PS3, Xbox360, Wii, will there ever be a clear winner to the Console War?
The question comes up with every new generation of consoles; will there ever be a single standardized console? Gamasutra asked four professional analysts and their answers were not as surprising as you would think.
Gamasutra asked Ed Barton of Screen Digest, Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities, Ben Bajarin of Creative Strategies and Billy Pidgeon of IDC about the realistic possibility of a standardized game console in the future and the effects of it on the industry.
While each said it in his own words the message was clear. The video game industry and its consumers are better off without a single console.
Ed Barton made the biggest point right off the bat.
“Firstly, there is a huge amount of brand equity, in some cases built over decades, tied up in existing platforms, which the owners do not want to relinquish.”
This was reinforced by Michael Pachter,
“If there was one platform, the manufacturer would have all of the leverage, unless it offered open architecture.”
Ben Bajarin argues that the fierce competition between manufactures is good for the consumer. Companies fighting for the buyers attention helps push forward leaps of innovation that wouldn’t exist without alternate brands vying for the same market.
“. . . in regards to a single console, it would hinder innovation and consumer choice. I think everyone would agree that life would be pretty boring if all we had were Windows-based computers. One console in my opinion would be a step backward for the industry, not forward.”
Billy Pidgeon took another approach to this question. Instead of explaining why one console wouldn’t happen he worked with the model of not a single console but the eventuality of specific hardware needed for gaming to evaporate.
“[In 15 years] most software could be distributed over the network and network-based processing could enable less dependence on client-side processing. This could solve hardware compatibility issues and could bring immersive interactive entertainment to simpler clients like televisions, media servers and cable or satellite receivers. While the hardware differentiation will go away, proprietary networks will not.
The processing and programming would be unique to the network, so we’d likely see providers like Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo offer competing technology over the network as the client device evaporates into the home entertainment system and the convergent mobile device. We’ll likely also see proprietary game networks from EA, Disney, Activision and others, connecting gamers across publishers’ game libraries and proprietary networks. Business and technology models would be similar to cable television or mobile service provider models with another layer added by differentiated proprietary network processing underneath publishers’ games and service providers’ user networks.”
In the end, the battle between gaming systems rages on. Fought between hardware and system specific games it will continue for the foreseeable future.
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3 Responses to “PS3, Xbox360, Wii, will there ever be a clear winner to the Console War?”
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November 19th, 2007
People will like buy a combination, since the ps3 covers a wide range of games and is a great media hub and will likely be perfect for hardcore and casual gamers and great for online gaming, people will buy it along with a Wii for it’s great casual gameplay and multiplayer fun. The 360 is likely to come a distant 3rd it’s keeping a hold of the hardcore online gamers at the mo, but it’s lack of variety on the console and focus online play will alienate people. Eventually owners will get fed up playing and doing the same thing over and over again on H3 and GOW combined with the fact that most of the games are also on the PC and lack of future titles will doom the console.
November 20th, 2007
XBOX 360 will win, why? Well… you can chip it, do I need say more. People may buy a few games but sooner or later will find that a healthy mix is best for the wallet.
With XBOX being the only one partially chippable, I can’t see WII or PS3 overtaking it.
November 21st, 2007
U can chip, wow, that’s the best argument for owning a 360?
A console that just puts out generic FPS’s and poor and incredibly boring and bland racing games won’t win the console war because it does not have enougth variety. The 360 is doomed, the next-gen belongs to the Wii and the PS3.