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Extra bits and pieces seem to be being added to consoles left, right and centre these days, but like Robocop having a marshmellow toaster attached to his head, they’re not really any good unless they are considered useful.
Look at it this way (tilt head to the side…) Consoles are there to play games. Anything that helps them do this is a GOOD THING, so that includes a nice array of joypad ports and access for memory cards, as well as support for decent sound systems and an assortment of connections to TVs and monitors. What I’m more concerned about is the ‘extras’ that console makers are now seeing fit to add to their machines, both in the package with the console and afterwards.
Look.
If you add more hardware to a console, you are going to increase the price. DVD players are great if the games come on DVD and utilise the space on the shiny disc, but if they have to have extra lasers and mechanics to play movies, then the cost is going to rocket and people are going to be put off of buying the machine. OK, so you find that most of your customers really do want a DVD player, and don’t want to go out to the shops and get a good quality, cheap stand-alone player, so what do you do? Put a good quality DVD player in your machine, making it easily rival other cheap players that you could have bought if the console was any cheaper? Don’t be silly, you put a sub-standard player in and still charge a lot for the machine.
Ok, next. When you have any peripheral that becomes part of a machine when you use it all the time, the games are going to be bound to use this as a main feature of their game play. This is especially true when the maker or even the licenser of the games is the same person who released the peripheral in the first place. Extra hardware, like Hard Drives for instance, will automatically be supported by the top games and, if successful, will be used as a necessity for them, thereby making the owners of that console go out and buy the hardware, whether they want to or not. This has happened before and will happen again. If too many pieces of hardware are then released, the cost of owning the machine will eventually be sky high if you want to play the latest games, and it will also increase incompatibility problems with third party games, both new and old.
So how can console producers win? Well, stick to the basic principal that a games machine is just that, a machine for playing games. Adding other bits and pieces to download stuff from the net or do your mother’s knitting for you may sound an attractive proposition at first, but your’ll soon find out that these peripherals from hell are not selling because people simply can’t afford them, support them as ‘standard’ hardware and you’ll have a queue of angry customers carrying torches outside of your head office.
Look at it this way (tilt head to the side…) Consoles are there to play games. Anything that helps them do this is a GOOD THING, so that includes a nice array of joypad ports and access for memory cards, as well as support for decent sound systems and an assortment of connections to TVs and monitors. What I’m more concerned about is the ‘extras’ that console makers are now seeing fit to add to their machines, both in the package with the console and afterwards.
Look.
If you add more hardware to a console, you are going to increase the price. DVD players are great if the games come on DVD and utilise the space on the shiny disc, but if they have to have extra lasers and mechanics to play movies, then the cost is going to rocket and people are going to be put off of buying the machine. OK, so you find that most of your customers really do want a DVD player, and don’t want to go out to the shops and get a good quality, cheap stand-alone player, so what do you do? Put a good quality DVD player in your machine, making it easily rival other cheap players that you could have bought if the console was any cheaper? Don’t be silly, you put a sub-standard player in and still charge a lot for the machine.
Ok, next. When you have any peripheral that becomes part of a machine when you use it all the time, the games are going to be bound to use this as a main feature of their game play. This is especially true when the maker or even the licenser of the games is the same person who released the peripheral in the first place. Extra hardware, like Hard Drives for instance, will automatically be supported by the top games and, if successful, will be used as a necessity for them, thereby making the owners of that console go out and buy the hardware, whether they want to or not. This has happened before and will happen again. If too many pieces of hardware are then released, the cost of owning the machine will eventually be sky high if you want to play the latest games, and it will also increase incompatibility problems with third party games, both new and old.
So how can console producers win? Well, stick to the basic principal that a games machine is just that, a machine for playing games. Adding other bits and pieces to download stuff from the net or do your mother’s knitting for you may sound an attractive proposition at first, but your’ll soon find out that these peripherals from hell are not selling because people simply can’t afford them, support them as ‘standard’ hardware and you’ll have a queue of angry customers carrying torches outside of your head office.
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NEWS FLASH!
Unconfirmed reports suggest that Shigeru Miamoto is yeilding to public demand and producing a Robert Kilroy Silk Simulator!
Due to be released on the Game Cyclinder, the game will encapsulate all the highs and lows of the Chat Show Host's riveting lifestyle.
We wait with baited breath as because Shigeru Miamoto is making it it MUST be absolutely fantastic!
Unconfirmed reports suggest that Shigeru Miamoto is yeilding to public demand and producing a Robert Kilroy Silk Simulator!
Due to be released on the Game Cyclinder, the game will encapsulate all the highs and lows of the Chat Show Host's riveting lifestyle.
We wait with baited breath as because Shigeru Miamoto is making it it MUST be absolutely fantastic!
''Watching the man watching paint dry simulator!''
Has anyone else got the Nintendo Teasmade?
Zelda has never been the same...
Zelda has never been the same...
With new Watching Paint Dry Sim 2 now available!
The Microsoft Knitstation 2....
I urgently need an attachment to do my mums knitting thankyouverymuch!!!
:-)
:-)
Extra bits and pieces seem to be being added to consoles left, right and centre these days, but like Robocop having a marshmellow toaster attached to his head, they’re not really any good unless they are considered useful.
Look at it this way (tilt head to the side…) Consoles are there to play games. Anything that helps them do this is a GOOD THING, so that includes a nice array of joypad ports and access for memory cards, as well as support for decent sound systems and an assortment of connections to TVs and monitors. What I’m more concerned about is the ‘extras’ that console makers are now seeing fit to add to their machines, both in the package with the console and afterwards.
Look.
If you add more hardware to a console, you are going to increase the price. DVD players are great if the games come on DVD and utilise the space on the shiny disc, but if they have to have extra lasers and mechanics to play movies, then the cost is going to rocket and people are going to be put off of buying the machine. OK, so you find that most of your customers really do want a DVD player, and don’t want to go out to the shops and get a good quality, cheap stand-alone player, so what do you do? Put a good quality DVD player in your machine, making it easily rival other cheap players that you could have bought if the console was any cheaper? Don’t be silly, you put a sub-standard player in and still charge a lot for the machine.
Ok, next. When you have any peripheral that becomes part of a machine when you use it all the time, the games are going to be bound to use this as a main feature of their game play. This is especially true when the maker or even the licenser of the games is the same person who released the peripheral in the first place. Extra hardware, like Hard Drives for instance, will automatically be supported by the top games and, if successful, will be used as a necessity for them, thereby making the owners of that console go out and buy the hardware, whether they want to or not. This has happened before and will happen again. If too many pieces of hardware are then released, the cost of owning the machine will eventually be sky high if you want to play the latest games, and it will also increase incompatibility problems with third party games, both new and old.
So how can console producers win? Well, stick to the basic principal that a games machine is just that, a machine for playing games. Adding other bits and pieces to download stuff from the net or do your mother’s knitting for you may sound an attractive proposition at first, but your’ll soon find out that these peripherals from hell are not selling because people simply can’t afford them, support them as ‘standard’ hardware and you’ll have a queue of angry customers carrying torches outside of your head office.
Look at it this way (tilt head to the side…) Consoles are there to play games. Anything that helps them do this is a GOOD THING, so that includes a nice array of joypad ports and access for memory cards, as well as support for decent sound systems and an assortment of connections to TVs and monitors. What I’m more concerned about is the ‘extras’ that console makers are now seeing fit to add to their machines, both in the package with the console and afterwards.
Look.
If you add more hardware to a console, you are going to increase the price. DVD players are great if the games come on DVD and utilise the space on the shiny disc, but if they have to have extra lasers and mechanics to play movies, then the cost is going to rocket and people are going to be put off of buying the machine. OK, so you find that most of your customers really do want a DVD player, and don’t want to go out to the shops and get a good quality, cheap stand-alone player, so what do you do? Put a good quality DVD player in your machine, making it easily rival other cheap players that you could have bought if the console was any cheaper? Don’t be silly, you put a sub-standard player in and still charge a lot for the machine.
Ok, next. When you have any peripheral that becomes part of a machine when you use it all the time, the games are going to be bound to use this as a main feature of their game play. This is especially true when the maker or even the licenser of the games is the same person who released the peripheral in the first place. Extra hardware, like Hard Drives for instance, will automatically be supported by the top games and, if successful, will be used as a necessity for them, thereby making the owners of that console go out and buy the hardware, whether they want to or not. This has happened before and will happen again. If too many pieces of hardware are then released, the cost of owning the machine will eventually be sky high if you want to play the latest games, and it will also increase incompatibility problems with third party games, both new and old.
So how can console producers win? Well, stick to the basic principal that a games machine is just that, a machine for playing games. Adding other bits and pieces to download stuff from the net or do your mother’s knitting for you may sound an attractive proposition at first, but your’ll soon find out that these peripherals from hell are not selling because people simply can’t afford them, support them as ‘standard’ hardware and you’ll have a queue of angry customers carrying torches outside of your head office.
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