by Jack Merridew

Created on: August 17, 2010   Last Updated: June 20, 2011

Gaming consoles and their games and accessories hamper their own success with excessive prices. Although hype for new systems and expanding technology may be strong, the end of the day perspective of a consoles success comes from its impact on the market. The future of gaming, one of the most influential arenas for the diversion of the human mind, must be one that is accessible to people of all income levels.

FIVE-HUNDRED DOLLAR SYSTEM LAUNCH BLUES

We've all drooled over the next-gen consoles; any gamer would be a fool to admit they haven't. The sleek cases, the futuristic controllers, the multiplayer connectivity, and of course the games that envelope our thoughts with strategies that renew our imagination; but at what price? 249 dollars for a Nintendo Wii? 299 for an XBox 360? 499 for a Playstation 3? Consoles of the last decade have traditionally debuted at an astonishing six-hundred dollars, and as time moves on eventually reach three-hundred dollars or lower; however, games for new consoles seem to remain fixed at forty to sixty dollars brand new. Console accessories and controllers are insanely expensive, fetching sometimes forty dollars a controller. The average American family, in the worst economy in recent history, will soon shun console gaming if this trend continues.

A "DO-EVERYTHING" MACHINE FUTURE

Designers of future consoles would do well to expand their system's capabilities. The reason gaming consoles haven't made computers obsolete is that computers can still do a myriad of things consoles can't. Computers can access the Internet swiftly and in a format people are used to, they can access multimedia and play and share it for you with ease, and they are built with the RAM and processors needed for intense gaming. In light of its power and versatility, a computer is a more worthy investment. Computers, when built right, either rival or utterly dominate consoles in terms of gaming capabilities. An amazing side-by-side comparison of this theory is further substantiated by this review at Gamespot.com.

Future consoles should expand into things the computer makes convenient, such as email and instant messaging. Consoles of the future should also continue to double as a home media device, such as a blu-ray player, to make the consumer feel like they're receiving a two-for-one. Gimmicks involving voice recognition and motion capture should be aborted for the time-being as they are just not practical to gaming (yet). For example: although having praised the game "Tom Clancy's End War" for its innovative voice recognition features, Gamespot.com also remarked, "You cannot rely completely on the microphone-at least, not if you intend to be competitive.".

THE STATE OF GAMING

Gaming should look at its past for guidance into the future. The Playstation 2, for example: a high-powered console for its time with an ample library of games, exclusive rights to game developers, and in its last incarnation, a slim system about the size and weight of a chapter book. The PS2 is very soon going to move into its second decade of existence. The current offerings by Sony and Microsoft, the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360, have seen "ring of death" hardware failures, and most recently a month-long multiplayer network outage. Meanwhile, the Nintendo Wii has been both hailed and attacked as the new harbinger of the "casual gamer" revolution.

To rest my case, the big three in the home gaming industry should evaluate their current situation and learn from it. Consoles need to be affordable, or else they will remain an unattainable luxury for the majority of us.

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