When I first heard the rumours of the Next Generation of consoles, I groaned inwardly. I like my tech, and I love playing with new toys, but they’re just starting to get a real handle on the current generation.
As any gaming tech gets more mature you start to see developers doing things that you didn’t think were possible in the beginning. I saw this with the Commodore 64, the Gamecube, the PS-2, the original XBox and now the XBox 360.
Now we’ll have a new generation of both PlayStation and XBox which developers will have to learn and get familiar with. Production pipelines will change and undoubtedly things will have to be higher resolution with more polygons and therefore are more likely to be more expensive (in both time and money) to produce. None of this necessarily impacts on how good a game is to play – and I’m cynical enough to believe that more time spent on ‘pretty’ is less time spent on ‘gameplay’.
So a new generation didn’t excite me. Then I saw the first teasers of the XBox One (or XBone as many are already calling it) and that ‘new tech puppy’ part of me sat up and decided it wanted some of that.
This lasted until the next set of rumours emerged. These rumours suggested the XBone will need to have an ‘always on’ interwebs connection. They suggested that you would need the Kinect 2 to be always on, and that it could (and might) monitor what you do. They suggested that you wouldn’t be able to trade in games or buy used games.
Even the techpuppy part of me wilted at that point and thought “nope, not for me.”.
Now, apparently, Microsoft have done a quick about turn, and said that at least the interwebs connection and the lack of game trading will be rethought. So there might be hope yet.
Was I one of those that originally said “Sorry Microsoft, Sony get my business now?” Actually no. It’s not because I’m a rabid anti-Sony fangirl, or a rabid Microsoft fangirl. It’s purely because ever since the PS2 (I never tried the PS1) I just can’t seem to get on with the controller. There’s something about the positioning of the thumbsticks that means I just can’t seem to control things properly. For that reason I’ve avoided the Sony world – though of course I play up the anti-Sony rabidity as often as possible just to annoy people.
So will I get an XBone or PS4? I’m hoping I’ll say “no”. I started out not wanting a new generation because of the issues that usually raises. I still think that way.
But that little techpuppy … it won’t be so easily silenced. Damn you, Microsoft!
