So long as we're relying on these three major manufacturers for hardware and services I don't see a whole lot of innovation coming from them. At least not useful innovation. Let's really stop and think about this for a second: does anyone expect useful innovation to come from these guys with their closed platforms?Originally Posted by Shoeberto
Nintendo tried with the Wii but motion controls are a bit of a dead end. A nice way to get the non-gamer into games somewhat intuitively maybe, but that's about it. And it didn't even really succeed at that. Sure, it got a lot of people outside the traditional game market to buy Wii's, but they never really got that to translate into retaining them and getting them to buy games. And faced with this attempt at innovation that never really took off or showed much potential to be honest, what was the reaction from Microsoft and Sony? Let's put out our own motion control solutions several years after them, which, while technically superior or at least different in a lot of ways, didn't have any idea where to go from the base product that Nintendo put out.
Fast forward to last year and this year and what are we seeing? Nintendo didn't really know where to take motion control either, so instead they left it as it was on the Wii and decided to ape touch screen tablets by sticking one in the controller. At best it's a retread of ground they already covered with the DS with no obvious improvements (if anything it's worse since you can't keep the controller and TV in your field of view at all times making using both simultaneously a pain to say the least), and at worst it's an attempt to latch onto the "it" thing in electronics for the last few years. Meanwhile, we've got Sony making a push on social features, adding touch screens/pads to controllers without bothering to explain how this is a benefit to the player or showing them in use, and building some motion control into the dual shock (again). Because what the innovation the market needed was more motion controls apparently.
And while some may consider it a bit early to count Microsoft out, if their businesses outside of gaming are any indication, they don't have a clue what they're doing 99% of the time and the 360 might have been a fluke. I'm not expecting much from the company that's spent the better part of the last decade trying, and often failing, to play catch up with their direct competitors, often after they spend years working on innovative technology before anyone else even starts thinking about it and still get beaten to market by years and with better products.
Honestly, the only future I really see for innovation, and something which may end up being inevitable, is a move to open hardware systems and utilizing services like Steam rather than buying consoles, while peripheral manufacturers maybe try and step in and partner with developers. I'm not saying it will definitely happen, but at some point we may find these big companies falling behind guys like Valve with Steam in terms of innovation (and recent financial troubles with companies like Sony do not make me feel good about their continuation in the hardware market), and more open hardware that gives developers more freedom supplanting their boxes.
Hell, if anything, there may already be an example of sorts with Android where this is happening. I could totally see a service provider creating the software and distribution system going forward, and letting multiple hardware manufacturers offer their own boxes, maybe partnering with one for the initial update and then letting it trickle down to everyone else. There's certainly precedent for it, and more open hardware with more competition is going to mean lower prices for consumers (hopefully). If Valve does release a Steam box eventually, that might even be the first step in going down a similar road to what Google did with Android.
Anyway, I'm just spit balling there. I just don't see a lot of innovation coming from the big three. Not without something making them all very, very scared first.
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