But GGE, online capabilities and motion control are both HUGE advances for consoles. And they are both contributing to the uniqueness and replayability of modern games (and I'll add achievements to that).

Girl Gamer Elite said: starcraft said: Im winning GGE! Im playing the best games ive ever played (excepting Goldeneye and Zelda OoT. I have a Wii and 360 and competition is forcing massive investment in new ideas and boundary pushing in story-telling and gameplay. Alot of us are telling outselves that we're winning. Ps3 fanboys are telling themselves they're winning. Wii fanboys are telling themselves they're winning. 360 fanboys are telling themselves they're winning. I see no new Ideas outside of the Wii's motion controls, just refinements to old ideas and sequels to the same old games. The only real massive investment this generation being made is the one being made in graphics. Aside from Graphics and online capabilities, there's nothing these games are doing this generation that weren't done the last. And @ Zenfolder We've been hearing crap like that since the Wii wowed the world with its success but as of late the biggest third party titles are else where. And the promised support from third party developers has been little more than awkward attempts at trying to figure out what the Wii demographic wants.

GGE, if you don't see any innovation, then you aren't looking. Every console builds on the foundation of what comes before. But then, what doesn't? Cars are upgraded year after year. Televisions, same deal. Movie special effects? Ditto. But tell me, what game last gen has characters as visually engaging as Mass Effect? You forget that the characters on screen aren't real. That means greater immersion. What game offered a similar experience to Dead Rising, or Nintendogs? Or Bio Shock? Or Brain age? And you already mentioned the Wii's controls. The innovation is there. Games like "Spore" and Wii Fit show that innovation is going to continue. How long have you been gaming, GGE? Despite what you think, it's the evoloution of ideas that were realised 30 years ago that keep you AND I playing games.

Girl Gamer Elite said: starcraft said: Im winning GGE! Im playing the best games ive ever played (excepting Goldeneye and Zelda OoT. I have a Wii and 360 and competition is forcing massive investment in new ideas and boundary pushing in story-telling and gameplay. Alot of us are telling outselves that we're winning. Ps3 fanboys are telling themselves they're winning. Wii fanboys are telling themselves they're winning. 360 fanboys are telling themselves they're winning. I see no new Ideas outside of the Wii's motion controls, just refinements to old ideas and sequels to the same old games. The only real massive investment this generation being made is the one being made in graphics. Aside from Graphics and online capabilities, there's nothing these games are doing this generation that weren't done the last. And @ Zenfolder We've been hearing crap like that since the Wii wowed the world with its success but as of late the biggest third party titles are else where. And the promised support from third party developers has been little more than awkward attempts at trying to figure out what the Wii demographic wants instead of the games we want that they're giving everyone else. Guitar Hero? We already have it. Spider-Man? Because that's a great game franchise to have. Transformers? Is that a joke? Shrek? Oh boy Shrek! Movie Games are the best! Call of Duty? We didn't Get 4 and 3 was a joke. Tony Hawk? Oh boy, who care about DMC4, RE5 or COD4, we're getting Tony Hawk.

Yeah, however, my point is, Rock Band and Call of Duty 5 are two games that the Wii would not have gotten, had it been less popular.

 

There is a big difference between having competitive 3rd party support, and "showing no signs of improvement."

 

Not having GTA is not having competitive 3rd party support.

 

Having the top execs at all the major publishing houses come out and say, "Hey, the Wii is selling great, we're gonna start porting more games too it than we ever have to a Nintendo system, including all our 08 shovelware, Guitar Hero IV, CoD 5, and RockBand" is definately a sign of improvement.

 

I'm not trying to argue with you here, but whatever we've heard in the past, Vast Hardware and Software sales, CoD 5, press statements from EA, Activision, Nintendo-haters Ubisoft, and Rock Band certainly are signs that 3rd party support of the Wii could be improving in the near future, there is no arguing that point.

 

It's not a big deal, either way, but I was just saying, you might have over-reached a bit in your examples of all the systems faults. Overembelleshed a little, to make your point clearly. I saw what you did, and pulled an asshole move by pointing it out, cus I'm a nintendo fantard. I'll be quite from here on in, lol.

starcraft said: But GGE, online capabilities and motion control are both HUGE advances for consoles. And they are both contributing to the uniqueness and replayability of modern games (and I'll add achievements to that).

I'd sign that. Love or hate the Wii, in 20 years, consoles are gonna have motion controls, and they're probably be about 10x as accurate as the Wii's are now.

 

However, in the end, they will be derivitive of the Wii mote, and owe everything they have become to Nintendo innovation.

 

I do, in fact, see the same such thing for achievements. 

Girl Gamer Elite said: We've been hearing crap like that since the Wii wowed the world with its success but as of late the biggest third party titles are else where. And the promised support from third party developers has been little more than awkward attempts at trying to figure out what the Wii demographic wants instead of the games we want that they're giving everyone else. Guitar Hero? We already have it. Spider-Man? Because that's a great game franchise to have. Transformers? Is that a joke? Shrek? Oh boy Shrek! Movie Games are the best! Call of Duty? We didn't Get 4 and 3 was a joke. Tony Hawk? Oh boy, who care about DMC4, RE5 or COD4, we're getting Tony Hawk.

 You are aware that games aren't developed in 6 months right? By the time developers started to realise that the Wii was a success, they were already 1-2 years into the development of their big titles for the two systems they thought were going to be the winners this time round. Given the Wii has significantly different specs to the PS3/360, they can't just turn around and do a port there and then without major quality sacrifices or significant delays.

 I'd expect to start seeing some quality 3rd party games by the end of this year and definitely a lot more in 2009.

Maybe within a timeframe of 5-10 years.
The current generation of consoles is already not just a platform for playing games but also a home entertainment center. Incidentally, at the same time the PC is also becoming just that. While the home media center PCs are still PCs with operating system and periherilia problems, I see it very likely that within a couple of years we see a version of an operating system for a computer that is optimized and streamlined for media center usage. Is it coming from Microsoft, Apple, Sony or the Linux community remains to be seen, but the signs for this development is evident. I'm not saying that the technology of the single platform would be necessarily based on PC architechture, but it might inherit some of the concepts currently seen in computers (PC and Mac alike) and on the other hand adopt some concepts from the console world. The platform might still provide a simple office-like features to meet the requirements of an average consumer, but the emphasis would be on the ease-of-use and accessibility of game and media content.

Suppose that through some modern miracle of the video game U.N. Council equivalent, there is one console to rule them all. Go ahead. Suppose it! What would the controller look like? Gamers have specific preferences. Some like the controller. Some like the Wii Remote. Others prefer joysticks, while still others want mouse and keyboard support. What's the standard?

Who builds the console? No doubt, there would be cheap defective versions made by companies like Symphonic, and Emerson. Quality control would be a joke. Consoles today are powerful computers. Customers today are trusted to make informed purchases based on their preferences. If porting a game from the PS3 to the 360 (and vice versa) is more of a risk to developers than the potential reward, I'm sure the developer won't make a port.

I know that this is simply a "what if" scenario, but there is simply no way that a single console would be a good idea. If you want to eat a Big Mac, you gotta go to McDonald's. If you want to play Halo 3, you gotta buy a 360.

I think the writer didn't follow his own logic all the way.
I didn't really understand the problem what he had with PS360 ports and developers making them, publishers do have a 3rd option. Writer definately was thinking about the costs of the ports, but if publishers would have bet the right horse or their platform of choice would have been winning, there would be no need for ports. So he just complains about the generation change by looking at what the writer says later, when he thinks that there's room for other consoles as a niche, which basically means what usually happens during one console generation after one platform has become dominant and developers choose to develope for the leading platform.
When he talks about 90% share, i think he misses something relevant; the two most dominant generations for a single platform have been "NES" and "PS2 generations" and neither were near 90%. In both cases, it was the consumers who chose to support the different platforms as they did. Unless the market expand or change significantly i don't see marketshare getting any bigger than what NES or PS2 had.

Now the upgradeable STB without licencing fees exist, and it's called PC. I think most people (except the writer) have heard of it. This also contradicts his idea of people buying games for the STB they own, since looking at how much PC:s there is and how many games are bought to those PC:s, the attach rate indeed is low. Sure, most casuals do play PC, but the games they have are solitaire etc. which come pack-ins with the OS, so they really don't pay anything for their games.
Sony could easilly go with the STB way, or let's put it this way; Playstation could be integrated to every electronic device Sony manufactures. Playstation Cybershot, Playstation Walkman, Playstation DVD-player, Playstation car audio, Playstation stereosystem, Playstation Bravia, Playstation Sony-Ericsson mobile etc. Just like N-Gage 2 will outsell every handheld LTD so far, but it's not going to move a lot of software.

I do understand some points the writer makes, but i still see it being nonsense.

@Katilian: 90% was propably a little high, but looking at what audience most cars try to cater, it's definately the most people and all the others are just a niche. It really doesn't matter if your car has 90kW engine or 110kW or will it accelerate 0-100 in 9,6 or 11,8 seconds, they still cater the same audience. People basically buy as small and low consuming cars they can or as big and high performance cars they can afford, but this group needs bigger cars than what they want or have smaller budget than what they would need. That was the low point and high point, where basically all customers fit. Things would be completely different if car manufacturers would sell Mercedes SLR McLarens of Ferrari Maranellos with the price of Ford Ka or sell Fiat Puntos with the price of Lamborghinis.

benoit said: sounds to me like he's describing a PC... but oh well....

Exactly my thoughts.  Common platform.  Check.  Hardware and software upgradability.  Check.  A huge installed base.  Check.  No royalties.  Check.  The only thing missing is the hookup to the television (which may PCs already do have).  But most consumers don't want to hookup their PC to a television.  They bought their machines for more than just playing games and watching a movie.  As the multimedia features continue to improve and it becomes easier and easier to do, however, I expect to see something PC-like become the cornerstone of the standard living room.  Now if Apple/Dell/Gateway could integrate a Wiimote with their boxes...