Today was yesterday’s tomorrow
Shouldn’t we all be zipping
around in flying cars or have a house full of robots by now? It’s 2010, but
apparently we aren’t as far along as everyone thought we should be.
Speculations are just that, and they don’t always pan out. Before we go getting
all futuristic this year, let’s take a look back at some video game predictions
and quotes and see what happened.
“You’re living right now in the year of the Dreamcast” – Official
Dreamcast 
Magazine, Issue #4, March 2000
This statement was so
painfully and literally correct. The Sega Dreamcast launched on September 9,
1999 (9/9/99) with successful launch sales. The console was eventually the
leader in sales, but only for about a year. As 2000 came to an end, so did the success
of the Dreamcast. Sega couldn’t compete with the Playstation 2 that launched
only a year later. On January 31st, 2001, Sega announced they would
stop producing the Dreamcast hardware (not even two years after its launch).
The Xbox hadn’t even been released at the time the Dreamcast was killed. This
would also be the last hurrah for Sega’s hardware endeavors.
These
days Sega sticks to software; publishing and developing games for companies
that were once their rivals. Some of their notable current-gen titles are House of the Dead Overkill, Valkyria
Chronicles, and the refreshingly weird Bayonetta.
Since fleeing the hardware scene, they’ve even put Sonic in games with Mario,
which would have been sacrilege when I was growing up.
“This is the kind of business where you can make
money out of a simple idea, and when people say ‘we are going to make a
‘movie-type game’, they are saying ‘let’s spend so much money on the gorgeous
graphics and sound’.” – Nintendo designer and producer Shigeru
Miyamoto, Sept. 3, 2002
Wow. When Miyamoto said
this, he had just been talking about the Gamecube, but this seems to be
prophetic of the currently unstoppable Wii. Miyamoto is a smart man who knows
how to make money and his “simple idea” led to Nintendo getting back on top in
the console wars. The technology of the Wii blew socks off of feet when it came
out, but it really is a somewhat simple concept if you think about it. The Wii
remote combines an infrared remote (which is nothing new) with an accelerometer
to allow for your actions to be translated on-screen. It’s not too far-out, but
it was innovative and captivating.
As
for the graphics and sound, the Wii does not
support High-Definition video output or HDMI cables of any kind. In the sound
department, you’re stuck with left and right stereo cables that at best can get
you Dolby Pro-Logic II separation. Digital sound output via optical or HDMI
cables are not an option. All of this sounds sub-par when compared to the
competing consoles (that support all of the above), but it obviously doesn’t
matter. The Wii is currently the best-selling console on the market, proving
Miyamoto right.
“Our studies have concluded that the network won't be
in place to do digital distribution of full games until 2020 to 2025.” – Gamestop COO Dan DeMatteo, Sept. 8, 2008
You wish, Dan. There are
currently 82 full games that can be downloaded on Xbox Live. Yeah, 82 games
that were once on a disc can now be downloaded without leaving your house. The
Playstation Network and Virtual Console on the Wii also have downloadable
titles of previous-gen games.
“Are there two versions of the Xbox 360 that people
want to buy? I don't know. I look at these formats. It just confuses the
audience. They don't know which one to buy, developers don't know which one to
create for, and retailers don't know which one to stock. So I think we wouldn't
take that strategy. We wouldn't create confusion.” - former
representative director of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. Phil Harrison,
August 31, 2005
Confusion is, in fact, what
Sony has created with their different versions of the Playstation 3. There are
five different versions of the original non-slim PS3, each with a different
hard drive size (20, 40, 60, 80, and 160 GB) and varying features that have
been added or removed such as backwards compatibility of PS2 software, number
of USB ports, and flash memory
readers. Now there is a slim version with a 120 GB hard drive. Are you confused
yet?
“We don't pick up games that don't have the potential
to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential…” – CEO &
President of Activision-Blizzard Bobby Kotick, November 5, 2008
This was very apparent when
8 “Hero” games were launched in 2009 (five Guitar
Hero iterations, plus Band Hero
and DJ Hero). Activision also dropped
games such as Brütal Legend, Ghostbusters, and The Chronicles of Riddick when they bought the company Vivendi
Games. I guess they just didn’t have “sequel potential”. When EA picked up Brütal Legend, Activision filed a
lawsuit like a jealous ex-spouse.
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PHOTO CREDIT | Dreamcast - http://www.gamover.fr/home/uploads/images/Articles/Dreamcast.png, Bobby Kotick - http://pub.tv2.no/multimedia/na/archive/00717/Robert-Bobby-Koti_7170954x3.jpg, Activision logo - http://www.microsistemi.com/img/Logo-Activision.jpg, Brutal Legend - http://images.fragland.net/screenshots/3946/537418934.jpg, PS3 - Http://blog.al.com/techcetera/2007/10/PS3side.jpg
