A 4th option?

[Happychimp]

The current gen console market seems, at least to me, to have entered into a sort of balance not seen before in gaming. The Wii, PS3 and 360 have essentially divided up the pie and now they all fritter away with stupid ideas with motion controls and the like in an attempt to keep up with one another, how droll this all is.

But what if something new and radically unexpected were to happen? What if, a new player joined the game? The best games have at least four players after all and how wonderful would the world be if we could have another moment like when Microsoft or better yet, Sony first came to the playing field? They're ideas weren't always great but it made things, if nothing else, very interesting and pushed innovation.

So I ask you, fine people, who would you want to build you a new console and what ideas would you want to see? I mean actual home consoles here but feel free to come up with crazy hand held ideas too. I'm also well aware about the crossovers with phones and such but this discussion is less about predicting the future and more about letting your imagination go for a stroll and imagine what your dream console would be like and who you would want to make it....oh and feel free to give your creation a name.

Personally, I was thinking a Valve machine would be great but then I couldn't handle the many many many delay's associated with its release. At least it would be slick and just a little bit odd in a good way though.

 

[Judgement101]

Isn't a gaming computer the 4th option?

 

[Skorpyo]

Have you forgotten the SEGA mess from the days of yore?

A 4th option tends to lean towards the "tweaky" side of things. No company would go for something like that, since it has almost no guaranteed return.

 

[IsoNeko]

On live.

 

[Happychimp]

Yes but computers aren't really competition, they have their own market and rarely compete directly with consoles. Put it this way, whenever sales figures are done for consoles, they never include the number of PC's sold in those figures.

 

[Sougo]

perhaps we can have an iconsole, made by Apple.

The only reason being because Apple likes doing things that blow you away.

 

[Vek]

perhaps we can have an iconsole, made by Apple.

The only reason being because Apple likes doing things that blow you away.

Apple tried to make a gaming console, called the Pippin. It was released at the same time as Sega Saturn, N64, and Playstation.

The fact that most people have never heard of shows how much of a failure it was. Fewer than 42,000 units sold worldwide.

It's going to be a long, long time before Apple moves into dedicated gaming again.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Yes but computers aren't really competition, they have their own market and rarely compete directly with consoles. Put it this way, whenever sales figures are done for consoles, they never include the number of PC's sold in those figures.

Except for Aliens, which are made pretty much as a gaming computer from the ground up.

 

[Steppin Razor]

I don't think a 4th console would be a good idea right now. They've hit a decent balance where competition has driven the price of the consoles down and there are enough exclusives and multi-platform games to make each console a viable choice of entertainment. Adding another console to the mix will just split the market further and possibly drive up the cost of games as developers and publishers have to learn how to program for the new machine.

perhaps we can have an iconsole, made by Apple.

The only reason being because Apple likes doing things that blow you away.

It'll have the hardware of a Wii and cost double what the PS3 did at launch.

 

[Drexlor]

This would be interesting. Hopefully it will also lower prices.
PC gaming is not the 4th option because the OP specifically said "console market."

 

[Sougo]

perhaps we can have an iconsole, made by Apple.

The only reason being because Apple likes doing things that blow you away.

Apple tried to make a gaming console, called the Pippin. It was released at the same time as Sega Saturn, N64, and Playstation.

The fact that most people have never heard of shows how much of a failure it was. Fewer than 42,000 units sold worldwide.

It's going to be a long, long time before Apple moves into dedicated gaming again.

hmm... perhaps Steve Jobs should leave Apple, and then come back with this grand idea of iconsole. The edge it has over the other consoles? It only uses controllers. And can be hooked up to Macs and Iphone/ipod. Heck they could make a complete compact entertainment system that has a 'dock' for iphone/ipod, and functions as a console.

 

[Sougo]

perhaps we can have an iconsole, made by Apple.

The only reason being because Apple likes doing things that blow you away.

It'll have the hardware of a Wii and cost double what the PS3 did at launch.

And people will still buy it and claim it to be the greatest thing since zombie jesus.

I agree that Apples products are overpriced. But they do function well, and for the most part do what they're advertised to. Give credit where its due.

 

[DanDeFool]

Personally, I'd kind of like to see a return to the VR concepts of the mid-to-late 90's. Have, as part of the control scheme, a motion-tracking headset that allows you to look around in 360 degrees while using some kind of motion controller (a-la PS Move or WiiMote) to control the character movements. Granted, such a system is almost guaranteed to be clunky and exorbitantly expensive, but compared to buying a new X360+Kinect, it would probably be at least somewhat competitive.

 

[mrpenguinismyhomeboy]

OH MY GAWD/

I have been thinking the same thing.

Allow me to introduce to you...The Arc.

The Arc is a console, development kit, and store all in one. It is essentially a console with the freedom to define it's parameters like a PC. The Arc would essentially be able to be modified endlessly by the user thanks to the Arc System Modification Kit. In addition people could upload their mods to the Arc Store, where they could be downloaded for free.

The Arc would also be the first console to contain all the tools necessary to develop games for it as part of the main console. No other software slash hardware is required. The Arc would have a built in engine, along with Arc Code Compilers and Arc Model Rendering/Animation software, all of which could be used by anyone who bought the console for no extra charge. There would even be a simple music making program for soundtracks and recording voices. And also, with the awesome power of GIMP, it would also have a built in image making software. So essentially, the user has all the bare tools needed to make a game in the console. All of this would be under the Arc Dev Kit.

Next, the Arc store would be a place where every single game that is available for the Arc would be available for download in a virtually disc format, so that it could be played like a disc, or it could just be downloaded as the raw files onto the console. It would be split up into two main sections, the Indie section, and the AAA section. Indie games can be uploaded to the store directly from the artist, and sold at a flat rate of 1 dollar (or 100 arc points - points and dollars are interchangeable and can be switched whenever). Now, 80 cents of that dollar goes to Arc Inc., and 20 cents goes to the developer of the game. BUT WAIT. For indie developers, there is a donate button. User can click donate, and for every 1 dollar they donate, they get 1% off on arc store purchases. And the donated money goes straight to the indie dev to. Arc Inc. takes nothing from that. So basically, if a gamer likes an indie game, they can decide to donate 10 bucks to the developer, and then get 10% off purchases in the arc store, and your percentages off stack, until you get to 90% (in other words, you can't get more then ninety percent of a purchase doing this), but they also get combined with regular store sales. For example, lets say there is a fifty percent off sale, and you have 23% off saved up. The item is 50% off it's regular price, but then you get 23% off of that.

There would also be this cool thing about getting to define the controls on your controller for games with the same degree of freedom as they give you on PC.

But yeah, It would be awesome/

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Have we all forgotten about the Zeebo already?

As it stands, I'm not forking out more money for another console. The majority of games see port across all major systems already.

 

[Blue_vision]

It's going to be a long, long time before Apple moves into dedicated gaming again.

Perhaps not dedicated to gaming, but the iPhone's doing well in the gaming department, and fills a similar niche that the PSP did/still does.

Do we particularly want a 4th option? Really, I think we have too much with 3 consoles all trying to fight for their share of the market. Nowadays, you're basically expected to have all of them, at ~$300 a piece +games and controllers, and then they'll be obsolete in 6 or 7 years and you'll have to do it all again. Whoo.

 

[gbemery]

I imagine if Valve made a console I would buy it from the store, take it home, plug it in and realize I can't play anything on it until I hooked it up to the internet to download the rest of the software to make it run.