With three different video game platforms available to consumers this winter, each offering a slice of the cutting edge, a plethora of pushed polygons, and one giant leap into the interactive age of wonder, these are the proverbial “interesting times” of the games’ industry.
Video game fans are excited, general consumers, generally daunted. After all, this new millennium also brings us the Artificially Intelligent Refrigerator, the Robotic Goldfish and the Super Sonic Toothbrush – a video game console has got to be pretty dazzling before it’s considered up-to-speed, contemporary, “Future Ready”.
For some, video games are technological toys in an expansive but closed market niche, others, a fledgling facet of the home entertainment business in general. For some, interactive entertainment is a sophisticated art form; Nay Sayers: a virtual lunge at the collective wallet of distraction-hungry consumers.
Regardless, the perception of “dazzling” is often more important than the actual delivery. Millions are spent on marketing, prime product placement, fan-fared ramp-ups and rollouts. Too, price point is key; you get what you pay for, and what you get is this:
Nintendo GameCube Review
Sony Playstation 2 Review
Microsoft Xbox Review
