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If it weren't for the 3rd dimension, the Playstation might have lasted 40 years. |
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Monday, April 21, 2003
If it weren't for the 3rd dimension, the Playstation might have lasted 40 years. That's a bold statement, but one that might reflect the future of console and computer gaming... for you see, there is no 4th dimension. Successful consumer standards generally enjoy shelf lives of 10-40 years. In 1948 Columbia released the LP, which became a defacto standard in 1951 when RCA victor began selling the format and would remain the #1 format for music sales until being surpassed by CD's exactly 40 years later. 8-Tracks were less successful, but were released way back in 1966, the same year that Philips released the (still used) cassette tape. The The VHS tape system was released in 1976 and is still going strong, despite being beaten to the punch in 1972 by Philips' Lazer Disk player, and later beaten up in 1997 by DVD players. What did these players have in common? They were "good enough," didn't have substantially better alternatives, and they had the backing of some of the largest companies in the world. None of the names back then were well known outside of the inner circle of gaming gurus, but today they roam the earth as powerfully as any hollywood studio. Remember when the crown in Square's cap was 3D World Runner? Now they have the power to absorb a 100 million dollar box office flop. Gaming companies have become some of the largest companies in the world. The Playstation format was also "good enough" to do basically all 2D games without complaint. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is often referred to as one of the richest, most beautiful 2D games of all times, but one is left a bit puzzled as to how that game could be improved with the faster processor and larger disk space afforded the PS2. For that matter, graphics aside the SNES was powerful enough to functionally run every sprite-based 2D game on the Playstation. But with resolutions equal to the highest displayable on a television and RAM sufficient to hold the quantities of artwork likely to be put out on a budget, the Playstation seems adequate to handle everything one is likely to throw at it... except for 3D. The 3D revolution took gaming by storm, the same way that 2D games ursurped 1D games (like space invaders). By being capable of playing 3D games, the Playstation managed to unseat the SNES and defeat rival Sega's Saturn. But by being incompetent at playing 3D games, it was later ursurped by the far more respectable PS2. Ikaruga would be possible on the Playstation, but Munch's Oddysee would not. What would have happened if the 32bit platforms had remained as consumer devices? One side effect is that they would have become commoditized. Much in the way that Award reverse-engineered the IBM bios, the Playstation would have been reverse-engineered and committed to hardware (a feat not too far removed from the reverse-engineering that went into emulators). Clones, in other words, would have forced Sony to license their system specs to 3rd party manufacturers, ala 3DO. Second, prices would have lowered significantly. With a stable platform, high penetration rates, and freedom from licensing restrictions, small developers would be free to flood the market with whatever they developed and (hopefully) profit from quality titles with smaller margins. This is assuming that consumers have developed into aware enough entities that they won't buy badly designed games and abandon the hobby altogether: that problem sunk the industry in 1984 and led to the draconian licensing issues that ensure both quality and banality in the industry today. With lower prices would come higher market penetration and, QED, better overall mindshare. Third, the system would become invisible. With the unchallenged standard VHS tape, people would refer to renting "movies" rather than tapes. Modern companies hock DVD's as if the medium were more important than the experience, leading focus to pointless cheerleading of the standard rather than real discussion of the merits of various movies. With so much energy being expended upon system promotion by distributers, dealers, and users, discussion of the qualities of the games available take second stage. This would change, leading (hopefully) to better games reaping financial reward and avoiding another above-mentioned crash. This scenerio may well play out in the post PS3 era... But that possibility, and the ramafications of "acceptable speed" on the computer market, will be explored in a later article. - Chris 11:00 AM [+] Comments:
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