The console market lost it's way before the Wii was developed. People lost sight of the idea of a "future perfect" and instead thought in terms of incremental improvements of the now. The consoles lived in an era of poverty which seeped into the soul of users, a poverty of dreams and imagination which was becoming so ingrained that the users themselves began to cling onto it as the only possible future, much like how real poverty effects people today. I was thinking about the Wiimote compared to the Mouse for FPS type games and how inacurate the former was compared to the latter and the thought "At least it's human" popped into my head. That was the significant reasoning in the 'Motes favour, its human and the design itself could be called imperfect, intuitive. The dream of a "future perfect", virtual reality type experience with total visual immersion requires a true "human" interface and the Wiimote is one such device because it very much is human.
The Wii is selling a dream, and its selling that dream exceedingly well. The next generation needs a new dream to sell, a new step towards the "future perfect" ideal. Consider Wii Fit, Wii Brain Training. These are two areas where the console market hasn't really brought anything of benifit to society until now and both the former and latter cannot be done without the Wii interface or something similar. These two products are merely baby-steps towards the future, the question of how to engage people may lie on the other side of the interface in the visuals. Perhaps now that the interface has been worked out a rudimentry virtual reality visual interface could be the very next step forwards to tweak out the next stage of possibility. Perhaps its the time to engage all the senses and the realm of possibility opens up once again. To sum it up, a new way to learn, interact and experience everything from games to education to fitness.
Perhaps what the console market itself needs to secure its future is a justification that almost every home should have one. The Wii has shown that its not just about games with the massive success of Wii Fit, there may be other roles a console may perform in the home alongside gaming and the inevitable media tack-ons. There are many different ways to accomplish this such as making it useful like I said in a post above, making it engaging and making it from a dream to excite the people with something new that they really believe will make their lives better. People marry the wrong person because they believe there was noone better out there, and people marry the wrong technology because there are no true alternatives. I have hope that the next generation will open up with three distinct visions from the three console manufacturers to give people a choice and perhaps bring the never achieveable ideal of "future perfect" that one baby-step closer.
Tease.
