As the newest generation of consoles get older everyday gamers minds are filled with news and propaganda about the next generation. A lot has happened in this console gaming generation. Gamers saw a new arrival to the console market in the form of the Microsoft’s Xbox. With this came many new features gamers got to discuss in excess. One thing was the first console to have a hard drive built in, making the need for a memory card all but obsolete. The hard drive that would later come out for the PS2 was not nearly as popular or as abused as the Xbox built-in HDD. In this generation gamers saw the widespread use of network gaming both local and over the Internet, while the Dreamcast was the first to have this option it still has not reached its full maturity or use in the gaming world.
Now going into the new generation I have read a lot about the Xbox Next as it is being called. This is to be the successor to the Microsoft game console throne. Three of the biggest things that gamers don’t like is the talk that the Xbox will be smaller, have no HDD built-in, and will have backward compatibility. All three of these are a take away from what gamers should expect from a gaming console (except maybe the smaller one, but this is the Xbox we are talking about here). The most important specifications a console needs are the ones I have bulleted below.
- Hard drive. This is important no matter what gamers do with it or how it is used or abused. Hard drives are the way future content from online downloads will be used, offering it as a peripheral is just absurd.
- Wireless. As many things that can be wireless they need to be. With every other electronic good going wireless consoles need to have this as their default way to do everything. Wire management sucks and it makes the console much more streamlined.
- Network Adaptor/Modem. Internet gaming is only going to gain popularity in the next generation of consoles. For companies not have a built in way to get their console online is business suicide.
- Four controller ports. I have to say this as I thought that Sony would have done this for the PS2 but no they still have a two-controller port layout. Arguing the point that you can get the mutli-tap is null, every other system since the first Playstation has four ports so for Sony to not do so in the next generation would be an undeniable mistake.
- DVD player. Gamers pay a lot for consoles and having them be able to play DVDs is just a nice touch that a lot of gamers really like. The uproar when gamers found they would have to pay for an extra accessory to play DVDs on the Xbox was large and hopefully not heard by a deaf ear because it is important that Microsoft learn from that mistake.
These are all quite doable with the systems out right now making it all the more important that console designers add these to the next generation consoles because gamers expect not only the best of what the previous generation offered but also the newest ideas and technologies for video games.
-Mark (17-Sep-2004)
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