The Future of Game Consoles

A bit off topic, but I can relate it Sonic as it was me pondering about the direction of Sonic that lead to these ideas....

Instead of Nintendo DS's we need Nintendo phones that play's all you favorites. Instead of home entertainment consoles we need home entertainment Nintendo and Sony tablets that plug into your tv and that you can play with friends. Instead of Play Station One and Xbox 4 we need official playstation and xbox gaming pc's that run operating systems like windows, and can use word documents and google chrome and such. Basically, the big 3 gaming companies need to make their gaming devices more functional and practical if they want to remain relevent much longer into the future. It feels like too much of an investment to now only spend over 60 dollars per game, but then to also have to buy this device that serves you no other practical purpose, but to entertain your and play the expensive game you bought. It'd save people a lot their reserves and money if this strategy was implemented. 

I've actually thought of the idea and wanted it for almost a decade now, but I'd really like to have a phone that also plays Nintendo games and such. It's still socially unacceptable and embarassing to be seen in public playing a gaming handheld. There's no problem with this with phones. They can't see what you're doing. For all they know I could crafted my master thesis for the killer presentation I'm going  to make to my boss later; So suck you social stigmatizing #$%^#$%$! Buy a Nintendo laptop or a Sony gaming pc would also solve another one of my problems; Feeling like a wasteful spend thrift when I buy a dedicated gaming machine. Not only do I feel bad because it's expensive, but I also feel bad because the entire reason and purpose I'm getting this horribly expensive device is because I want to waste time mindlessly mashing buttons as things happen on screen. It's like needing to spend over dollars on a cack making machine. You can't feel good about yourself for buying it, but; however, if it said crack making machine also produces vegetables.....then you're a golden eagle!

Yeah, so now how this all come from thinking about Sonic...yeah about that....well you see, it all starts with a conversation about Sonic, but it ends with a conversation about drugs. Thinking about Sonic always leads to a maniac depressive drug addiction to cope with the pain...I don't see the current direction of Sonic or Nintendo as hatred or abandonment of the fans or hardcore gamers. No, with my understanding of economics, marketing, personality, and the big picture, I can clearly see that they've been making highly informed and extremely calcuated decision in hopes of making as much money possible. Shocking I know, but here's what makes me think this. 

Consider how many people bought the last generation of gaming consoles, and then consider how many bought them now in comparision. It's a HUGE difference. Last generation has outsold this current one by a factor of 9 ! or even over 20 in the case of Nintendo! Game consoles five to seven years ago were selling 9 times the amount of game consoles today, wow. That's some massive deflation right there. The direction and popularity of gaming is changing, and both Sega and Nintendo realize this. They've seen ahead and been aware of this shift in the direction of gaming for a long time, and have been planning, preparing, and executing for it. Sonic Colors sold financially well consider the time and the fact that it only sold on one console. Sega took that as feedback that it's aesthitica style and casual Mario esque gameplay was what Nintendo fans like and would come to expect from now on. Lost World was once again a Nintendo Exclusive and was meant to have the same look and style of Sonic Colors for the purpose of mass identification and marketing. My point being is that they have been choosing how to make the games almost purely off of marketable and appealing the game with be the masse audiences. Basically they were designing purely out to have the most calculated chance of success. Actually if you think back that's almost always been their approach; superficial marketable appeal to the mass audiences. 

The quality of a game almost doesn't matter for sales numbers because I'm not going to know just how terrible a game is until I after I buy and at that point it's too late to return it and get my money back.  At least that used to be the caes. It used to not matter. With gamers becoming wiser and thinking to check internet reviews and word of mouth more often. A game's poor quality is indeed a problem. The best example of this being Sonic Boom. Unless new comers were to find out about the game purely from tv and then immediately go buy if without looking it up, then sure the quality of the game would matter; however if the whole point is to hook more fans into the series then how is giving them an unpolished game going to convince them to keep coming back for more. Even moments into the game, it looks bad from a superficial level which is just as deep as a person goes when it comes to something new and is all it takes to deter them since they were leerly or expectant of it anyway. So Sega and Nintendo aren't stupid in calculation they're geniouses at that, they're stupid because they are short-sighted and can't see the big picture of things. Since Nintendo makes sure to polish their games and works hard to maintain good customer relations, they're much better at having foresight and looking ahead. Treating your dedicated fans poorly is a sure way to die in the long-run. So, Nintendo doesn't struggle with that, they struggle with looking at the big picture much more.