Next generation game consoles

We are at the start of a wave of next generation game consoles. The new handheld consoles are already there, the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP, the second generation XBox is announced for christmas, and in 2006 we will get the Sony PS3 and the next Nintento Gamecube. I own a Gameboy SP Advance, a PS2, and a Gamecube, but I still spend most of my playing time on the PC. Will that change?

What I already noticed is that the PC games sections in the stores is getting smaller and smaller, while more and more shelf space is taken up by console games. But I also noticed that of the existing console games the percentage of games I would actually want to play is even smaller than with PC games. Games have gotten a lot dumber over the years, due to faster processors allowing more action, which then replaced thinking. There are lots of action shooters and racing games out there, and even role-playing games and strategy games have moved towards being action oriented. Dungeon Siege II looks good, but in comparison ot old Gold Box AD&D, Wizardry, or Might & Magic games it is downright primitive. Turn-based strategy games are a species threatened by extinction, replaced by fast and furios real-time strategy games, in which quick reflexes get you further than a battle plan.

These games sell because they are graphically better than their predecessors, graphics getting closer and closer to being photorealistic. But I hope that once graphics can't get technically better any more, game developers will have to focus more on content than on appearance. And there are obvious limits to how many different first-person shooters or racing games you can sell, hopefully forcing them to develop more different games. The average age of gamers is rising anyway, and middle-aged gamers like me aren't terribly interested in games which require the reflexes of a teenager.

Before I bought the laptop, I toyed with the idea to buy a PSP. Good thing I didn't do it. The laptop can do all the things the PSP can do, play games, play movies, play music, and have wireless internet access. But while the PSP might have a slight edge where pure gaming is concerned, the laptop wins in the other categories. PSP screen size diagonal of 4.3 inch, 480 x 272 pixels might be big for a handheld, but it isn't exactly suitable for DVD quality movie watching. Then there is the question where the movies are coming from. The PSP can't read DVDs, only small Universal Media Discs, of which the choice is rather limited. You can theoretically use a PC to rip a DVD into a format the PSP can play, and transfer it to the PSP via an USB cable. But that requires you buying a Memory Stick Duo. The "value edition" of the PSP comes with a laughable 32 MB Memory Stick Duo, and the 1 GB version cost $199 at the Sony online store, although you can probably get compatible memory sticks from other brands for half that. You aren't likely to carry a collection of ripped DVDs with you on your PSP. So unless you want it for carrying a collection of low-resolution porn you downloaded from the internet, the PSP isn't really useful for watching movies. Internet surfing with the PSP is possible since the v2.0 firmware upgrade, but again the usefulness is limited. Most webpages don't work well in 480 x 272 resolution, and only having a "virtual" keyboard makes internet activities that involve typing a pain. I think I can live without a PSP.

The first of the next generation living room consoles, the XBox 360, I'm not going to buy either. The first XBox had very few games that would have interested me, and most of these (KOTOR, Fable) got eventually ported to the PC. But what I will probably buy is the PS3. The PS2 games were more my style, having a lot of role-playing games and interesting strategy titles, often of Japanese origin. On a PS3 the old PS2 games will still run, and there will be lots of new games, most probably closer to my taste than XBox games. The Nintendo console I don't know yet, I basically bought it for playing Legend of Zelda, the Windwaker. I still only have a tiny collection of Gamecube games, and don't know if buying the console for so few games is worth it. Main advantage of the Gamecube for me was that it is small, so I sometimes took it on holidays with me. But now I'd rather take the laptop.

I don't think PC gaming will ever totally disappear. But with the new consoles offering online possibilities, sooner or later we will see major MMORPG running on them. There are already some MMORPG on the PS2, but console online gaming hasn't really kicked off yet. That will change with the next generation of consoles, online gaming is generally considered as a major selling point.
- posted by Tobold @ 8:04 AM Permanent Link