Change is in the Air

Its been just about about 5 years since the Xbox 360 was released and 4 years since Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii have been on store shelves.  Some are already talking about the announcement of the eighth generation console(s) coming as soon as this E3; some say it’ll happen next year and few say it might not even happen anytime soon.  Either way — new consoles or not — change is always coming.  With Sony repeating the idea that they are “future proof”, and as expensive as their console is (or ‘was’ depending on your preference) you can count on it lasting you for at least a decade. I think it’s safe to say there won’t be an announcement from Sony anytime soon for a Playstation 4 and Nintendo seems to be content with their stance in the market at the moment.  So if there was an announcement of a new console coming soon most will suspect it will be Microsoft; while many beg to differ with the approach of the “Natal”  release and some speculate that it wouldn’t be that far-fetched of an idea if Microsoft was already planning on a next-gen console to release as soon as 2011 or 2012 with Natal compatibility.

More Moving and Less Buttons

Since last E3 we have all known that Sony was coming out with their own motion control peripheral to compete against 360’s Natal and Wii.  That being said– it’s only fair to believe that the next generation of consoles will come out with motion controls just as Nintendo did right off the bat.  Though Sony took the copy-cat approach and did exactly what the Wii has been doing for 4 years –albeit in HD– Microsoft has taken an interesting idea and reiterated on it by taking away the peripheral and making your body itself the controller. Right now game developers are scrambling to think up ideas to make the controls intuitive and fun, but not feel forced. (See those few PS3 of those games that tried to use the Sixaxis a lot)  Soon after Microsoft’s announcement of the Natal Sony retorts by telling us that it’s important for the player to have a button to press while we control our games, and  I agree with this sentiment as I’m sure many others do. Which is why I’m sort of worried about the direction we are going in terms of controlling our video games. While I’m interested to see the type of hardcore titles developers can think up that can go along with motion controlling and still have button mashing I would think that a console that came out with no hands-on controller whatsoever would be an utter failure.  Which is why if Xbox wanted to release a new console they should just release one with a regular controller we’ve all grown accustom to playing with and have Natal compatible with the new gaming console.

The Natal will probably be something pretty hard to adapt to as many of us are so used to pressing a button rather than actually having to move ourselves around, and not hold anything in our hands to reinforce our actions. Those who are looking forward to using the Natal are either very curious gamers or just people who don’t play video games period, but then again those who don’t even play video games at all are already looking at the Nintendo Wii and probably have no clue at all what the Natal is by the time it’s released a majority wouldn’t care to spend more money on the Xbox 360 just to try it out.  Natal will not sell well at first, but as time goes by and developers have time to think up new and fun ideas to utilize the interesting feature it might do well later on.  That being said system hardware rarely sells well this far into the console generation.  Sony’s Move and the Natal will have to suffer a few beatings in the sales department before they ever become a success.

DLC For All!

DLC has become somewhat ubiquitous. It’s kind of rare these days for a big AAA title to release and no downloadable content to follow it within the next year.  Developers see this as an opportunity — other than adding mulitplayer which sometimes feels forced — to keep consumers interested in their product and make sure they keep their hands on it.  Too many people opt out to just rent a game in order to save money; so instead of the developers just giving you tacked on multiplayer you’re promised a chance to play a “missing chapter”, prequel, or side quests that was not in the original title for a small fee or sometimes even free.  In the future it’s pretty obvious developers will keep this up since many of their fans and buyers are finding DLC to be quite enthralling either because it’s totally different and fun or because it adds quality to the 60 dollar game they just purchased.

It’s odd that there have been a number of iterations released of the Nintendo DS recently.  You might say they could be releasing all of them within a certain window so they can finally reveal their next handheld that doesn’t support DS games, but that’s just a thought– after all Shigeru Miyamoto himself did recently confirm that Nintendo is working on a new hardware. Many are saying that the PSP Go was sent out to die, and that might be true right now if you look at the sales numbers.  But the fact of the matter is that what Sony is doing with its handheld right now is probably the right direction portable gaming need to go and with due time the public will get used to it. I support the idea of giving us the chance to download games for our handhelds on the go, and Apple shows us that it can happen and be profitable (See Mac part below).  Many developers are thinking about just dropping their sequels and making their games subscription based for instance instead of a new Madden or Fifa every year you can choose to download the patch with new updated players and teams. Same can be said about music titles like Rock Band and Guitar Hero. And while you’re downloading games to purchase you will probably be given the chance to rent games online and stream them to your handheld or home console; which brings me to my next point.

More support for Streaming Games

OnLive is a lot like watching movies on demand; only it’s games. You get a little console called the “MicroConsole” that can be connected to your television giving you access to OnLive; so it’s quite possible to make use of this product without ever using your computer. Gaming-on-demand is something we can all look forward to as an easier and faster way to get a hold of our entertainment, and not to mention a cheaper way too.  A lot of people choose to get a GameFly subscription rather than actually buying video games because they would rather pay 15 or 22 dollars than the usual 60 or 160 bucks that they would pay for one or two new games a month.  As an added note if OnLive catches the attention of many developers and becomes something big GameFly will see it as somewhat of a competitor and probably launch their own GameFly Instant Streaming service that will give you access to rent titles and directly stream them on to your home consoles.  And unless they want to sink you better be sure that GameStop will jump into the mix to save themselves.

The other group that can really benefit from this would be the growing group of independent game developers that release their content for cheap on XBL, PSN, and PC. And right now what they’re trying to do is really get their products out into the public eye.  They’ll use as many outlets as they can to get noticed by as many people as they could get — this means putting their products online, on as many consoles as they can and possibly on OnLive if they can.  A lot of people argue that graphical upgrade isn’t enough for next-gen; we’re through with that point and time, and we are already at motion control.  We’ll find ourselves having more fun with games that seem dated then just AAA titles from big named developers.  This is already happening and the market for indie gaming is only growing larger.

Continued support for outside Products

Netflix, Last.fm, Facebook, and Twitter; these are all on Microsoft’s list of reasons why their customers should renew their Xbox Live subscriptions and why you should get one now if you don’t have one.  When Netflix and Facebook was first announced for Live there was an outcry of “Why should I care”. As time went by many started to use their Netflix Instant Streaming on Xbox 360 and now it’s on Playstation 3 and come Spring you’ll be able to use Netflix on your Nintendo Wii too.  It would be a smart move for the big three to continue their support of this service as a way to give their customers another reason to turn their console on.

The big three will do what Nintendo pointed out was important to gain consumers years ago.  Make your home console something that can be used by just about anyone in the family.  Wii has a feature to check your news and weather, and Sony has also showed interest with “Life with Playstation” feature found on the PS3 XMB.  While Playstation Home hasn’t garnered the attention Sony had hoped for that might change in the near future when they begin to give you more options to play around in the cyber-space of gamers.  As of right now you can watch film previews in the theater packed with other avatars in real-time play a game with someone and go to the arcade as well as bowl with other players.  XBL users are able to watch a film with anyone on their friends list in real-time and chat with each other too; as soon as Home gives you this option it will become more popular.  While you can use Home to start up multiplayer match it doesn’t work as efficiently as one would hope, and this feature isn’t compatible with all games. While Sony fixes what same may call and broken concept they can certainly add in a few new things like the ability to also watch movies or shows with friends on your PSN buddy list.

Apple Joins In the hoopla

No, this isn’t a prediction of an Apple console… that’s just ridiculous.  Anyway, with the growing number of games you can find in the app store for your iPod, iPhone and (soon) iPad it’s obvious that Apple is noticing that these things sell, gaming is relevant!  Recently Valve has announced that Mac will be able to support Steam which is great news for Mac gamers who don’t have the patience for Windows (or should I say the money for a good PC).  The first titles to be ported over to the Mac this April with be those of Valve property including Half Life 2, Portal, Team Fortress 2, and Counter-Strike.  Its been rumored moths prior and now confirmed; Apple knows it can make good money off gaming and this is only the beginning.  This might just be the beginning of hardcore gaming on the Mac; if it picks up it’ll be a matter of time when you’ll see Games for Windows and Mac Games competing like many of today’s console exclusives.  With a new phone coming from Microsoft it’s a clear competitor for the iPhone and if it wants to compete it better do what the iPhone lets you do; including playing your favorite portable games.

Video games can be pretty capricious in terms of how it will evolve.  It’s still a young industry compared to all of our other entertainment out there.  The community is still rapidly growing and there are great games releasing every year. I’m curious to see what the next big step will be as far as controlling your video games.  What will come after motion control?  Controlling a video game with brain waves?  Ridiculousness! You’d say… but then again; who saw the Wii or Natal coming ten years ago?