One standard gaming format. Each company could build their own system
to their own quality standards, featuring their own design (both
aesthetically and internally) and able to play any game off the shelf.
With these companies moving towards a central home-entertainment hub
instead of a straight-ahead video gaming console, this is the best
choice. It would be like DVD, one standard format that any company can
make their own system for. They can have their own tweaks and
differences in controller design, just like they do now--really, if you
think about it, the controllers are essentially identical.
Competition would not wane, it would simply move further into the
background. Honestly, do you see General Electric and Black and Decker
holding massive press-conferences where they invite all the different
bread-making companies to show off their respective toaster designs?
"And now NEW! from Dempster's! Available only on the GE Toast-Box 360!
BAGELS!"
We applaud these companies as if they're rock
stars, but they're just a bunch of suits sitting around thinking up new
ways to make money.
So as the hardware manufacturers and
designers move into the background, it would put much more emphasis on
the actual game developers. No longer would Microsoft and Sony dictate
how powerful their systems will be, leaving the devs to work with
whatever they're given. A gaming indsutry quality standards association
would have to spring up, and from this the devs would work out and
establish what specks they want to see in the next gen, and if the
hardware companies don't follow through, they don't make sales.
Your choice in console puchasing would go like this: Random company X
would produce a system built by leperous children in some remote corner
of the world, using sub-quality hardware. This system plays the games,
and works ok. You find it at Wal-Mart in the middle of an aisle,
stacked atop a plastic pallet, and labelled $99.95.
Random
company Y, on the other hand, produces a system built in a
top-of-the-line facility in some random American research park. They
use the best of the best: gold-plated HDMI ports; ultra-fast
solid-state hard drives; colour-customizable and brightness-adjustable
LED power indicator lights; top-quality disc drive; multiple high-speed
USB ports; absolutely silent cooling systems; and a sharp, contemporary
case design that fits right in beside your Bose stereo system and
64-inch 120hz LCD. This one costs $999.95, and for an extra charge the
company well set up and optimize it for you in your home.
Both machines will do essentially the same thing: play games. But both
are not equal. The basic specs are identical, but the little bells and
whistles will be what sells each respective system. This would not
eliminate competition, it would massively increase it!
Besides these two companies, there would be hundreds more making their
own versions, some better than others, some absolute crap.
Soulmask is another indie survival-crafter looking to wear the genre's increasingly contested crown, but its player numbers are no joke.
Austin Suther of TechRaptor writes, "We get another look at Free Lives and Devolver's Anger Foot, and it's looking crazier than ever."
The long-awaited FPS Selaco, running on the GZDoom engine, is finally out in Early Access, and it's even better than we thought.
That wouldn't work. Exclusives make a system unique and thus if they're good they make the console sell. What would be the point of multiple consoles if you can play any games on it?
We will get one format. Most games will be downloadable or streamed in the future.
I know some of you disagree and say it will be disc based, but you are the same people that once said online gaming on consoles wasn't necessary, rumble was overrated and that achievements were a gimmick. So what do you know?
Who wouldn't want a console that offers the best of what Sony and Microsoft have, all in one? Would have saved me some money.
Nintendo on the other hand, seems like they are going in their own completely different direction than the other two.
It would require standards as Direct X etc to let the developers abstract away the hardware. Microsoft would love it.
I will say this again for the thousandth time. Eventually there will have to be one standard. Microsoft, Sony, Apple and Nintendo will have to bite the bullet. Sega was the smart one by getting out of the console business. Sony went from 1st place to dead last in the console market because of their system cost when first launched. People are getting tired of the Console versus Console versus PC versus Mac, blah, blah blah.
PC is the most dominate because of the versatility. But how long will that last? The consoles will be PCs by next console launch. More than likely needing liquid cooling with all of the heat problems they had this console batch. It is surprising that the business model is to lose on the console at first. And then try to make it up in software and more cost efficient production in the long run.
All is needed is a pirate proof system, that can be upgraded when necessary.