Another like- minded opinion
My friends/co-workers talk about games often. I always like it when I see an article echo one of my (overly strong?) opinions.
Xbox 360 vs. The Public Good
Since the announcement of the 360 I felt like Microsoft was ushering in the next generation of consoles way too early. It seems like they want to quickly correct the shortcoming that exist with the first Xbox.
Were players crying for better graphics? Sure, player always like better graphics and Xbox had a clear graphics advantage. There are a handful of Xbox titles (Thief & Riddick for a couple) that look amazing and far better than the rest of the Xbox library. These game look WAY better than any PS2 game. I was amazed when I saw these games. What other treasures could the Xbox have produced? Anytime a game was released cross console I bought it for the Xbox because I knew 1) Better looking and 2) shorter load times.
Were players crying for new gameplay experiences? A resounding "YES." While I think this answer is heard louder in the developer community, the buzz word for the past 2 years has been "innovation." The industry has been acting like the game industry may die if innovation in gaming is not pushed to the forefront of eveyones mind.
Do you foster innovation by pushing a new console that focuses on "everything HD"? Thereby making art production (and not gameplay development) the most important/time consuming aspect of game development.
Do you foster innovation by cutting the life cycle of current gen consoles short? At a time when graphics and pushing/learning the system are no longer the largest obstacles.
Do you foster innovation by releasing 2 version of a console with different capabilites? I thought the Tapwave Zodiac made the dumbest move possible by having 2 different versions of their console (different amounts of memory and therefore price) but Xbox repeated this move.
No, but maybe you can get it right this time and get Japanese software support and sales. But still the Xbox 360 is floundering in Japan, being crushed by the Nintendo DS (like everything else) and little sales happening in the U.S. because no one can even find a 360 to buy.
Now people are just waiting on the sidelines to see what happens. Waiting to see if their local EB gets some 360s in stock or maybe just waiting for the PS3. The people I know who have a 360 are playing Halo 2 or Geometry Wars.
Well, if 360 doesn't go well maybe Microsoft can release another console in a couple of years.
Xbox 360 vs. The Public Good
Since the announcement of the 360 I felt like Microsoft was ushering in the next generation of consoles way too early. It seems like they want to quickly correct the shortcoming that exist with the first Xbox.
Were players crying for better graphics? Sure, player always like better graphics and Xbox had a clear graphics advantage. There are a handful of Xbox titles (Thief & Riddick for a couple) that look amazing and far better than the rest of the Xbox library. These game look WAY better than any PS2 game. I was amazed when I saw these games. What other treasures could the Xbox have produced? Anytime a game was released cross console I bought it for the Xbox because I knew 1) Better looking and 2) shorter load times.
Were players crying for new gameplay experiences? A resounding "YES." While I think this answer is heard louder in the developer community, the buzz word for the past 2 years has been "innovation." The industry has been acting like the game industry may die if innovation in gaming is not pushed to the forefront of eveyones mind.
Do you foster innovation by pushing a new console that focuses on "everything HD"? Thereby making art production (and not gameplay development) the most important/time consuming aspect of game development.
Do you foster innovation by cutting the life cycle of current gen consoles short? At a time when graphics and pushing/learning the system are no longer the largest obstacles.
Do you foster innovation by releasing 2 version of a console with different capabilites? I thought the Tapwave Zodiac made the dumbest move possible by having 2 different versions of their console (different amounts of memory and therefore price) but Xbox repeated this move.
No, but maybe you can get it right this time and get Japanese software support and sales. But still the Xbox 360 is floundering in Japan, being crushed by the Nintendo DS (like everything else) and little sales happening in the U.S. because no one can even find a 360 to buy.
Now people are just waiting on the sidelines to see what happens. Waiting to see if their local EB gets some 360s in stock or maybe just waiting for the PS3. The people I know who have a 360 are playing Halo 2 or Geometry Wars.
Well, if 360 doesn't go well maybe Microsoft can release another console in a couple of years.