The Future of Videogames Part 5, 2009 Edition
It’s that time of year again! Time to listen to me ramble on about what I think will happen in the gaming industry. For this installment I mostly concentrate on new consoles since I feel this generation is already getting old, well the 360 and Wii at least. Other topics covered are the death of music games without a country savior, 3D games and the Microsoft Natal.
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December 15th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Great read! …alghouth, I feel that 3D might not come along all that much in the homes. Not just cause of the whole TV/Hardware issues that will quicky arise, but also because this was tried out before…I recall the Sega Master system also had a 3D thing using special glasses, nintendo had their virtual boy, neither of which did all that well for whatever reasons they had.
Plus, there was many a study into the realms of 3D stuffages by various military groups back in the 80s & 90s, where they found that too much time spent with the 3D programs would result in what they called “simulator sickness” were people would actually become physically sick from doing it too much….something that’d easily plague many game addicts should 3D become a reality. Of course, that was back in the day……..and video resolution (even for military computers) wasn’t very high at all. Who knows what will happen.
December 15th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
On PC, nvidia already has the 3d shutter things, granted you have a nice monitor and some decent graphics power. Its not new or anything, its just not entirely popular or practical. Another quite interesting idea for “3d” that is much simpler and less demanding — head tracking. It has been demonstrated with a wii controller and a pair of ir-emitting glasses. Quite a practical idea, check it out on youtube if you haven’t seen it already.
December 16th, 2009 at 7:02 am
Great article.
As someone who’s blind in one eye, I positively hate when 3D crap is shoved in my face.
There was an episode of NBC’s “Chuck” aired in 3D, and to my knowledge never aired otherwise. I’m a big fan of the show, and watching either with the stupid glasses, or without the stupid glasses gave me a headache, and totally took me out of the episode.
I don’t care if movies are offered in 3D for special presentations that I can simply decline to support, but it’s unacceptable to press it on people without offering an alternative.
I agree with most of your predictions. Especially the Natal. WTF is that thing all about? I literally have no desire to play games by waving my arms around. Some people do?
December 16th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
I’m actually surprised – unless I missed it – that you never mentioned the future of XBL. Now that the word is out that the Playstation network is completely free, I think Microsoft has no choice but to make Live free, and I mean ASAP.
Think about it, you’re at the store, looking to buy a console. You see a 360 and a PS3 sitting side by side. then you see that the PS3 has Bluray, it has wireless internet access, it has free online interactions, and on top of that more processing power and possibly better graphics. Not to mention that it’s almost the same price as the 360 now.
Then you look at the 360 and you see that it has no bluray, no wireless, inferior graphics, and some people you work with have complained about how they’ve been through 4 of them already due to RROD. Then top that with a steaming pile of yearly Live subscription cost, which almost amounts to the cost of a new game.
The decision will be very easy.
This is coming from a die-hard Xbox fan too, make no mistake. I just think Microsoft should be considering this very seriously. If PS3 and PC are free to game online(if I’m not mistaken?) then why does it magicly cost you to play on xbox? What BS.
December 17th, 2009 at 12:12 am
Well put. You also can’t forget XBL’s reputation for having total buttheads (clean tearm) on it all times, as opposed to the generally nicer enviroment seen on PSN. I know a number of people who don’t own a 360 not because of the technical issues, but mainly cause the online enviroment for it is so poor. yeah, you can mute players…but why should you have to? Oh, and I too am a die-hard xbox fan…so if two die hard fans can acknowledge the PS3s supperiority in various aspects, there must be something up, lol.
December 17th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Why do people still buy them? I have had trouble trying to convince a few people who were debating which console to buy. They could find no areas where the PS3 wasn’t superior yet still leaned heavily towards buying a 360.
December 17th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
It could be like back in the day with the Genesis Vs Super NES war. Although the SNES was technically supperior both in the sound and graphics department, many people still went with the Genesis, eventually resulting in SEGA becoming a real power player during the 16-bit era.
December 18th, 2009 at 6:01 am
MMX said: “yeah, you can mute players…but why should you have to?”
Because… it’s the internet?
The fact that XBL costs $50 bucks per year is ensuring that you have LESS of those people to deal with.
Your entire point is basically: “I work with morons, and I can always ignore them… but why should I have to?”
Why?
Why should you have to?
Because you’re a human being living in a society, and within that society we have morons. It’d be awesome if we could just preemptively censure (not censor) those people… but we can’t. That’s not how life works.
Hence… it’s not how the internet works.
I’d rather see Xbox Live increase to $100 dollars per month than go free.
December 18th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
You pose a good point there….I tell ya what, if jacking the cost up to 100 per month could keep more of them off, I’d be all for it. Too bad I’d wind up quitting too cause that’d be FAR too much XP
December 18th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Sony won’t be playing the “free” card much longer for PSN.
http://ps3.gamespy.com/articles/105/1056492p1.html
Some aspects will still be free, but a lot of the things that are free today will be pay services in the future.
I like both the 360 and PS3 a lot, but Live wipes it’s ass with PSN. You get what you pay for. Perhaps when they start charging for PSN the quality of the experience will improve.
December 18th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Great Article. I agree with Ben about the Wii’s uselessness. Like an idiot, I bought one, and it was alright when I first got and took it with me to play at friend’s houses. 95% of my gaming is done at home, by myself, so and the Wii has a handful of decent single player games, and no good epic RPGs. The thing has been in a box for nearly a year, untouched. So, I did the smart thing, sold it to someone who actually had someone to play it with, and was going to buy one anyway, and bought a PS3 a few days ago, which has quite a few awesome games, and a lot more coming out in the future, and I’m betting the PS3 will last a very long time. I still played my PS2 a fair bit this year, a hell of a lot more than I ever did my Wii, and I know that between games and Blu-Ray Discs, my PS3 will see a lot of use.
Just my two cents,
Dave
December 19th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Errrr… I meant $100 per year, not month. My mistake.
$100 per month would be absurd.
December 19th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
That article about Sony’s online is far from being anything more than speculation. Its like back when they did small tests and predicted that ISPs would switch to charging people by data amount instead of flat rates. Eventually? Maybe, but I highly doubt that Sony will make PSN cost money anytime soon.
And I’ve heard of people complaining about XBL and its various problems. Sure it has a few extra features and such, but it certainly isn’t worth paying extra money for. However, the extra cash doesn’t stop even the brattiest little kids from ruining everything XBL is worth.
December 19th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
“And I’ve heard of people complaining about XBL”
“it certainly isn’t worth paying extra money for”
You clearly don’t use it, so how would you know?
December 20th, 2009 at 12:33 am
@Ryan
Rest assured they will start charging for services on PSN. It is only a matter of time as it is an untapped revenue stream and Sony isn’t in the best shape financially these days. Right now they’re testing the waters, but it will happen. Sony executives have been quoted saying as much. From what I’ve heard online gaming will remain free which is the most important thing and would still give Sony a leg up on MS in that regard.
As far as the Live experience goes… It’s all in what games you play and who you play them with. Playing Lost Planet a couple years back, I met a great group of people of all ages that I still game with today. There are, of course, the Halo brats that have to be dealt with from time to time but the mute button makes short work of them. Plus, you can flag that person as someone you don’t want to play with and Live will do it’s best not to put them in a match with you anymore.
December 20th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
I have used it before, though, and the “interface” I suppose I’m referring to is a nightmare, imo.
I’m sure XBL has some friendlier game communities as well, and I’m sure it has some features that help weed out the annoying ones. I just don’t think XBL and PSN are quite as dissimilar as everyone says, and I don’t understand why people make XBL the basis for their 360 purchase.
Although it does seem likely that Sony, in their current position, would want to start adding services to bring in more money. And if, like you said, they keep online gaming free, than they can still use that for marketing. My only doubt was that they would take that away when it is part of their prime marketing campaign (thankfully they have actually started listing a few things instead of solving rubiks cubes).
December 20th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Yep, Wii is only useless till my friends come over and we play smash bros. Always makes for a good time. Other then that….yah its useless. I have a PC for all my gaming needs but im picking up a PS3 soon..I don’t know if I will switch overnight as I still loath using analog sticks for aiming. I might just end up buying games for both platforms.
Pretty much agree with everything except that the Wii will crash the gaming industry. The difference between 1983 and now is that in 1983 video games was considered a “fad”. It was popular to have an Atari cause it was the “in” thing. Now days video games are part of society. You can’t buy a electronic device that doesn’t have a NES emu port that works on it. Point is the gaming industry is so integrated into society that it will not crash. It may shrink but not crash like it once did.
December 21st, 2009 at 2:33 am
@Ryan
Considering the opinion of people who’ve spent a considerable amount of time with both XBL, and PSN differs from yours, I’d call into question the amount of time you’ve spent on XBL, and your (probably subconscious) preconceived negative opinion of anything X-Box/Microsoft.
…I know… I know…
“I’m not a fanboy”, “I’m not biased”… okay.
You don’t like XBL. That’s perfectly fine. I respect your opinion. It simply tells me something that the people who pay for XBL have no problem with the idea of paying for it, while the people who don’t have it don’t think it’s worth it.
December 21st, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Alrighty then. I really am in no way a Microsoft hater. I think Win7 is the best OS since XP, have not and will never purchase an Apple product. But what they have done with the xbox is quite seemingly not a solid effort. Of anyone, it should be MS who provides free online services and a more technically advanced console, right? And the insulting marketing pranks they try to pull on consumers are true to their reputation (let alone Nintendo). Sony continues to deliver better services and features at an outstanding price. There’s no bias, it’s just the better option from my standpoint (price, power, reliability). My guess is that people have more friends with XBL (MS had a bit of a head start) and would rather sacrifice the advantages from the PS3. No more complex than that.
Of course, there’s always the wonderful world of PC gaming.
December 21st, 2009 at 5:04 pm
“the insulting marketing pranks they try to pull on consumers are true to their reputation”
well… you’re certainly not biased.
December 21st, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Well anyone knows what Microsoft is known for, even though I personally don’t agree with most of the blame aimed at them. There are some smart people in marketing at Microsoft and they clearly have mastered the art. I think Xbox, though, has gone a bit too far with Microsoft’s classic schemes, not to say that other companies haven’t been taking advantage of consumers. Nintendo’s “Wii HD” likely will pack a punch considering all this new money they’ve been able to stream into research. Sony was able to use the revenue generated from the PS2 in this same fashion, and even to recover after the market decided that power and price wasn’t what it was looking for. I just think that the PS3 is the best offering in the console gaming department. Statistically, it may be the best, yet people seem to have other reasons to choose another product to purchase, which is fine.
This conversation is quite frankly exhausting and I’m not even sure what the argument is anymore. Personally I chose what I saw to be the best console this generation and next time will undoubtedly be different. If MS gets their act together (my opinion…..) then perhaps I will buy the next xbox. To each gamer his own opinion (so long as it is educated and has some kind of decent reason) :)
December 21st, 2009 at 9:08 pm
“I just think that the PS3 is the best offering in the console gaming department.”
And that’s fine. The reason your statements appear biased is because you seem to be implying that simply because its your preference, there is no aspect of the competition which might be superior. Your comments give the impression that once you’ve chosen your preference, you’re unable to accept there might be any independent components of the other consoles that happen to do things better.
You’re not hearing my personal opinion of the PS3′s online because, while I’ve played it, I haven’t put nearly enough time into it to give any sort of educated commentary. If you’re not a biased fanboy, you’re in quite the minority to say the PSN is better than XBL. Fanboys say it all the time, but their statements are inevitably laced with telling language… some of which you used.
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:47 am
About your comments on 3D gaming, you wouldn’t need a console that fast to produce 3D images twice at 12fps, what they could do is use a 2D filter that takes a screen shot and turns it into 2 images every frame, at 60 fps which isn’t visible to humans, it could probably work, you would have to use the hardware more efficiently like Uncharted 2 minus ‘ts awesome graphics but it could work. If I’m correct I think this is how Nvidia is doing it with their new 3D glasses.
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:07 pm
My point about XBL was mostly over price and features offered with online services. There is no experience necessary, only two lists of features side by side. From the viewpoint of someone who has never used a console before.
As far as the consoles go, I was only trying to lessen my harsh statements… Sure, there are better individual areas that lead different customers to choose what they want. I’m not sure how people become so entangled with defending their consoles, or just choosing one to begin with. I stated that people choose their consoles for their own reasons, and say that my choice was my opinion, which is true. The superior console is truly decided by your own viewpoint. In fact, if you don’t care about online, graphics, or traditional controller use, the Wii is the best overall.
Your argument is that everything I’ve said is biased and that you have not done such, although your opinion seems to be clear. Of course it has to be biased because there is no end to an argument about the best console. I’m sick of fans trying to disprove things like the reasons in this very article. Power and bang for your buck, PS3 can’t be beaten. There is no argument behind that, it is another statement that anyone given a stat could make. Other, deeper reasons remain unique to each person.
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:16 pm
And @ Nokes, the images have to be taken from two perspectives, so things do need to be rendered twice. If all we needed were two pictures of the same thing… then what would be the point? Correct me if I’m understanding you wrong. And the only technology in Nvidia’s glasses are two lcds that blink really fast.
December 22nd, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Ryan said: “Strawman Strawman Strawman Strawman Strawman Strawman Strawman.”
Did you even read what I wrote?
December 23rd, 2009 at 6:45 pm
*sigh*
I don’t know what you’re even trying to prove. It was nice talking with you.
December 25th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
You can change the Wii’s settings to be 16:9 widescreen. It doesn’t look bad then on an HDTV?
January 11th, 2010 at 7:49 am
how much for the xbox 360 laptop
March 31st, 2011 at 2:48 pm
Stuff like this is quite funny to look back upon.