Week 4 Task

I apologize for the length of this post but I found this a lot easier to write about than previous topics and intended to do as much as I could (1,324 words). I also apologize for the severe case of Wall’o’text syndrome it seems to have contracted. I’m really bad with paragraphing. Oh and I apologize for the positioning of the images, I couldn’t get them in the right place for some reason.

At the start of the new millennium a new round in the consol wars began with the launches of the Playstation 2 (PS2), Xbox and Gamecube (GC). Each console brought something new to the table. PS2 and Xbox could play DVDs in addition to CDs (there was a 3^rd party version of the GC that could play DVDs and CDs but it was only on sale in Japan and cost two or three times the normal version), Xbox had a built in hard drive (PS2 can also have a hard drive but must be bought separately) and GC had the ability to link with the Game Boy Advance (GBA) which allowed for some interesting game play ideas in some games. The GC was also the first console (as far as I'm aware) to have the option of a wireless controller and the PS2 with the exception of the various Game Boy incarnations was the first console to be backwards compatible with previous consoles in its series. An interesting idea used on the GC was the format on which it released its games. It used CDs although not as big as the CDs that are used by most entertainment devices (any one whose never seen a GC disc open a PC disc drive and look at the smaller indentation in the tray and you’ll have a good idea how big they are) but in addition to this the GC spun its discs the opposite way to every other device with a CD drive up until that point. These two alterations to the traditional CD, DVD format severely hindered any attempts at piracy and to this day I’m yet to hear of any pirate GC games or emulators (although that doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t exist). Although not really used in the case of the GC all three consoles in this generation have had the ability to connect to the internet and play games with people from all over the world.

Various other innovations have also popped up including the Eye-Toy for the PS2 that uses the players movements (namely the position of the arms and head) to play games specifically designed for use with the Eye-Toy. Microphones, headsets and other more specialized peripherals are also among these innovations.

An event worthy of note is Sony’s choice to enter the handheld market with the PSP (Playstation Portable), a market that has previously been dominated bye Nintendo with its series of Game Boys. At near enough the same time Nintendo released their new handheld the Nintendo DS (Duel Screen) which has two screens one of which is touch sensitive. The DS introduced a new way to play handheld games and has stood up well to its competition which has better graphics and the ability to play films.

Sony has won this round of the console war but neither Nintendo nor Microsoft show signs of giving up. Microsoft is the first of the three companies to get its next generation console (Xbox 360) on sale with Nintendo aiming to be next getting their console (Wii) on sale everywhere in time for Christmas and then Sony is releasing the PS3 this November in Japan and the U.S. but it wont be released till March 2007 for Europe and Australasia.

As with the virtually last generation consoles we will see (and are seeing in the case of the Xbox 360) an increase in the cost of games due to the increasing cost of producing them. This is most likely going to hinder the advancement of computer games if not in the generation after this new one then probably the one after that unless something is done to significantly reduce the cost of making computer games. Thus far if noticed one possible solution to this issue that being what Nintendo are doing with the Wii. The Wii is going to have a Wi-Fi connection (that will stay on as long as the Wii is turned on to allow for game updates, messages, presents and anything else u can think of) that allows for free access to the Nintendo network and allow the owner to download selected games and updates. The games available for download will mostly be retro games from Nintendo’s, Sega’s and some other companies old consoles and will cost a fraction of the price of games sold in the shops. In addition to retro games there will also be new games produced by companies that can’t afford to make games worthy of the £40-50 price tag that will most likely be attached to most games produced for the next generation consoles. This method could be used to sell more major games in the future but the bigger the game the more impractical this method would become and even so this will only cut the cost of producing the discs and packaging and not the game itself which is the bigger issue and the biggest pressure the gaming industry is under.

The next generation consoles are going to be significantly more advanced than the last each console being more advanced in different ways. All the consoles will boast improved graphics with the PS3 and 360 focusing on this aspect, the Nintendo however have aimed more at improving the game play. Many people have put off of playing modern computer games due to the steadily increasing number of buttons and complexity of game play, this is something Nintendo have tried to remedy. The new controller for the Wii resembles a TV remote and has only four buttons (I believe they only perform two different functions and the reason for there being four of them is because for different games you need to hold the controller in different ways) and a D-pad to use when playing games. The other buttons are a power button, controller volume controls (I think they’re volume buttons but I can’t make out what it says on the controller in the pictures I’ve seen. At any rate I’ll get back to that) and a home button. The controller itself is motion sensitive and depending on how you move it depends on what happens in the game, it is also a kind of light gun and can be used as such or as a pointer depending on the game. The controller has a built in speaker (that’s what the volume buttons are for if they are volume buttons) to help make the gaming experience that little bit more immersive. For example in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess if you firing you bow the “Twang” of the bow would be heard through the controller while the sound of the arrow would be heard on the TV. The controller also has ports built into it that allow you to connect different attachments like the “nunchuck” attachment which adds two more buttons and an analogue stick and is also movement sensitive. The Wii itself has slots for four Gamecube controllers (or the alternative Wii controller that’s designed for use with non Wii games) and two memory cards, is backwards compatible with GC games and has a constant Wi-Fi connection as long as the Wii has power (as I mentioned earlier). The Wii does not turn off but rather gets placed on standby (designed to use minimal power and make no noise or produce light) so that if a new update or something is issued the Wii will be able to receive it. All in all I’d say the Wii fits its codename (Revolution) as it is fairly revolutionary.