Future of Gaming – Accessories Not Included

For every system there is a means of control, whether it is a camera, controller, or voice recognition, and then there are the non-essentials. Web-cams, controller attachments, and alternate input methods, all of them add to the bulk in your gaming area all the while decreasing the bulk in your wallet. Yet I can’t help wondering how useful they actually are or how often they are just a cash grab. So that is what I am going to be talking about for this issue: accessories in the video game industry, both the good and bad.
A while ago I made fun of the insane accessories that were being released for the Nintendo Wii: the cheap little plastic things, molded to fit onto the WiiMote – everything from golf clubs and tennis rackets to whisks and spatulas. I still think these are the most blatant money grab in the entire gaming industry. They don’t do ANYTHING and yet people still buy them because it makes the experience more ‘real’. I recently saw a similar attachment for the Playstation Move, a plastic gun attachment that holds the Move controller while adding a trigger and traditional gun grip. It doesn’t actually add anything to the game, but who cares? The Playstation Move appears to be selling well, being sold out from the local Best Buy and Future Shop when I last checked – if you are on the lookout check Staples, they had a bunch in stock.
Well now I’ve seen the worst – or is it the best – when it comes to useless controller attachments, with the Microsoft Kinect camera system. Third party producer ‘Atomic Accessories’ is releasing an adventure raft accessory that can add realism to the Kinect Adventures game, specifically the rafting co-op game. This full size inflatable raft looks identical to the one in-game, though it doesn’t state whether it is actually water tight – only time and some adventurous idiots can answer that question.
Another set of controller accessories is the qwerty keyboard attachments for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 controllers. Both systems allow for easier text input than the traditional on-screen keyboard, as well as being utilized for instant messaging. The biggest difference between the two is the placement of the keyboard on the controller. The Xbox 360 controller has a headphone jack in the bottom, which is used by the chat-pad to connect to the system. This arrangement allows for the keyboard to be within easy reach – fitting within the existing space of the controller between the hand grips, and allowing for comfortable blackberry-esque thumb control. The Playstation 3 controller uses a mini USB port on the top of the controller rather than the bottom, this lead to the unfortunate requirement of attaching the keyboard to the top of the controller, effectively doubling its size, as well as leading to awkward typing and the possibility of hitting the controller analog sticks when typing. Clearly these two similar devices are examples of forced design to fit with existing technology and there are times when that can back-fire.
Another big accessory on the market is the Nintendo Wii MotionPlus attachment, which connects to the bottom of the existing Wiimote and makes it more accurate. This accessory is currently used by a limited number of games, though I think this trend will increase as Nintendo has to compete with Sony and Microsoft in the motion control market.
When it comes to things like Move and Kinect, WiiMotion Plus to a lesser extent, I definitely approve of the development and release of accessories that fundamentally change the gameplay experience. With the high initial cost of a gaming system I think it is great that I can spend substantially less and get the benefits of an almost new system. That is why I only grudgingly include WiiMotion Plus in this category as it is only improving an already existing system, not redefining it.
Before getting into console gaming I bought all PC games, but the cost ruined my outlook on that section of gaming. While the cost of the actual games is about the same, it is the price of keeping current that really taps at your bank account. Whenever you have to buy a new graphics card, increase your system’s RAM, or get a faster processor, the cost of the game goes up exponentially. But not with console gaming, where a game released at the beginning of a console’s lifecycle and a game released at the end will both be playable on any system. No hardware upgrades and no additional cost – now that is a good investment in a gaming system.
After my rant against PC upgrades, it may seem weird that I support Move and Kinect. Aren’t they just overpriced accessories? I say no. Why? Because they drastically widen the market that each console targets, and the games that gamers can play. When the Wii first came out people flocked to buy it because it was totally different than anything that had come before, as well as being at the complete opposite end of the gaming spectrum from the Xbox 360 and the PS3 with their standard controllers. Who would ever have thought that both Sony and Microsoft would cross that whole spectrum? But they didn’t jump the gap by releasing new consoles and splitting their market while investing huge amounts of money into development. Instead they released substantially lower priced accessories, with significantly less research and development investment, so that they now cover both ends of the spectrum simultaneously.
Microsoft and Sony both now have the opportunity to market games to a much greater percentage of gamers. They can release motion control party games for casual gamers like the Wii has for the last few years. They can still release their hardcore FPS games for die hard gamers like they have for years. The real benefit comes when they start to create games in the grey zone between core and casual gamers, which will introduce both groups to the other games they have been missing and make each company a ton of money. While Nintendo gets left in the dust.
That may seem harsh, but I’m really getting tired of saying article after article that there is nothing significant to report for the Nintendo Wii. Shake things up Nintendo! Make people excited about your system again, or run the risk of having another Gamecube on your hands when everyone is running after the Playstation and Xbox.
So that is my rant for this issue. The moral of the story – don’t buy those stupid plastic snap-on attachments, or their big dumb cousin, the inflatable raft. They’re just a money grab. Instead look for those accessories which go beyond the realm of peripherals and approach the level of being a new system for a greatly reduced investment. We are standing at the brink of a new wave of games so, Keep On Gaming.