The future of consoles

[tehfire]

As news of the new consoles (PS3, 360, Wii) started trickling in, I found myself thinking about the future. I thought PS3 and 360 would be locked in a battle for market supremacy, and I thought that Wii would carve a small, little niche where it would excel.

The competition part was right - PS3 and 360 are trading blows, but it turns out that Wii isn't the one fighting for the niche market. If this generation is any indication, people aren't always concerned about the highest realism or the fanciest graphics; They just want games that are a lot of fun. Wii has capitalized on it and without much fuss I think we can all pretty much agree that it's the dominant console this generation. It turns out that all us 'hardcore gamers' are the niche market,

What does this mean for the future? Are developers/manufacturers gonna stop pushing the envelopes of raw processing power? Are spherical, DK-sized heads the way of the future, or is this just an odd case? And what does it mean for PC gaming?

I personally believe that Microsoft and Sony will stay on their course, but support a lot of developers that make 'fun' games. They're technology companies - I just don't see them abandoning the bling of 'cutting edge'. Computers, I believe, are going to stay pushing the edge, because that's one of the few things that we PC gamers have over the consoles.

What are your thoughts? Where does console gaming, and gaming in general, go from here?

 

[angminas]

Radical new control schemes, more reliance on VOIP, hugely advanced AI and voice recognition. The Wii and Guitar Hero have shown that a lot of people are getting tired of the same basic control scheme they used to beat Bowzer, as well as the unavoidable detachment associated with it. Next up is more of a Power Glove / virtual keyboard / voice command approach, as a simple continuation of the new path forged by the Wii. Here, consoles will have an advantage due to their ability to launch entirely new hardware specs and game input philosophies with each generation, while PCs will continue to lead the variety, graphics (maybe), social interaction, and advanced game design areas. Consoles will need to offer something which the consumer thinks they must have, but which is unavailable on a PC. Killer apps will become even more important to consoles than they are now.

For various reasons, it's probably going to be at least 10 years before the keyboard-mouse setup starts to seriously fade for general computer input, which means most PC games will still be largely controlled with them for a good while yet, which limits how immersive and intuitive PC games can get. This will lead PCs down a path more like the PS3 than the Wii for a time. Soon, though, I believe people will start to get tired of new flashy game-monstrous video card escalation like they're getting tired of control pads. SSDs or their equivalent replacement will start to rapidly gain ground in the next two years.

What else could radically change the course of gaming? A new kind of processor with several times the speed of the previous generation with lower power consumption, future scalability, and adaptability to video card use. Dirt cheap touchscreen LCDs. Combine the two and you could have affordable multi-screen HD gaming- surround video- as well as a completely adaptable control scheme. A huge leap forward in immersiveness, and the next step toward interactive hologram projection.

 

[NaOH]

*head AsPlodEs*

 

[Juno]

cliffs?

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: Juno
cliffs?

 

[Jules]

PC360 FTW! Might be picking up a PS3 also if the price is right.

 

[DivideBYZero]

PCWiiVCDSLPS2CubeSNESN64 FTW!!

 

[shortylickens]

Well, I hate to say it, but if the larger console perspective is looked at, I would say that most video gamers are more interested in graphics than in gameplay.
And not even quality graphics but pretty graphics.

But it also seems like people are getting tired of spending 1 months salary on a system with the required peripherals and a couple games, which is probably the main reason Nintendo is still in business.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
But it also seems like people are getting tired of spending 1 months salary on a system with the required peripherals and a couple games, which is probably the main reason Nintendo is still in business.

It was a genius way for Nintenndo to get people to think "Well maybe I should just get a Nintendo...it looks cool and it's cheap."

 

[angminas]

I think graphics over gameplay is a trend in decline, at least for consoles. I think people are starting to notice how silly it is to keep playing the same games the same way with a few new doodads each year. One reason is the need for an expensive and wonky HDTV to take full advantage of next-gen power, but I think a bigger reason is the increasingly wide gulf between graphics advancement and immersion advancement. At some point, the graphics become so good that you can no longer ignore the fact that you're controlling photorealistic people and places with a very limited and dated chunk of plastic. When people actually look quite a bit (though not 100%) like people, it's creepy. (There's some technical term for that, can't remember the name- this is part of why the Final Fantasy movie bombed.) You just can't adequately simulate human and environment interaction with a standard control device at a level high enough to match up with the kind of graphics we'll be seeing in the PS4 generation. Make the disconnect too striking and people will feel it, giving them an opportunity to remember how much money they just spent to see every pore on Shaq's sweaty face as he fires off one of a limited number of catchphrases or movements meant to make you feel like you're at the game.

To put it more simply, there's a big difference between pushing a few buttons to make a 16-bit sprite do something fantastic and pushing the same buttons ten years later to make a photorealistic human being do it. People will feel it. I believe they already are feeling it. Add in the fact that TVs probably aren't going to go to a new resolution standard any time soon- HD has taken many years to get a foothold and it's really just getting started- and console users will be limited in how far the graphics can advance. This will be a crossroads, as PCs will not have the same limitation. It will be very interesting to see what happens then.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: angminas
I think graphics over gameplay is a trend in decline, at least for consoles. I think people are starting to notice how silly it is to keep playing the same games the same way with a few new doodads each year.

I don't think thats happening. Both consoles and PC publishers still ship essentially the same title every year with minor changes. Then they wonder why sales are low, and typically blame piracy.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

The future of consoles?

Here.

 

[Jules]

Originally posted by: Bateluer

Originally posted by: angminas
I think graphics over gameplay is a trend in decline, at least for consoles. I think people are starting to notice how silly it is to keep playing the same games the same way with a few new doodads each year.

I don't think thats happening. Both consoles and PC publishers still ship essentially the same title every year with minor changes. Then they wonder why sales are low, and typically blame piracy.

I think sales are low on the PC side and not the Console side.

 

[FoBoT]

i am switching from PC games to consoles, wii and xbox360 will replace my gamecube and xbox over the next year

 

[purbeast0]

There is actually a 20 page article in the latest EGM about the future of gaming.

They discuss a bunch of different aspects of it. From the graphics to the displays to the way we interact.

Basically however the biggest part they seem to discuss is AI. AI is leaps and bounds behind the rest of the technical field of video games. They also discuss the input in that as of current, there is no way for the AI of a game to know how the user actually feels.

For example, games have no idea if the user playing the game is excited, scared, happy, or sad at an event that occurs in a game. So they talk about how one company is actually making a device that can detect these feelings in the gamer.

It's actually a very VERY cool article and I highly recommend checking out the latest EGM to read it.