Saturday Soapbox: A Console At The Center Of Your Entertainment Life
Saturday 18 July 2009 @ 5:35 am | By Sol 5 Comments
It’s no surprise console makers want further penetration into a consumer base. Microsoft plans to bring a music service to the 360; Sony is trying to expand PSN Home into… something. The key idea is incorporating the console into the center of your life. The Wii brought together the family and expanded casual games. Project Natal and the Sony Wand hope to not only accomplish this on their platforms, but are aiming to do so much more. It remains to be seen how well it is pulled off, but you can expect future generations of these device is improve exponentially.
As someone who owns all 3 consoles, must be connected to the internet and has a DirectTV Tivo, the consoles are not far off from being the primary sources of entertainment. My Wii is what I use for parties; the Xbox is great for multiplayer gaming, community, Netflix, and demos; my PS3 is the BluRay powerhouse and solo-gaming (RPG mostly) system.
The online experience is an untapped market for these machines. Google has revolutionize information cataloguing. Amazon has brought together a review community and personalization into a highly niche targeted environment. Imagine being on XBL and based upon your ratings, social-network likes and dislikes, you have targeted ads that compel you to purchase/demo a product/game, all with more information readily available and easily navigable.
The question I ask myself: do I want to be so reliant on these gaming companies?
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Abraham 'Velcor' Duarte
David 'KidKobun' Bruno
Ivan 'Nahu' Lozano
Random J
Reliant? There is always somewhere outdoors to walk, books to read, and other avenues to explore for entertainment. ;p
It is obvious that the gaming companies want to be the one box for any home entertainment set up. Even the previously games-only Nintendo has the photo and internet channels for the Wii. I think it’s good for these companies to aim for the home entertainment hub. I would like to switch between movies, music, and games without fumbling over multiple remote controls or multiple discs.
Exactly. It’s all about efficiency. But what I could see being a problem is if companies make gaming the secondary aspect of their console rather than the primary aspect. For example, Sony wasn’t doing too well with the PS3 in the beginning (and even now are not doing that great) because they were focusing too much on the Blu-ray aspect of it.
Well, reliant may be too strong a word. But every gamer knows another that solely relies on their console for their primary source of entertainment.
Of course, most gamers do not care about the other options that are available on the console (for example internet browsing). But when those options are there, more people will be interested in getting that particular console. For example, the upcoming Facebook support on the Xbox 360 will surely expand the market for it and will increase (potential) sales.
See how Netflix has become so popular on the Xbox 360, those secondary aspects help a console become the media center of the living room and bring families together and add a social aspect to the once “only gaming” consoles.
To think i felt bad for listening to music on the PSP, and in the end, i spent listening my tunes on the N95 instead. Every device wants to become the home media center. I guess this is kind of like when you are dating: the consumers decide how much are they willing to let the consoles advance more bases up or down there.