By outsourcing to distant server farms the computational power necessary to render games, consumers will not need to buy a PC.
But amid all the back-and-forth about the effects of videogames on the gray matter, Bogost says the real revolution is happening in the public's perception of games: Consumers are looking beyond violent shooter games, and brain games are helping them feel good again about playing videogames.
And there is another problem: while errors are fixed easily in the traditional software business, Microsoft may have only one shot at the fickle game consumer.
While the average age of a video-game consumer is reportedly in the mid-thirties, the industry still markets its blockbuster titles to the young, with their relative absence of responsibility, surplus of free time, and, often, more limited funds.
The report – Worldwide Portable Game Consumer Spending – also claims that game spending on iOS and Android combined was four times the amount spent on games for 3DS, DS/DSi, PS Vita and PSP games during the three-month period.
This so-called conversational data can be used by game marketers to better position advertising buys and focus their efforts on a specific audience that is more likely to evangelize and buy a particular game than the general game consumer.
"This is a different game: consumers leading business".
He figures that if companies game consumers by changing prices, a computer can help consumers game the manufacturers and retailers.
The problem is that if a game is made too easy, it can turn off those core players who are the most loyal game consumers.
