The Video Game Revue

The King-Makers

How's it going? Long time, no see. I've been playing a lot of games lately, including Battlefield 2, Burnout: Revenge, Disgaea, Advance Wars: Dual Strike, and piles of others. I just picked up We Love Katamari today.

Now that we're all caught up, a rant:

The King-Makers

This is a variation on a rant that I've been making for a long time now. Basically, I think that every console fan reaches a point where they realise that hardware issues (graphics capabilities, CDs versus carts, fancy new controllers) are not what wins console wars--it's all about the games. And because games are the proverbial trump card, what third-party developers a console is able to bring into the fold matters a lot. To make this point clear, today, I am going to cite historical evidence.

Every hardcore gamer knows that console wars are as old as consoles themselves. Way back, before my time, the Atari 2600 ruled the world. Then there was a clash between the next-gen Atari and the Colecovision, and the Colecovision--with inferior hardware specs--won out because it had better games. Then there was a clash between the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and the Sega Master System, which NES won. That was the 8-bit generation. The 16-bit generation was Sega Genesis versus Super NES (SNES), and every gamer worthy of calling himself or herself a "gamer" should be aware of that match-up. Then there was the 32-bit gen with Sega Saturn, PlayStation, a whole bunch others, and Nintendo 64. Since then there hasn't really been a "bit" generation; there's just been Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 versus XBox versus GameCube, and now PlayStation 3 versus XBox 360 versus Revolution. Welcome to present day.

In terms of how these conflict play out, not as much has changed as you might imagine. Companies still try to sell consumers based on abstract hardware stats, and consumers still bite on the console with the best games even if they don't realise that that's what they're really doing. Consider PSP versus Nintendo DS. Most reasonable people would agree that the PSP is a more interesting toy as far as hardware is concerned, but the DS is blowing past the PSP in sales simply because of fun little games like Nintendogs, Advance Wars, and Kirby: Canvas Curse. We don't buy platforms for the inert hardware--we buy them for the games.

And now for a classic story of the greatest blunder that Nintendo has ever made. Virtual Boy? Oh no, my friends--I mean the Nintendo 64. Wipe that look of horror off of your face. Yes, I'm sure you loved the N64--we all did. But it was still a dismal failure compared to the Sony PlayStation, and you have to admit that Nintendo dropped the ball in a big way. They went from an unstoppable first-place control over the console market (16 bit generation) to a distant 2nd place for the 32 bit generation (in North America; 3rd place behind the Sega Saturn in Japan), and now a strong 3rd place showing with the GameCube. Will they make up lost ground with Revolution? As much as I love Nintendo, I am cautiously skeptical of that. We can all plainly see that with they don't appear to want to take on Sony and Microsoft head-on.

So what caused this huge blunder? What's the big deal? For those of you who were around during the glorious NES and SNES days, think back for a second. What were some of the quintessential Nintendo games at the time? Sure, there was Mario, Zelda, Metroid, F-Zero, Star Fox, and Kirby. Those games sure did shine as jewels in Nintendo's crown. But there was also Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, Mega Man, Street Fighter, Castlevania, Gradius, and other such games. Hypothetically speaking, would Nintendo have been as strong without those other great games? You see, what I'm really asking here is, even if you're the strongest first-party game developer in the world (congratulations Nintendo, you're still #1), don't you still need third-party titles to captivate your fans?

This exact question came to a head during the climax of the 32 bit generation battle. Every console gamer alive was ready to pour their money into the Nintendo 64 until Squaresoft announced that Final Fantasy VII would be exclusive to the PlayStation. So are you a Squaresoft fan, or a Nintendo fan? Because from now on, you can't be both. It was a very divisive issue, and it wasn't just Squaresoft that stood on Sony's side: Namco had brought games like Tekken 2, Soul Blade, and Ridge Racer, Konami had brought Vandal Hearts and Suikoden (and would later bring Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and the ever important Metal Gear Solid), and Capcom had brough Resident Evil. Nintendo fans had to kiss Final Fantasy, Gradius, and Mega Man bye-bye, except that most of the truly hardcore Nintendo fans (*ahem*) wouldn't take it. We jumped ship.

I never learned to love Sony. Sony is an ugly bride, at best. But the Nintendo 64 was a wasteland--to live with the N64 was to not truly have console games at all, and meanwhile being with Sony meant that I could continue to see all of my favourite 3rd party developers. The PlayStation was not made a success by any game that Sony's in-house developers ever made--it was entirely made by it's legendarily strong third party line-up.

And to this day, I swear allegiance to no console-maker. I am a former retainer to Nintendo, forced to abandon my loyalties during days of utter darkness, and now I leap from console to console at the whims of the true king-makers: publishers like Square-Enix, Konami, Capcom, and Namco. I still visit my Nintendo homelands, but these days they pale in comparison to what they once were. The NES and SNES were the city of light of the console gaming world, and now the light of the world has gone out. Where there used to be Rome, there is now Disneyland.

So take my word for it: whether or not the Nintendo Revolution succeeds--or even the XBox 360 or PlayStation 3--does not depend on stuff like wireless networking, tilt-sensitive controllers that look like remote control units, or how many millions of triangles per second the graphics hardware can render. It depends on who has the attention of the third-party developers, and which platform ends up with the most appealing line-up of games.

posted by Parappa @ 2:02 PM