At least Ubisoft seems to think so. An article from GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that Ubisoft is already adding staff to work on future technology and development for new consoles in 2012. Mind you this comes with no announcements from Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo regarding any new consoles.
As a gamer, I don’t even want to start thinking about the next generation of home consoles. And if I were Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo, I wouldn’t want to either. Both Sony and Microsoft have been hit hard with layoffs while Nintendo continues to annihilate everything in its path with the Wii and DS, so they have no need to come out with another console. But that’s from a business standpoint.
So why do developers think it’s a good idea to start working on next-gen stuff instead of perfecting the hardware that’s already out? They should be rewarding gamers who invest a great amount of time and money into their hobby with great, worthwhile products throughout a console’s lifespan. Instead, you sometimes see developers half-assing it through the second half of a console’s lifecycle because they’re starting to focus on the next console. Granted this isn’t probably true for most devs, but hearing that a major third party developer like Ubisoft is already ramping up for the next generation of consoles bugs me.
Let’s not forget that some of a system’s best games come late in its lifecycle. The PS2 had God of War II, Rogue Galaxy, Persona 3, Odin Sphere, and recently Persona 4 and Yakuza 2. The Nintendo 64 had Conker’s Bad Fur Day. All were late-in-cycle games that were released to critical acclaim. There’s no reason why this can’t happen on the Wii, Xbox 360, or especially PS3.
Of all the systems, the PS3 has the best chance to actually be a leader in hardware, yet it’s last. It has the most value of the three consoles, but its price point is still holding it back. It is super powerful and uses Blu-Ray discs that can hold a crap ton of data, yet we still see multiplatform games that look worse and underperform on it. Sony has continued to hype it as a system with tremendous pontential that will last 10 years, but how much longer will it be before gamers just don’t care anymore? Pontential isn’t worth anything if it’s never used, and I think we’re only just beginning to see what it is capable of. Now is the time for developers to really start tapping into that pontential and create something that’s mind-boggling-oh-my-God-awesome, so why ruin that with talks of the next wave of systems?
Same with the Xbox 360, and even the Wii. You can argue all you want that the 360 has maybe already seen its peak, but I refuse to believe that we’ve seen all that the system can do in terms of graphics, AI, online multiplayer features, and so on. And the Wii, for as well as it’s doing, hasn’t done much interesting with its revolutionary motion controls at all…besides having players waggle them mindlessly to perform non-waggle-related actions. I got shivers when I realized the motion-control potential the Wii has when I first opened a door in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, or played Wii Sports. Shivers I tell ya! Give us more of that, like something with 1:1 motion, or at least to start, something other than carnival and party games.
Also, I’d like to note that even though the 360 and PS3 are coming down in price, that doesn’t make them cheap by any means, especially for new adopters. How would you like to be rewarded after buying your shiny new system with the info that a new one is coming out in a few years? Kind of a diminishing, I’d imagine. A buzzkill, if you will.
And if you’re an early adopter like me, who damn near went broke buying a new 360 and PS3 (and Wii if you were lucky enough to find one), you want every last bit of potential to be used in your systems. You are going to want to see great games coming out and pushing the envelope well into the system’s life.
So, please developers, make this happen. Don’t jump ship early and leave us stranded with mediocore dross until the next "best system" arrives. The pontential is there. It’s always there, it’s just up to developers to recognize that and utilize it.
