Gaming Consoles Will Soon Be for Nerds Only

Some years ago — around the time that HD-DVD gave up the ghost, Blu-ray emerged triumphant, and thousands of Xbox 360 owners said, “Well, hell” — I made a prediction. I predicted that Blu-ray would never replace DVDs the way DVDs did VHS. I figured that Blu-ray would be the equivalent of LaserDisc, something AV nerds and consumer bandwagoneers would get into it, and that the next big media format would be digital downloads.

Well, it was revealed last week that sometime in 2012, movie downloads will surpass physical sales and rentals for the first time. My prediction may sound like a slam-dunk now. (I almost wrote “slam-duck,” which is something else entirely and banned in the United States and all of its unincorporated territories except Guam.)

I mention my prediction for two reasons. First, I am available as a consultant and futurologist for mere scads of money. Second, now that I’ve established my incredible ability to see what was, in retrospect, completely obvious, it’s time for me to make another prediction about the future of media. Here it is: Videogame consoles are about to return to the shadowy Nerd-Lands.