In these times of financial hardship and economic uncertainty, it's certainly heartening to know that we are not going to buy ANY new consoles for a very long time.
Now, to be fair, it's still early days. It's possible that somebody might show something awe inspiring. God knows nobody has so far, but that's kind of the problem. The Wii U has already launched to what can only be described as mass apathy, and now we've had the big announcements from both Sony and Microsoft and neither of them has actually given a reason that anyone would actually want to buy their consoles. And in the case of Microsoft in particular all we're hearing is reasons not to bother at all. The only reason I'm not saying that they've already forfeited the next generation is because I'm not actually convinced ANYONE is going to win it. This is the time when we should be getting excited about the new systems and what they're going to be offering. But the best you can really say about anything is...
And that's literally the nearest thing I've got to a POSITIVE reaction. Let's look at this in a little more detail, shall we?
The Playstation 4 was announced as having slightly shinier graphics, some stupid facebook button, no backwards compatibility and at at that point I pretty much stopped listening as they'd fucked up the one thing that would have actually made the system a worthwhile purchase.
That the system will have slightly shinier graphics is a given. Some people may be interested in the mathematics of exactly how shinier it is, but generally it's really not all that interesting unless this extra shininess is going to somehow have an effect on gameplay. Which it isn't. Indeed, the problem with these presentations is that they are of course going to spend a lot of time talking about how the graphics are shinier because that's where a lot of the money has been spent, but it's really the least relevant aspect. Everybody knew the graphics would be shinier already. Show us something new.
Then there's the weird facebook button bullshit. I'm sure this of great use to raging narcissists who feel that the world MUST KNOW that they've completed a level in Linear FPS 56: Walk Forwards And Shoot Things, Only More So You know, the gaming equivalent of those fuckers who keep posting pictures of their breakfast everywhere because that's clearly the best use all this fantastic technology we have at out fingertips these days can be put to. You could POSSIBLY argue that it's a function of use for making LEt's Play videos and the like. But unless the console comes with a full suite of video editing software that is somehow optimised for controller input it's not likely to be massively groundbreaking. Anyone doing it properly will already have their own setup anyway, and it's not like these things are as prohibitively expensive as they once were.
Then we come to the issue of backwards compatibility. Which is BIG. See, the problem with each and every console that has ever existed and (assuming the industry doesn't collapse as it keeps threatening to) every console that ever will exist, is that there is not a single one that's worth buying when it comes out. They're overpriced at launch, sure. But more importantly is the fact that there's no bloody games. There will be a handful of launch titles, sure. And maybe one or two of them might look alright. But not enough to justify however many hundreds of pounds it'll require to play that one or two games. And that's before we even factor in the cost of the games themselves.
But if you have backwards compatibility then the whole thing changes. Sure, the machine itself is still expensive, but now you have a HUGE library of games to choose from. Many of which will be eminently affordable thanks to the thriving used games trade. Sure, the assumption may be made that all your fans have already played all these titles on the previous model and it's not worth the extra development expense, but this does rather miss out on the largest demographic in any business: EVERYONE ELSE. Being able to say to everyone who never bought the last model that they can just buy the new one and join in the party is a huge selling point in my opinion. But not one Sony or Microsoft seems to give the slightest fuck about.
Of course, Sony in particular has issues here due to the bizzare system architecture they used in the PS3, but honestly, whose fault was that? Not mine.
So, having missed out on that one particular major selling point the PS4 doesn't look exactly exciting. It's just another console. With a few extraneous and uninteresting bells and whistles and too early to have any games worth a damn. As I said earlier...
But then we come to the Xbox One. And suddenly "Meh" is actually looking up. So, what do we know so far?
It comes with mandatory Kinect.
Mandatory Kinect AND a forced requirement to connect to the internet.
Of course. Put a camera in my house that I can't turn off and connect it to the internet. NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG.
I mean, fucking KINECT. You know who thinks kinect is a great way to control anything?
This guy?
Yeah, NO ONE. Normal people do not live in giant empty rooms containing nothing but a Microsoft approved sofa as all your adverts seem to assume. Nor does everyone want their conversations monitored by a semi-sentient perv cam.
To really address the problem with kinect I'm going to need to talk about the Wii for a moment. See, there were a number of lessons to be learned from that console, and few of them seemed to have been learned by anyone in console development. For the purposes of this discussion I'm going to stick to two in particular.
Firstly, we learned that motion controls can totally work for video games, and can even be quite fun. Secondly we learned that gimmicky control schemes only work in very specific circumstances, get old really quickly, and that standard controllers exist FOR A REASON.
Microsoft did not learn these lessons. Quite the reverse in fact. So now everybody get's to be saddled with this ridiculous bullshit. Or they would, if they were going to buy the new Xbox. Which I'm not sure they will.
See, there's still the big issue to talk about. The real game breaker. The one thing that, if true, is really going to murder the Xbox One beyond anything the previously discussed bullshit could manage. The used games issue.
So, the current reports are that all games must be first installed to the hard drive. Inconvenient, but hardly a huge issue. Then you have to enter a code to be allowed to play the game. And the disc is useless to anyone else unless they pay for a code.
And, just to be one hundred percent clear on this, somebody somewhere, who actually get's PAID to make these sort of decisions THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA. Seriously. How is that even possible? Did nobody at Microsoft look at this idea and bring up any of the many hugely obvious problems it presents?
Now, we could make points about how you've just fucked off all the retailers who rely on used games for a significant portion of their income. And that you probably don't want to piss them off too much because you can't actually download a console. But the real issues are at the consumer end. And, as I said, are OBVIOUS.
Firstly, let's be honest here. This is not a keyboard.
Of all the things a controller is good for, entering long complicated alphanumeric strings is up there with using it as an egg whisk. Yes, you can technically do it, but it's hardly an optimal solution. If there's one lesson that needs to be learned about misguided attempts to fight piracy (or in this case the free market) it's that you will NEVER win by making your products less convenient. The competition is already cheaper, the quality and content are basically identical. Convenience is the one major thing you can bring to the table. To place any kind of barriers to paying customers is beyond foolish. Entering a code is a small barrier to be sure, but it's only the first hurdle.
Now, I get that they're trying to undermine the used game market because they don't get a slice of it directly. This of course ignores all the indirect benefits they receive. The simple fact that the Xbox had a large library of cheap games is the major reason I bought one in the first place. So that right there sells consoles. Then there's the fact that once I own the console I will be a lot more likely to look at investing in new games as they come out. When I've already played previous iterations of games at a low risk price point and found ones I enjoy I'll probably want to get the new versions when they come out. Should I need to I can use my second hand games as collateral towards more expensive titles. The simple fact I can trade in a game gives me a certain measure of security in my purchases. Hell, I can still buy DLC for a used game, assuming there's any decent DLC available.
Exactly how all that will be affected by this new scheme will of course depend on how much exactly these activation codes will cost. The discs MAY retain some value depending on how much extra it will cost. It may be a couple of quid. It may be twenty quid, or possibly more. What's disturbing is how little is being said about it. This is a MASSIVE issue, which Microsoft absolutely needs to be crystal clear about. Because this has the potential to break the console before it's even hit shelves. But they're not talking and that's worrying.
And leaving aside the used game market for a second, think how it's going to affect normal regular use. You can't lend out games to your friends anymore. Hell, it's not even clear if you'll be able to go round someones house and play your game on their machine. It's madness that no one is clarifying this.
Of course you shouldn't worry about the intrusive, harmful DRM bullshit because apparently the system plays TV or something. Of course, so do a lot of other things. TVs, for example. The multimedia focus would be interesting if I gave the slightest fuck about watching anything on TV other than Doctor Who. But I don't. And even if I did there is no way in hell I'm going to even think about getting an Xbox One for the job until there's some detail of how exactly whatever it's version of Live is going to work.
The problem with Xbox Live Gold membership is that there is absolutely no point to it whatsoever. Sure, it means you can play online, but I'm quite capable of sucking at Halo in singleplayer. All the various extra bells and whistles MIGHT be interesting if you actually got any of them with the subscription. But if you actually want to use netflix or whatever you've got to buy a subscription to that ON TOP OF the Gold subscription. All that forty cocking quid a year is buying you is the ability to pay for other things. Whilst being constantly bombarded with adverts anyway. And since, you know, things that aren't Xbox Live exist, and since they don't charge you for the privilege of paying for stuff you can can get easier elsewhere, it's not exactly what you'd describe as a great deal.
Seriously. I wanted to watch the new Marvel films. I considered trying to do so via Xbox. But that would involve renewing a service I barely used, then setting up and account and subscribing to yet another service, entering in all my details again for something I would probably barely use. And that's before I even get close to watching a single frame of film. Or, I could just grab the DVD boxset in Tesco when I'm shopping. Then I have copies of the films which I can rewatch if I like them. Or sell, lend or trade in if I don't like them. And I haven't had to jump through any hoops or enter any personal information. And even better, it cost less than I would have spent renewing the live subscription. So guess what I went for?
And of course, now they're saying that it's not going to be backwards compatible either.
It's frankly incredible that we've had the so called future of gaming, and neither of the big contenders has actually shown a single reason to actually buy their system. Indeed, right now Sony is technically ahead simply because they haven't given any reasons to actively avoid their system, whilst that seems to Microsofts whole marketing strategy. Either they're employing some WEIRD reverse psychology by actively daring gamers to pay money for that shite, or the marketing department has recently migrated from the Bizzaro Universe.
BIZZARO IS MAKE GOOD CONSOLE!
Makes about much sense as anything else we've heard so far.
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