Mobile gaming (Facebook included in category) is said to present a threat to home console gaming's fortified foundations but in reality it only offers a bullet on the portable console front and a gateway for casual gamers to traverse into more complex game experiences on the home consoles.
The strongest line of defence from the mobile takeover is formed by game experiences that are exclusive to the home consoles. All three of the home consoles have their exclusives and each of the editions is produced to the highest capability and specification. To name only three recurring and returning, system-seller exclusives for each of the three allies: (notice the order :) Sony has Killzone, Uncharted and Little Big, Nintendo has Metroid, Zelda and Mario while Microsoft has Halo, Fable and Gears (Indie platformers if you want). On the racing game front: Microsoft has Forza, Sony, Gran Turismo and Nintendo pumps Mario Kart (could've been F-Zero but oh well).
These game experiences are unrivalled by everything in and outside of the console gaming industry. Each home console has many more exclusives which, although frustrating for the purse, ensure their collective validity in the interactive entertainment marketplace.
With the fact that you can play every mobile game on multiple devices, mobile gaming has no real exclusives. In addition, the best games on Facebook, Apples AppStore and Googles PlayStore are scaled down copies of other games that are not as pleasant, comprehensive and/or well produced as their home console counterparts.
Up-to-date AAA titles are absent from the devices many say will 'kill gaming'. Instead, the majority of consumers gaming on these devices are playing Fruity Popper, Flappy Pigs or the like. The big studios will always have more epic plans in mind and so too will most of the players of these minimalistic games: one can only do something simple for so long without outgrowing it and wishing for something more complex. Plus, with AAA budgets rising steadily and continuous raising of the bar with titles like the Uncharted and Call of Duty chapters, there is increasingly less chance of AAA experiences appearing on, never mind being primarily for, mobile devices.
Console and PC gaming is where classics are born, the most devoted communities are and, most importantly in this case, where the talent is. Even if the mobile-gaming market grows to a financial state that is a thousand times larger than that of consoles, the best experiences in gaming will be absent.
Despite gains in popularity and the console efforts of Valve, Nvidia and Alienware, PC gaming is not due to eclipse console gaming either, not as long as console exclusives and the multiformat ones such as the Metal Gear**updates!**, GTA (timer) and Yakuza series continue to be delivered by their righteously discriminating publishers and developers. If you love videogames, you need a console.
With regards to the possibility of having a modifiable entertainment system leading the market (read: PCs); it is unlikely that ordinary people will want a device that requires advanced assembly and configuration, consumers perennially show that they want their electronics to run everything fast and easily. Granted, the PC does have its exclusives but the best of those unique gaming experiences tend to be geared towards multiplaying, user creation and highly technical interfaces as opposed to cinematic quality, ease of use and artistry. As immediately accessible forms of media, the latter values are more valuable. Also, as always, every great original idea has imitators and these will exist at some point in near optimal form on at least one of the home consoles. This world of mainstream/casual gamers is not going to become deep pocket PC-Modland any time soon.
If you have been worrying about the demise of console gaming coming too early in your day, you can relax. As seen at this years E3 expo, there sure is a lot more videogame greatness to come and, you just wait, Nintendo have another console cycle coming up.
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