Here’s a quick rundown of the state of play, which is mostly
a list of console-makers getting things wrong:
Nintendo
The Wii-U has been out for a while, but has several issues.
Firstly, the marketing was rubbish and almost nobody realises it’s actually a
new console, not just a Wii with an extra letter at the end.
Perhaps because nobody noticed it (and it has
correspondingly poor sales) fewer developers are making games for it, which has
the obvious knock-on effect of making people less likely to buy it. EA did say,
a year or two ago, that they would have an unprecedented approach to making
games for the Wii-U, although at present ‘unprecedented’ appears to mean
they’re not making any.
Sony
The PS4 is out later this year, probably, and Sony has
probably cocked up the least of the consoles. Yes, there’s a stupid ‘share’
button because firms seem to think that everybody both has Facebook/Twitter and
wants to share their experiences of gaming on such social media, but that’s
mostly it.
There’s no backwards compatibility, which is rubbish, and
also perplexing. If consoles were consistently backwards compatible it would
really help Sony or Microsoft to keep people hooked into their systems, because
you’d have a massive back catalogue of games and you’d be able to play them on
a new console, preventing the ridiculous situation of either throwing out your
old consoles/games or having an ever-increasing number of consoles.
This isn’t a Sony-only problem, but it is the biggest
mistake they’ve made. (So far. They haven’t revealed the console itself, but
it’d be surprising if it were wildly different in size than recent consoles).
Xbox
They’ve made some very brave decisions. First off, no
backwards compatibility. This is rubbish, but as the PS4 is the same that’s not
going to shift or shed sales either way.
The name Xbox One is stupid. How do you go from Xbox to Xbox
360 to Xbox One? Not serious, just innumerate.
Then there’s the always-online rumour. That turned out to be
false, but only just. Xbox One as a console won’t need to be constantly online
to function, but games-makers can make their individual games work that way.
Depressingly, Microsoft has stated it will ‘encourage’ them to do so.
Apparently the firm thinks many users actually want this. It would be
fascinating to know if this is plain old bullshit or whether the upper echelons
of the organisation are so far removed from reality they actually think that’s
the case.
So, some games will need a constant internet connection, and
some won’t. It’s hard to see how the percentages will stack up either way, but
it’s immensely stupid and counter-productive. If you live somewhere with an
imperfect internet connection this can and will bugger up your games, if you’re
a big Xbox fan. If you live somewhere with no internet connection (*gasp!*) you
might as well not bother. You can either play on Xbox with a limited range of
games, or play on the PS4.
Bad news, poor people. Lots of people, realising that
certain games are destined for massive sales and a fairly rapid price drop,
deliberately avoid buying them at release. They then wait a few months, maybe a
year, and buy the same game for half the price. It’s a clever and simple
strategy if you’re a gamer but not a very wealthy one. This hasn’t been
completely confirmed, but the rumour mill is now suggesting that there could be
a fee for pre-owned games.
The story is this: games can be run without a disc by
installing the whole game to the hard drive. Except, this means individuals
could band together, have one member buy a given game, and then share it around
so everyone can install it. (Of course, you could stick to the old system
whereby you need a disc to play the game… but never mind). So, they’ll tie each
individual game to each individual console/hard drive.
If the disc is attempted to be used on a different account
(NB in the same console as the first or a different one) then a fee may be
charged. Obviously, clarity on this issue is needed, but the very fact fees for
pre-owned games are being discussed is not good publicity for Microsoft. “Too
poor to spend £40 at release? Then we’ll charge you a fee for buying a cheap
pre-owned game! Mwahahaha!”
Oh, and apparently the Kinect camera will always be on.
Now, the Xbox One will apparently have some new options
regarding TV-streaming or the like. But guess what? I don’t need that. I
already have a television. The ability to watch TV on my TV is not something I
need a console for.
Maybe that would appeal to people who are very casual gamers
and like integrated systems, but given the intensely stupid game-related
decisions I think the people happiest with this reveal will be Sony. By dint of
only making one idiotic choice (no backwards compatibility) the PS4 is already
well ahead of the Xbox One.
And here’s a telling piece of info. Since the Xbox reveal
Microsoft’s share price was down half a percent. Sony’s was up 9%.
Thaddeus
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