Casual Gaming, PlayStation 3.5 and Xbox 560 Console Updates Mark Gaming Future

Game journalists often are so mired in the day to day of game review, blogging and working contact lists that we often don't have time to stand back and look at the big picture. Console makers are locked in an endless battle over who has the better hardware, online services, community, exclusives and of course prices. There's a lot of pressure to one-up your competition, and what better way than putting out a killer new console every five years?

That used to be the case, anyway. With skyrocketing costs at every stage of a product's life cycle crippling industries worldwide, there's a much greater emphasis on companies tapping the full potential of a product before moving on. That's why we have Natal, a new motion sensor from Microsoft coming out Q3 or Q4 of next year, and why Sony jumped on the motion controller bandwagon with their "ice cream scoop" controller due out next Spring. The Wii Motion Plus introduced a more accurate method of motion control, and to date Nintendo has sold more than a million of the controller add-ons in just over a month.

 
Further evidence came at E3 2009, when head honchos at Sony and Microsoft all said that the new additions to the PS3 and Xbox 360 lines were intended to increase the life span of their flagship gaming systems, offering more entertainment and increased functionality in lieu of a brand new console -- which would be due out in 2011 for each company if they stuck to the old model.

Speaking at Hot Chips, "A Symposium on High Performance Chips," EA Chief Creative Officer Rich Hilleman described the most likely future of video game consoles. On the topic of "re-engineering" the game industry, Hilleman reportedly pontificated in a much more natural and candid manner than journalists are used to with execs.

From Dean Takahashi's Hot Chips coverage for GamesBeat:

“I expected we’ll see a PlayStation 3.5 before we see a PlayStation 4 and an Xbox 560 before we see an Xbox 720,” he said. “The biggest shift is how fast packaged goods games are changing and going away.

"He noted that with the iPhone, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation Portable, mobile game platforms now outnumber console platforms by two to one. Fortunately, it doesn’t take nearly as many people to make games for these platforms. It takes maybe 30 people to make a Wii game, and just a handful (or one) to make an iPhone game."

"He noted how there are 28,000 Internet game rooms in South Korea where gamers pay by the hour and the establishments make their money on sales of soda and Doritos. About half of the country’s 48 million people are game players, with tastes ranging from hardcore online games like Starcraft to fashion games for girls.

“If I want to go to see the past of gaming, I go to Japan,” he said. “If I want to see the future, I go to Korea.”

"To target the casual gamers who like the Wii, Facebook or iPhone games, Hilleman says traditional game developers have to turn their approach inside out. He used to focus on immersive games, where you enable someone to immerse themselves in a game world and emerge 20 hours later. This Rip Van Winkle effect was great for 14-year-0ld boys playing single-player games in the dark in their rooms.

"Now with the Wii, he pays attention to what is happening on the “other side of the screen,” where people are enjoying a game together and laughing at what the person with the controller is doing. Family game nights now often mean parents rent a game on a Friday and play it for just a day.

“If I sell to them, I can’t dominate their lifestyle,” he said. “I have to fit into their lifestyle.”

Casual gaming is nothing new, nor are the efforts by game devs and publishers to put mobile games in the hands of teens, tweens and the whole family. It's the focus on adapting the game to fit easily into anyone's schedule and the play patterns of casual gamers. I myself used to play any number of games in 3-6 hour stints, but the older I get the more I want, no, the more I NEED to be able to pickup a plastic guitar and rock out for a couple of quick songs. No need to get a babysitter, and no need to clear it with the spouse. Play and move on is how busy adults have to approach gaming; the same goes for kids who have so many options at their disposal. The tried and true pastimes of playing sports, hide and go seek, reading, drawing or sword fighting with sticks (LARPing?) are still there, but now they have phones, portable consoles like PSP and DSi, game consoles, more channels than we ever thought possible as children, Netflix -- the list goes on and on.

Although Microsoft has intimated that Natal will ship as a stand-alone accessory and will be bundled with existing 360s, it's probably a safe bet to say that Natal will require more processing power of the Xbox 360. It's clear Microsoft also sees a need for increased storage capacity, as today Amazon.de briefly listed a new 360 Elite with a 250GB hard drive, 2 wireless controllers and a $400 US price tag. Hard drive upgrades this year, CPU, RAM, and video card upgrades next year I say, but will it be enough to sustain the main players through lean times in an industry once thought of as recession-proof? Time will tell. [GamesBeat]

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