Developing, reviewing and critiquing video games has become a respectable profession. If the industry can go from Pong into one of the biggest entertainment endeavors a company can undertake, why has it never changed much? We have all seen the Wii and 360 Kinect but we haven't seen them put to good use. How many more sport game compilations need to be released before things really heat up?
At Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) each year the three big companies, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony, present the next big "Innovation" each year. Since the invention of analog sticks, there hasn't been any real innovation other than the Wii presenting motion controls. Each generation has been just a competition between who can have the biggest processor until this one. Nintendo came out the door as the best selling and for that reason hardest to get a hold of. Why? Because it appealed to everyone that can move their bodies, men, women, children, grandparents, a squirrel that may enter through a window and pick up a controller as seen in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel. (yes, they are not squirrels but squirrels are adorable) This is the biggest example of what innovation can lead too; that being massive revenue. Now the Wii (still being popular) is not being talked about as much. The reason for that, is lack of innovation. For every Zelda: Twilight Princess we get another two third party sports compilations. The Wii's library of first and third party games like Mario Kart Wii and No More Heroes respectively, has become diluted by games like Deca Sports and even first partiers like Mario Sports Mix. Yet another example of sticking to what brought them into the spotlight, but not evolving past that toy all the kids scream for, then leave sitting somewhere. My Wii has been unhooked for the past three months. Its not a case of lack of money so much as a case of lack of great games being released for the console that my stupid cats keep knocking over.
This is also done with the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Both consoles have released the Kinect and the Move, respectively, but neither have really changed much of the standard motion gaming protocol laid out by Nintendo. Put out another sports game and one or two that are exclusively yours, such as Kinectimals on 360. Which Kinectimals and the Kinect as a whole does bring about innovation in hardware, but it has yet to really skyrocket with third party developers and have that lasting appeal. Unless the Move and Kinect start releasing games such as Kinectimals than a lot of the valued technology is being written off as "We'll try and integrate this into the next console". Now, the Kinect has shown us that there is a title in the works by Lionhead Studios, the developers behind the Fable series, that is an AI life simulator. I must admit, this is the best innovation since the Kinect was first shown back at, I believe E3 2008. In the demo they shown at E3, a young lady was talking to a boy on the television screen, this was unbelieveable, I believe there was even something where she drew a picture and the boy told what it was, I think it was some shape. When this came on I called Dad into my room to show him and even he thought this seemed like a true future of gaming. I was baffled with this, this is true innovation, right now buying a Kinect is on the grounds of what may or may not be released for it in the future. The Move on the other hand, is almost the exact same as the Wii Remote, except instead of infrared sensor bars to track points and movement, you have the Playstation Eye (Camera) that will track it, with great accuracy, like the motion plus for Wii. Though, it still seems like it will never be anything other than a Wii adapter on a PS3; the Move can really be innovative with something like what they are doing with Killzone 3. If Sony made a serious effort to have compatability with the Move on games such as a new Bioshock title or Metal Gear Solid, then it may break out of its sterotypical rut that it is trapped into right now.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed this rant as much as I did to say it, though I have to admit in closing, I would flip out for a Bioshock that can use the Kinect. ^_^
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