Console Wars
All three of the major players in the upcoming console war have stated what seem like valid reasons why their hardware will come out on top. PS3 will be the most powerful and will feature Blue Ray technology, X-Box 360 has a solid one year head start and a huge online community with X-Box Live and the Nintendo Wii will be the cheapest of the three and have an innovative new controller. The thing that we, as gamers, have to keep in mind is that Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo all have people that get paid a lot of money to convince us that these are the issues we should be considering when deciding which console to buy.
Sometimes the best way to predict the future is to examine the past so in an effort to separate B.S. and hype from truth and fact let’s take a look at each of these issues and determine what effect (or lack of effect) they may have had on the two most recent console wars. Then we will look at the factors that actually did determine the outcome of those wars.
The power of the PS3
I’ve seen the specs and it’s true. The PS3 will be slightly more powerful than the X-Box 360 and will kick sand in Nintendo’s face at the beach but does Sony really think that we’ve forgotten how they completely steamrolled the competition in the last war even though the PS2 ran a distant 3rd in the power department? No one knows better than Sony that you don’t have to have a lot under the hood to win the race. Microsoft had by far the most powerful machine last time around but wasn’t able to stop the juggernaut that was the PS2. Gamecube, while also being more powerful than PS2, was never even in the race. Sony is totally trying to pull the wool over your eyes when they tell you that their console is the best because it is the most powerful because power really doesn’t matter.
Blue Ray
Blue Ray is awesome. Think about it, 50 gigs on one disc. The only problem is that a game needing that much storage space would probably cost about $500.00 at retail to cover production costs. Even a game like Oblivion which is HUGE and cost a bundle to develop didn’t come close to filling the nine gigs of storage on a standard DVD. The only legit use for Blue Ray is high-def movies and the film industry’s Blue Ray and HD-DVD format war hasn’t even really begun yet. Remember VHS vs. Beta? How about Cassette vs. 8-track? Sony is betting the farm that Blue Ray will come out on top but if they’re wrong the result will be a crushing blow to the PS3. Who would pay $600.00 for a gaming console with a built in 8-track tape player? However, in the battle between the original Playstation and the N64 Sony decimated Nintendo by adopting the new disc format while Nintendo forced gamers to continue blowing on cartridges to get them to boot up so this one could go either way.
X-Box 360’s head start
Microsoft claims they will have an installed base of ten million 360s out there by the time the first Sony fanboy gets his sweaty hands on a PS3 and before Mario shows us his Wii. From what I’ve seen of the sales figures the actual number will probably be closer to seven or eight million. Either way, that’s a lot of catching up to do.
X-Box Live
X-Box Live Rocks. No ifs, ands, or buts. An X-Box 360 without Live is like peanut butter without jelly, PC without internet, Simon without… well, you get the picture. Online gaming, downloadable content, arcade games, movie and game trailers, playable demos, gamer scores, Red vs. Blue, friends lists, clan matches, text and voice messages, voice chat, smack talking, you name it. At $50.00 a year it is unquestionably the best bargain in gaming. Sony claims they will have some form of free online functionality and Nintendo has a virtual console in the works so you can download and play old school Nintendo titles on the Wii but I really can’t see anyone giving up their X-Box Live for either.
Price
I can get you a Nintendo GameCube brand new in the box for $99.00. Refurbished for $49.00. Interested? I didn’t think so. It doesn’t matter how cheap or how good a console is if the software isn’t there its game over. More on this later.
Nintendo’s new controller
The new controller looks like a lot of fun to use. You can swing it like a sword, bat, tennis racquet or golf club, point it like a gun, hold it like a steering wheel or “accidentally” bash your opponent in the head with it. Unfortunately most of these activities require you to be standing up in front of your TV exerting a lot of physical energy and we gamers are a lethargic lot. It may be popular with the kiddies but I don’t think I can see myself using it. Also, any game designed for use with the Wii controller will be very difficult to port for other consoles which is sure to scare off many developers.
Now let’s take a look at some of the factors that actually did influence the outcomes of previous console wars and how they may influence the upcoming battle.
Software
In the battle between PSOne and N64 every developer that was making quality games (with a few exceptions like Rare) was making them for Sony. Nintendo had already started down the path of alienating third party developers and the only decent games available for the N64 were made by companies owned or controlled by Nintendo.
Fast forward to the PS2 / X-Box / Gamecube war and the gap between Sony and Nintendo had widened even more. While the Gamecube was obviously a better console than the PS2 you couldn’t give them away because by that time Nintendo had chased away just about every company that had made games for them in the past. X-Box, while clearly being the best console of the three was the new kid on the block and with the exception of a few companies like Bungie, Team Ninja and a few others most game developers were leery to take a chance on a new a piece of hardware made by a relative newcomer that was previously know only for making software. Microsoft had to practically beg store owners to set up even the smallest displays to showcase their games.
With the success of both the PS2 and X-Box chances are we will see a lot of great third party titles for both PS3 and 360 while Nintendo has virtually slammed the door once and for all in the faces of developers with their refusal to join the twenty-first century in the power and graphics departments and the implementation of their unorthodox controller which makes cross platform developing almost impossible.
Exclusivity In the N64 / PSOne war exclusivity was an accepted part of life that we all knew about but didn’t dwell on too much. You could play Perfect Dark or Goldeneye if you had an N64 and you could play Metal Gear if you had PSOne but I honestly don’t know anyone who used this fact as a deciding factor in which console to buy. That all changed in the PS2 / X-Box / Gamecube war. Exclusivity deals became console sellers. GTA III sold millions and millions of PS2s because people (myself included) were actually willing to spend $199.00 on the console because it was the only way they could play the game. Halo totally carried X-Box for the first 12 – 18 months of the consoles life because gamers knew that they absolutely had to play this game and they needed an X-Box to do it. Metroid and Mario actually even managed to move a few Gamecubes.
In the upcoming war we’re already seeing the beginning of the end of exclusivity deals. Sony Entertainment will continue to make games exclusively for PS3, Microsoft Studios will keep developing strictly for the 360 and Nintendo will continue to make.. um, to make… uh, Mario for theWii but the third party developers have caught on to the fact that the real money is in cross platform releases. The next GTA game will be released on PS3 and 360 on the same day. Splinter Cell Double Agent will release on at least four consoles all at the same time. It won’t happen overnight but exclusivity is going the way of the dinosaur and good riddance. How absurd would it be if you went to rent a movie and realized you couldn’t watch it because your DVD player was made by Sony and not Toshiba? The simple fact of the matter is that gamers are better off without exclusivity deals but there are a few left and the really big ones seem to favor X-Box in a big way. The two most talked about releases of the next twelve months are Halo III and Gears of War, both 360 exclusives and the biggest loss of exclusivity was Grand Theft Auto IV which is going to hurt Sony tremendously because the GTA franchise has been their ace in the hole for a long time.
Brand recognition and console loyalty (a.k.a. fanboys)
The unknown factor or variable in the equation is as much a mystery to me as it is to the suits at Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. There was a time when it seemed like Nintendo would always be the King of Consoles because of brand recognition and the loyalty of Nintendo fans but something happened to unseat them and it’s a mystery that scares the crap out of Sony. The question of console loyalty will not be answered until we see how many Sony fanboys are willing to put their money where their mouths are and plunk down $600.00 for a PS3. The first run of manufacturing will unquestionably sell out with pre-orders and early adopters but as for how long Sony can keep up the pace and keep moving consoles at a competitive rate, that’s anyone’s guess.
The Red Light of Death
No, it’s not a new weapon in Halo and it’s not Microsoft’s secret weapon against Blue Ray. The Red Light of Death (RLD) is something that I became aware of just before posting this article and I’m not sure what, if any, effect it will have on the Console War but I decided to include it. Apparently the game Dead Rising, recently released on X-Box 360, is the first game to come close to pushing the 360 to the limits of its capabilities and the result has meant catastrophic failure for some of the first and earlier run machines. From what I’ve heard the workload placed on the graphics hardware while rendering several hundred zombies onscreen at the same time causes the chip to overheat to the point where either the chip or some component near it fries. The circular green light around the power button flashes red (RLD), the console crashes and that’s it, you have to pack it up and send it back to Microsoft for service or replacement. I don’t know exactly how many people this has happened to yet and it may turn out to be something blown completely out of proportion like the story about rampant overheating which was circulating when the console first shipped and which turned out to be nothing. Either way, I have a first run 360 and a copy of Dead Rising which I will continue to play regardless of RLD and will use the forums to keep you posted about any problems I do or do not encounter.
Now, lately I get a lot of reads but not too many comments. This time I’m asking for a response because I’m really curious to know what gamers are thinking about these issues. Just a few words to let me and everyone else know what you think or know about the console war or RLD.
INOX NYC