We are currently situated in the seventh generation of consoles.
The Xbox 360 was released in 2005 and the PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii were released in 2006. The industry has been in a lull of new consoles for the past seven years and consumers want the newest generation of hardware. Perhaps the Nintendo WiiU due to release this year can satiate that craving.
Even though this length of time, while not typical of the previous generation--usually the interest lasts six-seven years-- people want better graphics and more resolution for their games. Now that developers are becoming more familiar with the technology they are given, they are able to craft better stories and more intrinsic narratives into their games furthering the medium. Gameplay is really up to the designer of the game but I believe that we are leaving the gimmick of “my $400-$600 machine has better graphics than yours” in the dust.
Nevertheless, the gaming community wants a new video game console to play games on and nowhere is this more apparent than Android’s Ouya Kickstarter. The technical aspects of Ouya are that independent game studios can develop games — not for the phone and tablet — which is more user friendly for the television. This would, in theory, create another avenue for indie developers to get more exposure for their games.
The Ouya is also coming out with a $100 price point attached. That’s nice plus. Here’s the kicker of this kickstarter, Android set a minimum of $950,000 to fund this project. Their community donations by the end: $8,596,475. While the Ouya proves to be a more developer friendly piece of technology, backed by Brian Fargo — designer of "Wasteland 2" and Mojang, the developer of "Minecraft" — it demonstrates that there is a yearning for other platforms to play games on.
Here’s what really bakes my noodle. We are approaching games with a level of graphics that previously appeared in pre-rendered cinematics now functioning as player-controlled gameplay.
Take for example, Ubisoft’s recently announced title: "Watch Dogs." If you clicked the link and sat around for about a fifth of a second, you can see that Watch Dogs looks amazing while being played. While the narrative has been discussed very sparingly due to the game being unreleased, there is a level of graphical fidelity that no one thought was possible on this current generation of hardware. Also, one that really goes to show the level of talent that these teams of people have at their disposal.
A game that hopefully marries narrative, characterization and graphics together is "The Last of Us." "The Last of Us" is a survival game that looks to combine characterization through dialogue, intense gameplay and stunning graphics. Watch the link to "The Last of Us" and tell me that this has more than two dimensions as far as game characters and setting go.
I know that there is this dynamic with technology, given how often some companies (* cough * Apple * cough *) release new hardware, that consumers desire the newest and shiniest device. And I understand that there is a push to keep this industry moving but I think that we all should just take a step back, take a deep breath and focus on the here and now rather than the end.
When we reach the conclusion to this generation, the “my X has better Y than your Z” argument returns and then we shift our focus from the facet that will further the medium past where it is today.
Follow me on Twitter @MaroonandGamer or send me an email to shfawcet@asu.edu.
