As of right now, major gaming has been a competition between the
Nintendo Wii, the Sony PlayStation 3, the Microsoft Xbox 360, and the
good-old gaming PC. Each of these options have their own pros and
cons, and each were vying for supremacy. This is nothing new. It has
been this way for a number of years now. This console generation has,
for the most part, already been decided. The three consoles and the
PC have all gathered their respective audiences (with a high degree
of overlap) and most gamers have already passed judgment.
However,
what if something major happens? What if, another major corporation
decided to throw their hat into the ring and join the competition? It
has rumored for quite sometime that Apple, technological innovators
they are (despite my personal opinion of them), may be tempted to
join the gaming market after a
source said
that Apple was in talks with Valve Software to make a new console
compatible with Steam. While this rumor has since been debunked, this
does raise a perfectly valid question: If either Apple or Valve (or
both) decided to enter the console market, how would that affect the
industry? This week will be dedicated to my own personal musings
surrounding that.
First off, what would happen if this theoretical new console should
be released and sell well? Perhaps the most obvious outcome of this
would be a growth in indie/low-budget game development. Apple and
Valve are well-known for their support of indies, Valve in particular
is known for hiring indie developers who demonstrate potential. (This
is how Portal became as well-known and loved as it is.) The Steam
library and Apple App Store have tons of games developed by people in
their basements/garages and available for very low prices. Should
they make it into console space, this would expand beyond the PC and
iPod markets and into the console space as well. Other console
manufacturers would be forced in turn to expand their own efforts in
the indie field. The focus would be on unique and interesting
gameplay experiences, broadening the creativity of the industry. Like
the Kickstarter campaigns, this would have the potential to bring
back games that require a bigger budget than most indies do, but not
the super-high budgets that AAA gaming has forced upon us. These
side-effects would be generally positive for the gaming industry. The
types of innovation that are only possible when games do not cost
hundreds of millions of dollars to make would be commonplace once
again. There would be no reason to constantly make safe games and
sequels galore.
The other positive of another company entering the console market is
the competition that would inspire. Although Apple and Valve are big
corporations themselves, the sheer notion of another force going up
against the behemoths of Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo would provoke
other firms into trying their hand at it as well. Having several
companies compete against each other in this space is good news for
consumers. We would benefit from the technologies and ideas in
introduced during such times. Furthermore, the competition would
drive down prices, as each company would need to compete even more
with all of its rivals for the consumers' collective interest. This
would be similar to the time when Sony entered the market previously
dominated by Nintendo and Sega. As many gamers are aware of already,
this is often considered to be a “Golden Age” in gaming as each
company was aiming to get all the game developers on their side.
Competition and innovation were both at a high, with the consumers
coming out on top. Many of the games from this era are still lauded
as classics. This, combined with what Apple and Valve bring with them
from the indie space, could do much good for gaming. I am not saying
that they would control the industry as well as Sony did, but it
would certainly be a much needed kick-in-the-pants for the big three.
But this would not come without a price, of course. Game publishers
are notorious for refusing to change until they have no other choice
but to do so. They believe that the business practices they use will
always work no matter what. Because of this, some of them will be
unable to adjust. This means that in this hypothetical console war,
there would be casualties. Many publishers, and the studios that they
own by proxy, would have to shut down, leaving many employees in the
industry jobless. This is not necessarily all bad. In the competitive
spirit bred by this console war, those who demonstrate great talent
in this industry would most likely be rehired by the studios that can
survive and thrive in this environment, allowing the true innovators
to continue bringing us great gaming experiences.
The flip-side is that in the unlikely event that Valve or Apple
decide to release a game console, it could just as easily fail.
Something like that would also have its own list of consequences. At
the foremost would be the message it would send to other companies
looking to expand into gaming. Having Apple or Valve fail at such a
major undertaking, despite their resources and expertise, would show
that it is impossible, or at least incredibly difficult, for other
companies to compete with the big three companies. Nobody else would
want to compete in this area, at least not for the short-term. Sony,
Nintendo, and Microsoft would continue their current lines of
thinking and strengthen their holds on the industry, emboldened by
the fall of the new guy. Major publishers also would probably
continue their current paths as well. Budgets will remain high until
they are no longer capable of sustaining the industry, at which point
they will be forced to change or fail anyway. Games will keep on as
they will.
Valve and/or Apple could radically change the gaming landscape. If
one of them were to release a new console, it would mean big things
for the industry. I remain unconvinced that it will happen,
nonetheless it is an interesting subject. Because there is not much
information to go on, a lot of this is speculative, without much in
the way of fact supporting it. Honestly, I am much more interested in
discussing this with my viewers than having them read my opinion. Let
me know in the comments below what you think would happen if Valve or
Apple were to become a force in the console war. I want to see what
other people have to say on this one.
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