If you don’t already know, you will find out soon enough that I am a pretty avid gamer in many respects. I have been gaming on computers for about 10 years and I have been working with computers for 5 more than that. It is more of a hobby now and a way to pass the time, but I am still a hardcore techy at heart and I have more recently expanded my interests into console gaming. I suppose the largest reason for this move or merge would be that today’s consoles are so much more like computers than all previous generations that you are essentially playing a computer that has simply been made specifically for a set of functions. Just like your HTPC (Home Theater Computer) or TiVo box….just for gaming and/or entertainment.

This most recent generation of gaming involves the Nintentdo Wii, XBOX 360 and Sony Playstation 3. Now if you come from any kind of technical background, or follow the technology world often then you will already know that with this industry comes fierce competition and often times hatred not only between the companies themselves but by their loyal followers as well. The easiest comparison in the computer world to the debates in the console world is most obviously the Apple vs. PC debate. Being a PC user, but a level headed tech guy, I can appreciate all of these electronics but will not deny the feelings of affiliation at times. For instance, I obviously prefer a PC over Apple computers for a hundred reasons (one most obvious being gaming, which this post is about) but many others. This is not to say I can’t appreciate the machine that Apple makes or the software they produce….its all good and fine. But of course we can’t avoid the association that stuff has with its cultural following which is usually what most people start to like or dislike. I won’t go any further into the Apple vs. PC thing as it’s a long long argument and really not the point of this thread….but you get the point of the deep rooted competition and dislike.

Well, what sparked this thread I suppose was when I read the 2 recent announcements involving the 2 bigger platforms of this generation the 360 and the PS3. Now now, don’t go biting my head off. The Wii definitely is holding its own in this generation selling out all over the place and winning the hearts of many thousands of millions of people. But, the Wii is on its own playing field somewhere else not really competing with the 2 other consoles, and yours truly personal opinion is the Wii is a fun box where the 360 and PS3 are intense gaming/entertainment machines. I hope people don’t take that as a knock on the Wii…it just has its place for me.

Anyways, the 2 articles I am speaking of are :

1. Microsoft paying $50 million dollars for exclusive rights to GTA online chapter content

2. Microsoft suing Immersion over settlement with Sony over Rumble technology

The reason that these 2 articles made me write this were that they bothered me because both are neglecting the generation of gamers who are using the PS3. As a computer gamer, it has always been a fair playing field for either Intel, AMD or Nvidia, ATI(AMD) and they just had to come up with their best stuff to get customers. But, in console gaming the performance of your hardware probably only accounts for 50% of your success. Because the industry is so divided, the consumers are screwed into buying systems for exclusives, or in the case of these 2 articles of the company that bought most of the rights for technologies that they don’t even own. I don’t know who to blame….Microsoft or Immersion and Rockstar. This all coming from a guy who doesn’t even personally own any of these new generation of systems. Now up until this point, I guess my thoughts of made one believe I prefer the PS3 over the 360. But truthfully my case is for the buyer. I think we are getting the short hand in all these deals either by not having enough options or by crippling ourselves with the competition. I see the hatred of Microsoft gamers against Sony gamers and the other way around and while understandable as I have been through it in the PC world it is still hard to swallow and worse yet our options are so limited between 2 platforms that if one does horrible then we have no options at all.

So I guess what I am trying to talk about is the culture behind console gaming. It is very intense and very all over the place and I think in the long run it only hurts the gamers themselves. I love gaming, but I want to love it with everything and not be limited in my choices because one console fails, or one console buys the rights for everything or so on….anyways I have started to ramble so I will post later with a more focused topic:P hahaha

Cheers