The 21st Century and Beyond

Dang, it's has been a while since my last blog post. Anyway this week I'm going to talk about video games that we have today and what the future might hold.

For a start lets establish the current situation. There is a ferocious battle between three major companies: Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. All three have home consoles (Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii respectively) and only Sony and Nintendo have handhelds (PSP and DS). While all three are aiming for market dominance they all have different approaches to achieve that goal. Microsoft and Sony try to grab their consumers by offering top of the range hardware capable of running impressive games on a technical and visual level. Besides being able to play games they can play and store other media as well such as films on DVD (also Blu-ray on the PS3) and music. Nintendo on the other hand offer a radically different method of playing games with the Wii and DS and for a considerably cheaper price compared to the other two competitors.

However the hardware alone doesn't get you consumers. This is where other companies and software come in. Now there are several issues I feel that needs pointing out. With the exception of Nintendo's consoles, hardware sales do not earn a profit. For Sony and Microsoft it the cost to manufacture their consoles is way higher than their selling prices. This is why both companies try to push software sales to make up for that loss. Also to ensure that software for their platform is only being purchased, exclusive deals are made where only certain companies' software are only available on one platform.

The next issue to discuss is casual gaming. Now everyone who play games are not strictly into gaming. Those type of people are more interested in easier and simple games. With the introduction of the Wii and DS with their unique controls Nintendo tried to reach out to a wider audience and thus produced games such as Wii Sports which is suitable for anyone of any age. This proved to be very successful and encouraged companies to develop similar games. The problems with this however is that by doing this the Wii is seen as console for casual gamers because of the huge number of casual games available on the platform and it having only a handful of games which is considered normal.

With improving internet connection speeds and availability online multiplayer functionality is almost a must have in a game. Despite how popular multiplayer experiences can be I feel that the need to have the functionality has encouraged some developers to focus more on multiplayer leaving the single-player experience to become less enjoyable. Also with better internet means games and additional content can be downloaded. The thing I like about this is that some really old games which are no longer available for retail can be purchased and downloaded to be played on our current consoles. However the thing that gets on my nerves is that companies think its alright to produce a game and sell it at full retail price and then have the additional content, which should be available in the game in the first place, ready to purchase and download.

As for the future of video games there is alot to look forward to. Technology is improving at a very fast rate meaning so in a few years time the games and consoles we currently own will be cheaper to manufacture. Not that it matters because by then there will a new generation of consoles. Though thats not to say that our consoles will be made completely redundant, afterall the PS2 is still alive and kicking today. With motion controls like the Wiimote and the recently announced Natal on the Xbox 360 I feel it is only going to be a matter of time till virtual reality will be available.