Console Wars Become Developer Wars?

Okay, if you follow the news on X-Box 360, the Nintendo Wii, and the Sony Playstation 3 are all in a three way war for the top selling console game box. Each delivers innovation. Each delivers more graphics than the previous generation. Each says that they will have newer and better games available for their respective systems. Which one would you bet on?

To tell you the truth, I think the one thing that most people who work in the gaming entertainment industry is that the name of the game is Fun. Learning curves should be low, re-playability should be high, and variation between games should also be high. However, I think most of the veterans of the industry have sunk into the rut of looking at more improved graphics than anything else. I would venture to say that this used to be a concern back in the previous generations of game machines. Anyone who grew up with an Atari 2600 or Nintendo Entertainment System like I did can well remember playing games on their home console systems, and then going to the arcade to play the same exact game, but with much better graphics and sound. Not to mention that the arcade version of the game usually had more levels and options to utilize during the course of the game play as well. Some of this disparity was made up during the release of the Sega Genesis, but most of it was not addressed until the advent of the Playstation 2 and the original X-Box. Now, we have graphics and sound that are much above the level that was established to have in the arcade, but in the comfort of our own homes with the options of Digital Surround Sound, High Definition Televisions, the ability to substitute our own music for the game’s soundtrack, and so on and so forth. Obviously, like in any other field, the home consoles are reaching a point of diminishing returns if the sole focus would be upon graphics.

With the X-Box 360 taking the usual approach to a gradual evolution of graphical and music capabilities that are dictated by market forces for that which is considered appropriate to a consumer driven market, Sony’s dictate of bringing the newest and the best to the market irrespective of price, and then Nintendo’s strategy to place a “new” way of interacting with the medium, which will bring the higher profits? Well, according to the news that has been leaked by each company, Microsoft is still subsidizing each 360 console unit it sells to a modest extent, with the hopes of making up the market subsidization through licensing deals, which is pretty much de riguer within the gaming industry. Sony is taking this approach also, but to a much higher level, as each unit of a Playstation 3 will be heavily subsidized in the hopes of introducing their Blu-Ray High Definition DVD technology into households under the guise of a “gaming” system. While Sony and Microsoft share a similar marketing approach to the issue, it seems that Microsoft’s more modest goals well drive developers over to their platform, as it has been stated within the Gaming Trade Press that porting a PC game over to the X-Box 360 takes considerably less effort than porting the same game over to the Playstation 3. However, in stark contrast to both of these approaches, Nintendo will not be subsidizing their console. The reason for this is that their is more modest graphical technology within the Nintendo Wii, which means that at a much lower price point, a Nintendo Wii will still generate revenue for the company. Also, with respect to licensing deals, it seems that Nintendo is cutting their developer costs to create games for the Wii, and the news so far is that it is just as easy, if not easier, to develop a game for the Wii as it is for the X-Box 360. The reaction is that devlopers for the Sony Playstation are dropping their development for the Playstation in favor of the Wii and the 360.

By now, if you looked at the links provided for the specifications of each console, we are left with a question: which game system would you be willing to buy for your family this come Holiday Season?