The Future Of Gaming

In November 2005 Microsoft released their follow up to the XBOX- the XBOX 360, the first of the new seventh generation of home games consoles. The new console is far more powerful than the original XBOX and is capable of producing vastly improved High Definition graphics. This increase in power means that the development of its games cost more due to the increased amount of time and resources spent on creating larger, more detailed game environments and characters. The PlayStation 3 due to be released in the UK in march 2007 will be even more powerful than the XBOX 360. The increasing costs in developing games for new hardware could be bad news for smaller 3rd party developers who will simply not have the necessary resources to compete with larger developers. It is rumored that certain developers have already been forced to cancel games in development for the PS3 due their cost.





With the Wii Nintendo are taking a slightly different approach to the seventh generation. The Wii is at least twice as powerful as the GameCube but far less powerful than Microsoft and Sonys new consoles, and is not capable of producing HD graphics. This is good news for developers because games will be relatively cheap to develop and take less time to make. The real innovation with the Wii is in its motion sensitive controller or remote that recognizes any movement or gesture that the player makes while holding it. With less emphasis on graphics and more on gameplay nintendo hope to appeal to a much broader market than just the "hardcore gamers". The console aims to be easy to use no matter how much experience players have had in the past with video games and nintendo aim to make the Wii accessible to all the family.





The handheld war between the Nintendo DS and Sony's PSP has been very interesting. Despite the DS being far less powerful than the PSP and having less in the way of multimedia funtionality, it has managed to out sell the PSP in every major territory worldwide. Its success may be down to Nintendo's plan to make it appeal to a wide variety of people. Nintendo has produced simple, easy to play games targeted at females and/or older players.















Whats interesting is that Nintendo and Sony are taking the same approach with their home games consoles as they have with their handhelds- the Wii favours gameplay over graphics whereas the PS3 is focused more on power. If their strategy worked for their handheld console then Nintendo may have a good chance of winning the seventh generation console war, however Sonys already large user base for the PS2 and Microsoft's head start with the 360 could affect their chances.

The success of these new consoles will determine the future of video gaming. Will the success of the Wii change how we interact with games in the future? Or will the success of the PlayStation 3 mean even more realism in games causing them to become more and more like films? And what affect will the rising cost of game development have on the future of the video game industry?

The seventh generation console war will certainly be an interesting one...