There have been many people claiming they are sure that gaming consoles as we know them are on their final generation. The reasons this has been claimed are many, from technical superiority of computers to simple sales statistics of the Playstation 3 and X-box 360. All this have been discussed earlier on this blog back in august last year. I now want to lift another very high argument that I believe the future of console games are safe: simplicity.
If you buy a game for your computer you need to make sure it runs on your current hardware. Still if you meet the requirements you are sometimes disappointed by the actual performance you get which leads you to endless trails of software and driver upgrades, operating system optimization, hard drive defragmentation and other maintenance chores. In the end you might end up having to upgrade some hardware to be satisfied. Even worse, since the computer is most likely used for other things there is sure to be some malfunction sooner or later due to viruses or other causes.
A gaming console on the other hand is a dedicated piece of software and hardware which is streamlined to play the games you buy. Reversely the games are streamlined to run on exactly that machine. This is optimal both for buyers and developers. The games require less testing before released since only one (or a few) possible machines will be known to run the game. When you receive a game it will be tested for exactly your conditions and will require no effort on your part to experience it the way the developer intended it.
More than this most game machines are so simple to operate, you insert a game and you play. As of late some machines have endeavored to become complete entertainment machines and started looking more like HTPCs than gaming consoles and in doing so have become more complicated. Maybe this is yet another reason for the success of the currently simplest machine on the market, the Wii, which still have on-line connectivity but in a much more modest form than it’s cousins PS3 and X-box 360.
In conclusion, when I want to play a game I want to relax. Give me something simple!
then your one of the few! youve never played warcraft i see.