Author Topic: One console to rule them all.  (Read 13614 times)

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Offline ThePerm

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RE: One console to rule them all.
« Reply #25 on: October 19, 2007, 01:53:50 PM »
in 15 years when Nintendo buys Sega, Konami, Namco, Capcom, and bandai we'll have something real similar. Also, future systems will go back to cartridges which will be a universal medium among everything. They'll be 100gb cards based on sd card technology.

Imagine filming a movie and then sticking your card into your pc or your console and editing, your games work on copy protected version of the same medium. All on something no bigger then a credit card.

Nintendo is almost there, now it just has to wait for card technology, and graphics technology to catch up.

Imagine 2 generations from now, Nintendo decimates its competition, Sony and Microsoft move their games to a future Nintendo system and release their respective controllers for a Nintendo system, while backwards compatability is emulated across all systems.
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Offline stevey

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RE: One console to rule them all.
« Reply #26 on: October 19, 2007, 01:57:20 PM »
3do anyone?
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Offline BigJim

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RE: One console to rule them all.
« Reply #27 on: October 19, 2007, 02:14:05 PM »
Standards are highly unlikely. Duh, obviously.

But it wouldn't kill innovation if they at least based their core technologies on similar architectures, rather than going down these proprietary paths. Output will be reaching diminishing returns anyway, so I don't see what harm it'd really cause. Unless you're Sony and dead-set on pushing an architecture you spent billions making.

I don't mean identical hardware, but for example a PPC-based CPU (excluding monster-freak Cell-like concoctions) with Radeon-family GPUs could be "similar enough" while they continue with their own personal agendas (blue-ray, digital distribution, waggle stick, etc)    
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Offline Caliban

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RE: One console to rule them all.
« Reply #28 on: October 19, 2007, 04:21:21 PM »
Even if there was only one system for all console developers, Nintendo would still rule.

Offline Chozo Ghost

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RE: One console to rule them all.
« Reply #29 on: October 19, 2007, 04:55:25 PM »
If the console had an open architecture like a PC, then it might be okay. That way you'd have multiple hardware companies making hardware that was all compatible. But then, that's just basically a small PC. That probably will happen someday when the PC and TV are merged into one.

I'd also hope the OS involved is Linux or some other open thing. That way no company would be able to control and dominate things. You'd also have no licensing fees, which is pretty much a good thing for everyone.
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Offline King of Twitch

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RE: One console to rule them all.
« Reply #30 on: October 19, 2007, 07:20:11 PM »
EA has done just fine with Madden alone for the past 15 years, but as soon as Wii overtakes the 360 here comes the begging for a monopoly?

"We want an open, standard platform which is much easier than having five which are not compatible,"

Microsoft will first ask nicely via EA, then it will go straight to congress. After 6 years it is tired of having to compete like a normal business.

Nintendo should say F- no to any sort of merger deal, and recognize this as a last gasp of desperation from a crumbling empire.

And I'm not sure EA could maintain its own console. For one, it thrives off the creativity of others, and license fees from movie tie-ins and sports franchises might rise if they were valuable enough to appear on only one system, but I'm not sure on that one. And as Spak said the other console makers would quickly divert resources into their own sports games. Why would EA want the headache of spending extra R&D time and money, and have to decline the moneyhats that would inevitably try and talk them out of it? Then again, maybe that is the perfect extortion.
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Offline Crimm

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RE:One console to rule them all.
« Reply #31 on: October 19, 2007, 07:47:13 PM »
A single console would be both good and bad for the publishers.  From a development standpoint it's great.  You only have to make one version, and it is available to everyone with a current gen system.  Maximize your profit

On the converse, the publishers would be at the mercy of the platform maker when it comes to license fees.
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Offline Adrock

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RE: One console to rule them all.
« Reply #32 on: October 19, 2007, 09:18:08 PM »
Why is everyone dumping on EA?

Wait....... let me rephrase that. Why is everyone dumping on EA about this? It's not like the single platform thing is a novel idea. Didn't Denis Dyack bring this up not to long ago?

In any case, a single platform would never work. And I don't think EA would ever launch their own console. It's too risky and EA is probably pretty comfortable publishing the same rehashed crap every year. Thing is, it works...... every single year. A single platform would be easier for them, but the multiplatform strategy has worked for them since forever ago so it begs to reason that it won't stop working.

Offline KDR_11k

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RE: One console to rule them all.
« Reply #33 on: October 19, 2007, 11:36:55 PM »
We call that a PC.

Problem with a standardized console would be that console hardware has to be fixed and you'll have a hard time getting a bunch of manufacturers agree on a specific hardware leayout. Unlike movie players there's no point where a console is good enough, you can always use more power. Then you'd have to agree on a standard controller (Wiimote? dualshock? GC? 360?) and common menu controls (X confirms, /\ or O cancels, depending on the game?). And then you'd have to hope that thing actually works well enough that e.g. Nintendo won't just make their own thing and beat the "standard" console.

Offline Gamebasher

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RE:One console to rule them all.
« Reply #34 on: October 20, 2007, 05:50:24 AM »
KDR_11k, wrote:

"Problem with a standardized console would be that console hardware has to be fixed and you'll have a hard time getting a bunch of manufacturers agree on a specific hardware leayout. Unlike movie players there's no point where a console is good enough, you can always use more power. Then you'd have to agree on a standard controller (Wiimote? dualshock? GC? 360?) and common menu controls (X confirms, /\ or O cancels, depending on the game?). And then you'd have to hope that thing actually works well enough that e.g. Nintendo won't just make their own thing and beat the "standard" console."

OK, I have read enough about EA´s dangerous idea.

I think that there will never be any one standardized console. It all sort of reminds me of the scene in the first Lord of the Rings movie - the meeting headed by Lord Elrond where the leaders of the various races of people met at Imladros to discuss the fate of the One Ring. And what did we get? A huge fight, instead of an accord. All because of the question of who would bring the Ring to destruction. None of most of the delegates trusted any of the others, and accused them of what they were themselves: hungry for the power they thought the Ring would give them. As we learn from watching the extra-material included in the trilogy, Tolkien himself based his inspiration for the creation of the LotR story partly on the experiences he had undergone as a soldier in WW1 where the true nature of human beings for good and for bad was revealed to him. He incorporated that into the struggle between good and evil in a tale inclusive of his own languages about a dark lord and a Ring of Power this despot had created to gain final dominion of all life.

So that story is usefull here, to describe what I think will happen if they ever try to get the multiple gamemakers to agree on a standardized console: war, that leads to nothing. The delegates in the LotR story were fortunate to have Frodo, for without him there would have never been a carrier of it. And it would most certainly have fallen into Saurons hands somehow.

If EA ever has their way, despite my prediction, I believe it will soon be toppled by some sort of coalition of gamemakers who will fight it for the reason that they can see its massively destructive implications on the market long-term. And after they manage to topple the seeming "coup-attempt" by EA, the market will suffer from chaos as gamers will fight among themselves for- and against the one console system. This will directly hurt profits from console makers, as they now have to fight 1)the ocean of crap games flooding onto the one console that made it to it prior to the undoing of it, and 2) a divided gaming world hurting profits enourmously, and 3)their own inability to convince the gaming public that good games will "soon" be back on new consoles. The damage will be done, and it will take years of PR repair before people will again trust games. In the time that follows such a scenario, more and more gaming companies will go under in the profitless time, and this will have even more impact to the negative for creativity which formerly enriched the videogame market appealing as it did to every taste in games. The result will be a 2. collapse of the videogame market which will teach people that multiple consoles is the only way or no way.  

This whole "one machine to control all games", reminds me of communism. At first the founders of communism was agreeing to be fair and square in their handling of absolute power over the lands they had under them - which they didn´t keep. Instead they began to fight among themselves over petty power, and winded up becoming awefully corrupt, and soon strayed from every promise they ever made. This is vividly demonstrated in the cartoon "Animal Farm", which is an allegory referring in its simplicity directly to the complicated, but fatefull events that took place in the Russian communist party and which lead to total collapse of any democratic future for that country. I use that example because I don´t ever believe in anything such as one power, or console, controlling all.

If the people that run the game industry have learned anything from history, they will ignore the EA idea as fantasy and move on.

If anything, there will at the very end instead be only one or two consolemakers, and the name Nintendo will definitely be the one or one of them. Now I will go back to my Wii, and play away.



 
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Offline bustin98

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RE:One console to rule them all.
« Reply #35 on: October 20, 2007, 06:16:12 AM »
But a one machine future is not what EA is proposing, Gamebasher. Only to have one standard for all machines. Either way, as long as Nintendo is in business it will never happen. And looking at the handling of Windows OS is probably a good way to judge how Microsoft likes to play nice with open standards.

EA's next aquisition: Silicon Knights. Wouldn't that be a hoot?

Offline AgentV3

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RE:One console to rule them all.
« Reply #36 on: October 20, 2007, 04:47:10 PM »
Quote

Originally posted by: bustin98
But a one machine future is not what EA is proposing, Gamebasher. Only to have one standard for all machines. Either way, as long as Nintendo is in business it will never happen. And looking at the handling of Windows OS is probably a good way to judge how Microsoft likes to play nice with open standards.


If this was the Gamecube generation I'd be more inclined to agree with you, but in this generation, the Wii is using a lot of industry standards.  It's memory cards are SD cards instead of some proprietary standard, they're using DVDs instead of something like the Gamecube Optical Disc or cartridges, it has USB ports and internet over 802.11g wireless.

I think you picked up on what EA was asking for the same way I did, that they want all the console makers to at least use more standardized parts instead of coming up with what they did now, using three different architectures with completely different instruction sets.  They want what the PC industry does now.  Even though AMD and Intel use different sockets (AM2 and LGA 755 respectively), they understand the same x86 (or x64 code now) instructions, they both use DDR2 memory, and they both use PCI Express x16 for graphics output over a common graphics API (DirectX, and to a lesser extent OpenGL).

That's what EA wants, to be able to use the same game engine between all consoles, regardless of how much power they harness.

Offline SixthAngel

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RE:One console to rule them all.
« Reply #37 on: October 21, 2007, 03:14:47 AM »
Quote

Originally posted by: KDR_11k
We call that a PC.


EA would benefit the most from an open format because they would no longer have to pay licensing fees like every third party does now.

Agent, it seems pretty obvious they aren't talking about consoles using similar components but about an "open system" that all games would be on so that the buyer wouldn't even realize or care what brand name he was buying since all games would work for every system.  

Offline KDR_11k

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RE: One console to rule them all.
« Reply #38 on: October 22, 2007, 07:12:52 AM »
I think they would benefit more because they wouldn't have to produce 12 different versions and make stores stock all those, they could produce one version, ship that to stores and not worry about a specific version not selling.

Offline Gamebasher

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RE:One console to rule them all.
« Reply #39 on: October 23, 2007, 06:18:04 AM »
"But a one machine future is not what EA is proposing, Gamebasher. Only to have one standard for all machines. Either way, as long as Nintendo is in business it will never happen. And looking at the handling of Windows OS is probably a good way to judge how Microsoft likes to play nice with open standards."

I will keep my fingers crossed for Nintendo´s continued existence as a console maker, then, and trust they will continue as market leader as well. It took a while for them to get there. But I think they will stay ahead for years to come.
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Offline Plugabugz

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RE: One console to rule them all.
« Reply #40 on: October 24, 2007, 02:06:15 AM »
Change the idea of an single console to a single incumbent. British Telecom, Royal Mail, Virgin Media etc etc.

Unless they overlap with another company doing the same thing, there is no real reason to invest in R&D and pushing forward at the same current pace than when there is only one system to work with. If this were nintendo, or any other company, they would just get lazy. Potentially you could wind up with a successor to Wii only being 20% more powerful and 30% more expensive.