My apologies, that title was to easy, in fact it was so easy that any cleverness is thus negated by how easy it was to come up with that… And already I digress…
Over on Gamasutra there’s an article about console convergence. Someday, some people envision a world where we’re all playing on one console. The same amount of games would conceivably be released, but we’d be playing with Mario on the same system that the Master Chief was on. Blows your mind doesn’t it?
The author’s main point is that many mid-level developer’s would be put out of business. These are developers, as the author points out, “are competent, but have yet to make a breakout hit to define themselves.” I would argue that even some mid-level publishers, maybe even the one I work for, would have some trouble in a space that’s as crowded as that would become. Thus the idea of convergence, having one console, is bad overall for the industry. Here’s why…
Take a look at the Xbox Live Arcade platform. Initially billed as a way for independent developers to release games that aren’t ready for a full console product, it has since turned into a gluttony of ported retro titles. While Xbox is minding the gate — there is an approval process — it doesn’t appear that the minding of the gate is having a slowing affect on the deluge of ports & bad ideas appear on the platform. Because of this I think it’s sometimes very hard for small publishers & developer’s who self publish to do well in the space. How many Users are going to take the time to sift through the 100+ games that are now available on the XBLA service? They’re instead, and sales numbers from sites such as VGChartz back this up, going to buy retro ports or at least games with titles they recognize.
Next up is the Wii. Nintendo actually did a good job with this. They seperated the direct ports from the new, or at least redone titles. There is a clear separation and while I’m sure the Wii Ware space will become crowded, at least it will be crowded with original or at the very least, redone content.
The PS3… What I’ll call the sleeping Giant… There’s potential here too & I’m a little surprised that we haven’t seen the same deluge of ported products that we’ve seen on XBLA. In my opinion Sony’s doing a very good job of minding that gate by asking for original content, not ports. Once the install base hits whatever internal number Sony’s shooting for, I wouldn’t be surprised if they become more lax with what makes it onto the service. Sony’s Home service might be the first place we see a bunch of emulations as it appears to be easy to script this into the Home environment. The key here is to get in early & often because if they’re going to accept that kind of thing, might as well give them all they can handle… Hopefully the PS3 Giant will wake up & stay awake.
So we’ve talked about the 3 consoles currently on the market… We’ve learned that there’s already, with 3 consoles, plenty of ways for your title to get lost in the mass of games. And I think it’s fair to say that there are plenty of compelling arguments & even more compelling monetary reasons for why multiple consoles are still a necessity.
