The New Generation of Consoles is Finally Happening

I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Nintendo fan - I've had every system they came out with except the original (I was born in 1986, and had no game-playing older siblings, so the NES was a little before my time.) Today, I started considering getting the Wii U. Also, Sony just announced the PS4, and we can probably expect Microsoft to announce the next Xbox soon, so I'd say that the Wii/360/PS3 generation is finally coming to a close (though a great generation it was.)

If there's a defining trait for this past generation, I'd say it's downloaded content. Nintendo had its virtual console, which I hope they continue to support (it makes finding those obscure games from the past far easier) and games largely became more modular, allowing new content to be added (annoyingly, for a price usually.)

Nintendo, whose motion controls were a cool idea that was only used interestingly in a few games, clearly has set themselves as the innovators. The Wii U (and Nintendo finally got to the generation early, which will hopefully prove advantageous once developers start actually working on the new generation) has integrated a Tablet as their main controller, which is actually what I thought they were going to do when the "Revolution" was announced. Anyway, the tablet is a far more versatile concept than the motion-control, and of course, the Wii U has a standard controller as well. Nintendo clearly wants back into the mainstream, AAA market. I hope they succeed.

Sony seems to be doing its usual thing and just copying. The PS4 has a screen built into it, as a kind of sad knockoff of the Wii U's controller, and it also has an imitation Kinect.

Of course, no one has any idea what the new Xbox will be like (well, outside of Microsoft,) but I thought they did a good job with the 360. If Microsoft wants to make a lot of people happy (though perhaps not their shareholders) they should make Xbox Live free.

So what should we hope for or expect for this generation? The previous one was all about HD capability, which in retrospect is probably something most of us don't really think about anymore. (HD TVs are just "TVs" these days.)

The flexibility of the Wii U's tablet is certainly cool, and I could imagine consoles growing more independent of the television as a direction for the industry, but that might not be the huge thing that defines this generation.

The microtransaction business model seems to be taking the industry by storm, but I wonder how it will turn out in the long run. I, for one, have never gotten anything via microtransaction. I tend not to get downloadable content either (my roommate does get Rock Band songs, but that's the extent of it.) There was a PA Report article a week or two back that pointed out that the games industry is actually doing the reverse of what amusement parks did decades ago: Disneyland, for one, used to have free admittance, but you had to buy tickets for every ride you went on. When they switched to a one-price-fits-all version, the reaction was very positive. As the article pointed out, buying things is stressful. You have to worry about whether your purchase is worth it. In games, historically, you got to play your game once you made the purchase, and then you were free to enjoy it without any more concerns.

Frankly, I think microtransactions - especially if those purchases lead to power-level increases in-game - have the potential to seriously damage the medium, and I recommend that we, as the customers, boycott them as much as we can, to discourage game makers from continuing the practice.

Moving away from that subject, there's also the idea of the online game. Bungie recently announced their new project: Destiny, that will be a MMO FPS, designed to last ten years. This could be amazing or terrible, but here's an idea:

Nintendo's online service is already free, as is Sony's (if I recall correctly.) If Microsoft were to make Xbox Live free, developers could feel free to make fully online games for all the consoles. Now, I'm not saying every game needs to be online (I like WoW, but sometimes it's nice to have all of Skyrim to myself) but I think there's a lot of really cool potential design space for a console-based MMO.

Ultimately, the hardware guys have just got to build a good framework. It's the game designers themselves who are going to be responsible for just how awesome this generation of game systems is. Graphics can wow you, and new ways to interact with your system can open new doors, but it's the games themselves that I care about.