NWR Interactive => TalkBack => Topic started by: NWR_Lindy on September 29, 2009, 10:30:43 PM
Title: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: NWR_Lindy on September 29, 2009, 10:30:43 PM
This thread is for the discussion of our NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail article.
Read more here... (https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/specialArt.cfm?artid=20052)
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: Jonnyboy117 on September 29, 2009, 11:00:03 PM
That's a big-ass wall of text. Maybe we can include our Miis or something? Random pics of puppies?
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: NWR_Lindy on September 29, 2009, 11:35:51 PM
My thoughts exactly. I wanted us to get this one up quickly, however, so we eschewed any fancification. I wanted to see how people liked the concept.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: Crimm on September 29, 2009, 11:54:17 PM
The next one is substantially shorter, so I probably should have led with it.
It's a work in progress, so feedback is always appreciated.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: broodwars on September 29, 2009, 11:59:57 PM
It'd be great to have these roundtables in audio format, similar to the discussions on Radio Free Nintendo. Or better yet, they could be a segment on Radio Free Nintendo...*hint* *hint*.
But if that can't be managed, yeah something visual like Miis for the various panelists and maybe screenshots of any games that are part of the discussion would do wonders to improve the presentation.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: that Baby guy on September 30, 2009, 01:51:07 AM
I think in several years, we'll potentially see game consoles engineered to specific specifications, like television broadcast signals. From there, console-makers will create their systems with unique feature-sets, like the ability to pause at any time, specific types of memory, saving replies/video of any point in the game, and the like.
Companies can also create other hardware, different variations of controllers, and such, but the base hardware that plays the games will probably become an industry standard, like DVD, USB 2.0, and the like, approved by video game boards composed of various publishers.
In this sense, Nintendo may be ahead of the game, considering the Motion+ and Wii Balance Board as "base" hardware, itself.
So, if you want to get into games retail, you'll likely buy a license to play the game, like on the PC, either in a store or online. The purchase of the license will allow you to play any iteration of the game you can possess, but only on a console that has the license. Virtually the same as how it works on the PC.
I'd predict not next generation that someone will begin to dabble it, and license out their platform to different manufacturers, rather than manufacture it themselves, once they figure out that the hardware can cost too much to make in a way the consumer would like it.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: Stogi on September 30, 2009, 02:03:52 AM
Digital distribution is too risky a venture.
I suggest to cut cost, do what the book industry has done and allow people to go to a kiosk, pick the game the want, then have it written and packaged right there on the spot.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on September 30, 2009, 02:12:34 AM
I suggest to cut cost, do what the book industry has done and allow people to go to a kiosk, pick the game the want, then have it written and packaged right there on the spot.
This would be a great idea, especially for more niche games that are hard to find, but you would need a much faster way to write data on disc than what we are currently using. Right now, you would have to order your game about 1hour to 1day ahead of time just to make sure it's ready for you to pick up, like the old photo mats.
So unless we move to holographic storage, every system better have a SDcard delivery system. BYOSDCard kiosk.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: Stele on September 30, 2009, 02:38:39 AM
Steam is great. I love it. I generally shop the weekend sales there, which are often 50% off a game that has been out 1-3 months, which is a fantastic deal for anyone with a little patience.
Of course I do the same thing with most of my Wii/DS titles. I wait 1-3 months and games will pop up in the Amazon gold box or just in the video game deals section for $20-30 instead of $40-50 for Wii or $15-20 for DS instead of $30-35.
The most frustrating thing about Steam has already been mentioned in the article. There's no discount. A few titles you get for $45 instead of $50 if you pre-order. But from release day until the sale a few months later, the game will be the same $50 that it is in store. And it makes no sense at all. The publisher is saving gobs of money by not paying for discs, boxes, and most of all shipping to retailers. Dollars per pound shipping vs pennies per gb digital distribution... it doesn't compare at all. For all intents and purposes digital distribution is free to the publisher. They're already paying for some type of broadband internet as part of their day-to-day business, and consumers are already paying for it in their homes.
Competition is coming though. Impulse has weekend sales as well, although their library isn't as big. Direct 2 Drive is having an amazing $5 game sale the last few weeks with various titles each week. And Amazon released Tales of Monkey Island ep1 for free on Talk Like a Pirate Day... but for anyone who "purchased" ep1, you get $2 off the future episodes, so it's actually cheaper than the 5-part bundle on Steam.
Now yes it's going to be some time before consoles get to where PCs are, or farther. And used game sales is the big thing that's holding that up probably. When's the last time you saw more than 1 rack or 1 wall-section at Gamestop devoted to PC games? There's always just the one little area, and there's never more than 1-2 copies of the new releases. They really only stock PC games if customers pre-order. It's a little better at Best Buy, Target, Walmart, etc... you get a full aisle of PC games, vs a full aisle for each of the separate consoles.
But honestly I can't tell you the last time I bought a PC game at brick and mortar. Gamestop never has the pre-order swag for PC games like they do for consoles. And there's always a pre-order discount on Amazon, as long as you don't have to have it on release day.
But console games... I still reserved Smash, Mario Kart, Prime Trilogy, and even Tiger Woods to pick up in store. There was some swag and midnight releases involved with most of those.
Ah well. I guess my TL/DR is PC games will get there first, and consoles will follow the generation after that, whenever it is.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: Killer_Man_Jaro on September 30, 2009, 02:43:15 AM
Interesting feature indeed. I'm curious as to how this discussion took place. Was it a case of typing down new thoughts whenever they popped up and forwarding an email to everybody?
I think the downloadable games scene is quite a way off from reaching acceptance from the general consumer bases of each console. We must remember that many people still don't have a working internet connection, many more have a primitive connection that would not suffice for this level of downloading and most importantly, a very large proportion of the market is completely unaware that their are download services for videogames right now. As it stands right now, there aren't nearly enough people adequately prepared for a change in distribution as drastic as this one. The stable connection issue is a major problem for many, especially with a lot of broadband providers now imposing restrictive limits on their customers' use.
A very good point that Nick made which wasn't elaborated on too much is the used games market. With the loss of physical retail, that disappears entirely. I don't sense any appetite from companies to allow you to receive your money (or a portion thereof) back after deleting the download that you no longer want. As for buying used downloads... well, that doesn't even make sense, does it? Another thing that occurred to me is that the download scene also takes away the borrowing and trading element with friends. Loads of people still like to borrow discs from their friends to play for a while before returning them and I cannot see that working well with an all-download distribution system.
Basically, a future of downloadable gaming is certainly coming, but I'd agree with Andy on a time frame of 10-15 years before such a movement could fully set in. Currently, none of the download services, PSN, XBLA or WiiWare, have an infrastructure that is ready for this and there needs to be a lot of modification & development on policies, agreements on profit stakes, data compression techniques, etcetera, before any of the three top dogs could begin to support this sort of future.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: ShyGuy on September 30, 2009, 03:26:00 AM
Mmmm Chick-Fil-A. I've only had it once a few years ago, but it still haunts my dreams.
Keep in mind Digital Distribution isn't cost free. Bandwidth costs money and all indicators point to more and more congestion online in the coming years.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: disake on September 30, 2009, 08:55:31 AM
I was just about to bring up that point that shyguy made. Digital distribution does not have a zero cost to it. There is also a bandwidth cost that data centers would have to payout to transfer it from the company to your console, energy cost to maintain those servers 24/7, in addition to what I will call digital inventory costs" to allude to what Jon said about physical games having to be sold to clear up space. While I agree that technology is always improving from data storage to trafficking software for the world wide web and beyond. Data is still tied to real world constraints of storage. And storage is not infinite. One harddrive takes up a finite space in a data center that must be linked to other data centers to insure that the data is not simply lost to the void if disaster happens.
There is no free lunch.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: NWR_DrewMG on September 30, 2009, 09:21:25 AM
Interesting feature indeed. I'm curious as to how this discussion took place. Was it a case of typing down new thoughts whenever they popped up and forwarding an email to everybody?
It was simply an email discussion. Each note in the feature is an email that was sent out to the group. It's been edited a bit to make it more coherent, but that's the gist of it.
I enjoyed contributing to this feature, looking forward to future editions.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: KDR_11k on September 30, 2009, 10:14:18 AM
Resale is not the only freedom of use you lose when going digital, DRM was designed initially to allow remote access denial and the Kindle that was brought up is a great example: When the publisher of the book 1984 backpedalled on the agreement (or something) Amazon remotely deleted all copies of the books on all Kindles out there (they refunded the money of course). This killswitch is the greatest fear of people who know what DRM really means. Also see Wal Mart, they had a DRMed download service that wasn't profitable so it got shut down, including the authentication servers so all downloads became unusable (I think they released a decrypter after massive backlash or something).
AFAIK retailers won't stock a (major) game if it's sold digitally for cheaper or ahead of the launch date, hence all big new games on e.g. Steam arrive only at their store release date and cost as much as they do in stores.
I don't think the XBLA specials are big deals, nothing compared to Amazon's deals of the week. Steam is pretty good with deals but that's because Steam competes with many other services and regular retail and the deals are likely to bait more people into using the service. Console-bound services will not have local competition because the console maker will not allow it. And licenses that allow you to put it on any system? Dream on. Some companies even require separate Windows and Linux licenses for the same software.
Anyway, we'll probably see some major changes after the collapse of the core game industry. Nintendo isn't big on going download-only, Miyamoto is one of the "I want something physical" people and Iwata believes most people are like that.
The downloading worked well with music as it offered something new stores couldn't, the unbundling of songs from albums. I don't see digital game distribution being able to offer anything stores just plain cannot.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: BwrJim! on September 30, 2009, 11:31:39 AM
To Zachary Miller:
I've both worked and run a couple game stores and worked in the coperate environment for selling Video Games and the margin isnt what you think.. Most of the time, a retailer is lucky to get 4-5 us dollars per game while the usual is just 1.80 or so. When a game has been out for awhile and stores begin to slash the game price, they are usually taking a rather large hit to clear those titles out. Sometimes companies will offer a rebate of sorts for the retailers, but this rarely happens and its not very well practiced at all. When the game on the shelf comes into competition with its own players choice title that may get released, the wholesale cost of the orignal doesnt change to the new SKU. So its really a no win situation from that angel for the retailers.
Edit :: At this point in my gaming career I welcome and embrace the digital format. No body actually owns they game they buy in the stores and with the damage they can take along with the space needed to hold on to them has grown beyond my means. With the digital distribution, things can stay nice and neat. While Brick and Mortar will be around for a while, I can see them changing drasticaly in the next few years. I was talking to Seth from Capcom about 2 years ago and he believes DD will be in full swing by 2012. I always took his comment as something kind of pointing at the next generation of consoles.
I may miss the breaking of the cellophane and checking out what I just got, but in the end.. it doesnt even matter.... So, through out my gaming career, I have gone from hoarder to clean and neat (and it only took 28 years!)
Thanks for your time, J!m
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: vudu on September 30, 2009, 02:43:07 PM
Quote from: Mike Gamin (Pale)
I concede that the used game market is a definite sacrifice to the move to digital distribution, but I take issue with people claiming that they lose their freedom of use with a digital game. The fact is that you have no freedom of use with a traditional retail game (short of the already mentioned used game market).
How about losing all your games if something happens to your system? Nintendo recently revealed that you can't transfer your DSi purchases to a new system if you buy a new DSi. While I have no doubt that they'll make exceptions on a case-by-case basis if your system gets destroyed, it's ridiculous that you have to jump through hoops because you gave Nintendo more money. What if my DSi gets a little scratched up--or I just want a new color--so I give my old system to my little cousin? Why do I have to give him a $100 worth of DSi games, too? Why do I need to physically break my system beyond repair in order to convince Nintendo to let me keep the games I already paid for? And what happens if my system gets stolen? Am I just completely screwed?
Quote from: Andy Goergen (DrewMG)
However it took a long time after MP3s became available for them to replace CDs, and they still haven't entirely yet. CDs still take up shelf space in every Best Buy, Target, Wal Mart, and FYE on the planet. Apple popularized another option, but it hasn't eliminated the first option yet, and I don't think it will any time soon. I worked in a Sam Goody music store in 2001, and they still carried cassette tapes. This was long after cassette tapes became irrelevant. CDs aren't going anywhere just because there is a more popular option, and games will follow the same pattern IMO.
Keep in mind that with video games there's a natural breaking point in format changes every 5 years or so (i.e. whenever a new system cycle repeats itself). Unlike with movies or music, content providers aren't going to keep making games for multiple formats. The latest movies come out on Blu-Ray, DVD and (maybe) VHS. Nintendo isn't going to release games on multiple formats on a regular basis (Twilight Princess was a fluke).
While there's a strong argument for releasing games on multiple formats (Microsoft's games on demand is a good example) there's an equally strong argument for changing formats when a new console cycle starts (like has happened every single generation to date). A brave (foolish?) console manufacturer might just decide to make a clean break and go entirely digital sooner than you expect.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: Pale on September 30, 2009, 02:47:37 PM
Edit: The following post was made before reading Vudu's above me.
Is anyone else stoked about the PlayStation Store update tomorrow? Tons of PSP retail titles are gonna be available for download! No more UMDs!
But yeah, I'm of the same opinion as Jim. I'm really hoping that MS stop being hard drive nazis and let me get that 250 gig drive coming in the modern warfare bundle for an affordable price. Then I can start taking advantage of their games on demand service!
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: vudu on September 30, 2009, 02:50:55 PM
HE LIVES! Where the hell have you been for the past two weeks?
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: Pale on September 30, 2009, 02:51:27 PM
I concede that the used game market is a definite sacrifice to the move to digital distribution, but I take issue with people claiming that they lose their freedom of use with a digital game. The fact is that you have no freedom of use with a traditional retail game (short of the already mentioned used game market).
How about losing all your games if something happens to your system? Nintendo recently revealed that you can't transfer your DSi purchases to a new system if you buy a new DSi. While I have no doubt that they'll make exceptions on a case-by-case basis if your system gets destroyed, it's ridiculous that you have to jump through hoops because you gave Nintendo more money. What if my DSi gets a little scratched up--or I just want a new color--so I give my old system to my little cousin? Why do I have to give him a $100 worth of DSi games, too? Why do I need to physically break my system beyond repair in order to convince Nintendo to let me keep the games I already paid for? And what happens if my system gets stolen? Am I just completely screwed?
Again, don't damn the concept of digital distribution just because one company currently involved is being asinine with their policies.
At the risk of coming off anti-nintendo and thus pissing off everyone on the boards, Nintendo is the only one taking part in this absolutely ridiculous practice.
If you get a new PS3, you simply put in your PSN credentials and re-download your games. If you do this more than five times you simply call customer service and have them deactivate one of your past registrations.
If your 360 hard drive crashes, you still have your Live account that allows you to redownload all your games without ever talking to customer service.
The problem here isn't with digital distribution. It's with Nintendo being cheap and frustrating.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: Pale on September 30, 2009, 02:53:09 PM
Again, don't damn the concept of digital distribution just because one company currently involved is being asinine with their policies.
At the risk of coming off anti-nintendo and thus pissing off everyone on the boards, Nintendo is the only one taking part in this absolutely ridiculous practice.
If you get a new PS3, you simply put in your PSN credentials and re-download your games. If you do this more than five times you simply call customer service and have them deactivate one of your past registrations.
If your 360 hard drive crashes, you still have your Live account that allows you to redownload all your games without ever talking to customer service.
The problem here isn't with digital distribution. It's with Nintendo being cheap and frustrating.
I suggest to cut cost, do what the book industry has done and allow people to go to a kiosk, pick the game the want, then have it written and packaged right there on the spot.
Right now, you would have to order your game about 1hour to 1day ahead of time just to make sure it's ready for you to pick up, like the old photo mats.
How do you know this? Where is this technology present?
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: Pale on September 30, 2009, 03:24:15 PM
I'm confused? How does me contentedly having a Wii Remote in my head make me anti-Nintendo? =P
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: ShyGuy on September 30, 2009, 03:36:40 PM
Portrayal of the Empire in a negative light.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: vudu on September 30, 2009, 03:39:09 PM
I suggest to cut cost, do what the book industry has done and allow people to go to a kiosk, pick the game the want, then have it written and packaged right there on the spot.
Right now, you would have to order your game about 1hour to 1day ahead of time just to make sure it's ready for you to pick up, like the old photo mats.
How do you know this? Where is this technology present?
Well, how long do you think it takes to burn a DL-DVD? how about a 10-32GB BRD? and light scribe the top of the disc with the official image and print out a DVD slip cover, manual with other documentation, then package it all up and seal it on a game by game basis?
you will need a minimum of 1 hour and in some cases need to pre-order a day ahead of time to use a kiosk like you are suggesting. And I still assume it will still need employee attention for putting it all together and sealing it.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: Stogi on September 30, 2009, 07:52:50 PM
Not at all. Your talking about present day techniques and not the future. In just the short future, write speeds will be at least reasonably quick for blu-ray. The packaging itself will take no time either. The kiosk that prints books takes about 20 minutes and that includes bounding it, gluing it and cutting it; and those are present today.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on September 30, 2009, 08:20:42 PM
Not at all. Your talking about present day techniques and not the future. In just the short future, write speeds will be at least reasonably quick for blu-ray. The packaging itself will take no time either. The kiosk that prints books takes about 20 minutes and that includes bounding it, gluing it and cutting it; and those are present today.
I suggest to cut cost, do what the book industry has done and allow people to go to a kiosk, pick the game the want, then have it written and packaged right there on the spot.
This would be a great idea, especially for more niche games that are hard to find, but you would need a much faster way to write data on disc than what we are currently using. Right now, you would have to order your game about 1hour to 1day ahead of time just to make sure it's ready for you to pick up, like the old photo mats.
So unless we move to holographic storage, every system better have a SDcard delivery system. BYOSDCard kiosk.
I mentioned now and in the future. BRD write speeds are much slower than the read speeds, and last I checked the read speeds weren't exactly the greatest right now. Even today it takes 45 minutes to burn a 2hr movie to a DVD and that's not even the HD DL version. I doubt BRD would be much faster.
The only way to get in-store burn on demand without having to wait around for about an hour minimum would be holographic disc or SD card/Solid State transfer.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: yoshi1001 on September 30, 2009, 09:07:38 PM
One thing that occured to me is that the device could have a series of burners that work even when the system is not in use (i.e., at night) on the most popular games so those are ready right away. Then, people would only have to wait for more obscure titles or during high-demand times.
I would have liked to have seen more of a comparison between portable vs. console. Each platform type has its advantages and disadvangages.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: oohhboy on October 01, 2009, 03:23:08 AM
While I like digital distribution, I dislike not being able to sell the game if I wish to. While I rarely sell my games, I buy most of my games on the second hand market, primary through trading sites and the like.
Losing that market means I de facto lose that source competition to drive prices down.
CD and MP3s are a broken analogue since neither contain DRM or DRM of insignificant nature and are now relatively small. Audio also has effectively reached the perception limit so there is no real technological gains to be had other than better compression. Also because they are non platform specific renders any comparison utterly pointless and a waste of time.
We will never see a universal console. There are two factors driving this and they cannot be resolved with current methods.
One is control. While manufacturing the consoles themselves contains significant risks and burden upon the big three it provides a useful natural barrier to entry to the market for the manufactures. It also provides an acceptable from of DRM for 99.9% customers that still allow for a secondary market.
Two is limits. There is currently no limit as to how real or unreal one can make games other than technology and time. We haven't reached the point where 99.99% of people are happy with amount of eye candy/open world/asshole physics/control that technology can offer at a reasonable price that can developed in a reasonable time. I also don't see us reaching that point in the foreseeable future let alone be brazen enough to put a number to it.
The discussion of digital distribution without examining the problems we already have with half released games and horse armor is half ass. Having your games on disc does give the developers some impulse (especially consoles) to get it right the first time or suffer penalties. It is unacceptable to make the final consumers beta testers. It is also unacceptable to forgo the rights we currently enjoy with disc based games just because it is "convenient". Games should be a good, not a service. Turning it in to a service would be a detriment to us all.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: that Baby guy on October 01, 2009, 03:48:56 AM
Anyone remember when Nintendo and Panasonic teamed up for an iteration of their GameCube hardware built to play DVD movies?
I'm not saying the universal console is right around the corner, but I do believe it's approaching. Essentially, pretty soon, one of these hardware makers are going to realize that they can no longer sustain the cost of creating hardware that enables the vast girth of features they want to support. They'll license out their platform, and that'll be a start to console conglomeration.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: oohhboy on October 01, 2009, 04:52:05 AM
That has almost nothing to do with a universal console. Even if the console makers outsourced manufacturing to other companies to be made to their specs. The specs would still be different between the makers and it would still cost the "same", if not more as if they made it themselves as these companies have no wish to subsidize the hardware.
A true universal console would be like a DVD player where everyone agrees to a set of specs and outside manufactures make the hardware, who then sell this at a profit. The big three would become what we have now with the movie studios and everyone would become "third party". As I stated earlier, it would be unacceptable and currently technologically impossible.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: Halbred on October 01, 2009, 01:37:10 PM
I'll just toss in here that a ton of PSP games hit the PSN today because the PSPGo launched (right?). Most of the games are at or near full retail price. This is BULLSHIT.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on October 01, 2009, 02:09:41 PM
That's why it will fail.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: Mop it up on October 01, 2009, 04:50:42 PM
I like this idea. I can't really listen to the podcasts for various reasons and it sounds like I'm really missing out on some good discussions, so I hope to see more of these in the future. I guess this is also the last we'll hear from Nick DiMola as well...
It is unacceptable to make the final consumers beta testers. It is also unacceptable to forgo the rights we currently enjoy with disc based games just because it is "convenient". Games should be a good, not a service. Turning it in to a service would be a detriment to us all.
How does it feel to be quoted in someone's signature? :)
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: ShyGuy on October 01, 2009, 06:34:46 PM
OOhboy makes a good point eloquently. Although I dislike the use of the term rights, because it cheapens the meaning.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: that Baby guy on October 01, 2009, 08:03:59 PM
That has almost nothing to do with a universal console. Even if the console makers outsourced manufacturing to other companies to be made to their specs. The specs would still be different between the makers and it would still cost the "same", if not more as if they made it themselves as these companies have no wish to subsidize the hardware.
A true universal console would be like a DVD player where everyone agrees to a set of specs and outside manufactures make the hardware, who then sell this at a profit. The big three would become what we have now with the movie studios and everyone would become "third party". As I stated earlier, it would be unacceptable and currently technologically impossible.
It doesn't seem to, but it easily grows into one standard of playing capability. If hardware becomes too expensive for a company to make money by selling the hardware at a loss, using the razor and blade model, then the concepts, abilities, and construction of said hardware will be licensed out to other manufacturers, right?
Well, what happens to the other guys, since we've got three big hardware manufacturers in the game now, and one is licensing things, how do they compete? They can either create cheaper hardware or follow the same suit as the first hardware maker, who licensed out the manufacturing. The former is possible, but unlikely, since the manufacturer would be better off not even creating a new console unless they've got something new to market it with, and feasible options for innovation tend to be mimicked and duplicated on a faster basis as time goes by. Don't forget, with an open platform, manufacturers could easily match any control-based input available on a "less powerful" console, too.
That would mean that the other console manufacturers would likely have to resort to what the first one chose to do -- License out the hardware to other manufacturers. Once we reach this point, we have a format war, like HD-DVDs and Blu Rays, all over again, but with games. From there, it'll be in the publisher's hands: Whichever platform they choose to produce the most content, and provide the most AAA content on will be the winner. Because the platforms are licensed out, manufacturers won't wont to compete with their own product lines, they'll all gain contracts with the "best" platform, and eliminate/neglect to renew their contracts with the other platform makers, and we'll have a single platform.
The good news? To continue licensing out their platform to the big electronics manufacturers, this single platform would have to be more open. You wouldn't want to lose a brand-name manufacturer because they get upset that you wouldn't allow a specific type of content to be created, would you? Neither would anyone else. So in the end, it's likely that the consumer would benefit from this, content-wise.
Title: Re: NWR Round-Table 1: The Future of Gaming Retail
Post by: oohhboy on October 01, 2009, 10:45:14 PM
I am honored to be quoted in a signature. I used the word "Rights" as here in New Zealand, the consumers here enjoy far stronger laws than those in the US, which leans quite strongly in favor of corporations through the general lack of laws. That leads to the US system of suing corporations and formation of class action suits. We also didn't have to go through then entire Civil Rights movement that the US had to go through so there is no "cheapening" of using the word rights here when it is, quite frankly a right we enjoy.
I think we have gotten our wires crossed a little. None of the big three "Manufacture" their own hardware, save Sony who make a significant number of parts for their own console. They design the hardware and then send it off to the lowest bidder. They then receive the finished consoles and the manufacture pretty much wipes it's hands clean. What your proposing is that the B3 start by releasing a set of specs, but order no hardware and let other manufactures create hardware from specs (Al la GFX cards) and it's implementation/variations would be up to them. It would also be up to the outside manufactures to sell the console as B3 would no longer receive the hardware to on sell.
In such a system, hardware would cost more as the console must be sold at a profit. It's cost would also be higher initially as order numbers would be far lower for each variation.
No outside manufacture would take such risks by throwing their hat in a console war based on what the B3 would say. Just look at Sony and how utterly insane their marketing was. How poorly MS dealt with continual hardware failures. Nintendo need for control.
Under such a system assuming it worked would allow any sufficiently large publisher to release a set of specs for their own console and make games for it only. There would be an EA Madden console. Activation would have it's World War XXX shooter machine. Blizzard would have it's WOW box.
B3 would lose control and the connected royalties. It would be chaos.
It would be a cross between consoles and PC with none of the strengths and all the weaknesses.
The very hardware is the format war and a war that resets every 5 so years. It resets every 5 years as technology catches up and allows new games to develop. This will continue and the cycles will get longer until technology no longer offers any significant improvements. Once the "cycle" lengthens out long enough, then we will have our universal console. That is until display technology changes which would then require more computational power.
