*note this was orginally written Thursday, September 21, 2006
Next Gen, not so Next Gen?
Microsoft jumped the gun on the next gen system launch thinking that they had the upper hand by releasing their system first. They got a whole years head start on Sony and Nintendo and from a software perspective it seems as though the xbox is now the mother ship for game testing and building. Most companies are using the 360 to build their code, because they have had their hands on it for over a year. So it seems as though Microsoft's push to get the 360 out a year early was smart?
On the other hand, it may have been a bad move from a financial standpoint. The past year the ps2 hardware has been selling just as much as the 360 and the same with software titles, if Microsoft had waited until now to release the 360 they could have made an extra years worth of profit off the existing hardware, which was clearly not out dated yet. On top of that, they would have also had an extra year of R&D to work out the bugs, which would have resulted in less overheating, freezing, and defective systems. Which we all know Microsoft struggled with.
Another point is that if MS had waited, they would have also known what the competition had up their sleeve. With that extra year they could have found a way to add the HD-DVD drive into the system as standard hardware. Now most people say, "who cares about HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, I'm buying it to play games not watch movies?" … While your opinion is valid, you missing a crucial point. Did we say we didn't want a DVD player in the PS2? No… but if we did we would still be using CD's to make games and games like grand theft auto san andreas would not be possible or would be on 12 CD's.
Without the support of HD-DVD games are stuck to the standard 4GB DVD's or dual layer 8GB DVD's. How will this affect games? Well with the graphics getting better and games getting bigger, game developers are limited to last gen size disc's for next gen sized games. This won't affect the games right way; for instance, when the PS2 launched a lot of games were still on a CD. But as time went on developers demanded more space for bigger games and now 99.9% of console games are on a DVD.
Chew on this, San Andreas was on a 4GB DVD disc and it used the whole thing. A dual layer Blu-Ray disc can hold 50GB, that's 12 DVD's on 1 disc. Could you imagine what rockstar could do with a disc like that, with a game like grand theft auto? Similar numbers were said when Sony announced that the PS2 would support DVD, 12 cds on 1 disc.. Everyone said that was a "crazy amount of space" and "who would need that much". Who? Apparently everyone consider most PS2 and Xbox titles are DVD based.
So how does this affect the future of gaming? Well since blu ray is standard on both the 20GB PS3 and 60GB PS3 the option is there for developers to make games that big. But with the 360 if a company wanted to make a game on a HD-DVD disc they would have to expect everyone who buys their game to buy the separate external HD-DVD drive for a cool $100 so that's about $170 for 1 game? Think anyone you know would fork out that kind of cash for 1 game while their buddy just has to buy the game for $60-70 on his PS3?
Another problem this creates is mulit-platform games. With the growing cost of game devolvement it is almost standard that most games launch on all current systems. So say a large company like EA who supports both sides wants to up their games and start using HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, they would be faced with the question of, do we chance the fact that people will stop buying our games on the xbox because they need the separate drive? They wont chance that because they know that they will lose money, because people will not buy the drive just to play EA games.
Another example is Rockstar Games, makers of the infamous Grand Theft Auto series. They are constantly pushing the boundaries of the ESRB but they are also constantly pushing the boundaries of "how much content can we cram into 1 game?" for a company like them HD-DVD and Blu-Ray means no limitations, they can build a city 4 times as large as San Andreas with hundreds more cars and missions and just go nuts making it. But because we all know that MS didn't launch the 360 with HD-DVD support is safe to say that when GTA4 launches "simultaneously" in Oct of 2007 on both the 360 and the PS3 it will be on a standard DVD.
So not only did Microsoft shortchange their faith full and loyal fans, but they also are holding back the developers from going truly next gen. Some people may be skeptical of this theory, but the facts are there. Look back at the PS1 to PS2 jump and the switch between CD and DVD, nobody thought that DVD based games would take off as much as it did when Sony first announced it, and now look where were at. So the next time you hear someone talking about Blu-Ray and HD-DVD don't just discredit it to movies, this could also affect the future of your favorite games too.
~ Ryan Waltz
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