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: The Last of Us (PS3)

The Last of Us has one of the best written plots I ever have experienced in a video game. Period. It is a fantastic human story that is fascinating from start to end, and that fact alone makes it one of the best games of 2013. So, if you came to this review with the question "is The Last of Us worth it?”, then you have your answer - yes, it is most definitely "worth it". You can stop reading right now, and go and buy the game with my guarantee that it will be an incredibly satisfying gaming experience. However, if you'd like a bit more insight into why I believe it's not quite as deserving of all of the gushing love fans have slathered on it, then please, read on.

Essentially, The Last of Us is a perfect example of how a well-written plot can't (completely) carry a mediocre game, and while it does try its best, the actual, you know, game, behind The Last of Us is what drags the rest of it down. And honestly (well, at least to me personally), that's kind of the most important part of a video game.

But let's start with what The Last of Us did well, because overall, the game generally deserves to be applauded. If there is one award that The Last of Us truly deserves, it is the Writer's Guild of America's "best writing in a video game". I laughed. I cried. I screamed in fear. The Last of Us may be a "zombie game", but like The Walking Dead before it, the real story is the human drama - how low, how high, and how downright horrible human beings become when they have their backs pushed up against the wall. Throughout the game, I was delighted to see Joel and Ellie's blossoming relationship, whether it be from the random little quips Ellie will spout while progressing through a level, or her and Joel’s heart-wrenching cutscene performances. All of the supporting cast you’ll meet along the way also does a great job of helping bring Joel and Ellie's story of survival in this beautiful, yet broken world, to a satisfying conclusion.

And boy, is this world beautiful. I was skeptical, having not played a game on last generation consoles in quite some time, that the graphics would be unbearable, but Naughty Dog has done an amazing job of squeezing those last scraps of performance out of the aging PlayStation 3 hardware. The world of The Last of Us, while not really being anything we haven't seen before in games like Half-Life 2, Resident Evil, or even Fallout, is a gorgeous place to explore. I am a sucker for urban decay, and having Joel and Ellie adventure their way through collapsed skyscrapers, abandoned subways, and cities being slowly reclaimed by nature, made me giddy. It's a lot of the little attention-to-detail stuff that Naughty Dog added, such as Ellie reacting graffiti marking the aftermath of some conflict, or the collectible notes left behind by survivors, that really breathe life into the world.

Unfortunately, the beautiful world turns a little bit ugly when we look at the game’s actual gameplay. The Last of Us' gameplay is split into three main segments: exploration, zombie combat, and human combat. The exploration sections were acceptable, as the only real complaint I had is that the solution to almost every "puzzle" is just finding a ladder or plank and boosting Ellie up to a higher location to use it.

The survival horror-style zombie combat is probably the best-designed of the three. Some levels, such as one in an abandoned high school, were truly, nail-bitingly terrifying. The only problem is, as the game progresses into the later stages, the enemies don't seem to get any harder, and once you can figure out that stealth + melee is king, and that it is impossible for your allies to accidentally trigger a zombie, the challenge kind of diminishes.

But even with the reduced challenge, the survival horror segments are still pretty satisfying. The human combat segments, on the other hand, go downhill real fast. At first, the absolutely shocking gunplay controls (who the hell thinks its a good idea to bind reload and fire to the same godamn button?) really frustrated me, but after a while I learned that, just like in the zombie segments, it's much more effective to hide and punch than shoot and flank. It doesn't help that the human AI is shockingly inconsistent. There will be times when I can strangle a dude while his buddy literally two feet away doesn't notice, and times when I barely pop my head out of cover and someone half a mile away sees me.

The human enemies are also generally, really, really dumb. It's so easy to find a cramped space where guns aren't useful, lure one guy there, kill him loudly, and then just punch all his buddies to death when they inevitably come, one by one, to investigate. And when all else fails, you can just pick up a baseball bat and sprint full tilt at rifle-armed-thugs. All they'll do is look at you, and maybe think about shooting you, right up until you knock their blocks off.

Because I barely used my guns, and almost never used the "special" weapons (such as bombs and molotovs) I always had a massive surplus of weaponry, so whenever a "boss" fight came up, I would destroy him with ease.

Furthermore, the game practically showers you with the materials for medkits. After a while, you learn exactly where to look to find their components, so I always had at least two in reserve. There was one time when I had actually ran out of medkits, and was kind of in a bad spot, when all of a sudden Ellie turns around and says "here Joel, I found this for you" and hands me one. Really?

Normally I wouldn't be so harsh on a game's difficulty, but I was playing the game on "hard" - the hardest difficulty available when you start the game. Yes, there is an additional difficulty level ("survivor"), but it is only unlocked after you have finished the main game once - a practice which I absolutely cannot stand. So yeah, If you are somewhat competent at video games, you will breeze through The Last of Us without breaking a sweat.

The best part of this game, by far, is its story, and I found myself “forcing” my way through it’s gameplay segments just to get to the next cutscene, or see the next area. While you may see this as an almighty praise for its writing, it’s also quite a harsh criticism of it’s gameplay. I shouldn't want to avoid the gameplay segments of a video game.

So while The Last of Us is an amazingly well-written written human story, Naughty Dog forgot to  pair it with an equally well-made game. Despite this, it is still a fantastic experience, and if you just want to sit back and enjoy the ride, by breezing through it on easy mode to enjoy the story, you will be satisfied. But if you came here expecting a challenge, you've come to the wrong place.

Verdict: Buy

Tokyo Game Show

This is it. I've hit the big time. I literally spent three days in Tokyo playing video games, taking pictures of girls in skimpy outfits, eating delicious pizza, and getting paid for it (well, except for the pizza). This was my first year to attend Tokyo Game Show as press, and it was a really amazing experience.

Two years ago, I attended the show on one of the "open-to-all" public days. It was an... experience to say the least, but the incredibly massive crowds and lackluster games put me off attending it the following year. However, thanks to my gig at the Escapist, this year I scored a press pass, which changed the game considerably.

On the press days, I was free to pursue the games at my leisure. Lines were rarely longer than 20 minutes, and I could use my "press pass powers" to skip them entirely in some cases. Furthermore, there was a fantastic selection of games on display that I actually wanted to play, and I got a bunch of cool freebies just for being press.

Speaking of the games, Titanfall was far-and-away my pick for best in show. It felt smooth, slick, and polished enough to be released tomorrow, and was just a whole lot of fast-paced high-octane fun. Check out my hands-on preview for it here.

Microsoft impressed me overall a lot more than Sony. I was not a fan of the DualShock 4 at all, and none of the game's that Sony was showcasing for the PS4 really caught my eye. Sony hyped up this keynote speech on the first day, then went on to spend an hour talking about Facebook and casual gamers. Yawn.

Other cool games I got to play were Ryse: Son of Rome, Battlefield 4 and Wolfenstien: The New Order. Being a big Battlefield fanboy, I was pumped to get my hands on the latest game, but also being a member of the PC gaming master race meant that I was constantly frustrated by the limited PS4 controller.

I also attended one of the much-dreaded public days, but with some good friends by my side, and a plethora of amazing cosplayers to entertain me, I still had a fantastic time.

So, that was my Tokyo Game Show 2013 experience, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I eagerly await my next opportunity to attend any convention as press, as it really changes the whole experience substantially. Maybe I can squeeze a visit back home for PAX Australia next year...

Here are links to all of my coverage from the show:

• Sony Aims to Sell 5 Million PS4s in 2013
• Deep Down Hands On Preview: Clunky And Gray
• PlayStation App is Facebook for PlayStation
• Titanfall Hands On Preview: Like CoD on Steroids
• The Evil Within Puts "Survival" Back Into Survival Horror
• Tokyo Game Show in Pictures Part 1: Business Days
• Ryse: Son of Rome Hands On Preview: Are You Not Entertained?
• Tokyo Game Show in Pictures Part 2: Cosplay Highlights
• Battlefield 4 Hands On Preview: Incremental Upgrades
• PS Vita TV Will Support DualShock 4

Subscribe to my twitter for up-to-date news and blog updates, my youtube channel for gaming videos, and be sure to check out my Escapist profile for daily updates!

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: Sunday Update

Hey guys,

This week's update is a day late once more, because I went to Spa Resort Hawaiians yesterday with my good friends Jerry and Joe.

It was really nice to get into the pools and waterslides again. I have some great experiences with waterparks - both at Wet n Wild in Australia, and of course, who can forget Sunway Lagoon in Malaysia? So, I was understandably really looking forward to this place.

Fortunately, my good friend Steven Thompson (of Happy Steve, Angry Steve fame) got us some discount tickets for about 1,000 yen each. This was very fortunate, as the usual price of admission is around 3,000 yen. The second reason this was fortunate was because of the inevitable pay-wall.

At the resort, your price of admission covers the pools, the onsens, the "hulu show" and the "spa world" - a series of outdoor themed spas. What it does not cover, is the waterslides. Because who goes to a waterpark to ride on waterslides? The waterslides were 400 yen each ride, or 2,400 yen for a day pass. We arrived at around 2pm, and discovered that there was a special "half day" pass from 3pm for 1,200, so we ended up getting that, but were still pretty grumpy.

Pay-walls are a phenomenon i have complained about in Japan before. Back home, pay walls don't stand, because people will just refuse to pay them. Most folks would be willing to pay a slightly higher price of admission if it covers literally everything in the park. Japanese people are apparently willing to pay high admission and then still pay for pay-walls on top of that.

Pay-walls are particularly ridiculous when combined with things that should be free, like national heritage sites or temples. Seriously. Temples have a pay-wall. They are even considering pay-walling Mt. Fuji!

But besides that, we actually had a pretty good time. The slides were lots of fun, and the outdoor "edo-period onsen" was a really nice experience. I rate the park 7/10 because of the pay-wall and also because its too crowded (we went on a cloudy, random Saturday and it was super packed. I can only imagine how it must be during the summer vacation).

On the gaming front, nothing too exciting happened this week. Next week E3 kicks off, and I'm assuming that all the major players are waiting until then to make any big announcements. I'm personally covering the Ubisoft and Nintendo press conferences for the Escapist, but will most likely pick up other stories that my colleagues don't get to.

And here's last week's news:

• Penny-Arcade: OTRSPOD Episode 4 Out Now
• Assassin's Creed Creator Sues Ubisoft
• This is What The 1940's Thought 2011 Would Look Like
• Capcom Celebrates its 30th with Character Encyclopedia
• Sony Will Showcase Over 40 Games at E3
• Fates Forever Reimagines Hardcore Gaming as Tablet-Only
• AMD's "Unified Gaming Strategy" Makes Ports Smoother
• Diablo III's New Game Director Addresses The Minions
• Humble Bundle 8 Grows 4 Games Humbler
• Half-Life 2: Episode 4 Could Have Looked Like This
• Google Says "No" to Google Glass Porn Apps
• The Last of Us Multiplayer Pits Survivor Against Survivor
• Papers, Please is a Dystopian Document Thriller With a Free Beta
• Valve to Indie Devs: Don't Use Publishers to Bypass Greenlight
• Prey 2 Was "A Full Game" When Bethesda Cancelled it

Story of the week:

• 300 Heroes Rips Off League of Legends, Naruto, Shrek and More

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: Sunday Update

Hi everybody!

This week's update is a day late because I had my junior high school's sports festival yesterday, and afterwards went to an Izakaya (Japanese pub) with my co-workers and got absolutely plastered.

It was a good festival all up. My school is in a beautiful location at the foot of the mountains, and at this time of year it was just the right amount of sun and cool spring breezes to make the event really enjoyable. As an added bonus this year I was actually given a task. I was in charge of the video camera, so I spent most of the time following the kids around and filming the various events. That is of course when I wasn't being swarmed by elementary school kids who came to watch their older brothers and sisters.

It was nice to actually be included and actually be given a job, however small it was. Usually at these things I just sit around being bored off my ass, so it was nice to actually be treated like another teacher for once.

I'm also pretty sure I got some rad street cred with my teachers at the party, when my Kyoto-sensei (vice principal) showed me his completely clean plate after having some grilled fish. "I ate everything," he boasted, "even the skin and the bones." "まけない！(I'll never lose!)" I replied, turning back to my plate and finishing off my own skin and bones.

Takabayshi Junior High School's Sports Festival (I think the faces are indistinguishable enough to get by Japan's censorship laws)

As for gaming news, here are last week's top stories:

• Fujitsu's 3D Motion Software Turns Your Webcam Into a Kinect

• New League of Legends Cinematic Twists Fate

• Jonathan Blow: Microsoft's Cloud/Server Claims Are Lies

• Curiosity Winner Only Got the Game "About an Hour" Before Winning

• Man Creates Ultra-Detailed Embroideries of Videogame Scenes

• Two Halo Fans Play Classical Instruments During a Firefight

• Blizzard Restarts "Titan" Project, Won't See Release Until 2016

• G-Cluster Console is Based Entirely in The Cloud

• Wii U Gamepad Gets Extra Beefy Battery Pack

• Tim Schafer Teases "Something New"

• Razer's 14" Blade Gaming Notebook Won't Break the Bank

• Kim Dotcom Gets His Stuff Back

• Remember Me Trailer Deletes The Bad and Replicates the Good

• SimCity Amusement Park DLC is Out Now

• Soldier and Heavy TF2 Action Figures Arrive In July

• Fallout: Project Brazil is a Fan Made New Vegas Prequel

• Undertale is an EarthBound Inspired Indie RPG

• Sony and Lego Team Up To Implant Videogame Tech Into Lego Bricks

Story of the week:

• ARAIG Gaming Suit is "As Real as it Gets"

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:

• Salem Dev: MMOs Without Permadeath Aren't Proper Games
• UFC Fighter Learned "Cool Moves" From Tekken
• AVG Says Most Game Hacks Are Crawling With Malware
• Pre-Orders Open for Starbound
• Relic Hands Out Free Company Of Heroes 2 Beta Keys
• Sony Launches World's Fastest Personal Internet in Japan
• Ace Attorney 5 Sees The Return of Phoenix Wright
• Riot Opens Paid Transfers Between League of Legends Servers
• Blood Dragon: The Cyber War Live Action Short is Too 80's For Words
• EarthBound Is Coming to Wii U's Virtual Console
• Report: Skyrim: Legendary Edition Compiles All DLC Packs
• Capcom Wants to Cut Ties With The West, Increase DLC
• NPD's March Numbers Show Bioshock And Tomb Raider at The Top

Story of the week:

• Beta Tester Leaks Elder Scrolls Online Gameplay Footage

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:

• The PS4 Won't Require a Constant Internet Connection
• PS4 May Not Block Used Games Afterall
• Sony Stock Drops After PS4 Event
• Sony Gives Free PSN Credit to Loyal Customers
• Natural Selection 2 DLC Adds Gorge Tunnels, Railguns
• Blizzard Halves Mists of Pandaria Price for Patch 5.2
• Starcraft Patch Brings "LAN" Play, Clan Support
• Crytek Boss: "Impossible" For New Consoles to Beat PC

Story of the week:

• China Opens Unofficial League of Legends Restaurant 

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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