Backward Compatibility Going Forward

Author’s Note: This editorial was published September 9, 2009 and originally appeared on Bitmob.com. Clicking on this link will take you to its original location.

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Gamers are used to backward compatibility in their consoles. It’s been in video game consoles that are part of a company or brand lineage. Backward compatibility is a rewarding feature for consumers who’ve supported those lineages — buy the newest console and you get to play your games from the previous one.

It’s a win-win situation, honestly: Consumers don’t have to take out their old consoles, and their investments in previous generations aren’t discarded. For console manufacturers, backward compatibility has been a means to extend new life to the consoles that have come before, enabling them to continue to move software and hardware units of the previous console during — and after — the launch of new hardware.

The current generation of consoles, though, has been fairly quick to shed backward compatibility, partially or completely. The PlayStation 3 used to play PS1 and PS2 titles through hardware-based backward compatibility, but now it plays PS1 titles only through software emulation. Microsoft had been on a mission to make nearly every Xbox title playable on the Xbox 360, but they stopped. The Nintendo DS started off with a GBA slot, but Nintendo got rid of it in the newest DS model, the DSi.

Console manufacturers are now quick to dismiss the importance of backward compatibility. Overall, backward compatibility has taken a blow this generation, and its future as a feature is in question.

Is backward compatibility gone as a major console feature?

Pricing The Issue

Author’s Note: This editorial was published August 20, 2009 and originally appeared on Bitmob.com. Clicking on this link will take you to its original location.

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Being a gamer has never been particularly inexpensive. Every so many years, new hardware is released and the new consoles always cost hundreds of dollars. Some gamers prefer to think of consoles as “investments.” When gamers say they’re going to “invest” in a console, they actually mean purchasing plenty of video games for said hardware.

Over the course of the console’s lifespan, gamers will likely eclipse the cost of the console in purchasing games for said console. The console’s lifespan winds down, the console war/cycle comes to an end and new hardware comes out. The process then repeats itself all over again.

However, there may have never been such a pricey console war as this one. Everything in this console war seems to have a significant price tag. Consoles are more expensive, games are more expensive and independent games and DLC are going for as much as $15 or more.

When the issue of price hiking is brought up, many gamers might be tempted to point the finger at Sony, but the truth is that there are few companies in the video game industry who haven’t raised prices in some way.

Consumers were suddenly introduced to $59.99 for games for high definition-capable consoles in the single turn of a generation. Then, we were introduced to a new world of downloadable content where paying $59.99 for a game simply wasn’t enough.

Suddenly, there are new installments of these games and they cost up to a quarter of what the consumer paid for what is supposed to be a “full” game.

Subtlety In Motion

Author’s Note: This editorial was published August 12, 2009 and originally appeared on Bitmob.com. Clicking on this link will take you to its original location.

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Control paradigms change and evolve over the course of time in the video game industry. The NES’s D-pad-and-button configuration was a change from previous controllers introduced by consoles such as Atari and Intellivision.

Over time, console makers added more buttons to controllers, and D-pads were replaced by analog sticks — until Sony introduced the DualShock dual-analog-stick controller over a decade ago. A strong, comfortable, and ergonomically sound device, the dual-analog-stick controller was the standard for video game controllers for more than a generation.

However, the time for change has arrived once more in the form of Nintendo’s Wii Remote, which introduces a new dimension to controllers: motion control. The widespread appeal of Nintendo’s innovative and market-disruptive controller has forced the competition to respond with motion-control schemes of their own.

Microsoft recently introduced Project Natal, a camera that promises to bring users even further into their games with the most familiar controller they’ve ever known: their own bodies. Sony responded with wand controllers for the PlayStation Eye, which appear similar to Nintendo’s Wii Remote yet possess somewhat different, if not added, functionality.

By the end of next year, there’ll likely be no shortage of motion controls or motion-controlled games.

Turning The Tables On The Alien Invasion

Author’s Note: This mini-editorial was published February 5, 2009 and originally appeared on Kombo.com. Clicking on this link will take you to its original location. Kombo.com is down and unlikely to come back.

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Games like Resistance 2, Killzone 2 and Gears of War 2 have a lot of things in common. They all have great graphics. They all have great online multiplayer. They all have great presentation. They all take place in alternate timelines or the future. They all tell the story of man’s epic struggle against overwhelming alien invaders that will inevitably result in a major clash of good versus evil. But games like Killzone 2, Resistance 2 and Gears 2 have something else in common as well. It’s something held in common by many games with alien invasion storylines: they don’t ever let you play as the aliens!

Does Final Fantasy XIII Going Multiplatform Spell The End For PlayStation3?

Author’s Note: This editorial was published August 5, 2008 and originally appeared on Kombo.com. Clicking on this link will take you to its original location. Kombo.com is down and unlikely to come back.

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The PlayStation3 has had a pretty rough-and-tumble time in the market. It went from having the best exclusives out there, such as BioShock and Grand Theft Auto IV, to losing nearly all of them to Microsoft in either exclusive or multiplatform fashion. PlayStation fans held on to two near-absolute truths: Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII. These have been the cruxes of the pro-PS3 argument for years now, ever since we knew that both games existed. However, only one of those cruxes has held (that crux being MGS4), with Final Fantasy XIII having gone multiplatform in an E3 shocker that won’t soon be forgotten. There have been a multitude of claims about the PS3′s future issued in light of this major event, with the most popular being: “There is no longer a reason to buy a PS3.”