End of the Golden Age: Are Games Consoles Too Generic?

Games consoles are becoming homogeneous appliances with few distinguishing features, argues Will Luton.

[Whitefeather]

It's about the games.

[first1NFANTRY]

I agree it's about the games BUT the constant fps games aren't helping. Thankfully we have devs like Naughty Dog who deliver incredible new experiences.

I have a lot more faith in next gen tho. I personally think its all about the indies.

[Whitefeather]

I'm an indie myself so I'm glad Sony is giving us our time in the lime light.

[A-laughing-horse]

Constant fps like killzone, halo and call of duty?

[PopRocks359]

I certainly would not call the PS4 or Wii U generic. Like any generation, exclusive games and features will push consoles to success.

[juaburg]

Buy a bloody Wii U then. Looks like a really good console. The games will come.

[MysticStrummer]

Looking at the three consoles considered "next gen", I don't agree that they have few distinguishing features. Whether you like those features or not, each console has it's own.

I also think the next generation shows signs of a substantial upswing, not down.

If this generation is the Golden Age, then things are about to go Platinum.

[xYLeinen]

Seeing how they get preordered like hotcakes I highly doubt it. The price, the accessibility is really a winner among the crowd.

[vigilante_man]

Not trolling but the wii and 360 did not help. You either get Halo/Gears/Forza or Mario/Zelda etc. Good on their own but when that's pretty much the staple diet for a platform then it becomes a bit of a yawn.

And Publishers who stifle their developers.

With PS4 leading the way for indie developers and free to publish, creativity will be massive this time around.

Let's hope this makes Nintendo & Microsoft more developer friendly.

[NioRide]

So Just because a system had 3 large titles, just like how Sony had killzone/Uncharted/GT, tell me about this "uniqueness" that sony only had.

All 3 systems had their generic streaks, but all of them also had hidden gems.

And if you weren't such a flaming fanboy you would see this.

[A-laughing-horse]

Not to mention resistance. They whored that game out pretty bad. That's how you know your a bad fanboy, you come into an article and have to RANT about and make excuses how your system is the only one who ISN'T generic.

If anything , Microsoft, has the most innovating machine this generation. All the built in features , Skype, cable switching, DRM games, nfl football fantasy leauge, being able to watch others and yourself play.

See what I did there

[JoySticksFTW]

OMG, people are so quick to pull the fanboy card at the slight insult / preference towards a system.

What did vigilante_man say that was so offensive?

It's widely accepted that Xbox has fewer but more marketable blockbuster exclusives. We all know what they are.

It's also widely known that Nintendo has been churning out Mario / Zelda and their other properties with little help from 3rd parties to bolster their game libraries for at least 2 or 3 generations now.

It's fact that Sony not only produces their Killzone, Uncharted, GT's like everyone else, BUT they also continue to supplement these mainstream titles with a variety of 1st and 3rd party games so gamers don't become fatigued with their hits as fast (GoW: Ascension though, you came much too soon I feel).

Just a quick list of unique titles (gameplay-wise, not meaning all are exclusive) that PS gamers got to play Flow, Flower, Journey, Valyaria Chronicles, Demon's Souls, Heavy Rain, and Catherine. That's a lot of variety and something to be happy about.

On Wii, the last game I played that wasn't Mario or Zelda was Madworld. On 360, the last off title I played was Alan Wake. That's a bit more than a "generic streak" considering gamers are about to play The Last of Us and Beyond Two Souls released deep into the generation.

It's not wrong or a bad thing to be happy when a company continues to support you, especially since Sony was so arrogant in the past, but has seemed to learn from that and are a better company nowadays according to devs and their plainly stated policies and focus these past months. And with WiiU's game drought, X1's recent shadiness, and now Sony actively courting indie devs as well as the AAA's, he has every right to be excited.

You call people flaming fanboy for that? For recognizing that one company has excelled in a certain area that's benefited gamers? I've been a PS+ members since day one, but I still feel Live has been a smoother online experience. Oops! I guess I'm an Xbot now.

[SpinalRemains138]

Its the big publishers who fear moving the goalpost. They know what sells, and they have those as guidelines.

Its no different than 80% of Hollywood films being garbage for the last 30 years. The same fluff done ad nauseum because those types of games/movies are guaranteed to have a positive return.

Look at EA.
Dante's Inferno was a great game, but for all intents it was God of War. EA is the king of the annual Madden, Tiger Woods and Fifa. They just don't innovate and they stay the safe route.

At the same time we cannot blame them. They only make what we buy. If we desire variety or different things then we have to collectively stop buying the fluff.

[andibandit]

Not exactly, it's a mixed bag, but retailers skimming all the cream that the developers and publishers were suppose to get isn't exactly helping publishers funding new ip