by Hanley! » Oct 22, '13, 11:56 am
The growth of the games industry may have slowed down due to the outdated hardware, but developers are still finding ways to create larger, more detailed games. And as we've seen this year, gamers are certainly still willing to pay for these large titles. If the current system is still providing entertainment and trying to better itself, that tells me it hasn't become obsolete as yet.
And yeah, those preorder numbers are high. No arguments there, although those numbers will be largely made up of the most hardcore gamers and those who are particular about not getting left behind in terms of technology. They don't necessarily give a proper representation of the market as a whole. I can only go by what I've seen, but before the next gen was announced while some were impatiently waiting for a next gen to pop up, most were happy to keep going with what they had.
And now that it is right around the corner, the buzz surrounding it is pretty underwhelming. And for every person who's definitely buying a new console when it comes out, there's another who wants nothing got to do with it and 5 more who are saying "Eh, I guess I might get one in a year or two". Now maybe the sales will turn out to be astronomical and prove that the market is crying out for a new console. But the excitement behind the release of the new consoles definitely seems subdued, so for now I'm not convinced.
I'd probably have a different opinion on things if either of the companies had done a good job on selling the public on what they'd be getting out of these new consoles. On what new experiences will now be possible for them as gamers due to the advanced technology. How their $400 or $500 would give them something awesome that they totally want that is not possible on their current consoles. Or how the change will benefit them in basically any way. But that's barely been a part of the conversation.
Microsoft told us that if we bought their console they'd make extra sure it was as fucking annoying as possible. Sony told us that they would not do this and everyone cheered. Microsoft then changed their minds and said they wouldn't do it either and everyone grunted somewhat enthusiastically. And that was basically that. It became a war over who was fucking us least, rather than who would be giving us the most.
The Kinect is a good example of what I'm talking about - Microsoft have been pushing this thing like mad but have yet to show any interesting or enjoyable ways of using it. So it's an impressive, expensive piece of technology that most gamers don't seem to want, because they've done little to show people why they should want it.