In the gaming world, everybody is behind their PCs at all times, so there is no chance to have a beer together; or split a chocolate cake for that matter. When it comes to debates, the hottest one on the market right now, and has been for the past few years, is PCs versus consoles opera. Its hard to say how people are still not tired of expressing their hateful feelings towards one or another at every single article on the topic of hardware. My best guess would be too much free time, but you know what – that doesn’t really matter. What matters is that one side is clearly winning, and that is of course PC enthusiasts (lets leave the worn-out word “elitists” out of this).
Joy Ride Turbo launched 10 years ago today. The first title was Xbox Kinect exclusive, yet this sequel failed to support the device at all.
Cultured Vultures: "Sadly, not all hardware is created equal, and no matter how much developers might try, some gaming hardware just fails to hit the mark. We’ve compiled a list of 10 gaming hardware fails, and boy did some fail hard."
I would label the Power Glove, Kinect, and that Tony Hawk skateboard more as hardware addons hardware failure would be like the Virtual Boy and one day Stadia.
The picture should be the 360 RROD. When I think of gaming hardware failures that's what springs to mind. Kinect and it's bundled price tag definitely hobbled the already underpowered Xbox One though for sure so I would give it a close second place.
Lol I had the Atari Jaguar, surprised its "competition" the 3DO isn't on the list too, both as "popular" as each other.
Stadia is a weird one. It hasn’t sold at all well but in terms of how it works it’s still miles ahead of Xcloud in terms of stability and performance. Xcloud is still a way behind and that needs sorting but it will be in time. Stadia for me is one of those things that will go down as a what could have been moments. With better marketing it could have been a roaring success. I still play it and it remains the best place in my opinion to play CyberPunk 2077. Only platform I have played it on without having any issues at all. The tech is great. The concept is fine. Marketing terrible. Shame really.
The Xbox One was Microsoft’s Nintendo Wii U. Undercooked, undersold and just an unholy mess. The thing is with any of these failures is to learn from them and thankfully both Nintendo and Xbox did just that to the benefit of gamers everywhere.
Xbox 360's Kinect had flopped yet Microsoft insisted on mandatory Kinect for Xbox One, driving the price up and alienating their potential customers.
the tech was pretty damn good but their focus on making it the centerpiece was not. Had they opted to keep it as a secondary or even tertiary device, it may have found new use for AR/VR.
Kinect requirement, TV focused, DRM, and $100 buried Xbone before it even stared.
I was kind of excited for the kinect. It had potential. That was until i tried it at one of their Microsoft store. The thing was so laggy and worker who was there, had no clue what he was doing. It kind of made rethink about buying an Xbox One with Kinect.
The damage to the Xbox brand was so hard that til this day they are just the last place brand in the market.
Its sad because the Xbox one version of Kinect was actually pretty solid. Not for motion games, I couldnt care less about those, but for the other features that are now commonplace in the gaming ecosystem. Things like voice control and optional motion features in games. Stuff that Sony did with the PS camera was pretty sweet and they could have done some of that stuff with Kinect.
The tech was pretty sweet when implemented right though. Who remembers the implementation in Dead Rising 3?! You could lure zombies away by saying stuff into the kinect, it was a bit hokey at first, but it actually enhanced the game significantly once you learned all the different voice commands. There was and still is nothing else like that!
The focus on TV seemed to be an issue for people, but the TV pass through had some real potential. They could have had cable companies giving the XBone out instead of cable boxes! I understood what they were trying to do, but they needed to show the games too, and thats where they lost the core gamers. Being able to jump right to a sports event or TV show with out leaving the console was actually a pretty cool thing. I spent many nights switching between NHL games or TV shows and jumping right back into my games seamlessly, just by telling Kinect to do so. It was better than people care to admit, but I loved it!
People say XBone had no games, but on launch I got Dead Rising 3, AC Black Flag, Watch Dogs, Killer Instinct, Battlefield 4, Forza 5, and Ryse. That was actually a pretty solid lineup in hindsight! Then later on it got gems like Quantum Break, Dead Rising 4, Sunset Overdrive, Gears 4 and 5, the Ori games, Rare Replay, Forza Horizon 3/4, State of Decay 2, ReCore (SUPER UNDERRATED GEM), Halo 5, Halo Wars 2, and all the great 3rd party stuff as well! I dare anyone who sat on the Xbox One to go back and give it a shot now.
It was actually a pretty great console all things considered. Yes the PS4 had better 1st party stuff, stuff that MS just couldnt top or even compete with, but there are some really great games that a lot of people missed out on that they would probably really enjoy if they actually played them. Thats why I recommend a Series S and Gamepass to a lot of people, as its a great way to get an awesome lineup pf games for super cheap!
What consoles need are the ability to upgrade. We've been almost 7 years on 360 and 6 on PS3 (let's ignore the Wii for now...).
The graphical upgrades in the last 6+ years have been astronomical, but the hardware on consoles have been hindered by 'old tech.' If they made it easy to swap out a graphics card or add RAM it would be an easy alternative to PC gaming.
Sure, PCs will most likely always be ahead of consoles, but that doesn't mean console games aren't good - it just means they do what they can with their limitations. Reduce some of those limitations by allowing OEM hardware upgrades (a slot for RAM, a slot for graphics card - much like replacing a slim HD?) and you can improve the experience for console gamers.
It's a stretch for sure - you're adding an element of difference between the consoles at launch and later in the hardware life, but to stand stagnant the entire console life (aesthetic changes not withstanding) only hinders gamers looking for the best experience.
TL;DR: Make consoles upgradeable - aim to make most games work on every version of the console. Make AAA titles REQUIRE updates to play (ex - Halo 4 requires 8gb HD installation)
I'm sorry but if Cloud gaming does indeed take off there wont be a need for upgrading a console any more. obviously this doesn't cater to those with a poor connection however it is possible than this is how gaming will end up.
No more console upgrades or PC upgrades. all you will need is a good internet connection.
This is actually true if cloud gaming was the only source of gaming. It would basically mean one platform, no ports, avatar graphics. Fanboy wars would be about what cloud service is better. lol
everyone keeps saying "ohh....no upgrades, then they become pcs, no this, or then they become pc's"
what you need to realize is consoles are ALWAYS trying to become pc's, they just cannot ever possibly keep up
who did sony just buy again....gaikai......lol....be fore everyone HATED the idea of cloud gaming....now look at them line up to talk about how awesome its going to be.....
there's been cloud gaming on pc for 5 years, and it sucks, its basically a little bit better than console graphics, theres less jaggies and true 720p always vs the sub-hd of many console games.......but is is NOTHING compared to even pc games from 2005
cloud storage
free to play
consoles will always be a generation behind pc, and thats ok, but to know the future of your favorite console maker, just look at pc right now
....well....unless your favorite console maker is nintendo, nintendo do whatever they want. i respect them for it too:)