Alex St. John is, apparently, ‘the guy who talked Microsoft into the console business in the first place’, which is probably true, given how small a company Microsoft is, and how they can’t afford any advisers other than ‘Advice 4 U’ employee, Alex St. John. Makes total sense.
You know what makes even more sense? Listening to this guy ramble on about what’s “next” for the consoles…
Details on St. John’s predicted console apocalypse, after the jump.
St. John’s basic argument is that community aspects, not graphics, are the future of gaming. “Sony and Microsoft took the bet that prettier graphics would be the huge differentiating feature for their consoles. They were wrong.” St. John then proceeded to ramble on about MMOs and eventually started to advertise his new system, Orb, as the greatest thing the world has ever seen. Ok maybe it’s not that great, but even I have to admit it looks interesting.
Basically Orb attaches to your PC and let’s you play big name titles such as Bioshock or Assassins Creed for free, but on one condition: you have to let your game be “’sponsored’ by an advertiser’”. To put it bluntly this means the entire experience will be plastered with ads, which may sound unappealing at first, but, as St. John put it, ‘you can choose to pay to play the game ad-free, or have Coca-Cola run a 30 second ad while the game is loading’. Hmmm a few ads, or $60. It’s not a tough choice.
That said, isn’t one of the main appeals of console gaming not having to spend a fortune dumping barrel loads of money into your PC each year? When asked this very question St. John was strangely dismissive saying ‘it’s just as expensive to upgrade your console every few years’.
Well let’s do the maths shall we?
Let’s start with the initial costs: In the UK a decent PC will set you back about £500-£600, yet a 60GB 360 costs £200.
Ok, so the 360 came out on top with regards to initial cost, but there’s still the upgrading costs to come on the next page….
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Unfortunately this is not Alex St. Douchebag’s choice to make. Its the choice of video game publishers.
I’m sure EA could already give you their games for free with in-game advertising. But they can also sell them at $60 a pop and STILL fill the crap with ads.. So what do you think they’re gonna do?
Sony already put advertising in Planetside and then charged you the subscription fee and the cost of the game.
http://www.secretlair.com/images/entry_pics/planetside-ad05.jpg
I’m just surpised it never caught on.
It never caught on, caused it sucked… the game and the advertising + subscription fee…
i LOLed at the “not in a sexual way.”
yeah, this guy is dumb. plus, why attach a ball to your computer to do that crap when i’m sure someone could easily manage to provide the same service through your modem, no orbs attached.
“I’m just surpised it never caught on”
Maybe i need to make this clearer…
/sarcasm I’m just surpised it never caught on /sarcasm-end
I think the cost of keeping a PC upgraded is being exaggerated. I assembled my current PC two years ago for around $1000 and have made no upgrades to it since. At the time it was bleeding edge and I am currently playing COD4, Crysis and Supreme Commander at silky smooth frame rates. I think the only time you would be spending money like that is if you are buying the just released, bleeding edge video cards. Everything else is very reasonably priced. One of the key ways to save money with your PC is to build it yourself. Don’t go to Dell and buy one of their overpriced “leet” gaming rigs. Build your own, it will be cheaper, have better components and less of a need to upgrade because the manufacturer cheaped out on the basics.
I also take issue with the following quote.
“Of course, there’s the fact that every game has to be downloaded, which can be a pain if you want to play a game the day it comes out, instead of having it download overnight.”
This is not an issue these days. For example, on Steam, you buy the game 2 or 3 weeks prior to the release day, it preloads on your computer and is playable THE MINUTE the game releases.
Sorry, if I am ranting, I just felt the need to correct what I thought were exagerations.
To early to tell. If you try to predict this early your just gambling against the odds. He could be right but it’s just to eary to tell, and like Keith said it isn’t up to him.
@Attardog
You make a good point with the Steam pre-loading, but this would be using Orb, which might not have the pre-loading feature.
“The era of consoles defined by graphics and high-production values is over”
Yeah, because COD4 was such a failure.
I’m a console gamer (360) simply because it’s conveinent.
1. No compatibility problems
2. I have my friend list half full of real life friends.
3. It’s cheap.
4. I have a kickass audio/video system, and it’s just not the same when you plug in your PC…
@Attardog: You are dead on, my friend.
@Lono: Having played PlanetSide with the ads, it wasnt that bad…. if anything, it failed because there werent enough of them to be worth it to most advertising companies. (Basically, your home base and ONLY where you go to get on a drop ship had them on the walls as billboards.)
Now, onto the main point…. this thing will fail, and for one reason…. we have this in software already (its called Gametap).
I don’t want to come off as anti-console, because I am not. I just cant afford to purchase an XBox and the games for it when I have my PC sitting in my man cave.
I get defensive about PC’s because they are what I have been playing on since 1985 (IBM PC XT with 2 5.25 floppy drives LOL). I also take into consideration when I am spending the money, that what I am purchasing not only plays games, but it allows me to browse the web, play games, email, play games, do my graphic design and photography work, play games and run the processor intesive bioinformatics software I use for work.
It basically gives me an excuse I can feed to my wife which is that I am spending money on a “work” machine that just so happens to be good for games. I cant get away with that with a console.
In the end, I think at the technologies are going to merge into one, with the PC being a hub for storage and possibly the host for a dedicated server, while a game console hooked to your home theater system interfaces with the PC to utilize its storage and memory.
Console boys have No clue about Pc’s and even less on how to work them.
And I doubt they ever played a game a real PC hardware to even get an idea what it is like.
I got a PC that is 5 years old that con run call of duty 4 at higher res faster and higher res than the xbox 360 XD.
and MY audio system on MY PC is a THX one with sound blaster Xi-fi sound card and it sounds way better than the little console.
1Don’t buy the cheepo stuff from best buy and wall mart and use decent PC parts and you will not have to upgrade every 5 years.
The grandma dell PC is going to run the game like junk when you buy it of course you are going to have to upgrade.
and you forget to mention you pay $60 a pop consoles when I can get most of the big the same games for $49 or even $39.
then you are charged agaion by stuff PC people get free like the call of duty 4 map pack with that broadcast map in it is 100% free on PC while you pay 800 points (AKA $10 ) extra on xbox 360/ps3.
Oh and it looks better and plays better and has more features and more maps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1Kiv9zn8ys
so over time where is that savings if you are charged out the ass for microsofts/sony loss on every console with every game you buy.
every game you buy you are paying $10 towards there loss on the hardware.
so in a since you are paying $10 on the xbox 360 everytime you buy a game. how much will that add up over time?
andin call of duty 4 and other games where you have to pay for content PC people get free you are paying $70 per game.
where is that savings ?
2 oh wow a friends list HOO damn..
where can I get that on PC well everywhere steam offers that free ON PC and it has more depth , clans and groups can be formed on steam.
Oh and call of duty 4 looked damn ugly on consoles IT was a dumbed down port of the PC version.
I mena you spend $50 on xbox live every year and you get nothing more than a simple server to connect you to another damn xbox
and somebody sucky home connection host the game.
while the same game on PC get real powerful deicated PC servers with ultra fast conenctions that lower lag and smooth out the experance for FREE.
Why are you people putting up with that
“the host has quit the entire game has to stop and rsysnc crap on games like halo 3? ”
on Pc that does not exist I have never seen it call of duty 4 orange box or any other game ever.
the PC version halo 2 don’t even have that crap and halo 2 blows on any platform and it is a year older than halo 3.
So Eoco your “Decent” PC’s sucked and they should be making them on there own for far less not paying more and getting less.
BEcause if you are upgrading every year the stuff it had must have sucked since I got stuff that I have never upgraded in 5 years setting around playing call of duty 4 and bioshock and UT3 better than the damn ps3 and xbox 360.
And I have spent $0 upgrading it in that 5 years.
@X- Come on X let us hear your true feelings, don’t hold back.
@X
Ok, well even with your $0 upgrading costs, 360 is cheaper…even with Xbox Live….
I am both a PC and Console owner. Both have their ups and downs. On the pc side, you have more power, no worries of console exclusivity, an infinite amount of applications that consoles will never have, infinite upgradability, etc. The reason consoles are appealing is because of multiplayer options (people on same console), some games are only available on console, no need to upgrade every year (event though some of us wish we could), no issues with your console being to crappy to handle the game (ex. Crysis). Overall, both are great choices and I doubt that either system for gaming will go away anytime soon. People will always need computers for other things such as work but want to enjoy games on them, while people will want consoles for them and their friends to enjoy without having to have multiple systems.
Guy can afford a work pc, but can’t scratch enough to get a console lol yeah fine whatever.
@x
I never thought i would be talking to a real life dinosaur, considering you probably spent double for your pc than what console cost.
I would hope it would out perform a closed system using, in regards to pc term old graphic cards.
My cpu is 3-4 yrs old, the gpu 2-3 minus the hdd i can play console games on my pc, but i would rather use a controller.
Yes the consoles are starting to get to the point where pc’s have been for a few yrs thats always been the case though.
Not every console boy, is pc hardware illiterate, however some of us aren’t impressed with how fast or high end your hardware is anymore.
Btw by pc standards your hardware is out of date, time for an upgrade.
Lastly don’t sit there and boast about how good pc gaming and sit there bad mouthing console gaming.
There is a significant hardware difference between the 2 , which will probably always be the case.
Because it is not your thing, doesn’t mean you have to be a totally arrogant jackass about it .
Few if any console owners gives a rats ass, they are happy with their system.
“Guy can afford a work pc, but can’t scratch enough to get a console lol yeah fine whatever.”
Thats not what I said. I can’t afford and/or validate buying both a PC and a console. When it comes down to one or the other I am going with the one I can work on as well.
2 years ago I spent $700 on my PC set-up.
I eBayed some things, and found rebates for others. I got very good surround sound speakers too.
So realistically, $1200 (£600) for a PC is really excessive. Like someone above me said, it’s silly to buy a pre-built system. Mine is several times faster than those pre-built ones too.
I’ve been playing lots of games silky-smooth. Console games like Gears of War, UT3, and COD4 run especially smooth. Over 60fps at higher resolutions than HDTVs.
And plus, everyone needs a PC. The cheapest workable one you’ll find is probably $200. So you’re paying that much anyway. What we PC gamers do is spend the price of a console on top of that $200, and we end up with something more advanced than a console.
PCs cost about the same as consoles (if you know where to shop), only they support higher resolutions, better sound quality, higher frame rates, and in some cases, finer control.
Do you get it now, mathboy?
lol, good luck copyrighting “Orb”. I already have an Orb on my PC, and it’s a media center application I use to stream video to my PS3.
Backing Adam…. I mean hell, my PC is only around $800-$1000 in value because of a thanksgiving midnight special last year… wasnt turning down a card that was (at the time) $300-400 for $200. And the damn thing runs EVERYTHING so far silky smooth… and that, my friends, INCLUDES Crysis. It did that BEFORE I got the better graphic card!