That's a pretty compelling argument for the death of the current generation of consoles, with their home menus and multigig installations and 24/7 internet connections and downloadable content and $600 price tags and what the shit isn't this just a crappy pc.
Yes, but there are still consoles out there that DON'T have those limitations! So:
home menus
To me, the Home Menu system on all the current consoles is actually a big improvement. It means that, unless I'm changing the disc, I don't have to walk across the room every time I want to turn the console off, stop playing, or start up some new title (in the case of downloadable games). By and large, the console makers have done a really good job making the home menu unobtrusive, very simple to navigate and very functional. In a lot of cases, you don't even have to touch the home menu at all if you don't want/need to; I know that the PS3 has an auto-start setting that jumps you straight into the game on boot, as long as you have a disc inserted, and I suspect that the 360 has that setting as well. (Don't know about the Wii, I can't remember seeing it, but it wouldn't surprise me.)
multigig installations
You're talking about PS3, and I know this because my brother has one, and his is the biggest fucking hassle to play a game on since the NES. I've never seen a home game console MORE unfriendly to rental games in my life.
He's in the Army, and had a two week leave from Iraq about six months ago. During that time, he wanted to get together with me and his other brother to have a game night. We picked up some good-looking PS3 rentals and took them home.
Once we got home, we realized that EACH of the three games we'd rented had a multigig mandatory installation. One of them required a 2-hour PS3 system software update. We had to juggle game installations around on the PS3 to make room; he made the comment that he was going to have to upgrade the hard drive in the system, since he was running out of room for games that he played all the time; there wasn't any extra space, and he didn't have any music or video trailers or anything like that on the hard drive.
We played no games at all that first night.
Not that the PS3 doesn't do some great things, and not that it doesn't have any good games; both those are true. But it's so much of a fucking hassle that when I buy my next system, there's no way in hell I'm getting a PS3.. I'll take a 360, please.
Also, the Wii. Insert disc, click "Disc channel", play. No updates, no new system software, no fucking bullshit.
"Or, you could start playing [Devil May Cry 3(?)] on the 360. Immediately. Like, as soon as you put in the disc."
24/7 internet connections
Yeah, but here's the thing: consoles don't pirate-check your games over the Internet every time before you play!
Anti-piracy measures are just built into the consoles themselves. If you load a burned disc into your PS3, 360 or Wii, it fails the built-in copy protection and just doesn't play. When you load up your legitimate games, they pass the test every time. Now, on the other hand, Spore...
downloadable content
That's a bonus right now, but no console maker has yet made it MANDATORY to download an update
to a game before play. Sure, Sony has made you install PSP and PS3 updates, but that's the kind of bullshit I'm talking about. I maintain that their brave, new, shitty tactics are Fucking Wrong, and I actually feel a little confident that in the end the market will prove them Fucking Wrong. But that's just me, I have nothing to lose making such a claim.
So essentially, what I'm getting at is that I'd love to see this kind of system exist
alongside traditional PC & console gaming. I think that there are a lot of underserved people in the market that will love this idea, and won't mind paying the subscription to get it. I also think that the clear benefits of consoles will continue to influence kids and parents who'd like to get their children something tangible for Christmas & birthdays; "I'll keep paying your subscription" doesn't have quite the same gift appeal.
The best thing I can think to compare something like this with is Gametap. Pay a monthly subscription, get access to all these games. Gametap looked like it was going to be the market-killer for PC games when it came out, but it seems to me like it just ended up filling a specialized niche; people who a) have money for the subscription, and b) don't want to buy games at $60 or spend time tracking down old titles and trying to coax them to run on new hardware. The community stuff is nice, and the launcher is real flashy, but none of that is necessary.
Myself, I don't subscribe to Gametap, and I consider myself to be at least in part a PC gamer. I tried it, paid for it for a while, until I realized that all the games I was playing on the service for $10 a month were titles I could buy outright for $10 apiece, thus meaning the subscription started costing me money after like 6 months. None of the arcade titles were all that big a draw to me; they were great, I had fun with several of them for like 2 minutes apiece, but they weren't the juice. Plus, the instant I cancelled my subscription, my access to Splinter Cell, Grandia 2 and Baldur's Gate disappeared. If I just bought the games myself, even from something like eBay, I owned it forever, which was a much better deal.
I feel like this new service, awesome as it is, will present the same kind of challenges. Try it, pay for it for a while, play some brand new games your machine couldn't run otherwise, but I don't think anyone intelligent is going to be pitching their consoles or gaming rigs for this exclusively.
I.E., what Guild said.
Also, RE: PS3: It's like they don't fucking want you to PLAY GAMES ON IT! They want you to leave it on 24/7, connected to the Internet so it can auto-update, and let it be your fucking media hub or whatever. Sorry, fuckers, but a media PC costs just about as much now and comes with a .5TB hard drive; FUCK YOU.
