Greater variety this gen.

[ninzel]

It seems that this gen there is more differentiation in terms of pricing, hardware functionality, vision and exlcusive content.
Do you like this or would you rather see greater standardization like with DVD players for example where they all play the exact same content, but differ in small details and have lot's more manufacturers.
Do you like exclusive content, and platforms and would you rather they all be exactly the same.Which direction would prefer game consoles go in the future.

 

[ninzel]

50 views and not a single vote. WOW you guy's have never given this any thought,or are simply afraid to be seen making a vote? Strange.

 

[ihamoitc2005]

It seems that this gen there is more differentiation in terms of pricing, hardware functionality, vision and exlcusive content.
Do you like this or would you rather see greater standardization like with DVD players for example where they all play the exact same content, but differ in small details and have lot's more manufacturers.
Do you like exclusive content, and platforms and would you rather they all be exactly the same.Which direction would prefer game consoles go in the future.

I think "hardware functionality, vision and exclusive content" is maybe not so different from last gen. Before 2 different disc formats and now is same, before different console for different "market", and same is now, and before 3 different architecture, and now is also different but maybe now is actually less different. I think game console maker will always go for difference because everyone cannot have maximum sales in same market. Every console must have different markets so content is also not same. Always there will be multi-platform software but exclusive will have much difference. But probably this gen exclusive is not as different as last gen because more "overlap" for markets.

 

[cthellis42]

How do we expect to really get a glimpse of a system without exclusives?

 

[fearsomepirate]

There's no point to having different systems without exclusives. I like system differentiation and totally buy into Nintendo's idea that the era of differentiating yourself via graphics is coming to a close. With standardization, every system generation will be a gigantic design-by-committee without the motive of competition to spice things up. You're not going to get Ken Kutargi's crazy dreams of new processor paradigms or Nintendo flipping out and going off the wall with totally bizarre inventions. I highly doubt MS would have put so much work into Live if it hadn't been for the sake of differentiating themselves from Sony. I think if you'd had standardized consoles, the current generation's hardware would have have been a safe, profitable design by a multicorporate committee targeted for a late 1999 launch--so maybe a 400 MHz Pentium II with a TNT, Rage, or Voodoo-based graphics chip and perhaps 32 MB of RAM in a UMA setup. Maybe that's too pessimistic, but I think it's not.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

You're not going to get Ken Kutargi's crazy dreams of new processor paradigms

I strongly disagree with this POV. PlayStation is KK's dream. I think he'll push it regardless of whether there's competition or not. MS wouldn't be there without competition. Nintendo probably wouldn't be giving us Revolution if not for two strong rivals. But as long as KK's in a position to do so, he'll be dreaming up hardare and trying to get it produced.

 

[cthellis42]

I strongly disagree with this POV. PlayStation is KK's dream. I think he'll push it regardless of whether there's competition or not. MS wouldn't be there without competition. Nintendo probably wouldn't be giving us Revolution if not for two strong rivals. But as long as KK's in a position to do so, he'll be dreaming up hardare and trying to get it produced.

Excepting he'd be kicked off to the side and ignored by Sony bean-counters. Since there IS competition, they find use in tapping Ken's... um... Ken-ness! Hehe...

 

[fearsomepirate]

Sure, Kutargi would continue to have his crazy ideas, but the big corporations in the Console Ultraconglomerate (which in a standardized universe would probably be Microsoft, Sony, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, and oh, hell, Toshiba, Motorola and maybe even ATI and Nvidia) would pour him a big ol' can of STFU and be all like "No, we're going with this really generic CPU that costs beans, is easy to program for, and is enough grunt for the kiddies to get their games."

In other words, the individual internal components would be based on the economic philosophy of the new Nintendo, the overall system architecture would be based on the design philosophy of the first Xbox, and the controller and online interface would be based on the philosophy of Sony.

But hey, at least movie playback would be guaranteed, since a large part of Ultraconglomerate would be companies with an interest in selling DVD's.

 

[fearsomepirate]

Sure, Kutargi would continue to have his crazy ideas, but the big corporations in the Console Ultraconglomerate (which in a standardized universe would probably be Microsoft, Sony, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, and oh, hell, Toshiba, Motorola and maybe even ATI and Nvidia) would pour him a big ol' can of STFU and be all like "No, we're going with this really generic CPU that costs beans, is easy to program for, and is enough grunt for the kiddies to get their games."

In other words, the individual internal components would be based on the economic philosophy of Nintendo, the overall system architecture and global design would be based on the design philosophy of the first Xbox, and the controller and online interface would be based on the philosophy of Sony.

But hey, at least movie playback would be guaranteed, since a large part of Ultraconglomerate would be companies with an interest in selling DVD's.

 

[ninzel]

I think "hardware functionality, vision and exclusive content" is maybe not so different from last gen. Before 2 different disc formats and now is same, before different console for different "market", and same is now, and before 3 different architecture, and now is also different but maybe now is actually less different. I think game console maker will always go for difference because everyone cannot have maximum sales in same market. Every console must have different markets so content is also not same. Always there will be multi-platform software but exclusive will have much difference. But probably this gen exclusive is not as different as last gen because more "overlap" for markets.

I'll explain why I see greater variety this gen than last.
Last gen we have 3 systems that were within about $100 price range focused mainly on games, with limited multimedia functions(none in GC's case).
This gen I suspect the pricing spread will likely be as high as $250. One will be purely a games machine still, one will have some multimedia functions with a windows media centre tie in, the other will have full multimedia functions. In terms of content on top of the same as usual approach MS and Nintendo will be offering even more exlcusive content via downloads, Nintendo's games will likely be very different due ot the controller, and SOny will offer other content for dowlload like songs for example. Pricing, functions, content and overall vision seems to much more differentiated this gen than in previous gens.

 

[ninzel]

I think "hardware functionality, vision and exclusive content" is maybe not so different from last gen. Before 2 different disc formats and now is same, before different console for different "market", and same is now, and before 3 different architecture, and now is also different but maybe now is actually less different. I think game console maker will always go for difference because everyone cannot have maximum sales in same market. Every console must have different markets so content is also not same. Always there will be multi-platform software but exclusive will have much difference. But probably this gen exclusive is not as different as last gen because more "overlap" for markets.

I'll explain why I see greater variety this gen than last.
Last gen we have 3 systems that were within about $100 price range focused mainly on games, with limited multimedia functions(none in GC's case).
This gen I suspect the pricing spread will likely be as high as $250. One will be purely a games machine still, one will have some multimedia functions with a windows media centre tie in, the other will have full multimedia functions including HD playback. In terms of content on top of the same as usual approach MS and Nintendo will be offering even more exlcusive content via downloads, Nintendo's games will likely be very different due ot the controller, and SOny will offer other content for dowload like songs for example. Pricing, functions, content and overall vision seems to much more differentiated this gen than in previous gens. It may not be a huge change, but more so than in previous gens.

 

[Belmontvedere]

I think most "significant" games will be multi-platform this generation. Unlike last generation, where XBox and PS2 had very different capabilities, this generation both X360 and PS3 have similar capabilities (although very different implementations). It will be much easier for developers to make games multi-platform, and with rising development costs they're going to want to make their games available to as wide an audience as possible.

Of course, there will still be some exclusives. Generally I think first party games will be exclusive and third party games will be multiplatform. And yeah, I think that's a good thing, because I don't plan on buying all three video game consoles (two video game machines + my PC will be more than enough video games for me).

 

[pc999]

Whatever make them better.

 

[Type_Raver]

Exclusives for sure, just like the old Nintendo VS Sega days, SNES vs Genesis in particular.