PS3 - What Else Can It Bring Gamers?
I feel a little conflicted at the moment. I'm stuck between wanting a new generation of hardware and wanting the current hardware to continue pushing out titles.
I don't actually know what I want. Admittedly, I am a little tired of what's on offer now, and at the moment I am about as disinterested in games as I've ever been. A hoard of PS3 exclusives in the latter part of this year will undoubtedly change that, but in the mean time all of this next-generation talk is smothering me.
Ubisoft's thoughts on new hardware are very well known, and the publisher has said on numerous occasions (1,576 by my count) that the current generation of hardware has reached its peak.
On one hand I agree with Ubisoft: I think the current market is decisively unstable as new business models -- predominantly focused on online content and in-game sales, as EA CEO John Riccitiello has detailed -- compromise the current ways in which games are created, sold and played.
On the other hand I see Ubisoft remarks as somewhat egoistic, as the publisher seems to be craving new product launches, obviously to take advantage of any new product's strong market presence and consumer awareness around its launch. Let's be honest: Ubisoft is one publisher we can all associate with hardware launches.
The current generation of hardware, excluding the Wii, will still have a place over the next few years if hardware sales alone are anything to go by. Global sales see very strong retail sales for the PS3 and Xbox 360, even in the midst of an unstable global financial climate and retail struggling (especially in Australia as the nation's dollar continues to rise as product prices either rise or stay the same).
The industry is a lot different now compared to what it was a few years ago. Mobile games essentially had no market presence in 2007, even after the release of the Iphone, and digital distribution was something considered to be far off, despite the music industry essentially going exclusively digital in the years that have followed.
That does not seem to have stopped sales of hardware though, although Kinect added some life to the Xbox 360 in the midst of its severely lacking list of exclusives in 2011.
Team Bondi boss Brendan McNamara believes the PS3 still has plenty of life left, detailing how much "raw power" he believes is still left in current-gen consoles.
Not many people are arguing that the current range of hardware is outdated, but rather that what they offer in functionality, distribution and memory isn't quite intone with current business models, as Riccitiello discussed, and that it's hard to mold new business methods around what the consoles can offer.
I predict we'll see the successors to the PS3 and Xbox 360 before 2014, but that doesn't mean we should count out what the consoles can bring us. Remember that the PS2 seemed horrendously out-dated once the PS3 was released, but it's still selling, and very well in certain parts of the world (India, Brazil).
Has what we've seen from the likes of the PS3 been at the peak of what the console can offer? I personally don't think so, as games like LA Noire, Heavy Rain and the forthcoming Uncharted 3 show me how untapped the console's resources are when it comes to raw processing power.
From a gameplay perspective, the core fundamentals of playing a game don't need to change: rather, the ways in which we interact with those mechanics do, and they always have from generation to generation. But how much more "innovative" can developers get?
The plus side is that consoles like the PS3 and Xbox 360 are actually rather broad devices in that they offer functionality outside of gaming. I know plenty of people that use their PS3 exclusively for Blu-Ray and movie rentals and downloads, and so that gives the console unbelievable value once the games stop coming out.
But what about gamers that aren't interested in those features? Well, even though the inevitable successor will come and make the PS3 look dated, as long as Sony continues support and keeps giving us exclusive titles that actually drive our interest in the product, the console still has plenty of worth as a gaming device.
No revealing of new hardware will change that, and as long as there is the online platform, the ability to interact with online communities, unique IPs and a consistent flow of exclusive titles, the PS3 has the potential to offer plenty for gamers long after its successor is released.
By Gaetano Prestia
What upcoming PS3 titles are you most looking forward to in the second half of 2011?