Monday, November 12, 2007

Console War

I have a dream, a dream where a "Console war" is a silly concept, and gamers don't suffer from having a market with 3 consoles, all with different online systems, and exclusives.

Now I realize this sounds a stupid, of course it does, we have lived with multiple consoles for as long as there have been consoles to play on.

And yet... When Sega Launched it's console, the "Sega Genesis" along side Nintendo's console the "Super Nintendo," there was a real difference in the games that came out on each console, and it was easy to decide which console you would rather have, due to this.

At that point, it was easy for a consumer to buy what console suited him, which lead to happier customers.

When the "Sony Playstation" came out, alongside the "Nintendo 64", the same suit followed, with Nintendo offering more colorful games, and strong first party games such as Mario, and Sony offering amazing RPGs, and action games, generally in different genres then what was found on the Nintendo 64.

What happened?

The next generation of home consoles included Sony's "Playstation 2", Nintendo's "Gamecube" and Microsoft's "Xbox." This generation, most games were found on all consoles, with minor differences in between consoles. Additionally a majority of the games could also be found on the PC.

Some of the same things could still be said, especially with the "Xbox" being the "Console of shooters" with more shooting games one it then the other consoles. Sony and Nintendo's consoles were more varying, but most games could be bought on all three.

Now comes the latest generation, with the three major consoles being Sony's "Playstation 3", Microsoft's "Xbox 360", and Nintendo's "Wii". this generation, Nintendo decided to go back to it's roots, and made a console that really defines itself, and is reminiscent of their older consoles, in the fact that it stands more to the side, and has it's own genres of games. Sony and Microsoft however, have their consoles sharing most of their games, making it harder to choose which console you want, also the fact that most of the games can also be played on the PC. Overall, the Xbox is still considered the "Console of Shooters," but less so this generation.

Differences between the "Xbox 360," and the "Playstation 3," include: Different controller, different online system, different price, different online stores, and different outputs. The "Playstation 3" and "Xbox 360's" controllers even have the same amount of buttons.

So what am I getting at?

Should consoles have more of an identity, with the "Xbox" having a "Console of Shooters" and such, so people can get the console that best matches them?

Maybe, but that probably wont be for a while.

So what then?

Not only have the consoles become similar, but the market has become so serious and so competitive, with companies putting each other down, and fans joining in to make fun of other consoles. Companies like "Electronic Arts" make money by making game after game, not caring about the quality, and just trying to make money.

Were consoles invented for this reason?

I think consoles and games were invented for people to have fun, not to have people arguing over what is better, or companies trying to just make money off of half-assed games.

So how did we end up here? I'm not sure, but hopefully things will only go up from here, leading to a more friendly console tomorrow.

As for today, people will still watch the monthly, or even weekly sales charts, to prove that their console is selling better, to accomplish nothing, people will mindlessly talk trash about games they have never played on other consoles, and people will talk about every thing that a company does wrong.

Sounds like fun huh? This is definitely not what consoles were invented for, and I say, if things want to change, there needs to be some major changes.

I guess we can all keep our fingers crossed for the future.

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