Hey everyone, this is the last issue this term for the IW, and there are still a bunch of revelations in the world of gaming that have not come to light yet. The biggest question right now is future of the Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation brands as they take the first foray into the ‘next generation’ of gaming. This is also my last Future of Gaming article as I will finish my degree this term – Only two weeks left! I will also be looking at some of the trends that have become apparent over the last five years.
Let’s get started, with the ‘Next Generation’ of consoles. Over the years, people have stopped referring to the Xbox 360 and the PS3 as “next gen” and have started looking forward to the next level of gaming. We have known for years that new consoles were under development from each company, even if they liked to say “No Comment”; no one just starts building a new console a few months before it comes out. These consoles have both likely been in development since the release of the last ones — it is the only way to keep moving forward and continuously remain competitive. Sony has now shown their cards — kind of. Their official press release left something to be desired, namely the console itself. While more detailed specifications were released soon after, the presentation definitely didn’t reach as many people as it could have if the info had been presented to the captivated audience at the press conference.
Microsoft, on the other hand, has still kept their cards close, and has not officially announced anything about the new Xbox – and we don’t even know the name. When Sony announced that their new console would be called the ‘PS4’ I think there were about two people in the crowd who were actually surprised, and they were the ones who got lost and though they were going to see a movie – not a press conference. For the new Xbox, the name is pretty much up in the air. It could be another number, or a new name tacked onto the Xbox name, which I think will be retained. I guess we will have to wait until Microsoft officially spills the beans before we learn any specifics, likely at E3 this summer, or a little sooner if they want to outperform Sony in an extravagant press conference.
Oh yeah, isn’t Nintendo in this competition as well? Obviously I have been extremely harsh on Nintendo over the years – and it has increased each year. I’d leave them alone if Nintendo would actually do something new and innovative and actually try to be a real competitor in this battle. Nintendo was far behind the 360 and PS3 with the Wii in terms of graphics and processing power. The thing that allowed Nintendo to prosper over the years has been the motion control capabilities of the Wii. While this was advanced technology back when it was released, it is no longer important now as motion controls are built into mobile phone and tablet games, and both Microsoft and Sony have their own motion control systems that are both significantly more advanced than the Wii. Now Nintendo is banking on the Wii U, which actually has better specs than the Xbox 360 or the PS3, but will be laughable in the face of the new consoles. For this reason, I have found Nintendo’s claim as the “first next generation console” to be a complete waste of time. It may be the first console in terms of release date and generation groupings, but in terms of technology it represents the console Nintendo should have been developing for the current generation. Nintendo has relied for too long on selling their consoles based on their Intellectual Property – Mario, Pokemon, Zelda, etc. But even if that was the case they haven’t truly taken advantage of the possibilities. Why haven’t we seen a Pokemon RPG style game for the Wii? Why is the Pokemon genre on mobile only changing to 3D now? Nintendo needs to step up their game, or they need to forget about being in the hardware business and instead make games for the other systems, the same as how SEGA abandoned hardware and is still around.
I think the biggest threat to traditional gaming going forward is the widening of the market as PC, Steam Box, Android based consoles, and mobile gaming all become more viable platforms for gaming. Each of these platforms represents a shift towards multi-platform integration and resolution compatibility from small to big screens. With PC and Steam Box systems, people are starting to recognize that the PC is probably the easiest media centre you can have, and there is very little stopping you from playing your favourite games on a big screen TV from your PC. Android-based gaming – either on a console type product like OUYA, or on your mobile phone or tablet – again allows for cross platform use and gaming on a big screen, if your game progress could be synced in cloud storage so that you could continue from any system, that would be even better. Also, as a side note, I have also seen a couple of programs that allow you to emulate Android on a PC and use all your Android apps on your PC taking advantage of its better hardware.
This leads into something that I have discussed before: the idea of cross-platform licensing. It’s the idea of buying a game once and being able to play it on any platform and continuing from your saved progress. Wouldn’t it be great if you could play a game on your desktop, either on its monitor or on your big screen TV, then decide to go mobile and continue your progress on a tablet or smartphone? The home gaming could be on a PC or on a traditional console, or both if you wanted. I think this kind of integration would be easiest with digital versions of a game rather than manufacturing a disk that could work in both a PC and any or all consoles. As companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo increase the availability of digital downloads of games, this kind of scenario becomes more possible, especially if the save file is stored in cloud storage in a format any version of the product can utilize.
Finally, another field of gaming that has evolved over the last few years is mobile gaming. I have often looked at mobile gaming in terms of its threat to traditional portable gaming systems like the Nintendo 3DS and the PlayStation Vita, but it is definitely its own section of the gaming world now. The mobile market is unique in that it relies on standard operating systems versus standard hardware, so instead of choosing between Xbox, PlayStation and Wii you are instead choosing between Android and iOS. This means that the idea of standardized hardware is out the window, and the processing power can vary tremendously between phones and tablets. This represents a challenge to developers; how advanced do you make your game to entice people with beautiful 3D graphics but risk limiting your market because of the specs required to run the game? I would really like to see full console style games running on phones or tablets, and it is totally possible as many new phones have multi-core processors that are comparable in performance to some laptops you can buy at retail stores. We need more releases like Final Fantasy for Android or LEGO Harry Potter for iOS, full console or portable style games on mobile devices, games that push boundaries and improve the industry. While having a set console hardware configuration for a console makes sense for maintaining compatibility with all users, it can become a severe limitation even midway through a console’s life cycle.
Maybe the way of the future really is the abandonment of console style gaming and the switch to operating system based games – PC, Mac, Android, and iOS. I don’t think consoles will ever die completely, but I don’t think you will see as much emphasis on graphics and processing power as the next few generations come around. We are eventually going to reach a cap on the amount of usable processing power – not a cap on the amount of power, but a limit to the resolution the human eye can see, or the number of enemies that can be on a map before it just gets too confusing. Consoles may continue to fill the role of the Wii, a fun, accessible system for the general public to play games, but for die-hard gamers, I don’t think it can last forever.
That is it for this issue, and likely for the Future of Gaming as well. I have really enjoyed discussing the newest and possible future trends in the gaming industry, and despite the number of people that have come to ask me what type of console to buy (and my continual answer that ‘It depends’), it has always been fun. Yay, no more publication deadlines! Once again, thanks for reading and listening to me rant and complain for the last four years, and as always, Keep on Gaming.
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