This article talks about how mobile apps have been chipping away $58 billion off of the global market for traditional video games due to the digital era and the convenience provided by smartphones.

Although it is true that our world has been greatly revolutionized by smartphones, I don’t think that it is at an extent where the video game console industry will suffer a great loss. This is because there is still a point of difference: an app cant give consumers the full gaming a experience a console can. Consoles have better graphics quality and the mechanics in terms of how a player controls the game is more engaging.

Probably the main reason why apps has a large and growing market is due to the accessibility and ease of downloading these games. Although games can be purchased online on consoles, it is not that convenient due to the large file size and downloading takes a lot of time. With this being said, video game companies cant fully integrate to this method of distribution. Not until every household has access to high-speed internet.

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-14/2014-outlook-video-game-consoles-game-over-or-new-era