Slashdot Mirror
What's Wrong with Modern Console Design?
Next Generation is running an article looking at the design of the next-gen consoles. Article author Eric-Jon Rossel-Waugh argues that the new systems have lost their sense of identity, due to high monetary stakes and the need for consoles to 'say something' to the consumer. From the article: "In May, I finally saw a PlayStation 3 up-close - and dear lord. It looks like a space ship based on the template of a waffle iron. Whereas the Sega Genesis looked like you could top-load a CD into it, the PS3 looks like you could top-load a side of bacon. It was around this point that I realized, on the surface, none of the forthcoming-generation consoles really strikes me as a game machine. Building on the PS2, both Sony and Microsoft have chosen to outwardly craft their systems to resemble nothing so much as random hunks of pop electronics."
Whereas the Sega Genesis looked like you could top-load a CD into it, the PS3 looks like you could top-load a side of bacon.
So Sony's next marketing gimmick is obvious: The George Foreman PS3.
I couldn't help but notice all his favorite consoles, excepting the Wii, are top-loaders (the NES gets this dubious distinction because of its door). Top-loading was a stupid idea that made consoles a pain to fit into entertainment centers. Using this particular metric, modern console design has gotten infinitely better - this generation, no one's got a top-loader.
I also think the 360's "ring of light" is both attractive and functional, so I'm not sure why he bags on that console so much.
-Erwos
Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
Well, this is something that goes along with another quote I read recently:
This is why I get irritated whenever anyone says Nintendo censors (oh they do, and in very irritating ways) and Sony doesn't. Sony loves to censor, and they have from the beginning, but they are good at projecting an image, I'll give them that. You suck, Sony!
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
Seems like the human psyche, especially in gamers, is fascinated with the future. So put your console in what looks like a box that should come from the future and what you've got is a device with capabilities which are artificially inflated to be better, merely because it looks like it's from the future. Which makes people think it's even better than it really might be. It's just marketing and business, and I think if you look around you'll see the same trend in almost every product. Look at boom boxes for example. Some of them really do look like spaceships. It's just too bad they can't fly.
TLF
I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
But submit that -1 comment as story and it gets a green light.
A lot of work went into the design and shape of the 360. It actually has an intentional theme (though that theme is not so clear if you lay it on it's side as I'm sure most do). I do not know about the PS3, but I saw a vid on the designers working throuh the aesthetics of both the box itself and the on-screen interface and it's pretty fun and functional.
If you lined a bunch of these devices up in a row and asked a chick to pick one, I think the 360 would come away with a plurality.
Blah Blah Blah... Sony is the suxx0rz I
Page Load
Sony is horrible blah, Nintendo is OK, but not as good as Sega and MS
Page Load
I hate Sony, the never do it right, blah blah, Nintendo tries, I guess, but they still fail when compared to the best ever MS and Sega... blah blah
Once again another useless Zonk Post...
--Valthan
He's a hater pure and simple.
Apparently he doesn't like the NES design
Or the Xbox
Or the Gamecube,
Or the Ps2
Or the Ps3
Or the Xbox 360
Or the Wii
Or the Jaguar.
But apparently the Gensis, Master system and Dreamcast were great for him. That's wonderful, except Sega's not around for a reason, Sega might knows how to make a good looking game system, but if you can't make a good game system under it you get screwed.
Personally I think anyone who thinks any of the current systems needs a redesign might be right, but let's be honest. The best looking system can still not work. I owned a genesis and a NES, a Super Nes, A N64 (which was "sleak" but crap) a Gamecube, a PSX, a PS2, and a Xbox 360. And if I had to go back in time but not get one of them, guess which one it would be? The Genesis.
Gamers arn't looking for a good looking game system, gamers are looking for a good playing game system. Genesis is the most game system looking out of my list, but the fact is that it didn't help it be a good actual game system in the least is the real problem.
I mean look at the grandfathers of our industry. The Atari with it's ugly ridges and huge switches. Oooooh baby.+
Congrats, Zonk! You just made my killfile!
Care about electronic freedom? Consider donating to the EFF!
They don't have any wings.
Things don't fly well without any upward force under them. I know. You ever tried to make a Gamecube fly?
Yea.
If you haven't foed me yet, what are you waiting for?
Alright after skimming through tfa I realized he has no actual comments on the look of the consoles, mostly because with the exception of minor differences tey all follow the same theme a box that looks like a computer tower, and a glowing element, his comments against sony are more to a degree just a shameless spamevertisment for his beloved nintendo. And you wonder why nintendo fans get a bad rap as rabid fanboys...
Did someone say cake?
Where are the statistics to back up this looney's comments? Last I checked, game consoles have looked pretty much the same since they were first made. Lets refer to the classics: Atari, NES, SNES, Genesis, etc. They look basically the same. The PSX to PS2 (which the author lumps in with the PS3 camp) wasnt a high jump, case-wise. The Xbox was a major leap in terms of volume, but if you look beyond the gloss, you notice that each and every game console in the last twenty years have all looked like boxes.
Wow. Does this profundity seem to suggest that the author has some disdain for boxes? Well, I will take the high ground on this and not make sweeping statements on the supposed unoriginality or assinine, baseless commentary whose opinions are shared by a fraction of a percent if even that much.
Seems like to many consoles designers had Hardware Wars running on the TV.
That aside, now that we're getting wireless controllers more or less standard, I'd say that the console makers aren't likely to be all that concerned about the useability anymore, just the location.
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
Oh, yeah, the NES was a GREAT design. Please more consoles with contacts that wear out in a few years! (Actually, I think that's Sony's department now.)
The Dreamcast was the last game console that actually looked like a game console. I guess the article is right: the looks of Sega's systems almost scream "I'm a game console and PROUD of it!"
Circumcision is child abuse.
After reading the entire article, I have no idea what the author was trying to say. Did he like the old designs, or hate them? Did he actually imply that the Jaguar was good for looking like a toilet seat, and the X-Box's "enormous X" appearance was stylish!?
Three pages full of talking, and yet he said nothing at all.
I think the idea that modern game systems don't "look enough like game systems" is silly - what it is is a box with a design that can fit in with other home electronics. That's because gamers have grown up. If a case came out today identical to the Sega, I'm not sure it would far as well.
Game systems also have to hook into more advanced AV equipment now and that simply means they have to somewhat adopt the look of that whole electrnocis ecosystem.
Personally, I am fine with how the 360 and the PS3 and the Wii look. All interesting designs. If all the console makers were really smart they would have arraanged the designs of the three consoles so that they could lock together and with all three you'd have some funky cool shaped thing, or a transformer or the like.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Wow. Three pages to explain why when Sony does something, it's evil, but when Nintendo does the same thing, it's good. And when Sega does one thing, it's brilliant, and when it does the exact opposite, it's still brilliant. Seriously, try to find the Sega Saturn in a bin full of Genesis' (Genesii?) and Master Systems. Apparently the Dreamcast look, opposite of the early Sega consoles was brilliant. Oddly, I see no mention of the white(-ish) toploading PS1 in the article. Cough. Can't believe he made excuses for the Nintendo Cable Modem... err, I mean Wii. That's it, I am so starting my own blog to talk about consoles. At least I now know I need to do exactly zero research and not come anywhere near an objective point.
The Phantom!
So... the new $600 PS3 will play my favorite games, AND make a plate of crispy delicious bacon?
SOLD!
Seriously, I don't care what it looks like on the outside. It's what's on the inside that counts. My wife hates all my "ugly" consoles, anyways.
VOTE!
Sony did no such thing, I own DOZENS of 2d old school sprite games for the playstation. They were not boxed or branded as "retro" or any other such bullshit. RPGs were huge on the playstation, and until FFVII they were all 2d, and even after that many were. Most people think FFIX graphics beat FFVI graphics, its not a conspiracy, get over it.
You can't make an obscure NiGHTS reference in here without offering a handle in the right direction! I mean, jeez!
That the xBox or some other console doesn't have an installable cabinet model the way car stereos come with after-market versions?
1) The closest the modern console comes to this in any way shape or form is the Skinny PS2 by virtue of tinyness alone.
2) There is no 'Cool' factor available with doing this, and so the console manufacturers just aren't interested in something that cn barely be seen (unlike, say, nVidia which is cool with the idea).
3) The 'Modern cabinet' is seen as whatever fits under or over the TV. There IS no standard cabinet anymore, except as a straight arcade model (and the cost on that is hideous), in which case you don't want a console-style play anyhow.
40dB fans are what's wrong with them.
This is stupid. Why can't the AV makers of the world get together on a digital standard for home theater, and a standard form factor. I'd love a "rack mount" system that enabled all my components to fit in modularly and be hidden away in a piece of furniture or closet, and fit just right. They could all share a single internet connection module, a single dvd player module, single video output that fits with your tv, etc. Ah pipe dreams...
People who think they know everything really piss off those of us that actually do.
Give Zonk a break. He covers anti-PS3 & Sony stuff. There's not much usefull FUD or "SONY IS DOOOOOOOOMED" type stuff out there right now..
Why dontcha put the fucking power switch on the front of your consoles?
They live in fairly small rooms, everything has to be put away to use something else, so you don't really want them to stick out.
The confusing thing is the xBox360, but maybe they thought changing the box would increase usage in Japan - won't work though.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
They ARE random hunks of pop electronics!
_
\\/ are accustomed' - First Lensman
I can just hear the makeup laden pouty cheerleader now...
:)
"Come on, I know I look like some over-inflated piece of living pop art but it's what's on the inside that counts..."
Seriously though, does any gamer (or anyone at all) really care that the Wii looks like a single slice toaster or that the PS3 looks like a George Foreman grill? I guess this guy is the last one on the planet who still buys the plain beige pizza boxes that used to be all the "rage" because he feels that buying a nice Lian Li would make his computer lose it's sense of identity.
And speaking of identities... can we add any more hyphens to the author's name? Sheesh
How about Eric-Jon "The Waffle-Iron" Rossel-Waugh?
Whats wrong with the way they look...when you say they dont look like console, you mean they dont look like consoles used to look.
Maybe they dont want them to look like consoles...maybe they want something that goes in a sitting room and doesnt look out of place.
This site is very retroist. Same subject over and over "the problem with 'todays' consoles is that they not yesterdays consoles', "the problem with todays games is that theyre not 2d platformers"..."where have all the proper games gone"..."the problem with todays developers"...get over it.
Too big.
Too complex.
Not enough fun to balance out the "shiny" of the console design.
Sony made their Playstation originally with all manner of ports and peripheral connector options. Eventually they just removed them all. What was the point of putting those interfaces on anyway? Added complexity.. the console is just trying to do too much these days.
Even Nintendo I think have gotten it awkward, the Wii would be a super duper discrete console, and then you need to have 3 controllers to play all the games (Wiimote & Nunchuck, "classic gamecube" style controller, etc. and maybe even a few ORIGINAL gamecube controllers) and all the sensor bar stuff.. then there is a flap for the Gamecube stuff. Overcomplicated. I would love just a slotloading console with no flappy flaps or hundreds of peripheral ports, and just a plain ordinary uncomplicated controller (like the Wiimote without the wand functionality) just to play a couple games on.
That said I love the new ideas on the Wii too, I just think.. well.. there is such a thing as having way too much in the box and even with wireless controllers, there is still going to be a box next to your TV or down the side of the couch full of wires, blobs of plastic, and stuff you aren't using.
Their overly-bloated prices.
Hell, I bought a NEW XBox (NOT the 360) a week or so ago for 1/3rd the price of the 360. Add to that the fact that I'm adding a modchip and a 160GB hdd, and I'm STILL spending less.
Now I need to backup my games before my youngest loses the DVDs.
And since the 360 is out, the prices of the games for the original XBox should be dropping like SCO's ability to prove a case.
Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
Maybe I like to pick at somewhat obscure flaws, but the problem that jumped out at me was that since the article complains about how the new consoles are not as cool looking as the old consoles, the author bears the responsibility to include pictures of the old "better" consoles. I mean I only saw 3 pictures, the PS3, the XBox 360 and the Wii. All of which the author decries as ungly trash. So, where are the pictures of these hallowed consoles of old that put the new consoles to shame?
The obvious refusal to present easily obtainable and credible evidence to support the case that the author is trying to make is an obvious sign that the author does not really believe his case will withstand any amount of scrutiny. So why should be bother reading this junk if the author doesn't even believe it?
Fanatically anti-fanatical
I never noticed that before. I'll never look at the PS3 the same way again.
Compare a platinum GameCube to a Dreamcast with the karaoke module attached to it.