Who "Won" E3 This Year?

Hey guys. This is the first E3 in four years that I'm not working the show. It was nice to be actually able to sit back, relax, and simply enjoy the announcements as a consumer, rather than have to feverishly write everything up as a journalist, scouring the internet for even the tiniest morsels of new news. Now that all of the major companies have had their say, I've decided to do a little wrap-up. I hope you enjoy it!

Every year, there is this big debate over who "won" E3. It generally refers to the company that had the biggest showing of games people want to play, with the press conference that really ups the wow factor, and with the most down-to-earth attitude towards their fanbase. It's traditionally been a contest between the "big three" (Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft) but these days Bethesda, EA and Ubisoft also throw their hats in the ring. To understand who won, lets first have a look at who lost.

Loser #1 (the worst loser): Sony

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Sony was unquestionably the "winner" of last year's E3, with a very strong showing of powerhouse games like the Final Fantasy VII remake, and a very consumer friendly approach that seemed to rebuff Microsoft's anti-consumer tenancies at every turn. This year, as well as having an incredibly lackluster assortment of games to show, with the Shadow of The Colossus remake being the only really new thing shown, they also took the "dick move of the show" award by refusing to do cross-play with Microsoft and Nintendo. Here is what Sony's Jim Ryan literarlly said when confronted about Sony's lack of cross-play with Minecraft and Rocket League:

"Yeah. We've got to be mindful of our responsibility to our install base. Minecraft - the demographic playing that, you know as well as I do, it's all ages but it's also very young. We have a contract with the people who go online with us, that we look after them and they are within the PlayStation curated universe. Exposing what in many cases are children to external influences we have no ability to manage or look after, it's something we have to think about very carefully."

Yes, you heard that right, they don't want to do cross-play because "think of the children!" Even Nintendo, who have refused to do stuff like region-free gaming or online voice chat for the longest time due to "the children!" excuse are doing cross-play, while Sony isn't. Dick move Sony.

Loser #2: Bethesda

Hey guys, do you remember when Bethesda made a game called Skyrim? Bethesda sure does! Skyrim is coming to the Switch! I also hope you like VR because there's a fucktone of VR shit coming, even if you don't want it. There's a sequel to a game that no-one really cared about. Oh and remember paid mods, that clusterfuck of a dumb idea that turned Bethesda and Valve's reputation to shit? Well they are back, but we've disguised them as the "Creation Club". The only saving grace from Bethesda was Wolfenstein 2, which looks pretty fucking cool.

Loser #3: EA Games

"Hey lets just pump out a billion sequels to all of our successful franchises." EA's conference was so boring and uneventful that the only thing I can actually remember off the top of my head was that Battlefront 2 looked pretty alright, but at this point you could slap a Star Wars logo on a turd sandwich and it would still sell gangbusters.

Loser #4: Microsoft

The biggest thing to come out of Microsoft's conference was of course the Xbox One X: the final version of "Project Scorpio". For $499 US, it claims to bring 4k 60FPS gaming to the lowly console peasants. Most of the games they showed off with it were pretty meh, a bunch of sequels to games like Forza, Crackdown, and Metro. However, Microsoft revealed two pretty big showstoppers during their conference. The first was Dragon Ball Fighter Z, which looks fucking amazing in 4K 60FPS and was the best game to show off the Xbox One X's tech. It is also being made by Arc System Works as a proper fighting game, and has a lot of FG fans super pumped up. This game is likely to become the new Street Fighter or Marvel Vs. Capcom as a competitive gaming staple, and as a Dragonball Z fan, that makes me super happy.

The second amazing game that Microsoft revealed was an indie game called The Last Night. This is the game I have been dreaming about ever since I first saw Bladerunner. It's a 2.5D pixelated cyberpunk platformer, set in a world where automation has replaced pretty much all labor and humans live for pleasure alone. The creator of the game fell into some bullshit controversy hole with manufactured outrage from social justice warriors, but it hasn't really done anything to mar the game's reputation or anticipation.

Loser #5: Ubisoft

Ubisoft is not so much of a loser as it is "not a winner". It actually had a pretty decent showing. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle came waaaaay out of left field, but looks super fun. They also finally, finally revealed the long-in-development Beyond Good and Evil 2, a game that fans have been waiting for for way too long. It's seriously the Half-Life 3 of the company. The rest was fairly predictable but inoffensive: a Far Cry sequel, an Assassin's Creed sequel, and some other little stuff. Ubisoft would have totally won E3 this year if it wasn't for the next company on this list...

Winner: Nintendo

The Switch, despite having a grand total of... zero worthwhile exclusive games (both Zelda and Mario Kart are available on Wii U), has a lot of ground to cover if it wants people to take it seriously. The Wii U suffered greatly from the problem of game drought - there simply weren't enough regular releases of new, worthwhile games to justify the console. My Wii U sat for months without being played while I patiently awaited the next big game. Nintendo took to E3 swinging this year, showing us a lot of games to get excited for.

Super Mario Odyssey looks freaking amazing, and is out in October. You can become a dinosaur. You can become a goomba. You can become a taxi. New Yoshi and Kirby assure us that there will be a steady flow of new Nintendo content through 2018. Exciting third-party partnerships, like the aforementioned Mario + Rabbids and a Rocket League port shows that Nintendo is finally opening the door to third-parties, which will help with the game drought problem.

But the biggest announcements from the company were ones that didn't even have trailers. Metroid Prime 4 was revealed with simply a logo, but absolutely stole the show. This is a game fans have waited ten years for. Alongside the news of another traditional Metroid game for 3DS, it was certainly a good year to be a Samus fan.

The other huge news was a confirmation that a "core series" Pokemon game was coming to the Switch. You heard that right, Nintendo finally broke the glass. We got literally no other information on it, but that was more than enough to drive fans into a fervor. The idea of a Pokemon RPG, or even a Pokemon MMO in glorious console HD seems incredible. It also adds fuel to the fire that Nintendo plans to abandon the 3DS line, and simply push the Switch as both its home console and handheld focus.
So that's why I think Nintendo won E3 this year. If you disagree, be sure to let me know in the comments.

REVIEW: Super Mario 3D World (Wii U)

The terms "killer app" and "system seller" get thrown around quite loosely these days, however, It's actually quite rare for a single game to single handedly move a substantial number of systems the way Halo did on the Xbox, or Smash Bros. did on the Wii (there are of course exceptions, such as Pokemon on the 3DS). Furthermore, all three next-gen systems have had incredibly lackluster launches, with 90% of the launch selection either being already available on other platforms, or being "ok, I guess" at best. The Wii U has had a year to find it's feet (and some decent games), and I believe Super Mario 3D World is the console's first steps to greatness. That said it is still not quite a "system seller".

Meow!

Super Mario 3D World is the direct sequel to Super Mario 3D Land on the 3DS (a fantastic game in it's own right). Furthermore, it is the first 3D Mario platformer on the Wii U, and the first major Mario title without Godfather Shigeru Miyamoto's direct influence. So even before it had been released, it had some pretty big shoes to fill.

The feature that sets this game apart from other Mario games (apart from the cat suit, but we’ll get to that later), is it’s co-op (and sometimes, not so co-op) multiplayer. Yes, it has been done before in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but this is the first time it’s been done in a 3D Mario, and furthermore, it brings back the unique abilities of Peach, Luigi, Toad and Mario from Super Mario Bros. 2. Luigi jumps a bit higher, Peach has her “floaty” jumps, Toad runs faster and Mario is the all-rounder. Even if you’re playing the game in singleplayer, each character feels just unique enough to warrant switching things up from time to time.

The game is best played multiplayer with a group of good friends

But, this game should be played with friends. It is couch co-op at it’s finest. I've always been baffled by most console maker's decision to eschew local multiplayer in favor of online. Online play on any console is always going to be a vastly inferior system to what’s available (for free) on the PC, so why not focus on local multiplayer, something the PC struggles with and fits the console perfectly?

Thankfully, Nintendo is still pushing that agenda, and Super Mario 3D World is very indicative of that. The game is fantastic fun to play with friends, and it works really well. There were very few times where it felt like we were “fighting” the camera, or felt considerably disadvantaged for having multiple players. There’s a nice little competitive element to it too - the player with the most points at the end of each level gets a “crown,” so there is always this mad dash to get the most points. Multiplayer in Super Mario 3D world is a kind of maddening chaos that still somehow feels natural, with a few of the levels in particular even seeming to be designed with multiplayer in mind.

I should take some time to talk about how the game looks, because it is absolutely gorgeous. That 1080p/60fps benchmark that games on the Xbox One and PS4 are struggling to hit? 3D World pulls it off like a boss. The game never once struggled to keep its framerate, despite the fact that it was outputting to both the TV and the gamepad. The cartoony graphics of the Mario universe really pop out at you; characters feel alive, stages feel vast, and the color scheme is a welcome explosion of vibrant yellow and green in the face of the gaming world’s current obsession with brown and gray. When you add a jazzy, upbeat soundtrack that has plenty of catchy, memorable tunes, you’ve got yourself a game that looks and sounds as fun as it plays.

Super Mario 3D World's vibrant colors are a welcome change from modern gaming's obsession with brown and gray.

3D World brings back a lot of old favorite powerups, such as the fire flower and super leaf, as well as bringing in some items from recent Mario games (such as 3D Land’s boomerang suit and New Super Mario Bros.’ mega mushroom). Completely new to the game are the cat suit and the double cherry. The cat suit is the game's "big new item", with many levels, and many, many secrets being designed around it. Basically, it allows you to climb up walls, melee attack enemies, and perform a jump-dive attack. The first two skills are exceptionally useful at finding secrets and defeating enemies, while the third is exceptionally useful at diving you right off the edge of the map. Seriously. I was deathly afraid of using it most of the time because cat-Mario has some kind of death wish that can only be satisfied by leaping into the abyss.

The double cherry creates a “clone” of your character. It appears fairly rarely in the game, and while is a neat new idea, I feel like they didn't take the opportunity to properly explore it. It could have made for some total madness in multiplayer games to have levels just brimming with cherries, generating an insane amount of players on-screen at once.

The double cherry has a lot of missed potential as a power up

The game has the classic Mario difficulty curve, with the first world being complete-able by your grandma, and the final world driving even hardened veterans insane. There is a huge amount of content, with seven standard worlds and three bonus worlds - it’ll take you quite a while to get through it all, and the challenges are surmountable, but satisfying. The only thing that’s a bit lacking is the boss fights, with several of them simply being repeats, and most of them being pretty easy. I beat the final boss, for example, on my very first try.

I also had a small problem with the fifth unlockable character, Rosalina, being made available so far into the game. She is actually a pretty unique character, and is a much more interesting than Toad (sorry, Toad fans!) so it would have been nice to use her in the earlier levels, especially in multiplayer.

The boss fights are not exactly satisfying

Shoe-horned into the game, as seems to always be the case these days, are some social networking features. In this case, Nintendo’s Miiverse network bleeds in, with player’s Miis scattered throughout levels spouting whatever nonsense they last posted in the game’s Miiverse community. I don’t know how it is for English speakers, but for the Japanese version of the game, most of them were just cute pictures made with the game’s unlockable stamps. No real harm done, but it doesn’t really add anything to the game either.

I’m in kind of two worlds on my last point, which is also the reason why I don’t believe this game is a “system seller” for the Wii U. Basically, the game does not really take any advantage of the unique capabilities of the system. The gamepad’s screen simply replicates the action on the main screen for player one, and while there is a “touch baddies to make them stop/touch areas to reveal secrets” feature, it feels more like a last-minute addition than something that’s integral to the game (and it’s certainly not integral to the game). On the one hand, I think this is bad because it really does not “sell” the system, but on the other hand, I honestly don't think the game would benefit from it anyway. It may have even been detrimental to "force" more gamepad features into the game.

The catsuit, contrary to the double cherry, is a great new powerup for the Mario universe

Is Super Mario 3D world a fantastic game? Yes. Does it sell the unique features of the Wii U? No. If you already own the system it’s a no-brainer, but I honestly doubt people will be rushing out to buy a Wii U for it. Furthermore, to your average Joe, it only exacerbates the problem of people thinking the Wii U is just an addon for the Wii, rather than a new system. There’s nothing, apart from the improved graphics (which average Joe doesn't really notice anyway), that distinctly sets it apart from say, Super Mario Galaxy.

That said, you probably should rush out and buy a Wii U for this game, because it’s flipping amazing.

The game, unfortunately, does not take good advantage of the Wii U's unique features

Verdict: Buy

Liked the review? Subscribe to my Twitter and my YouTube channel for up-to-date gaming news!

Have a look at my Escapist articles pertaining to Super Mario 3D World.

NEWS: Monday Update

Hi everyone. Bit of exciting news for you all this week, I'm heading back to Australia on Friday! Just for ten days though, a little bit of a holiday to see everyone again. Also, when I get back to Japan, I'm going to head up to Izu for a bit of a beach getaway (it's not a real summer vacation until I've been to the beach!)

As such, don't expect too much in the way of updates for the coming month! My Escapist news stories will also probably see a bit of a decline.

Last week was my "training week" for my day job as an English teacher. It was good to see all the Nasushiobara ALTs again, and to cap it off we had a poker night on Saturday. It's a very nice change of pace from my regular teaching work, and a good lead in to my lengthy summer vacation.

I bought a car this week! It may just be a Kei car, and it may have only cost me $500, but it's a car nonetheless. Even if I end up going back home in March, I'll have still saved money over renting every month, and if I do decide to stay another year, I'll end up saving a LOT of money.

On that front, it's looking more and more likely I will end up staying here one more year. Next year, my car, and my apartment's start up fees will be completely paid off, and with my current work pace at the Escapist I reckon I can save up a LOT of money. I do miss being home, and it's particularly hard with several of my best friends in the country having left Japan earlier this year, but at this stage in my life it may be best to just burrow down, save up a wad of cash, and then blow it all on a big vacation (or... sensibly save it with the intention of possibly buying a house...). It would be nice to visit all my friends in America...

My new car

Anyway, here are the last couple of week's stories (sorry about no update last week):

• Martian Manhunter Joins The Injustice: Gods Among Us Roster

• Evo 2013 Champions Revealed

• American McGee Cancels His OZombie Kickstarter

• Oculus Wants To Release The Rift For Free

• Good Old Games: Pirates Are Our Competition, Not Steam

• Skyrim Mod Adds Dishonored's Signature Abilities

• State of Decay PC Version Features Exclusive Enhancements

• Team Fortress 2 Update Kills Idle Servers

• League of Legends Unleashes Spirit Guard Udyr

• Battlefield 4's Buildings Have Advanced Falling-Over Mechanics

• 7 Days to Die Is DayZ Crossed With Minecraft

• Dead Rising 3 Ditches The Race Against The Clock

• How The Stick of Truth's Ambition Got Out of Control

• Street Fighter Live Action TV Show Starts Filming

• New Technology Lets You Physically Feel Virtual Objects

• Gearbox Announces HD Remakes of Homeworld 1 And 2

• Borderlands 2 Getting Level Cap Increase, Extra Missions, Raid Bosses

• Saints Row IV Had to Drop Bollywood Dance Number Ending

• Battlefield 4 Singleplayer Campaign Details

• First Saints Row IV DLC Detailed And Dated

• Nvidia Shield Ships On July 31

• Microsoft Vows To Fight Government Spying Via Kinect

• Nintendo Stock at a 2 Year High

• All Left 4 Dead 2 Maps Soloed On Expert By Crazy Person

• Pokemon Dev's New Game Combines Horse Riding and Solitaire

• EA Loses Lawsuit To Original Madden Creator

• Eidos Founder: Square Enix Needs to Learn How to Sell Games

• Saints Row IV Season Pass Includes Anal Probe Weapon

• "Project Logan" Brings Direct X 11 To Smartphones

• Super Smash Bros. 3DS And Wii U Drops Story Mode

• Ace Attorney 5 DLC Adds a Full New Case

• Don Mattrick Details His Plans to Turn Zynga Around

• Activision Blizzard to Buy Out Vivendi's Shares

• Battlefield 4's Battlelog is a Seamless Second Screen Experience

• Xbox 360 Gets Indie Self Publishing Too

• Saints Row IV Refused Classification in Australia (Again)

Top stories:

• Fez Dev Tells Media Member To Kill Himself

Fez director Phil Fish

• Skyrim Mod: Falskaar Adds 20 Hours of Gameplay
  

Okay guys, that's it from me for this week! Be sure to subscribe to my twitter for up-to-date news and blog updates, my youtube channel for gaming videos, and check back here every Saturday for a roundup of my Escapist news pieces!

NEWS: Saturday Update

E3 is finally over. What a crazy week it's been. This was my first E3 that I covered for the Escapist and the increased workload I had to deal with was intense. It should all pay off in the end though (literally, as I get paid per article).

So what's my opinion on E3 this year? Obviously, there is the Microsoft thing, which completely baffles me. I am somewhat of a Microsoft fanboy (i own an Xbox 360, although how I came about owning one was more of an opportune than deliberate purchase) and even I have to admit that Sony wiped the floor with them. It was just one bad policy after another. I know Microsoft are trying to change the gaming world here, and they knew there would be resistance, but damn.

A lot of people compare what they are doing to what Steam did to PC gaming several years ago. I tend to agree with them there. Steam was met with just as much (if not more) resistance than is now facing the Xbox One, but at the end of the day it turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to PC gaming.

Microsoft wants to do the same thing with console gaming, but damn, they could have done a LITTLE bet better PR on it. Maybe eased people more into it rather than just dumping bad news after bad news.

Aside from that whole bru-ha-ha, a lot of cool stuff came out of E3. We got to see Titanfall from the guys who made Call of Duty back when Call of Duty was a competitive PC FPS and not a running joke. If they pull this off, it'll sit besides TF2 and NS2 as a go-to multiplayer FPS for me.

Watch_Dogs, with it's hide-and-seek multiplayer and crazy gameplay options looks set to really shake things up.

There was the announcement of the new Battlefront, which doesn't really need to have anything else said about it (fingers crossed for a PC release).

And then there was of course, Nintendo's direct, which pretty much hit everything right. Wii U has no games? OK. How about some big first party Nintendo games? Super Mario. BAM. Donkey Kong. BAM. Mario Kart. BAM. Oh? You are sick of the bog-standard Nintendo franchises you always see? Well here's Wonderful 101, a crazy new IP that's about controlling a whole mob of superheroes at once. You want third party? We got third party. Batman. Assasin's Creed. Bayonetta 2, which is a Wii U exclusive!

Ok we done. NO WAIT HERE'S SMASH BROS. Ok we really done now. NO WAIT HERE'S MEGA MAN IN SMASH BROS!! PEACE OUT BITCHES!

As you can imagine, I haven't had too many real-life adventures this week! Next weekend i'm planning on attending a 'scavenger hunt' in Fukushima, which sounds fun.

So anyway, here's the news for last week:

• DICE Exec: Military Shooter Market Isn't Oversaturated

• Battlefield 4 Won't Support Mods

• Super Smash Bros. For Wii U and 3DS Won't Have Cross-Platform Play

• Nvidia Says PS4 and Xbox One Are Good News For PC Gamers

• Nintendo's First Free-To-Play Title Will Launch Before March, 2014

• CliffyB Thinks Used Games Are Bad, Sony is "Playing Us"

• PS+ Not Required For Free-to-Play Online Games

• Pokemon X and Y Add Sky Battles, Horde Encounters, Fairy Type

• Super Smash Bros. Director Talks 3DS, Wii U Version Differences

• ESA Calls The Cops on Ouya's Parking Lot E3 Booth

• Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Sees Dixie Join Diddy and DK

• Super Mario 3D World Features Cat Mario

• Battlefield 3: Close Quarters DLC Now Free For All

• PS4 Online Multiplayer Requires PS+ Subscription

• Eat Doritos, Drink Mt. Dew, Win an Xbox One

• The Crew Adds Boss Fights To Racing Games

• Redbox Asks For Feedback on XBone, PS4 Rentals

• First CoD: Ghosts In-Game Footage Shows Dog Gameplay

• World Of Warcraft's Raids Get More Flexible

Story of the week:

• Mega Man Blasts Into Super Smash Bros. Wii U and 3DS

Okay guys, that's it from me for this week! Be sure to subscribe to my twitter for up-to-date news and blog updates, my youtube channel for gaming videos, and check back here every Saturday for a roundup of my Escapist news pieces!

NEWS: Saturday Update

Hey guys. Getting back into the regular swing of things these days, nothing too special happened to me over the week. I'm heading in to Tokyo tomorrow to watch my friend Joe play Taiko at the "Sanja Matsuri," which is one of the three biggest matsuris (festivals) in all of Japan! I went to watch him play last year, and while the immense crowds were pretty claustrophobic, it did make for a great day. I also plan to go down to Akibahara in the morning, because apparently I hate having money.

Last year's Sanja Matsuri

Bit of Steve's Game Blog news today, you may have noticed a change in the title from "Saturday Roundup" to "Saturday Update." This is because I have a lot of friends and family that read my blog, but aren't too interested in videogames. So, I thought I would use these regular Saturday updates to post a bit of a recap of what I'm up to in Japan, such as what I've just written about the Sanja Matsuri. As well as giving something for those interested to read, I feel it also adds a bit more personality to what is otherwise just a list of straight-up news articles.

Anyway, without further ado, here are this week's news stories:

• Indie Devs Aren't Happy With Steam Greenlight
• Play With Nvidia's Lifelike Human Face Render
• Behold Detroit's Glorious RoboCop Statue
• Capcom Explains Why Ace Attorney 5 Is Digital Only
• 3DS XL Evolves Into Limited Eevee Edition In Japan
• You Can Play The Ace Attorney 5 Demo For Free (In Japanese)
• Nintendo Direct Airs Today, Focuses on Upcoming Wii U Titles
• You Can Play The Last Of Us While It's Still Downloading
• New Super Luigi U Gets Standalone Retail Version
• Robotic Boogaloo Is TF2's First Entirely Community-Created Update

Story of the week:

• Nintendo Suddenly Claims Ownership Of Many YouTube Videos

Okay guys, that's it from me for this week! Be sure to subscribe to my twitter for up-to-date news and blog updates, my youtube channel for gaming videos, and check back here every Saturday for a roundup of my Escapist news pieces!

NEWS: Saturday Roundup

Now that I'm writing daily news stories for The Escapist, I've decided to collate all of the articles I post during the week right here on Steve's Game Blog! Here's this week's stories:

• EA Offers Free Game to Early SimCity Adopters
• Gearbox Teases New Borderlands 2 Playable Character
• Games Workshop Reveals New Warhammer 40k Video Game
• Valve's Business Saw a 50% Increase In 2012
• Red Orchestra Dev: CoD Has Ruined A Generation Of Gamers
• Jury Orders Nintendo to Pay $30 Million In Infringement Case
• Tropical Skyrim Mod Replaces Snow With Sand
• Japanese Robot Car Drives Itself, Seats One
• Richard Garriott Explains Why He Needs a $1 Million Kickstarter
• Japanese Game Pits Wrecking Ball Against Terrorist
• Just Cause Dev Claims PS4 Will Out-Power Most PCs For Years

Story of the week:

• Xi3 Opens "Piston" Steam Box Pre-Orders, Costs $1000

Okay guys, that's it from me for this week! Be sure to subscribe to my twitter for up-to-date news and blog updates, my youtube channel for gaming videos, and check back here every Saturday for a roundup of my Escapist news pieces!

NEWS: Saturday Roundup

Now that I'm writing daily news stories for The Escapist, I've decided to collate all of the articles I post during the week right here on Steve's Game Blog! Here's this week's stories:

• "Omni" Treadmill Lets You Burn Calories While Gaming
• IGN Cancels IPL 6
• PETA Protests Whaling in Assassin's Creed IV
• Valve: Steam Box Prototypes Are Almost Here
• Videogames Make Old People Less Depressed
• Miyamoto Prepares Nintendo For His Retirement
• Microsoft Reveals Age of Empires II: HD Edition

Story of the week:

• Chair With DRM Collapses After Being Sat On Eight Times

Okay guys, that's it from me for this week! Be sure to subscribe to my twitter for up-to-date news and blog updates, my youtube channel for gaming videos, and check back here every Saturday for a roundup of my Escapist news pieces!

OPINION: Are we living in the last console generation?

The original Nintendo was released in America in 1985. The Super Nintendo followed just six years afterward in 1991. The Nintendo 64 released five years later in 1996. There were six years between the Playstation 1 (1994) and Playstation 2 (2000), and the original Xbox (2001) and the Xbox 360 (2005) were separated by just four years. It’s now been almost seven years since the Xbox 360 began the last console generation, and there has been no sign -- short of a few unconfirmed rumours -- of Sony and Microsoft even developing new consoles. Where is the next console generation?

The original Xbox and the Xbox 360 were separated by only four years.

Before we get any further, I’d like to appease all the frothing Nintendo fanboys who are moments away from sending me a strongly worded letter/angry e-mail/death threat. I know the Wii U is set to release this November. However, with graphical capability barely above what current-gen consoles offer, and a launch lineup consisting mostly of ports of current-gen titles, I feel that the Wii U is simply Nintendo finally deciding to join us in the present console generation.

The WiiU's graphical capability is comparable to the current generation

So why are Sony and Microsoft so hesitant to start a new generation? For the answer, you need look no further than their yearly revenue streams. Sony only started making a profit on their latest machine two years ago, and the Xbox 360 was actually sold at a loss for several years before they were able to turn any profit. For either of these companies to even announce a new console now would decimate the relatively small profits they have made. But while Nintendo relies solely on video games as a bread winner, both Sony and Microsoft have alternate sources of revenue. Video games are more of a side job for them, so why even bother making another console when A. It’s so damn expensive, and B. Nintendo and PC platforms like Steam can do it cheaper and better? If they can simply ride the current generation out for five, even ten more years, why not? And why did they even get into video games in the first place if it’s so unprofitable?

Despite the PS3's much criticized $599 launch price, it was still sold at a loss

To answer that, we have to wind the clock all the way back to the days of the N64 and the PS1. Back then, consoles were the be-all and end-all of gaming, and huge profit machines. When Nintendo had a bit of a flop with the GameCube in the following generation, Microsoft decided they wanted a piece of the gaming pie and came along to pick up the slack. Then there was the PS2, which was so incredibly successful that it outsold the PS3 for years after its release. It also proved that consoles could capture the elusive ‘casual’ market of gamers with ‘party’ titles like Buzz, SingStar and Guitar Hero, and the following generation was eager to capitalize on this. Look no further than the Wii, which was almost entirely marketed to casual gamers, as well as Microsoft’s Kinect attachment and Sony’s Move controller. Just a few years ago, consoles were top shit, and every man and his dog was lining up to grab the newest Mario or Call of Duty.

The Wii had a strong focus on 'casual' gamers

So what happened? Facebook happened. Or more appropriately, Farmville happened. Companies like Zynga also wanted a piece of the previously ignored ‘casual gamer’ crowd and decided the best way to do it was not to force them into buying a room full of plastic instruments, but rather to give them free games through a platform they already own (the PC) and then sucker them into paying for extra content. Needless to say, they were incredibly successful. Basically, all of the casual gamers suddenly got up and said ‘Hey, why are we buying all these consoles and subscriptions when we can just play games on Facebook for free?’ The rising popularity of smartphones and blockbusters like Angry Birds also contributed to this. Similarly, many ‘enthusiast’ and ‘hardcore’ gamers saw the falling cost of PC hardware and rising prevalence and improvement of PC platforms like Steam as a time to finally join the PC Gaming Master Race.

Farmville took the gaming world by storm

So now we reach the present, with Microsoft and Sony plinking along with their aging hardware, issuing fairly regular console ‘redesigns’ aimed at tricking people into thinking their boxes are newer than they actually are, while much of their user base is slowly getting wise to the fact that a mid-range ~$500 PC will outperform even the elitist of Xbox Elites. Both companies are either losing or barely making money, so why would they bother making a new generation? My prediction is that the PC will once again take the crown as the dominant form of  gaming. This is already starting to happen, with developers like DICE and EPIC putting the PC first and foremost, and with the explosive popularity of recent PC exclusives like Diablo III and DoTA 2. I think that the Wii U still has a place due to its interesting gimmicks that offer a completely different play-style to the PC and because people like having a ‘party console’ that can do local multiplayer, but I feel like there is no room in the gaming world for consoles that essentially function as watered-down PCs

Epic Game's Fortnite is being developed primarily for the PC

If we could wind the clock forward a couple years, who knows what we might find? Maybe Sony and Microsoft will squeeze out another generation, but I really doubt there will be another one after that. The advancements of cloud computing and initiatives such as onlive seem to suggest that in the future, ‘consoles’ will simply be a service that is sold to us directly through our TV’s or PC's, much like a netflix subscription. It’s kind of funny to think that these days, your grandma doesn't know what an Xbox is, but by the time we become grandparents ourselves, our grandkids will be asking us about the funny little boxes we used to have to plug into our TV’s to play games.

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