It has been an eventful couple of weeks since the last Future of Gaming article, back when I had to complain about Nintendo – purely because they haven’t done anything appreciable in months. With the declining sales of the Wii console, Nintendo has been putting all of their resources into the 3DS with the new 3DS XL. But now, Nintendo has officially unveiled the release date and price of their next generation console: the Wii U.
The Wii U will be released on November 18th in North America, November 30th in Europe, and December 8th in Japan. The release date is perfectly placed to take advantage of the Christmas buying season, which can hopefully turn around Nintendo’s sales slump. The console will be available in two tiers: a basic model with 8GB of memory in white for $300; and the premium black version will retail for $350 with 32GB of storage and a charging dock for the Wii U tablet gamepad.
Both systems come with a packaged HDMI cord, an important part of Nintendo’s foray into high definition gaming. It seems interesting that the first of their ‘Next Generation’ of gaming consoles is only now reaching HD graphics, with the claim that the graphics will actually surpass the Xbox 360 and the PS3. This may help Nintendo in the short term to reclaim lost sales, but it will fall far behind when Microsoft and Sony finally release their new consoles. Nintendo has succeeded in the current generation because of their unique control scheme and the family friendly games that dominate the Wii game market. But what happens when their new console is almost immediately surpassed by Microsoft and Sony? And how is Nintendo going to convince the casual gamers that they actually need to upgrade their console? I think these are serious questions that Nintendo has failed to answer so far, and with Sony and Microsoft’s ‘Next Generation’ consoles anticipated in about a year, Nintendo doesn’t have much time to come up with an answer.
Sony has also made the news in the last week with the announcement of a new Slim version of the PS3 (or I guess it is the Slimmer PS3), as some people have taken to calling it. The new system is approximately 50% the size and weight of the original PS3, and is about 25% smaller in size and weight to the current Slim model. Sony is increasing the storage capacity of the system as well, offering two versions with 250GB and 500GB of storage space respectively. The new PS3 systems will be released late this year, again taking advantage of the holiday rush. In an interesting move to differentiate models, the 250GB model will not be offered in Phase Alternating Line (PAL) regions; instead, there will be a 12GB flash memory-based version. All systems will be the standard Charcoal Black, with a white model available in Japan.
The move towards releasing slimmer versions of consoles is a very pervasive trend in this gaming generation, with both Microsoft and Sony releasing improved versions of their consoles midway through their life cycles. Nintendo has not released any new major revisions of their Wii console, but they have released numerous different versions of the DS handheld system, so they fall into the same boat. This trend towards gradually improving the system is a great benefit to the parent companies, as they can continue to improve the cost-effectiveness of the system while still offering price drops to draw in new consumers. Microsoft ran into problems with the original Xbox because they used licensed components, which prevented them from changing parts as technology improved and more efficient components became available. In contrast, the Xbox 360 has gone through many minor revisions throughout its life cycle, in addition to the major change when the Slim version was released. With each new version of the Xbox 360 a new chipset was introduced, reducing the size, heat, and cost of the system, but the general consumer never really saw a difference. The only visible change in the system came from the addition of an HDMI port on the back of the console: otherwise the system remained relatively unchanged in appearance, until the case redesign of the Slim model. The problem with these continued changes is the potential for consumers to be left behind. One of the biggest draws of a gaming console is the guarantee that any game manufactured for the system will be playable from the beginning of its life to the end – there is no worrying about whether your graphics card can handle the game, or if you have enough RAM. But this is a limitation, because a console could be rapidly surpassed by computer games and become outdated tech. So what should a company do: increase the technical specs of their system and risk leaving early adopters in the cold when games start to be developed that can only be played on the newer version; or should they focus just on efficiency improvements and leave the system capabilities alone? I think the obvious choice is the second option – it may not be as desirable for gamers who want the best game possible, but it does not alienate anyone. Unfortunately, it does introduce a hierarchy among systems, with original systems viewed as unstable and not worth the risk of purchase.
I think we are going to continue to see this gradual change into the next generation of gaming, but the question remains when that next generation will truly start, and how the final systems will stack up against one another. I don’t think there is any doubt that Nintendo will continue to be the ‘child’ of the group, but this time they are going to be effectively almost a generation behind their competition. They had better hope that they can make enough money off the Wii U before their competition arrives, or that all the seniors homes running Wii bowling tournaments decide that the competition would be better in HD. In any case, I am not predicting good results for Nintendo, but we will have to wait several years to actually see – and by then I can totally deny this prediction if needed.
So now is the time to take advantage of the newest revision of the PS3, or jump into the ‘Next Generation’ of video games with the Wii U. Have fun, and Keep on Gaming.
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