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Forums - Gaming Discussion - I think a lot of us don't understand the meaning of "competition"

Looking around the video game community today, there has been a huge surge in the people wanting all the consoles to do equally great, and not wanting any of them to fall behind, saying that it is good for competition. 

While I applaude them for their amiable position, in no ways does every manufacturer doing great lead to "competition". In fact, it leads to stagnancy on the part of all the manufacturers. Innovation is impeded, not encouraged, when every manufacturer is doing very well.

Just look at the smartphone market today. The big two, Samsung and Apple, are both doing amazingly well, each selling a comparable amount of flagship phones to consumers. This has lead to little competition between the two, as each is relatively comfortable with their position in the market, and thus see no reason for any major innovation. Apple pushes out nearly identical phones every other year, with a little bigger screen and slightly faster internals, and calls them upgrades. Samsung is starting to do the same thing with its Galaxy S line. 

Now, if one of Samsung or Apple fell behind, it would be good. Why? Because it would force them to innovate, to come up with something the consumers want. Look at HTC and Sony. Both have fallen behind in the smartphone race, so now they are trying different things, such as aluminum bodies, front-facing speakers, dust and water proof phones, etc., in order to take back some of the consumer base. 

The same applies to gaming. Having a clear winner would not be a bad thing, as it would force the other two console manufacturers to rethink their hardware and software policies, and try to innovate in a way consumers want. That way, the consumer is the end winner, as they get better hardware and software as a company tries to gain more relevance.

Now, of course, you never want a company to fall too far behind (example: Sega), but if the PS4 sold ~110 mil and the Xbone sold ~70 mil (and the Wii U sold a lot less than either), it would be beneficial for the industry, not detrimental, as it would make Microsoft and Nintendo need to improve their hardware and software in such a way that it appeals to the consumer base more than Sony.

That's why I don't think that people should be called out for supporting their favourite console. They may be fanboys, sure, but it is people like them that are the deciding factor in the state of the industry, and fuel the real "competition".

/end_rant



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I didn't read your entire post because i'm to stupid :P, but as long as theres someone in the lead IE Sony -cough- the other companies will try to out due them with their own type of innovation.



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Never thought of it like that. 



nintendo tried to inovate with wii u gamepad, xbo with cloud, lots ofmandatory kinect.
but no one wants inovation, they want the basic. a conventional controler, online...



jonathanalis said:
nintendo tried to inovate with wii u gamepad, xbo with cloud, lots ofmandatory kinect.
but no one wants inovation, they want the basic. a conventional controler, online...


Innovation doesn't have to be new features. The fact that Sony didn't push gimmicks on it's customers in this generation cause they learned what the customer wanted most, and in that way they innovated the industry.



                                                                                                               You're Gonna Carry That Weight.

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Good OP. This is really just common sense but it's something a lot of people on these forums don't seem to understand.



Yeah. competition doesn't have to be neck and neck. If one is at a disadvanatage sales wise, then they need to come up with a different gameplan or bow out. No one should be guaranteed to place just based on merit alone, sales and trust always have to be earned.



There's nothing wrong with domination, as long as it isn't to the point of killing off all other competitors.



greencactaur said:
I didn't read your entire post because i'm to stupid :P, but as long as theres someone in the lead IE Sony -cough- the other companies will try to out due them with their own type of innovation.


I don't agree. Wii was the leader last gen and PS4 is just the same of PS3 with more power.



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Competition is competition.. yes.. and that is good.. :)

Look at last gen.. it forced sony to keep online free.. and alot of other services.. we would have to pay for if ps3 had sold better in the early years..

Nintendo always do theire own thing.. and i bet the upad was part of the "next gen" plans even when wii was destroying ps360.

MS had kinnect last gen to.. and they havent done that much new in this gen i think.. (maybe the cloud thing.. but i still think it's like milo) sony on the other hand.. made the touchpad controller and will stream games, that is new and "inovative" (for consoles)

But yes offcourse.. it's good we have competition..(in all aspect of our lives)  I also thinks 98% of peole knows that.. there are just some who hate other consoles/brands.. :(

(edit.. mayby sonys touchpad controller can't be seen as "new" becourse nintendo had "touch on controller" first.. but sony did in an other way.. kind of)