Ben-DutkaThe next-gen console war might really thrive on continued controversy.
Nobody cares about the blowout in sports. The games that get the most attention, that attract the most viewers, that keep people interested in that sport throughout the year, are the ones that are competitive.
Therefore, it stands to reason that if the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One can remain competitive throughout this generation, it's really going to benefit the industry in the long run. Although I loved that the PS2 was a total kingpin, I maintain to this day that video games would've expanded and advanced that much faster had the PS2 had stiffer competition. Right now, the PS4 is obviously winning the new console war, but things are tightening up in most major areas around the world and that's a good thing.
If the PS4 just dominated everything, how interested would you be in the daily news? Seriously? We all know that "PS4 vs. Xbox One" headlines get a million hits all the time, despite gamers always crowing about how they "don't care" about the console war. It's the biggest lie in the world; oftentimes throughout the year, it's the only subject that gets any attention at all. Without it, things really start to lag. One console ruling the roost isn't good for anyone in the long run, I don't think.
Remember Nintendo's heyday? battling it out with Sega? That was the golden era for gamers. The 16 Bit War. So great was it, in the end, RARE upped the anty with Donkey Kong Island, proving 16 Bit still had a lot of life in it. Imagine what PS4 Vs X1 can bring to the table if today's RARE equivalent only tries. Imnagine what a new console war can bring us.
bitchy-ness, salty-ness, and butthurt-ness
Well, these days it seems pretty much 95% of 3rd party games are released on both systems anyway. So when it came down to choosing a console the deciding factor was what console has the better exclusives and what console runs better.
The only reason now that I chose the PS4 over the Xbox for exclusives is due o Naughty Dog, before it would have been Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, Tekken, Tomb Raider, but we've seen them all jump ship now, so in all honesty, exclusives aren't a big deal for me right now.
Then there is the fact that pretty much all of the 3rd party games run better on PS4. many running at a higher resolution output, to me that just shows the the PS4 is the place to be. Had the Xbox offered a better experience for Final Fantasy & Metal Gear… I may well have jumped ships myself.
I agree. We could definitely benefit from some heated competition.
________ said it the best on your weekly review for this week about the current generation: everything feels right, but so empty, so half a$$ed.
Maybe not half assed, but I get the empty part. I think even you stated it at one point Ben, that the PS4 (and even the XB1) encountered the perfect storm entering this generation, allowing it to sell faster and more than any systems before it. But things just feel a little lackluster despite having great, capable hardware. The games aren't bad, but there's just something not quite right, something missing.
Perhaps it IS that heated competition that was missing all along. Up until November, the PS4 was considered to be slaughtering the XB1, and I guess people may've just been like, "Yeah? What's new?", pretty much acknowledging that the PS4 being in the lead by such a huge margin was a given, and they didn't want to be bothered because it was 'old' news.
It would be cool as Ather mentioned, if this were like the 16-bit war. That was HEATED. I think that's where the origin of multiplat game wars may've come from. Mortal Kombat playing better/worse on the SNES vs Genesis, the blood debacle, etc. Or when Sega made Capcom give them the Champion Edition of Street Fighter II to rival the Turbo Edition on the SNES. My friends and I went NUTS over that, especially since I was on the SNES side, and he was on Sega's.
Sure, no one goes nuts over multiplats like that, unless they're getting console specific content, and then people go bonkers, but that's what it's all about. Fueling your audience, making them want your system over the competition's even if they both play many of the same games, simply because one system has something over the other.
I'd like to say the 32/64-bit wars were like that, but Sega's Saturn didn't stand much of a chance against the PS1, and the N64 was already heading into that world where Nintendo's at today. Despite some 3rd party support, Nintendo already appeared to be playing to its own tune. I guess Nintendo figured they'd fought enough with Sony beforehand 😉
There was a slight resurgence for the 128-bit era with the Dreamcast/PS2/XB/Gamecube, but the PS2 dominated, even after being the inferior system when up against the specs of the latter two. But it was cool talking about Megahertz back then still. Dreamcast-200MHz, PS2-300MHz, XB- 700MHz, GC- 485MHz.
Last edited by Aranha on 12/29/2014 2:00:23 AM
i totally get where you are coming from but i think people are just not sure if that would fit in with our day and age people probably think that people have grown ot of that or something
I really DON'T care about the console war. At least, not in the sense we're going about it. Nitpicking details isn't a great means of debating a war when the facts are known. The outcome is undeniable. Where I'm interested in seeing in this generation's progression is the type of gaming each platform will offer.
It seems like each platform is taking on its own way to win. At this point, it's just a pissing match about exclusivity. That, to me, ruins competition when it heads in the direction we're aiming towards. Multiplat games going exclusive is weird to me. First party development has taken the backseat to 3rd party drama.
If the systems don't compete at the software level, someone is going to lose leverage and fast. That someone, to me, is yet to be known. I don't foresee this being an issue of content within a year. It'll be the last leg of the generation that's going to get tight. When the systems are shining and the content is the only thing holding either one back.
This is the turning point for Nintendo, as far as I'm concerned. The next system must be able to bring something that has a clear advantage over the other consoles.
Microsoft seems way too content hungry. Will the aim be to buy out more devs and ips? Smother the choices we get to enjoy? Sony seems rather aggressive, which just might be an indication of what Microsoft has up their sleeve.
Sony needs to rebuild. And fast. It's one company that is attracting a lot of heat from individuals. Ruining the divisions with controversial attacks and leaving the masses questioning just how reliable their services are. Thing is, most people aren't consuming as much time as some of us are reading the latest gaming community news. To those people, all the recent issues come with a much quicker, less realistic, decision about Sony's services.
It's crazy.
I care about the platforms war from an entertainment point of view.
It's kinda amusing yet at the same time annoying, I do look down on it with a fatherly patience.
Like some days ago when I read someone claiming the issues with AC:Unity stems from when they had to "downgrade" the game from PS4 to Xbone. It's just… Cute.
But most of all I'm just happy my world view and general insight is nuanced enough to not become a participant.
Last edited by Beamboom on 12/29/2014 4:41:57 AM
If they stay close it would be great, so Sony and Microsoft will start making more great exclusive to attract more people to their console, right now Xbox One has great exclusive like forza horizon 2 and sunset overdrive…
I just don't want MS dominating. They can be close, but not dominate. I just feel if MS dominates, we're gonna suffer in value as a gamer.
Also Sony would be screwed. It's the only industry of their huge business that makes them real money. Sony actually does innovate, so it would be sad to see them gone.
we should ask PS4 users how the past year has felt with Sony "dominating" the competition.
I bet most of them would say, "greatness is here. Sony is king! It's never been better than this!"
I bet PSN gamers right now, and over the past week, are telling each other that online in the games they're playing.
=p
Last edited by Temjin001 on 12/29/2014 1:37:21 PM
All sarcasm aside, I dont know anymore. I think I'm ready to say I want a single platform standard.
I don't care if it's MS or Sony or Nintendo. The console hardware is just a means of delivering the games, much like how a DVD player or something delivers the movies. Right now the XO and PS4 are just a stone throw away from being the same hardware. And the hardware can exhaust the budgets of most any game studio in technical prowess if they so desired.
I say this because I want to see the end of these retarded exclusive buy out deals. ie. MS steals Tomb Raider and locks down Titanfall. Sony steals Street Fighter and takes Destiny missions from a content starved game.
In the end these games appeal to the same audience. Gamers like me. I don't want to buy two consoles anymore to have access to these games. I feel like the competition will still exist between the software publishers regardless of platform walls. Sony could still have game publishing studios without their own hardware, same with MS.
I'm tired of it. I'm ready for change. I want one platform that does it all.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 12/29/2014 1:51:24 PM
You might be dreaming to big Temjin001…
Microsoft and Sony are in this thing to make money and they do that by selling hardware. Sony thinks they can do it better then Microsoft and vice versa. It's not like what we are seeing with Sony/Microsoft is something new as competition between rivals in this industry has always meant that one would have an advantage over the other.
Like you, I was tired of buying both consoles. My solution was to find the one that best suited my needs. That answer was Sony and I learned that with the PS3. So what I miss out on the exclusives the Xbox has to offer. My life will go on, and I'll find something else to play.
I noticed that once I quit looking at my hobby as more then "moving on to the next game this month", I was able to get more fulfillment out of picking up a controller. This led to me playing games for longer and saving money. I also noticed that true friendships began to blossom and acquaintances became easy to identify and move away from.
More importantly, the time spent with my two sons gaming began to triple as I never felt the need to move onto this title and play with my friends. It was almost as if gaming with multiple consoles became my focus when it shouldn't have in the first place.
Find a place that works for you, and everything else will take care of itself.
thanks Max. but it doesn't change that I'm tired of it. You could still game with your son and enjoy your games if there was one standard. There was a time that a console could bring hardware processing and offerings that were well distinguished from the competition. The PS3 brought the promise of the CELL processor, the Blu-Ray standard, the free PSN, and the value of built in Wi-Fi etc. There were reasons that went beyond locking down exclusives to distinguish it's existence.
Today it's similar hardware, similar services, similar value. If Sony was better at offering stuff like PS Now or even support their PS Vita meaningfully I could still stand up for them as someone worth splitting the market for.
It seems this last year was frought with heavy handed exclusive buy outs. Big AAA games that millions adore that at one time were multiplatform. Now these increasingly FINITE offerings are being stolen to serve themselves. It sucks for both sides as far I'm concerned.
EDIT: and sure there's always the nice thing of having exclusively developed software like Order 1886. But couldn't a similar (or the same) game still be made by Sony and published on whatever the current standard is? Absolutely. Sony made movies don't just run on Sony Blu Ray players.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 12/29/2014 3:08:15 PM
probably will, and should competition is good for the industry.
and its only going to get hotter with the strong rumours that AMD is preparing a new X86 chip and a new ARM ship for new gaming consoles next year.
interesting, allot of rumours say nintys pulling the plug on the wiiu and are already replacing it with something else.
i find that a bit hard to believe i mean can you imagine the backlash they would cop?
not to mention the money they would loose, i mean to develop a whole new system and to send it to the dumpster after only 2 years and lord knows it hasn't sold many systems or games.
yea maybe the new system will be their premium line and will co exist with the wiiu, but then that just means extra strain on their developers.
does that mean 2 versions of all first party games will be made, or will each system just miss out on certain games?
frankly i can't see ninty bringing out a new console which makes it
extremely interesting on what those 2 chips are for.
maybe valve is going to enter the industry, but i seriously doubt it as thats what the steambox is for.
and where is it going to get its exclusives from?
who else could be readying their mists to enter the console market?
samsung?
apple?
one has to worry and wonder if this is what the industry really needs though.
i mean we already have games suffering because of massive budget and manpower requirements games have these days, adding a new console or two to that mix is only going to make things so much worse!
we really need a whole revolutionisation of the industry, of how we make games.
income the unlimited detail engine, funny enough the latest issue of game informer had a big piece on the comeback of that, really quite a interesting read.
and they say there working with several big developers on a few games which should be ready for a reveal next year!
really excited to see what this thing can do, and see if it can really deliver on its promise.
especially on cutting down on the manpower and budgets needed for games, as so many developers have been saying for years its gotten out of hand it REALLY needs to change!
no no i agree ben and i agree with you the sales between them need to be reasonably close just not too close i think if things stay around the 7-8 million area ahead of the XB1 making about 45% ps4 i would be happy with that.
happy gaming