Now that the Nintendo Wii U has been released, we have reached the ‘Next Generation’ of gaming; but this is going to be a very different generation, as the landscape has changed drastically from previous generations. This article, I will mostly be talking about the change in focus from console based gaming to a mix of systems that blur the edges between console, PC, and mobile gaming.
In the last generation (and by this I am referring to Microsoft’s Xbox 360, the Sony Playstation 3, and the Nintendo Wii) of console games, there was a fairly clear distinction between gaming modes. When you went out to purchase a game you had to specifically decide whether to purchase it for a specific console, for PC, or for a mobile system. We have also seen the influence of mobile gaming as smartphones and tablets inundate the gaming world, with the ability to force out traditional mobile gaming systems like the PSP or Nintendo DS. Maybe it is a good thing that Microsoft has avoided the mobile gaming market by not releasing an Xbox Portable (or whatever they would call it): instead, they have focused on the growing tablet market, which has become more prominent.
Now, in this new generation, we are seeing Android-based games jump from phones and tablets onto the screen through direct HDMI connections to Android-based mini-consoles. I have previously discussed the OUYA micro-console which was financed through Kickstarter, but it is not the only one. I won’t go into detail about the different versions, but most of them function through a small consoles or a flash drive type format packing a simple processor and graphics unit similar to a phone or a tablet, and most include some kind of game-pad style controller. These micro-consoles are capable of running Android based games on your home TV and, as technology advances over the next few years, I think we will see even more complicated games becoming commonplace in the mobile realm.
In the same way, PC gaming is slowly becoming more accessible for TV-based gaming. It has always been possible to connect a PC to a TV for home entertainment, but now Valve has introduced Steam Big Picture. This new interface for Steam is intended to offer a more console style dashboard access to games and enable controller input for PC games. This means that it is easier than ever to set up a gaming PC and enjoy full console style gameplay on your TV. A PC-based set-up has a distinct advantage over consoles in that it is infinitely upgradable and is capable of running practically any program you want. Most consoles now have some kind of browser within them, but none are perfect (most aren’t even serviceable), but on a PC you can run whichever browser your prefer. As a media centre, you can easily install VLC media player and play any format in existence. But what if you still want a ready-made console? Well then, Valve has you covered there as well, at least in principle. Valve has long been rumoured to be working on a console of their own, known as SteamBox. This concept was again touted at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, but they didn’t actually have a concrete system on display. Instead, a number of companies had tech samples of what a SteamBox might be, leading to the opportunity for other companies to build a system of their own that meets Valve’s requirements and label it a SteamBox. This console would be Linux-based rather than Windows-based like most PCs, so this will probably lead to an interesting situation as Valve has only recently enabled Linux support on Steam. Personally, I don’t see the purpose of buying a Valve branded Linux-based PC (which will probably have a mark-up) versus just getting any PC and installing Steam on it. Of course, people would need some basic knowledge to ensure the system they buy as the required specs, but I don’t think that is an issue. Most people who know me are aware that I hate paying for a name on a box: if I can get a better product for less money but it isn’t as ‘popular’ then I will definitely sacrifice the name. Who cares if your computer is named after a fruit if it costs twice as much as anything else and the manufacturer treats you like a brainless monkey?
The rumours are already starting about Microsoft and Sony announcing their next consoles at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), or around that time at their own press conferences. Sony has apparently decided to go with more commonplace technology rather than using their own proprietary tech. Their choice to use their own tech for the PS3 was a major hindrance this generation as the more complicated development process led to many games running better on the Xbox 360 despite it having slightly lower system specs. Hopefully, Sony can learn from this mistake, and also bring down the cost of their system as a result – starting at over $600 was just crazy. Microsoft is rumoured to be incorporating a new version of Kinect into their new console, enabling higher detail motion tracking and eliminating the need to have a separate peripheral. While I support the idea of having a single generic console that can play any game, I hope the added cost for the Kinect technology doesn’t add too much to the cost of the console. Another important part is hard drive capacity, where I hope Microsoft is willing to loosen their grip. The price for proprietary memory is a horrible problem in the gaming industry, especially for the PSP Vita cards and Xbox 360 HDD. Including a very basic HDD in a new console (maybe 50GB) but having it be user replaceable would bring the cost of the console down significantly. Anybody who wanted a terabyte of storage could easily buy a hard drive for around $100 rather than paying the inflated proprietary prices ($200 for a 120GB HDD?).
So, when the new consoles are announced, they will be entering a very different landscape than last time. Instead of a clear distinction between console, PC, and phone games (remember the ones before smartphones?), there will instead be three consoles, rapidly advancing mobile games that merge the line between phone and portable gaming console, android based micro-consoles, and PCs or SteamBoxes offering a game with a single license over both a PC and transferred to your big screen TV. So what are you going to buy next? I guess it depends on what you want to do with the tech, how much you know about modifying your own stuff, and, of course, how much you are willing to spend. So in the meantime, Keep on Gaming.
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