Pros and Cons of Multiplats

[samsonlonghair]

Unless you're someone who waits until a system is dead to buy it to get insane deals as people dump their junk for the next.

That's my trick. I jump in on a console at the end of its life during the transition stage to its successor. Everybody's dumping their stock for the old console and prices are crazy cheap. Also the library is huge by then and you get to cherry pick the very best stuff based on plenty of review information. So it's cheap awesome game after cheap awesome game for a good long while. Last-gen gaming has a lot of advantages. The biggest disadvantage is you're always late to the party.

This is exactly how I roll too.

Really though, Nuon should have been the final console. A DVD player that plays games - what more is there? More advanced titles released subsequently could have gone straight to PC. I'm only half-kidding.

Some of the most clever things are half joke and half truth.

One of the reasons I think standardization should be the ultimate goal, the only issue is how to do that. PCs are the closest thing we have to this with any company being able to supply hardware that's all essentially compatible with game settings being adjustable for the hardware its running on.

I understand the argument for standardization. It makes logical sense from the consumer standpoint. But here's the problem: examples of console hardware standardization are nearly always failed attempts.

Consider the Nuon technology that Bone mentioned. Consider the Real 3DO, Apple Bandai Pipp!n, Amiga CD-TV, and the plethora of licensed clones of Arcadia 2001 hardware. Consider all the android micro-consoles that emerged in the wake of the ouya. Each of these tried to standardize video game hardware; each failed. Maybe the reason why they failed is because exclusive games are the games that sell consoles.

The only success story of console standardization is probably the XBOX. Even there, it's not true standardization as we cannot easily pop those XBOX game discs in a PC, but porting to PC is much simpler.

These points are all arguable. Caveats abound. Still, I'm thinking there's a reason why most attempts at console standardization fall flat.

[ElkinFencer10]

You also run into the problem (especially with Nintendo's games) that the really really good ones sometimes get really expensive

It's true that some titles get really expensive due to limited runs and scarcity, but I think that since most the library will be hugely discounted, it balances out in the last-gen gamer's favor overall. First party Nintendo game prices live in their own world though, and are outside the equation entirely.

Oh, you're absolutely right that the majority of games depreciate like crazy. That's just why I adopt early for a minority of my collection - the games I REALLY want to play or think will probably get crazy expensive in the future, I buy new whereas I wait for others until they're "old." I got the entire Uncharted series for $10 that way. Of course I also bought the remastered collection on PS4 when I saw how damn pretty it is at a solid 60 fps, but that's a different issue entirely. >_<

[Tanooki]

Eh I bought Uncharted collection too, but that's because I found out QVC was selling it for $30+shipping+tax ($35.) I wasn't going to ever cough up $60 for a remaster. Same with the black thursday night sales of $40 PS4 games for $15 when I got the FF10 and GOW3 remakes. It's sad, but the best buys I've had in a year other than Godzilla have been remasters. Shows how worthless pretty much these new systems are when the unique games are the remakes mostly as the other crap can be bought on PC or elsewhere.

As far as what exhuminator said -- Nintendo lives in it's little world onto itself where since they went online with a shop they now under produce games so they can peddle same price downloads. You either buy the game now, or pay more later once the scarce copies are gobbled up. You're better off buying the game new, sitting on it, and if you never get a 3DS or specially a WiiU, sell them as sealed games and make a tidy profit which is a disgusting truth they created. If you have no care for Nintendo, and don't care to dudebro it up online in lame online session chats/games buy the games a year or three(system replacement time cycle) plus later and get the stuff insanely cheap. You're missing nothing if you don't care about bragging about playing the 69th revision of Call of Medal of Gears of Halo or something of the sort.

[ElkinFencer10]

You're missing nothing if you don't care about bragging about playing the 69th revision of Call of Medal of Gears of Halo or something of the sort.

Reading that made me spit my all over the floor. Your post was so serious and to-the-point, and then that joke.

[Gunstar Green]

One of the reasons I think standardization should be the ultimate goal, the only issue is how to do that. PCs are the closest thing we have to this with any company being able to supply hardware that's all essentially compatible with game settings being adjustable for the hardware its running on.

I understand the argument for standardization. It makes logical sense from the consumer standpoint. But here's the problem: examples of console hardware standardization are nearly always failed attempts.

Consider the Nuon technology that Bone mentioned. Consider the Real 3DO, Apple Bandai Pipp!n, Amiga CD-TV, and the plethora of licensed clones of Arcadia 2001 hardware. Consider all the android micro-consoles that emerged in the wake of the ouya. Each of these tried to standardize video game hardware; each failed. Maybe the reason why they failed is because exclusive games are the games that sell consoles.

The only success story of console standardization is probably the XBOX. Even there, it's not true standardization as we cannot easily pop those XBOX game discs in a PC, but porting to PC is much simpler.

These points are all arguable. Caveats abound. Still, I'm thinking there's a reason why most attempts at console standardization fall flat.

Those failed examples come from a time when hardware itself wasn't really standard across the board though. We've reached a point now where it pretty much is. Just because it was before its time then doesn't mean we're not ready for it now.

Modern PCs pretty much are this already, as most "exclusives" tend to end up as PC releases later on down the line and this hardware standardization gives people more choices regarding their game providers unlike a branded home console that locks you into one company's selection.

That's just my point of view anyway. I don't see any advantages to consoles anymore.

[Sarge]

The thing with Nintendo, though, is that this isn't anything new. Nintendo titles, even before the digital age, commanded a premium for a long, long time. And I see them quite often in stores for the full retail price, so it's not that there isn't stock. They know the games sell at full-to-near-full price, barring some catastrophe. The more oddball titles do typically have lower print runs... as has always been the case as well. Look at the Fire Emblem games on Wii and Gamecube. Some of the demand now, though, is the usual flipper/collector market going bonkers over the least little comment (see: Bayonetta 2). I see the same sort of panic that drives the NES market to insanity happening with even more modern games, and it's a bit ridiculous.

And even with that terrible bit of news, at least we do have digital downloads now, so if we can't secure a physical copy, we can still play it, and typically at a significant discount from the now-insanely-priced physical. And the digital copies don't seem to affect the collector market much at all (see Suikoden II, for example).

[ElkinFencer10]

The thing with Nintendo, though, is that this isn't anything new. Nintendo titles, even before the digital age, commanded a premium for a long, long time. And I see them quite often in stores for the full retail price, so it's not that there isn't stock. They know the games sell at full-to-near-full price, barring some catastrophe. The more oddball titles do typically have lower print runs... as has always been the case as well. Look at the Fire Emblem games on Wii and Gamecube. Some of the demand now, though, is the usual flipper/collector market going bonkers over the least little comment (see: Bayonetta 2). I see the same sort of panic that drives the NES market to insanity happening with even more modern games, and it's a bit ridiculous.

And even with that terrible bit of news, at least we do have digital downloads now, so if we can't secure a physical copy, we can still play it, and typically at a significant discount from the now-insanely-priced physical. And the digital copies don't seem to affect the collector market much at all (see Suikoden II, for example).

I think digital copies seem to have *some* effect on the collector market in the short term (Earthbound's price dropped by about 40% for a good 6 months or so when it hit the Wii U VC), but you're right in that those little fluctuations tend to bounce back quickly.

I typically detest digital games (not their existence but just in my personal collection; I'm all for having as much digitally available as possible), but some games (like Suikoden and, at least at first for me, Earthbound) get added to my exception list just because of how prohibitive the price of a physical copy tends to be.

[Exhuminator]

Never thought I'd see the day where Sarge would defend digital downloads.

[Sarge]

Ha! Well, I certainly prefer physical, but if I can't get access that way, I want to be able to get it somehow. Like if I didn't own a copy of Suikoden II, I'd be one of the people chomping at the bit to get the PSN version.

Oh, right, a better example might be me snagging the XBLA version of Guardian Heroes. I'll probably never be able to own the Saturn version for a decent price, so that was an awesome way to get the game legit.

[ElkinFencer10]

Ha! Well, I certainly prefer physical, but if I can't get access that way, I want to be able to get it somehow. Like if I didn't own a copy of Suikoden II, I'd be one of the people chomping at the bit to get the PSN version.

Pretty well sums up my feelings about the matter, as well.