As all three manufacturers announce new consoles for release within the next three years, what can we expect from the next generation of consoles?
How have consoles and games grown in the last generation? A wider variety of controls like Kinect, Wii Remote and multi-touch; better social tools like Steam groups, friends lists and Facebook updates; a sideways leap into movie rentals, digital comic books and television services; even smaller, indie games like Braid, Limbo and Stacking have gone from being marginal titles to some of the biggest on the download stores.
Video games are changing fast and no-one is entirely sure what the next big step will be or when it will hit us. Consoles of the future are therefore in need of flexibility and reactivity, with as few stumbling blocks to unexpected change as possible. With that in mind, I'd propose the following improvements for the next wave of hardware:
How have consoles and games grown in the last generation? A wider variety of controls like Kinect, Wii Remote and multi-touch; better social tools like Steam groups, friends lists and Facebook updates; a sideways leap into movie rentals, digital comic books and television services; even smaller, indie games like Braid, Limbo and Stacking have gone from being marginal titles to some of the biggest on the download stores.
Video games are changing fast and no-one is entirely sure what the next big step will be or when it will hit us. Consoles of the future are therefore in need of flexibility and reactivity, with as few stumbling blocks to unexpected change as possible. With that in mind, I'd propose the following improvements for the next wave of hardware:
