The Next Generation
Each of The Big Three have now released images and details of their next consoles. Microsoft appear to be aiming at the hardcore online gamer, Sony at the home media centre owner and Nintendo at the Existing Nintendo Fan. So far, so predictable.
It will come as no surprise to regular readers that the Nintendo Revolution is the one I have my eye on. I was going to write an article on each console giving my first impressions of their designs, but decided it wasn’t really justified; all three are much of a muchness, frankly. The Xbox 360, though a clear improvement on the design disgrace of its predecessor is still aiming itself squarely at the hardcore online gamer and has a launch title list comprised mostly of sequels and other assorted tedium. The Playstation 3 appears to be another attempt by Sony to create an All-Encompassing Generic Media Centre Unit of the Future after the failure of their PSX, and is big, ugly and bulbous with a strange Spiderman-style typeface used on the case and a thin, smooth, possibly useless controller. Considering that Sony claim the Playstation 3 isn’t even a games console, the design of the machine is far less of a slot-away media centre design than the Playstation 2 was. The Nintendo Revolution is the smallest of the three, and is neat and sleek and…well, that’s about all you can say about it. It’s the nicest design by virtue of not having much of a design at all.
I can’t say I’m excited about any of them. My thoughts on the Xbox have been noted before and not much has changed; the next Xbox still holds little appeal though at least the design of the console has improved. The Playstation 3…I don’t know, I may just wait for the PSThree instead and hope they release one which has lost some weight. I’m not aware of any PS3 games either, so hard to tell whether I want one at all; I’m certainly not interested in any all-singing, all-dancing media centre. As for the Nintendo Revolution, well, I’m still not sure what’s to be so revolutionary about it, with the only interesting detail revealed so far is that their back catalogue, from the NES to the N64, will be downloadable.
I’m concerned about Nintendo, trading yet again on past glories. Though I like the idea of a console that can play Nintendo’s entire back catalogue, even though it deprives me of any justification for buying a NES, SNES and N64 off ebay, I’d also quite like to see new games and new technology. Nintendo also revealed the Gameboy Micro; I love it and will happily own one if they’re cheap enough, but in terms of form the GBA SP pretty much had things nailed, with it’s sleek protective clamshell design, and the only reason I no longer own one is because the DS screen displayed GBA games so much better — the Micro would appear to have a proper backlight so all’s well there.
Perhaps I’ll build up more enthusiasm once I’ve seen a few more launch titles, but at the moment it appears to be just more of the same. Still, at least the DS is a bit different.
My girlfriend is a big Nintendo fans and when I told her the details of the Revolution, the most interesting tidbit I could offer was that they’re offering the old Nintendo games for download. That said, hardware specs are rarely interesting to anyone – it’s the games that make or break a platform.
One other touted aspect of the Revolution that’s worth attention is that Nintendo say they want to support homebrew development. This I think — along with decent connectivity and a decent ‘local’ storage medium — may make a tangible difference in the next round of the console wars. Sony tried it with their Yaroze, but the popularity and exposure of that system and any software developed on it was virtually nil for Joe Bloggs gamer.
If Nintendo can implement something like iTunes to manage purchasing and playing of their classic software, I can’t see it being difficult for them to bolt-on some decent community features, and have a dedicated area where homebrew creations can be browsed and downloaded. It might be a little too much to hope for something akin to SourceForge though, but community-based development on a console is a very attractive pipe dream.
I’d also like to see publishers allow mods on their Revolution titles. And this could be where Nintendo unseat MS and Sony. The Revolution is easily the most intriguing prospect of the next-gen boxes; Nintendo encourage you to be creative, not prescribe what you’re getting.
You’re right, the homebrew development possibilities are interesting, particularly as they’re coming from Nintendo, who historically have been quite strict about who gets to release games for their consoles.
This may all be part of a larger cultural change at Nintendo; they’re echoing many people’s fears about the cost of development for the next-gen consoles, and with hardware like the DS have shown a willingness to experiment with new ideas. They’re also avoiding getting involved in arguments about who has the most powerful console, though that may just be because they can’t compete on that level.
The Next Generation
A good comparison of the new game consoles here:…
I think there are two reasons for Nintendo not getting involved in the “power” struggle of next-gen specs:
The amounts of cash lost by MS on the Xbox is just plain disgusting, illustrating perfectly how desperate MS are to find new business — another reason the Xbox (and it’s forth-coming 360 variant) is a complete turn-off for me. But I digress…