The Game Plan 11.30.07: Is Gaming About Games Anymore?

Posted by James McGee on 11.30.2007

I pick on Sony this week by asking if they're really interested in games, or just in making a tricked-out Blu-ray player.

First off, my apologies for not getting the column up last week. I made some technical goof-ups, and the column never made it to 411 to be posted. I hope this week's double-dose of McGee goodness in the form of this column and my review of The Simpsons Game will make up for it all.

As much as I hate to do it, I'm going to pick on Sony this week. I love my Playstation 2—it's definitely my desert-island console—but with the one-year anniversary of the Playstation 3's launch upon us, I still can't find a reason to justify trading up to the shiny new system. There just aren't enough interesting games at present to make me want to drop that kind of money on a console. On the surface, Sony seems to be making it easier for me to take the next-gen plunge, because they've just released (another) new model, priced at a respectable $399 (still pretty bleeding high, but at least its better than $600). Sure, this version is a bit stripped down in terms of features, but it's mostly stuff that I can live with. Other than demos (which can easily be deleted) and the odd arcade title, I don't do much downloading, so the 40g hard-drive doesn't really phase me—it would be more than enough room to suit me for a good long while. The new model also features fewer USB ports and no media-card readers, but I don't use my consoles for slideshows, web-browsers, chatting, or any of that. That's why I have a PC. When it comes to my systems, I'm all about gaming.

So this new version of the PS3 seems geared more towards me, right? Yeah, you'd think so, except for the fact that there's one more, tiny feature that has been left out from previous incarnations of Sony's powerhouse system: no PS2 backwards compatibility. Sony assures me that they've done the research, and that backwards compatibility isn't important to most gamers. Well, it's important to this gamer. Maybe I'm in the minority on this, I don't know, but as insignificant as backwards compatibility might seem to some people, the fact that Sony dropped it as a priority is very telling. It's just another in the long line of decisions that make me wonder if console designers even care about games anymore. Join me, won't you, as I explore the question "Is gaming really about gaming anymore?" I'm James McGee, and here's The Game Plan.


Playstation 3: Setting the gaming world on fire…by moving it to the back burner.

When the current generation of machines first started to surface, you had Microsoft and Sony boasting that their consoles would be able to display photos, surf the web, download movies, play mp3s…pretty much everything short of slicing and dicing. Oh, and you could play games on them, too. Don't get me wrong—part of me just thinks all this stuff is the bee's knees. Technology is kind of like water for geeks, after all, and there's something undeniably cool about having a one-stop-shop device. But as neat as that seems in theory, in practice, no one is rushing out to replace all of their electronic equipment with a PS3 or Xbox 360. PCs and DVD players can do their specialized jobs a lot better than some machine that spreads itself so thin trying to be everything to everyone. When you think about it, even PCs aren't quite the multi-tasking masters they used to be. Is it possible to write term papers, balance your checkbook, edit video, mix audio, and play games on the same machine? Yes, but more often than not, people end up customizing their computer to fit their primary need, whether it be a home/office center, movie-maker, or high-end gaming powerhouse. When people buy a PC, they tailor it for what they want. Similarly, if I'm buying a game console, I'm buying a game console, period.

Really, I shouldn't be surprised that Sony is taking this course of action, because the PS2 was the starting point for this accursed trend of making gaming about everything except gaming. When the follow-up to the obscenely popular Playstation was first released, one of the big selling points was its ability to play DVDs. Just like Blu-Ray, it was a hot new format that a lot of people were curious about. Just as they've done with the PS3, Sony was able to tout the PS2 as a cheaper alternative to other DVD players on the market. The difference is that the Playstation 2 remained a very game-centric machine (including backwards-compatibility for PSOne games), with DVD playback marketed for the icing-on-the-cake that it was. The PS3, on the other hand…well, if I hear one more time about what an affordable Blu-Ray player it is, I might just scream. If Sony wants to make a cheap Blu-Ray player, then more power to them, but the Playstation 3 is (or at least should be) a gaming system first.


I'm Ricky Bobby…and I have nothing to do with video games.

Is a price-drop the way to "save" the PS3? It's certainly part of the puzzle, but more important is keeping games front and center. If dropping the price is going to make the gameplay experience suffer, then forget it. If dropping the price gets rid of the non-gaming rubbish that is clogging up modern consoles, then I'm all for it. As a geek, I think it's cool that I can download Austin Powers and watch it on my console. As a pure gamer, if my console is better at downloading movies, making a slide-shows, or playing a Blu-Ray flick than it is at being a gaming system, I don't have much use for it. I've spewed my fair share of venom at the Wii, but I have to applaud Nintendo for pouring a lot more energy into games than the secondary capabilities of its little console. Though Microsoft is guilty of excessive multi-tasking as well, at least they market the 360 as a game console that can do other things. Sony seems intent on selling the PS3 as a multi-media station that happens to play games. Why else would they pack the first PS3s not with a game, but with a Blu-Ray copy of Talladega Nights? How do they choose to celebrate the newest price-drop? By packing in a copy of Resistance: Fall of Man or Heavenly Sword? No, but you can sure watch Spider-Man 3 right out of the box.

Sony is starting to fill the void in terms of quality games. The long drought that followed Resistance at launch has since been sated a bit with Heavenly Sword, a new Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Folklore, Lair…Okay, maybe Lair is a bad example, but the rest of these games have received reviews ranging from thoroughly solid to great. Maybe they're not the revolution Sony promised, but the console is still young, and the good, noteworthy releases are getting a lot more frequent. Add these exclusives to the great third-party, multi-platform tiles available, and the PS3 still has more than a fighting chance…but only if they start treating it like a game console first. No system is going to become the multi-media hub Microsoft and Sony promised a few years back, at least not in this generation. Gamers may represent a small portion of the population as a whole, but they're a loyal bunch, and they're willing to spend a lot of money on their favorite pastime. It would behoove Sony (and others) to keep that in mind, and spend more time taking care of their core fanbase first instead of trying to rope in everyone else.