It's worse than movie that is for sure, but then again movies tend to have a universal delivery system that all can enjoy where as video games are a fractured market. Some people cringe at the idea of a single content delivery system for video games but I think if we had that all along it wouldn't be this way, the hardware would improve from time to time but if the industry could make the 3DO/Steam Machine/PS Now models actually work it wouldn't be this way. The reason for the console wars is because there are too many great games spread around to specific hardware.
With movies, an entertainment industry that gets taken seriously, pretty much all major films get at least a limited theatrical release followed by as many home video options as are available. There are some licensing issues for broadcast type services but home video and even cable still provide access to just about every major movie released.
It is not the same with video games, you have Atari making games so you have Mattel making games that are similar but slightly different than Atari and then Nintendo and Sega come along and do the same thing. Then Microsoft and Sony enter the mix and it's the same thing.
It is harder for a game to find it's audience when the experience changes depending on the hardware you have. With films the most change you get is going from SD to HD and FS to WS that's it, the core movie is generally the same. With video games, it's not at all like that, even a game as simple as Pac-Man can be entirely different when played on a system using a Joystick verses a Touch Stylus, vs a D-Pad and the changes are even more apparent when one version of a game can be missing entire segments of the game, such as is the case with Nintendo versions often features or content being missing.
There doesn't need to be a universal company that makes all game players but there should be a standard the three agree on and make their games cross compatible and then do as DVD manufacturers do, differentiate based on price and such, get more manufacturers into the mix and let the MS and Nintendo go software only Sony can spin off their software division to whomever wants it and the industry can unite and grow in a way similar to Hollywood.
NONE of that will ever happen and that is why we have the console war, because deep down it IS what we all want, to buy ONE machine that just plays all games, and since we can't have that we are forced to pick the "winner" because we assume it will get the best games.
STOP bringing up the Wii that is a special case and you know it, it was NOT the market leader between Xbox 360 and PS3 it was in it's own market even Nintendo admits that so deal with it, this whole side talk about how Wii was on top and it lacked support is utter garbage it had sufficient support for the MARKET it was in, it just didn't appeal to US because we were not the target market and bitching about the games that were made for it is stupid because those are the games that sold to that market. It is a different story it's not as cut and dry as three game machines one leads the market its different markets same as why the 3DS is not competing with the PS4 it is competing with the Vita and tablets different markets, like film and TV are different markets or DVD and iTunes.
Topic: I hate console wars. (Read 11054 times)
