This won't end console wars, not by a long shot. There is nothing unique about the actual GAME PLAY. Who gives a rats butt how it is distributed. It may be where things are heading eventually, but good luck getting 5MB's on your local broadband to stream HD. We have pretty good cable broadband here in Rochester, and I'm lucky to get half that on my network.
The Wii was a revolution because it changed the way we played games. Until someone can top how we interact with games, I see nothing revolutionary about this system. Sounds more like a business model than a gaming console.
I don't see this going anywhere unless they have a HUGE advertising budget, and some kick butt games designed only for this system.
GJ said about 16 hours later
You miss the point. First, 5MB broadband isn't very far off--you can already get it in many countries, it's just not generally available here in this backwater country. Second, and more importantly...the client hardware is irrelevant to the game being played.
Got an XB360, but want to play a PS3 title today? You're out of luck. This system--no problem.
Got an older computer, way behind specs to play any games released in the past three years? Today, you're out of luck. This system--no problem, since the game runs on the server hardware.
So, Geoff--it ends the console wars by making consoles obsolete. Make sense now?
Geoff said about 16 hours later
Kind of. But generally speaking the games sell the system. If this virtual console has no good games, then you still need your console. That's the one thing most consoles are usually good at providing...a few killer games. Obviously you have your universal EA, SEGA, etc... games, but Nintendo isn't giving up Mario. Will the Rock Band instruments works with this system? Who knows. Time will tell whether THIS will be the ultimate system. It's definitely a cool idea...but they are going to need some serious server space and power to run this on a global scale.
He's talking about broadband as it exists today in the States. Remember my "backwater" comment? The USA is way behind Europe and Japan / Korea in terms of broadband speed available to consumers. What's required by this service exists in other locations--and the USA doesn't dominate the worldwide consumer market like it once did, so they could potentially roll this out and not have to worry about the US catching up right away.
You talk about games selling the systems--I would agree. With the glaring exception of Nintendo, however, the big sellers on console systems are not made or distributed by the console makers. If an alternative arrives that can wipe out the upgrade cycle, it will cream the hardware market.
Now, of course, you bring up a good point about backwards compatibility. That'll be an interesting nut to crack, especially for games like GH which have system-specific hardware. GH isn't the end-all, be-all software, if anything it's at its apex and will decline from here. I don't know that it will be as big a problem in a year's time.
Geoff said about 18 hours later
This may be on a topic all on it's own, but is our inferior communications systems have more to due with our geographic size? By comparison, Japan and other European countries are tiny. Probably a bit easier to lay down FIOS lines in those smaller countries. And of course, Japans invents just about every cool electronic device there is, so it's natural they get dibs first.
GJ said about 19 hours later
It is more due to politics than geography. If it was geography, speeds would be lickety split in the cities, wouldn't they?
Geoff said about 19 hours later
Guess I'm thinking more about TV. This digital transition is like pulling teeth....
GJ said 1 day later
I've been digital for as long as I can remember. :)
Geoff said 1 day later
Yeah it must be those yahoos in Montana who have giant antennas for watching terrestrial analog and extraterrestrial aliens
GJ said 1 day later
Speaking of streetlights, anyone catch the one Google Street View caught the other day?
Marc said 1 day later
I'm very skeptical this product will work well, let alone ever exist. This smells like future vaporware to me. If it does come out though, it certainly could be a big player in the market.
GJ said 1 day later
It *is* the guy from WebTV, and we all know how well that worked out.
Geoff said 1 day later
Yeah I find it hard to believe they have an infrastructure to support this. There would be some serious server load and bandwidth needed to run this. Not to mention storing everything you do on the their system?
GJ said 1 day later
It's called virtualization, dude. It's been around before, this time around they call it cloud computing or somthing asinine like that. It does take some serious horseypower, but it's physically doable. It's the economic model I'm trying to figure out. Ad-revenue won't support this puppy.
