the other way.

Phil Kramer is a freshman advertising and marketing management major. His column appears weekly. You can reach him at [email protected].

Published on March 6, 2014 at 1:00 am