My two cent's on next gen consoles ... Nintendo Revolution
Okay I know its been a while, since I my last posting on this but needless to say I've been busy. So here is the last part of my thoughts on the next generation game consoles, by talking about Nintendo. Now this is really the company that showed that not only video games where big business but that you can bring it to into people's homes too. Unfortunately Nintendo isn't the same powerhouse it once was some 20 years back, in fact they, according to the numbers, seem to be on their way out of the console gaming market. This of course is why you simply cannot go by the numbers, so before I get a boat load of e-mails from you fans boys, understand that I think they will out last everyone in the industry. Now I won't get into why I think that but I may touch up on that for another time. So I digress, I'm marking Nintendo's Revolution as a wild card that may change the way we "want" to play next generation games. Of course there is always a chance it won't take and then it just becomes that other console with the weird interface. There is a pretty good editorial on most the topics I'm covering on IGN's site which can be found here.
Now I'd have to say I'm actually pretty excited about this console, first of all, I like the fact that there will be tons of original game content of the system due to its unique interface. So basically since the Revolution controller (remote ... take your pick) works so differently than current console controllers. Meaning developers are getting more creative on how to port their game interfaces and in some cases just designing different games for this unique platform. Now as good as this sounds there is a lot of experimentation here, hence no one knows what will work well for gamers. The problem here that this is a huge risk for game developers since the cost of creating games is so high with only a small percentage actually making it bit (i.e. they get lots of cash). So the original games outside of Nintendo maybe pretty slim, which by the way is really bad since Sony showed that having tons of third party studios publishing for your platform will definitely promote/enhance your platform.
Okay as far as performance the Revolution will be the "weakest" of the next generation consoles in terms of hardware specs, but it will also make the system vastly more affordable than either Sony's or Microsoft's consoles. Not to mention Nintendo is banking on game-play over "shininess" aspect but don't expect the next generation games for the Revolution to be lacking since, the system still has enough power to do some pretty cool environments, but it will probably fall short on the HD side. Meaning that even though the Revolution will have HD support at some point in time, there is no guarantee that it'll look that good, but the question is will anyone care? I'm all up for HD content but was standard quality that bad? Also Nintendo will be launching a online service that will brought in to compete with Microsoft's Live service and Sony's yet to be named online service. The difference Nintendo is offering? Not much, yes Nintendo will provide its whole legacy library online which should be really cool for all of you nostalgia gamers but they don't have the infrastructure yet, so I'm gonna wait and see on this one.
Okay so that's my two cent's on the whole next generation gaming consoles, so just in case you missed it, Sony will probably come out on top due to their track record and Sony's complete and utter commitment to the Playstation brand. Microsoft will gain ground and maybe able to sway more developers their way if they can make the development process easier, otherwise their Live service will probably be their bread and butter aspect of their platform. Nintendo's Revolution will be different and will focus on gameplay, if they can convince gamers they have a chance of trumping everyone by being the first to go down this route, but realistically they'll probably gain additional shares in the market but probably won't be able to get enough original content out there to get everyone else to switch.
Now I'd have to say I'm actually pretty excited about this console, first of all, I like the fact that there will be tons of original game content of the system due to its unique interface. So basically since the Revolution controller (remote ... take your pick) works so differently than current console controllers. Meaning developers are getting more creative on how to port their game interfaces and in some cases just designing different games for this unique platform. Now as good as this sounds there is a lot of experimentation here, hence no one knows what will work well for gamers. The problem here that this is a huge risk for game developers since the cost of creating games is so high with only a small percentage actually making it bit (i.e. they get lots of cash). So the original games outside of Nintendo maybe pretty slim, which by the way is really bad since Sony showed that having tons of third party studios publishing for your platform will definitely promote/enhance your platform.
Okay as far as performance the Revolution will be the "weakest" of the next generation consoles in terms of hardware specs, but it will also make the system vastly more affordable than either Sony's or Microsoft's consoles. Not to mention Nintendo is banking on game-play over "shininess" aspect but don't expect the next generation games for the Revolution to be lacking since, the system still has enough power to do some pretty cool environments, but it will probably fall short on the HD side. Meaning that even though the Revolution will have HD support at some point in time, there is no guarantee that it'll look that good, but the question is will anyone care? I'm all up for HD content but was standard quality that bad? Also Nintendo will be launching a online service that will brought in to compete with Microsoft's Live service and Sony's yet to be named online service. The difference Nintendo is offering? Not much, yes Nintendo will provide its whole legacy library online which should be really cool for all of you nostalgia gamers but they don't have the infrastructure yet, so I'm gonna wait and see on this one.
Okay so that's my two cent's on the whole next generation gaming consoles, so just in case you missed it, Sony will probably come out on top due to their track record and Sony's complete and utter commitment to the Playstation brand. Microsoft will gain ground and maybe able to sway more developers their way if they can make the development process easier, otherwise their Live service will probably be their bread and butter aspect of their platform. Nintendo's Revolution will be different and will focus on gameplay, if they can convince gamers they have a chance of trumping everyone by being the first to go down this route, but realistically they'll probably gain additional shares in the market but probably won't be able to get enough original content out there to get everyone else to switch.
posted by Steve at 9:08 PM
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