Should Game Consoles Make Breakfast, Too?

Ryan writes "Is the idea of 'convergence' (the notion that a single digital appliance will handle multiple tasks) in gaming consoles even worth it? CNET News has an article discussing the issues of convergence related to gaming - it seems like a lot of consumers aren't worried about the bells and whistles, yet they keep throwing them at us." The article mentions the "underwhelming" response to Sony's PSX console/DVR combo, whose "arrival in North America--originally slated to happen in time for the 2004 holiday shopping season--is now set for an unspecified date in 2005."

Comments

Re:Only Nintendo really "gets it".

[Trejkaz]

I dunno. Right now, Tales of Symphonia is currently selling exceptionally well, despite it being a GameCube game, and GameCube supposedly being unpopular.

And Xbox is a more "ideal" system than the PS2, yet the PS2 constantly outsells it. Microsoft aren't really doing anything "wrong", but you can't deny that the mindset of all three consoles is different.

Nintendo tends to sell to the more discriminating gamer, who will tend to prefer good games with good design and gameplay, so the fact that it can't play DVDs is largely irrelevant. And if you cared about DVD so much and wanted a convergent system, you would have bought the Panasonic version instead, which can play DVDs.

The Xbox excels in replacing a DVD player, but IMO isn't particularly good for gaming. Somehow the graphics capabilities claim to be "so much better" than the GameCube, yet the GameCube graphics consistently look better, and play smoother (and the Xbox games suck to boot.) Smooth marketing, Microsoft!

[Obligatory Sony bashing] And Sony sells to idiots... but since there are so many idiots in the world, it's naturally going to sell better. :-)