| Wii_R2_Hardcore said: I was reading another thread and couldn't help to ask this question: If the Wii U is not NextGen, what is it? Whatever the Xbox720 and PS4 do? It is easy now to describe what this ending generation was about. Social gaming. Online multiplayer and local multiplayer. Nintendo did it with motion controllers and Microsoft and Sony followed. Microsoft was the leader in the online gaming department and Nintendo was the weakest on that field. I dont understand why some people is expecting Nintendo to be more like the Xbox or like the Playstation. Well, aside from the WiiU Pro controller, which I loved, I think Nintendo is doing a great job at being what it is: Nintendo. Maybe they are catching up with the online gaming aspect, but that is just because it makes sense from the social gaming perspective they are trying to promote since the gamecube era. And it is only reasonable to me, to see a more conservative approach, not taking a lot of risks like they did with the Wii. So I think we cannot define this generation as the High Definition consoles generation because we will be describing only around a half of the market. Instead, I think it was a more the generetion of social gaming, wether it was online or offline. But can we really anticipate what the hell defines the next generation before all the big three release their hardware? And if we could, what do you think is going to define the next generation? |
The 5th Generation of gaming consoles were defined by optical media. The expansion of optical media meant that games were no longer confined to cartridges and could be more cheaply produced.
The 6th Generation of gaming consoles were defined by online gaming. The advent of online gaming in the Xbox paved the way for the next generation and allowed Microsoft to gain a solid foothold in the console gaming business. It could also be argued that this generation began the migration from gaming to entertainment console. Both Sony and Microsoft included DVD drives, as well Microsoft through a supported application, allowed for the streaming of music from PCs to the console.
The 7th Generation of gaming consoles is defined by motion controls. Gimmick, fad, or otherwise, motion controls are here to stay. The two most successful companies with motion control experiences are Nintendo and Microsoft and they're going into the next generation in a good position in regard to casual games. Sony on the other hand, not so much. The promise of 60FPS 1080p gaming never materialized because of the limitations of both the Xbox 360 and the PS3, but they still moved the bar forward. This generation will also mark the second phase of the transformation of a gaming console from a strictly gaming device to a media/entertainment device.
The 8th Generation will be defined by expansion of the console into other forms of entertainment and communication. Yes, I'm predicting that the 8th Generation of consoles will mark the end of the traditional gaming console. It's already happening across all platforms, but it'll significantly change consoles in the coming generation.
Success will define who wins and loses. Everyone will need to maintain their core audiences while expanding not only within the gaming sphere (social games) but into entertainment and communication spheres.
