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The next generation of console wars is nearly here! Nintendo’s Wii U is already available. Sony is expected to announce the next PlayStation later this month. And Microsoft is expected to announce the next Xbox by E3 2013. In the past, hardware and exclusive games shaped the outcome of console wars. More recently, online services like PlayStation Network and Xbox Live helped determined the outcome. With many people believing that the upcoming batch of hardware will be the end of traditional consoles as we know them, what do you think will determine the next skirmish. More importantly, what features are most important to you?
Some people believe that games will be an afterthought, or at least exclusive games. They believe that all three platforms will have great games, so it’ll be a wash. I somewhat disagree with this stance. While exclusives aren’t as powerful as they used to be, I believe they still shape a console’s identity.
Most pundits agree that pure horsepower isn’t as relevant as it used to be. This is a trend that extends beyond consoles. Generally speaking, consumer electronics have become more about software and services than powerful hardware. One of the reasons that Xbox 360 was more successful than PlayStation 3 was that Xbox Live was much better than PlayStation Network for years. While Sony’s service has improved greatly, some feel that the improvements didn’t come fast enough.
Continuing on the services tip, the social, non-gaming, and premium features of consoles have become hugely important. Many gamers prefer Xbox 360 because that’s the system most of their friends use online. Playing games with friends is almost always more fun than playing with strangers. Some people spend more time using the non-gaming features of consoles more than playing games. Features like streaming video services and video chat are quite popular. Then there are the premium services. Some people feel that PlayStation Plus trounces Xbox Live Gold.
Some journalists are shouting about developer ease-of-use being paramount. That’s certainly an important issue, but some of the writers that are taking this stance have little idea what goes into making a game. Honestly, I’m not sure where this is coming from. It’s one thing for developers to say or write things like this, but journalists that don’t understand game production? Then again, there are a lot of journalists that write long diatribes about what Company X needs to do to turn things around while having no clue about running a business. Personally, I’m going to leave this issue on the table and let smarter people discuss it. Besides, I’m not sure that most gamers care.
So games, hardware power, and online services…. What else is there? What concerns you the most? What features and factors do you think will be most important in the next generation of console wars? Please shout it out in the comments section!
Games and multimedia of course. I think SteamBox has a great chance since it will, theoretically, offer games at steep discounts like already seen on the PC and Mac. The incumbents do not seem to share this philosophy and this really could help lower prices on the digital goods that you really only lease instead of own.
The next machines have to be malleable and allow end users to add local storage that isn’t going to cost them $1 per gigabyte. Those are SSD prices yet MS will sell you an old mechanical drive for that. I think Nintendo did a smart thing with declaring that they would not be monetizing end user storage since it is cheap.
MS needs to justify Gold subscription costs. You just can’t release your next gen console and still rely on P2P for multiplayer. There needs to be dedicated servers for this. In the end I do not care about the apps on the machine that allow me to use FB, streaming radio, etc. I have a smartphone that does it much better in addition to countless other devices. I have never fired up a console and navigated the obnoxiously slow UI to view YouTube.
Lastly the price will be important. I don’t see myself dropping $600 on a machine that isn’t a PC or Mac.
I’m baaaaack. Lol.
I’m concerned about backwards compatibility and digital games. I like the physicality of owning any media and being able to resell that media when I no longer have a use for it. Obviously it isn’t a ton of money but it’s better than collecting dust. I also have a shitload of old games and being able to play those games with the least amount of clutter is important to me.
What I want in a my next console is basically what I already have in the Xbox 360 with the added bonus of a DVR option for my HDD, more than 100 friends (10 games and 10 friends for each game isn’t cutting it), more freeware like Happy Wars, and more RAM…way more RAM for larger parties and other things to name a few things off the top.
Considering the 100 friend limit came from Halo 2 limitations, it is about time that limit was taken away.
I disagree on the exclusive games argument. It is very much alive and present (although I wish it wasn’t). Sure there may be LESS games exclusive to consoles than the PS1 & PS2 era, but they are still there and with some of the best games in the industry, no less.
I want to play Uncharted, God of War, Heavy Rain and The Last of Us, but I can’t do that unless I spend an extra $300, plus the cost of each game. Similarly, someone with a PS3 can’t play Gears of War, Halo, Alan Wake, or Forza. Even when good games go cross-platform, sometimes they get messed up (*cough* Bethesda *cough*)
I want console exclusives to really go away permanently. If someone brings up the issue of money, I can easily point out that Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft can charge a premium (maybe an extra $10) for their first-party titles to go cross-platform. This will encourage people to buy the “discounted” games for their respective consoles, while at the same time giving people the option to buy it on whatever console they have at home. It will also give the big three more margins when selling their games across other platforms. It’s a win-win for everybody!
Yeah, I know it’s not going to happen anytime soon, but a man can dream, can he not?
-M