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PlayFirst: Consoles are the niche, not PC
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 30th September 2008
Are consoles more of a niche than PC systems? That's what some developers seem to think.
Welch levels a lot of complaints at the current-gen consoles in an interview with VentureBeat, saying that the problem is that consoles are far too expensive to make and are often not profitable for manufacturers.
"They’re expensive to make, there is no real need for them," said Welch. "The historic justification of the console was one-to-one with interactive entertainment in the living room, because video games were the only form of interactive entertainment."
"Now as you look to personal media, Hollywood media and even TV shows becoming more interactive, oh and video game also, and the increasing compute power, storage and connectivity of this beautiful display on the wall that’s not just a gaming platform, that’s a multimedia platform. So I think we see the console hardcore gamer being more of a niche at that platform."
"I think the biggest proof point in the death of consoles in my thesis is the Wii. The most successful, most difficult to acquire console in this generation is at least a generation old in hardware. The advances are in software and peripherals. Why do you need a box for that? If the real expansion is occurring because of what Nintendo has done, why do we even need a console? The technology could be adapted to run on your average set top box."
"What we really need are more standards around the input devices."
It's certainly an interesting viewpoint, though we're not sure we all agree with it - what's your opinion? Let us know in the forums.
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Comments (16)Stats: 0.055 seconds
*cough*vaporware*cough*
does no-one remember what happened LAST time? With the Phantom?
Last I heard it was still going ahead, with Duke Nukem Forever as a launch title.
oh he's the one a bit behind huh? so the consoles start mimicking PCs in what they do and he's the one behind? heh
point. that said let me know when consoles can burn dvd's and cd's
Simplicity
They can write their code to 1 spec. Where as coding a game for the PC consumer requires a lot of effort in just the video code alone. Just one example for now would be with the Nvidia v.s. ATI war and if AA is used or not and from there, a plethora of other issues come out. It is killing the PC gaming market at this time.
I for one dis-like console systems greatly. I dislike attempting to use a micro hat to control movement and using most controllers on the market make my hands ache after 15 minutes. I have owned a xbox and a xbox 360 and I still cannot figure out why I bought them. Every time I hear someone say something like, "well, I can do this on my console", I can almost every time respond with a statement like, "And where do you think that was developed on? A PC!". I know this is a huge war between console kiddies and PC gamers, but to ditch the system that brought networked gaming to the masses is just plain short sighted. There is a huge market in the PC world with millions of grown adults ready and willing to plunk hundreds of dollars down for the latest greatest games that will be released. Instead, developers like EA will just toss us by the way side. Fools. If they stopped long enough to write a game and FINISH it correctly, their expenses on development would go down and profitability would go back up. Instead, we get "rush this to market. Oh man, the support cost took a large chunk of our profits away." :(
Sorry, done with my rant now.
Simplistic for developing on one platform, sure. But when you have to support multiple consoles in a release this can become quite troublesome. Especially since the APIs and hardware between the PS3, Xbox and Wii are nothing alike. Especially when the tools provided to the developers (looking at you Sony, Ninty) are mostly crap or non-existent. Although they are still controlled environments.
I have to agree with the rest of your post.
I used to watch movies on my CD32 and my Dreamcast was most definitely an entertainment system. One of the first things I did with my Wii is turn it into a browsing/media machine.
I recently bought an new arcade 360 and instead of buying games bought a wireless access point, hard-drive and a HDMI cable for the grand total of £140. Some kind soul bought me a copy of GTAIV but have I played it? Not a whole lot, Tversity has made sure of that and the original purpose of having a media center for cheap has been served.
I am sure I'll do the same with a PS3 when I buy one, mostly for bluray and little big planet (which feels like a pc game) but what have I been doing these last two weeks before the 360 came? Completing Assassins Creed, Crysis, and Half Life 2 Episode 2 on my PC.
In my mind the PC comes first in terms of consideration, especially with the support of larger screens, simple upgrades and better graphics. I need my PC to make full use of my consoles and an entertainment system in the form of a console holds as much functionality as a laptop (which is more of a threat to the PC than the console as technology gets smaller)
A laptop is excellent and simple, performs a function with extras but does not give the whole platform experience I am able to, and more importantly, want to achieve with a PC.
I am certainly not alone.