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The Changing Face of the Console Wars

Posted by Soulskill on from the keeping-up-with-the-wiises dept.

An article at Gamasutra explores the decisions by Microsoft and Sony to launch significant hardware additions — their respective, upcoming motion-control schemes — in the middle of a console cycle, rather than waiting until the next generations of their systems are ready. It's indicative of a change to the established pattern of console wars; nowadays, it's more about adding features and gadgets to improve existing products than developing entirely new ones. Quoting: "... for Sony and Microsoft, motion controllers are their next-gen consoles. And it's a damn sight easier than launching Xbox 720 or PS4. They can debut these peripherals without needing to engineer completely new boxes for consumers, potentially bundle them over time, and they have a much better chance at getting exclusive games, thanks to the specificity of the hardware (something that's happened a lot for the Wii). Thus, both hardware manufacturers and publishers like EA see these controllers sparking new interest in Xbox 360 and PS3, which will delay the next dreaded console transition for another few years."

1 of 223 comments (clear)

  1. Re:You're geniouses among men Sony, MS by aliquis · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Guess that's why we never see the year of Linux on the desktop.

    I know the solution! Let's make it function like Windows!

    - Gnome and KDE teams.

    (Yeah, lack of games, a reason, the extent Windows is used at schools, friends, works and such affects things to, and I know that. But the point isn't really "this is what they are doing wrong", the point is about copying an old concept.)

    And no, I'm not trolling. Back in the days of KDE 2 and such I hated how it tried so hard to be Windows. I didn't wanted Windows. I came from the world of Amiga and would so much prefer something new and innovative there someone thinks up something better rather than try to copy whatever crap is the most succesful at the time. Never understood that concept, never will.

    Same goes for AROS and to less extent Haiku. Sure AmigaOS and BeOS was nice, but what good do you get from copying the same (more so in the case of AmigaOS.)
    AmigaOS _WAS_ good, it don't cut it today. It's useless to copy it _NOW_. What I would see a purpose in and actually like would be something revolutionary new. Sure it may be harder to get users and apps to something such but it's what would be needed to actually get on top of everything else.

    What if Apple iPods had been copies of 80ies walkmans? Would they had beaten Sony at their own game? No.