Atikali Havendoorr
Mannar Focused Warfare
Gallente Federation
55
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Posted - 2014.02.16 03:37:00 -
[2] - Quote
Baal Roo wrote:*compressed*
When you say that, I - sadly - have to agree. Back at the consoles release, I was thinking it was somewhat the best of the two worlds you are referring to. But nowGǪ
Here in the Nordic countries the Xbone isn't released, and the PS4 is virtually unavailable unless you have pre-ordered one, and in the rare occurrences you actually just can walk into a store and get one, you have to pay a large premium. I have seen up to double the recommended retail price.
There aren't many games to play either, and none of those available are anything enthusiastic.
(making the high demand now illogical)
By the time the machines becomes widely available, and there will be any games worth buying it for (which applies to all territories), the machine is -+-1 year old already. Sony might as well have released it this summer, and then they could instead put in AMDs new Kaveri chip, thus making it significantly stronger and easier to program to, and maybe also a graphics chip from the new Volcanic Islands GPU family. It would be hotter, but it has to differentiate from mobile gaming. Some might argue that there's always something newer around the corner, but this time it will take a whole year before anything new will arrive. Intel have newly postponed the launch of the Broadwell architecture to the end of the year, and Nvidia and AMD have made it clear before that new stuff wont arrive until the end of the year, and that it will mostly be smaller batches of middleclass products. AMDs new CPU wont arrive until 2015.
So when the PS4 will reach it's de facto release, it will definitely be outdated.
However, consoles have one ace, one thing that neither PC nor handhelds have: (convenient) local multiplayer gaming. Having a few friends over and play, for example, icehockey together is impossible on a tablet or phone, and inconvinient on a PC.
Alternate playing styles like Playstation move shouldn't be dismissed either. Having a consistent platform to rely on, Move can really bloom.
These two things combined gives a great experience, and can't be replicated on PCs or handhelds.
I see your point in consoles being in a weird and antiquated middle area.
On the other hand it seems like MS and Sony have put effort on the consoles strong areas, namely being a media hub in the living room (Xbone) and heavily develop the social gaming part (PS4), so I think they are still relevant. I love consoles, but even I felt that it might be over very soon, before the PS4 was presented. When the PS4 was presented though, I changed my mind. I think that what Sony showed, they really try to push the consoles forward.
But this middle place thing might seals their fate in the end. It is very hard to tell when you think about it. Noone really knows how far the computation power and gaming on tablets and phones will go. Maybe the tech development will continue unabated and gaming on mobiles will grow and evolve into a new level. Maybe there will be obstacles showing up not too far from now, and slow things down and settle things on a not all that greater magnitude from what we see now. We don't know. On PC, tech development is halting. The new smaller fabric processes doesn't generate the same amount of gains as it historically have, and in some cases actually could end in a small _cost_. Add to that the fact that the PC market in general is in decline.
If consoles really do become squeezed to a slow death, where will those gamers go? Where will that type of gaming go? Sitting in a couch in the living room with a big screen and room for all mates? Possibly with some good speakers already for the movie nights. Or in the armchair or bed in the kids room, with his/hers friends? And all that partygaming, musicgaming and wild gestures gaming?
Will they all move to a tablet and play in their loneliness? Or go to a PC and just sit there with their headphones?
Will this kind of gaming just die?
And don't think so. And I see what possibly could fill the void. Steam machine. Steam has already built up a solid gaming platform and could be the thing that eventually replaces the consoles. On the other hand, it might not at all be a threat, since Valve have departed much from their original ideas behind this. At first it was a console like PC, with a few configuration levels which developers could aim their games tech specs at, making it easier for no-techies to get along, i.e. console gamers. Remember, there are hardcore gamers who don't know **** about tech, and those usually play on consoles. With a platform like that, they could also decide for a few peripherals to go with to make a standard for gamers and developers alike to follow, giving a predictability and stability to ensure there are customers who can utilize the gaming idea, making more developers interested in making games with alternate interaction, and for gamers knowing that they can use the peripherals with many other games in a consistent and easy way, thus replicating console gaming.
But now Steam machine is just another random branded PC, failing the whole thing.
But I strongly disagree with some of your arguments. Compatibility doesn't go back to the 80's on a PC, it's usually more like 10 years at its best, usually more like 5, since support for XP has been dropped. Still not bad, but not that overwhelmingly. Beyond that, you have to use older OS' on older machines or emulators, which does not count as backwards compatibility.
And I oppose with your statement that the best quality gaming experience is the PC. PC and consoles are both equal quality gaming experiences, just different kinds. Unless you count the tech specs as the sole quality measure, but that doesn't equal fun or more general game quality. On the other hand, maybe you already have the Steam thing in your mindset, thus partly validating your thesis. |