MIcrosoft dropped a bomb on the tablet market this past Monday. Love it or leave it, the MS Surface is set to give the tablet market a much needed boost. It’s reportedly a strong contender for portable gaming. Which raises the question? How does Sony’s line of tablets stack up? Should Sony follow suit? Is there a need to try and match MS’s new hardware?
Tablets in the past have been touted as portable PC’s. What is the one thing missing from nearly all of them? Gaming. MS is aiming to make that a thing of the past. Eric Neustadter from Xbox Live Operations tweeted that the Surface tablet “could run Civilization IV and V,” and that it will be "the greatest Civilization-playing device known to mankind." Now, eat this with a grain of salt. MS did not demo any software or any apps at all. If word of mouth and hype are to be believed, this could be a blow to modern console gaming as we know it. Now the casuals may have access to portable machines that have the power to play some popular PC games. Of course it remains to be seen how this will flesh out, but it is intriguing!
What do you think? Should Sony be worried that MS could, in theory, have cross functionality with the pending new Xbox? Cloud gaming? PC game capability? Think about it. If you could carry with you a device that surfs the net, interacts with your home console (Xbox) and PC, and can play some PC titles via the cloud, sure seems like consoles could have some worrying to do. Do you anticipate Sony will do something similar with its next gen console and tablets?