PS4? New Xbox? Nah, it’s the little games that matter

There’s a tiny orange box moving around the screen of the PlayStation Vita. Its name is Chris. It is an ordinary square — perhaps even less than ordinary. This square doesn’t jump very high, can’t float and it has largely committed to going through its digital life as a grump. That is, until Chris meets Laura. Laura is afraid of her powers. Laura is also a box — a long, rectangular pink-ish box.

Five months into 2013 and gamers have already been introduced to a bounty of impressive characters and worlds. Not all have been a success, such as the recent digital interpretations of Kirk and Spock in “Star Trek” or the thick-skulled gunners of the most recent “Dead Space.” Others, such as Elizabeth in “Bioshock Infinite,” brought an emotional center to the usually mechanical first-person shooter genre.

[GalacticEmpire]

While I don't entirely agree, the smaller more innovative titles are indeed very important. Sony has noticed this and taken MASSIVE steps to make their platforms the first choice for these kind of developers.

[jeffgoldwin]

By massive you mean using a cpu that's like a pc, like xbox has done since the first xbox 10 years ago?

[Fishy Fingers]

Probably more to do with how the platform holder handles the conditions/regulations to which indie devs must comply, to get their games on said systems.

Don't really think he meant the CPU :/ Touchy...

[Nivalis]

Oh right, yeah, you mean the original xbox, slapping their cheapest cpu in because they didnt know what else to use at the time? because you certainly can't mean the xbox 360's cpu, since its a PowerPc architecture based Processor, not remotely similar in any way to a PC processor in instruction set or operation?

Might wanna look it up before firing off a few uneducated rounds at innocent bystanders, because claiming the cpu in the 360 is 'like a pc' is like saying 'it processes things so its like a pc' because thats about the only similarity, find me a standard computer running PPC (and no, before you even go there a powermac isnt a standard pc) and you can say its like a computer cpu, until then it's a processor splintered from a unix server system, completely different from the original xbox.

[jeffgoldwin]

"slapping their cheapest cpu in because they didnt know what else to use at the time"

You do release the first xbox cpu was 2-3 times faster than the ps2 right? Plus the original xbox came included with Ethernet and an 8 gig hard drive. Ps2 had neither included. However, the xbox was released 1 year later and was selling at a loss for several years. So your "cheap cpu" theory was really borderline retarded.

I like both companies for different reasons and I'm not going to go over all the pros and cons because they each do have their own.

[ZodTheRipper]

The thing with independant developers is that they think outside the box. They don't have a big publisher behind them who tells them what a game has to look or play like. They can take risks that big studios can't because of business reasons and decisions so it's definately important to have those developers and enough people to support them. But I also wouldn't want to miss out on the AAA-experiences that games like Uncharted or Mass Effect bring.

[MasterCornholio]

The PS4 isnt just about the little games from Indie like the Witness for example. Its about catering to the core by providing them with a huge variety of games from all sorts of developers.

[b_one]

sure and who supports Indies now?

[sprinterboy]

Me and Millions of others.

[Psychotica]

I do like some of the simple games but it's still the big budget games that matter the most to me. There isn't a game out there that I want more than the likes of GTA V and Watch Dogs

[CEOSteveBallmer]

I Like smaller games like games on android, iOS and indie games. I play them. But Big budget games is still More important. We core gamers also support smaller titles but We know where our passion truly is. I can't imagine myself "only playing" smaller games and there is no longer a big budget game. Thats a nightmare for me. If ever that happens, I'll just dust off and play my SNES, N64, gamecube, PS2 and Wii. Then play all my games on PS3.

[maniacmayhem]

If I can get smaller games like Limbo, Hotline:Miami, Pixel Junk and even Battlefield:1943 I would be very, very happy with the next gen consoles.

[SmokingMonkey]

Indie games are great,

But I'm buying the PS4 for all the 1st party titles.

Whatever Naughty Dogs working on will likely be gold and greater than any and all "small games."