Ah, nostalgia. Remember the days when all you did with a console was plug in a cartridge and go? Simpler times and, in the opinion of some members of TheSixthAxis’ staff, better times. Your console rarely froze or broke, and if it did it could normally be solved by blowing in it. Now consoles take time to turn on before I get close to the lengthy credits sequence of a game, blowing in them stopped working a long time ago and they do so much more than just playing games.
See the recent 3.40 firmware for the PS3 kicked me off thinking about how consoles have evolved into multi-use media centres. It included some updates to the way that Facebook integrates with the PS3, pulling photos and comments onto the system. Now this may seem completely normal in this generation, but just look at your old Master System or even PS1 and think about the sentence again. Try and combine that sentence with unassuming boxes we used to own. Some how the two just don’t fit together at all.
I don’t know why this really struck me, but it does just seem odd that machines we still call games consoles now do so much. You can play films, talk to friends, update the internet to what you’re doing, publish videos, look at photos, browse the web and even, get this, play games. Yes it’s nice to have a converged media-interweb-social-blogging-flibbetijib-gaming device of some kind, but I’m not utterly convinced we need all of those features on a box that’s supposed to play games. I mean for a start my laptop can do all of the extra features, and do most of them as well if not better than any console can.
Maybe I’m just being old-fashioned and we shouldn’t let all the power of modern consoles go to ‘waste’ when we’re not playing games. Perhaps it is better to have a complex device that does everything under the sun, but personally I’d rather have a few devices that do each task well rather than one device that does everything averagely. That’s why even though my phone can sync perfectly well with iTunes, I still have an iPod. It’s just better at the job.
How do you feel on this issue? Should our consoles be multi-use, or should they be just for gaming? Do we need all these add ons? Was it simpler when just popped in a cartridge and you were away? Or do you just want one thing that does everything you could ever need?
Finally, before I get questions about it tomorrow the scheduling of some regular features is getting tweaked. So in place of a Lunchtime Discussion on Friday’s, you’ll now have Friday Fight moved up to the 12 o’clock slot. Treat Lewis nicely now.
theDAZBOMEGATRON
If it “only does everything”, then thats great, but I’d rather it does what it needs to do as best as is humanly possible.
Take the web browser, it’s so poor at what it’s meant to do so Sony should either fix it or drop it.
If it has a DVD player, then it should play DVD’s (original xbox), PS3 has bluray and it plays bluray movies. But these extras should be added ONLY if the console cannot operate without it.
The 360 can play various video formats and even some HD formats, but in reality its an horrendous addition that is so problematic that I never use the 360 for video, I only use the PS3
A simile is your windows OS, as a gamer or advanced user you will know that one of the first things you do is drop ALL the services and software that isn’t needed.
My point? I dunno…
ah yeah, keep it as simple as possible, and do what it has to do as good as possible.
haz360
Personally I love having a games console (PS3) that can do everything. Obviously if the gaming side of it was poor, the other features would be pointless anyway but as the gaming is so good, any additional features are a welcome bonus.
For example, I love watching Doctor Who/Top Gear/Mock the Week on my HD TV using the iPlayer, rather than on my laptop. PlayTV means that I can watch and record freeview, upscaled, without the need for another large box next to my TV. Granted, things like the web browser can be done a lot better on my laptop (Firefox ftw) but being able to stream movies from my laptop to my TV via the PS3 would be missed if it was taken away.
All in all, if the gaming bit is done as near to perfection as possible, everything else is just a bonus. Someone out there is going to use the additional functionality, if it’s not you, simply don’t use it, there’s no harm it just being there, and enjoy the things useful to you.
TSBonyman
I use the PS3 for everything but sometimes i long for the simpler days when it was just about the games.
TSBonyman
Gaming, browsing internet while listening to music(like now), watching/streaming movies from multiple sources and some folding too, my PS3 only sleeps when i do.