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It has been the benchmark of consoles since the first generation 8 bit consoles handed the baton over to their 16-bit brothers. Fans waiting to see the specs of their next machine trawled through their magazines and tried to make sense of the numbers staring back out at them before the full realisation of the power of the new consoles became clear when they finally got to see them in the flesh.
And it hasn’t stopped. Microsoft and Sony are still banding around numbers today to justify holding on to your money in exchange for their new wonder-machines. Developers are awaiting the challenge of more realistic environments or showing more enemies on screen than ever before and the crowds are just waiting to be wowed by the next big thing.
And yet, one console manufacturer has turned their back on the idea that performance sells. Surprisingly, it’s one of the manufacturers that has been in the business the longest. Nintendo don’t care if you’re not gob smacked by their graphics processing. They don’t give a damn if you don’t fall out of your chair at the zeros trailing from their processor speeds and they couldn’t be bothered one bit at showing you just how many polygons they can manipulate at once.
It’s certainly caused a bit of a stir in the gaming world. Surely if we don’t make progress then why should we bother upgrading at all? “But” they answer “Progress doesn’t have to be all about numbers and graphics. It can be about interaction and experience.” The cost is another justification. Put up against the mighty PS3 with it’s equally mighty price, the Wii looks like David trying to outdo Goliath, but with a remote control in place of a stone.
So will the change in the way we play also change the way we perceive the next generation of gaming? It has been enough to convince some of the journalists sent out to try the hardware for their selves, but will Joe public be stirred into buying a console that doesn’t live up to their numerical ideals? Only the launch of the Wii can prove that Nintendo are on the right track.
It has been the benchmark of consoles since the first generation 8 bit consoles handed the baton over to their 16-bit brothers. Fans waiting to see the specs of their next machine trawled through their magazines and tried to make sense of the numbers staring back out at them before the full realisation of the power of the new consoles became clear when they finally got to see them in the flesh.
And it hasn’t stopped. Microsoft and Sony are still banding around numbers today to justify holding on to your money in exchange for their new wonder-machines. Developers are awaiting the challenge of more realistic environments or showing more enemies on screen than ever before and the crowds are just waiting to be wowed by the next big thing.
And yet, one console manufacturer has turned their back on the idea that performance sells. Surprisingly, it’s one of the manufacturers that has been in the business the longest. Nintendo don’t care if you’re not gob smacked by their graphics processing. They don’t give a damn if you don’t fall out of your chair at the zeros trailing from their processor speeds and they couldn’t be bothered one bit at showing you just how many polygons they can manipulate at once.
It’s certainly caused a bit of a stir in the gaming world. Surely if we don’t make progress then why should we bother upgrading at all? “But” they answer “Progress doesn’t have to be all about numbers and graphics. It can be about interaction and experience.” The cost is another justification. Put up against the mighty PS3 with it’s equally mighty price, the Wii looks like David trying to outdo Goliath, but with a remote control in place of a stone.
So will the change in the way we play also change the way we perceive the next generation of gaming? It has been enough to convince some of the journalists sent out to try the hardware for their selves, but will Joe public be stirred into buying a console that doesn’t live up to their numerical ideals? Only the launch of the Wii can prove that Nintendo are on the right track.