So you have bought your console, and you buy some games now and again, not too bad right? Yet the games industry is always seeking new ways to make your bank manager cry.
after your cash
This is an expensive hobby we have, and because it is one that continues evolving, those costs don’t really disappear. If you buy a house, you might live in it all your life, but a console or PC can be a continuous money drain.
The worst offender for this is Microsoft. Whilst I enjoy my 360 a lot, there are a great many ‘hidden charges’ involved. The PS3 is pretty good for working straight out of the box, but although the 360 is often touted as being a cheaper console, that is in fact misleading. If you have an older model, you will want a network adapter, where both the Wii and PS3 have integral wifi receivers. If you want to game online, you need to buy gold membership, again, the Wii and PS3 offer this for free. These two items will set you back around £100, bringing the 360 cost up to the same level as the PS3 cost to get the same abilities. Another advantage the PS3 has is that the controller has an integrated battery and a charge cable. Microsoft on the other hand will make you pay extra for a play and charge kit. Though the PS3 charge cable is about the length of your little arm and forces you to sit with your nose against the screen if you want to keep playing. The Kinect/Move war is another prime example, Microsoft announced Kinect would be much cheaper than the Move, whereas in fact that depends entirely on how many Move controllers you want to buy.
all are expensive
Microsoft have of course just announced a price increase for Gold membership for many gamers. Gold membership presents a tricky issue, it is undoubtedly better than the Playstation Network, on the other hand, the differences are pretty small, is it really worth the charge? Microsoft have of course made the Gold membership invaluable, making it essential for proper online gaming, and turning the whole thing into a nearly compulsory choice for many gamers. But is the quality of the content really that much better than the free service PS Network offers? As someone who uses both, I can state quite simply, no. Microsoft have been quite clever in their explanation of this price hike. ’It is a good service, and all prices occasionally rise’ is their argument. Many people see this simple logic and agree, prices do tend to go up for all kinds of stuff. But it neatly sidesteps the real question, is it actually something they can really justify charging for in the first place? This will of course come down to persona choice, but I find Sony to be much better in this regard. Everything you need to play great games is free, and you can pay extra for stuff if you want to. Microsoft prefers to say, you have paid for the console, now pay for all the other stuff you need to use it fully.
ten extra dollars!?
I am not just bashing Microsoft or the 360, I really enjoy the console. But the fact is, the costs creep up on you. Aside from the basics, many other costs can be incurred. If you like racing games, you will probably want a steering wheel, maybe even pedals. If you like beat em ups, an arcade stick is the goal. Then there is the TV. Now that we are in an era of HD gaming, the pressure is on to get a HD tv to go with it. Last year I took the plunge and got a 50″ full HD tv with surround sound, every gamer’s dream. Totally worth every penny… Even then, the costs became much greater than was suggested. TV £900, sound system, £100, tv stand, £100. that was fine, all expected and accounted for. Then you find a HDMI cable can be £30 a go, I needed two, I had to buy an official Nintendo component cable for the Wii, that was another £20. Next I found that the 360 needed extra cables to allow for both a HDMI cable and an optical cable (this was last year, so no shiny black model available). Again, Microsoft were the worst for hidden costs. I only just had enough for the hardware, so then having to buy all these extra cables to get the full experience was a nightmare, and a very expensive one.
Of course if you are a PC gamer it is even worse, your hardware could be obsolete in 12 months if you want to keep up to date, and things like a gaming mouse, joystick etc. are all very expensive too. Whilst the 360 comes with a free headset, I have found it to be very poor quality, and the lack of bluetooth suddenly becomes apparent when you are faced with only a very small number of headsets which will work.
Controllers are my biggest criticism, those things are incredibly expensive. At over £30 a go, they are nearly the price of a new game, a 360 controller with a play and charge kit comes to nearly a third of the actual console price, which is just mad. Wiimotes and Nunchucks also become very pricey if you want to make the most of those multiplayer party games, especially now with motion plus added in too. I think consoles ought to come with two pads, rather than just the one.
always expensive
As such I am glad to see the different consoles taking long term views, Sony in particular want a ten year life cycle, which given the life of the PS2, and the fact that developers are barely scratching the surface of what the current generation consoles are capable of, is I think entirely appropriate. In the past I have always been curious about the next generation of consoles, but this time round I am happy with these ones. We don’t need to keep looking forward. Given the development costs of games these days, and the lengthly production cycles, would anyone really benefit from an even more powerful machine? Do graphics need to get any better? Do physics engines really need to get any more complex?
What I would really like to see is developers really mastering what we already have. The Force Unleashed is a prime example, huge amounts of time and development went into the physics engine for the game, but the gameplay wasn’t good enough to allow people to notice. Many engines and development devices are already have all the potential they need, I want to see people getting to grips with them, not discarding them in favour of the next big thing. Developers need to find ways to more efficiently utilise the console hardware, I know they are still struggling to work out how to utilise the PS3′s capabilities effectively. What might it be capable of?
he doesn't know
This brings me to my final point for this blog, the Wii. In the last few days I have read a number of articles and comments criticising Nintendo for not releasing hardcore games, with gamers demanding to know when they are going to get their act together and start servicing the hardcore gamer demographic. This kind of comment I find somewhat irritating to be honest. I was looking forward to the Wii as much as anyone, and was disappointed when they moved toward the more family oriented market. But that was that, I moved on. The people criticising Nintendo’s release schedule seem to have failed to notice that Nintendo has evolved. To put it bluntly, get over it. Demanding Nintendo release a hardcore game is like demanding Lamborghini release a truck. Nintendo have moved into their own market. It is no longer a three horse race. Sony and Microsoft are competing, Nintendo have left and made their own party. You cannot complain they aren’t servicing the hardcore demographic, because quite simply they don’t care. Criticising their business model is rather flawed in the face of their gargantuan success.
"not my problem"
Pretty much unanimously people expect a HD Wii to be announced in the next year or two. Many people see this as inevitable, that Nintendo will seek to catch up with Sony and Microsoft in terms of power. The simple question is, why would they? I am not saying it wont happen, they may well do so, but there is absolutely no basis for assuming that Nintendo will release a HD Wii. The Wii sales are still through the roof, they are continually dominant and constantly releasing the kinds of games their target demographic want to play. Hardcore gamers simply aren’t in that demographic. People assume that Nintendo games go for stylised graphics because the Wii hasn’t the power to make realistic graphics. But maybe Wii developers don’t want realistic graphics. The bright cartoony look suits the intended audience well. If a HD Wii were released, would developers care? I suspect they would continue making cutesy party games and the like. The old saying ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ has never been more apt. Why put the money into releasing an upgraded Wii when it does so well? Maybe they will do so, and that is great. But until they do, don’t complain that they aren’t doing their jobs, because they know what they are doing and are doing it exceedingly well.
All that it needs to be
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