One universal console to rule them all

[PSP 101]

That has been my dream in the video game world. I just think that would be sweet to play all your old games and new games on one console. Right now the PSP is probably the nearest we will come to it.

[ACID]

The closes we will ever get is called a PC. I will bet everything i owen that thats a merger between 3 big multi billionar companys thats never going to take place.

[Shadowblind]

Yes, the game console owners are far too greedy and money-hungry to do such a thing. They should just conced like bell south and the other phone companies that became the new AT&T.

[baracki96]

I don't favor the idea of a universal console. Some of the greatest games came about due to competition and pressure on companies to 1up each other.

[J_Villa1983]

I think a universal console is a horrible idea. It takes the competition out of creating newer and better gaming systems. It also takes the excitement out of waiting what the companies that bring out the systems will bring out next.


Besides, Do any of you remember the 3DO and Trip Hawkins dream of conquering the world with a universal system? it flopped.. royally. I'm not saying its a krappy unit, I happen to own one. But, it was a horrible idea because different companies would want to do different things with their hardware rendering the "Universalness" completely useless and confusing to the consumer. 3DO technoligy was licensed to SANYO, GOLDSTAR, PANASONIC, AT&T and from my recollection.. some wanted to add more ram and others wanted to add other features that would give one console that would be universally compatible an upperhand over another console thats so posed to be compatible with it.

Whats so bad about letting the market decide a winner and a loser in console battles?

[quzar]

My dream console is something like the laseractive, that would be foward and backwards compatible via modules. Other good examples would be the GameBoy Player for the GC, the atari vcs module for the ColecoVision, the Power Base converter for the genesis, or the Super Gameboy for the SNES.

[robman84]

Even prior to the 3DO we had the MSX platfom which, whilst not an entire flop, didn't unite the world of gaming.

Whilst it is gutting to see an exclusive game on a platform you don't have, this seems to be less of an issue these days (save for Nintendo themselves).

Need to see a proper analysis of Sega's fortunes and output since they got out of the hardware game. Despite the subsequent arrival of the PS2, Xbox and Gamecube in that generation, the DC (under Sega) still holds my heartstrings for its pure originality and quality of games (i.e. not 99% FPS or straight-up racing games).

I feel torn on this issue. Whilst I'd rather not have (currently) 4 consoles stuffed under my telly (and that's without 360, PS3 or Wii) I would hate to see creativity stifled. But then, with a larger overall user base for a single console format, developers would be free to concentrate on creating a single title (no massive resource usage on porting) without caring about trimmed down versions for lesser hardware. Quality of software, rather than exclusivity of platform, would dictate the success of the title. Or, to put it more simply, crap software wouldn't sell well, whilst creatively unique software would have access to a larger target audience.

A final benefit of a single format would have to be shelf-life. I may be in the minority here, but I truly don't feel the Xbox, PS2 and GC were anything near the end of their life in terms of the quality of games from a hardware-limitation point of view. The leap from their generation to the titles currently on offer from PS3/360 doesn't seem to be that great.

Phew, I've rambled.

[mnky]

Anyone remember the video game crash of 1983?
Universal console: bad idea.

[Is'lan]

I'm sorry, but I see more problems for this than it is worth. Base technology aside, look at the practical technology. You wont be able to play 360 games on the Wii simply because of the controller difference. If there was a standardization, we would NEVER expect to see such consoles as the DS or the Wii because they would be too different. So, do we want to be all the same, or do we want to be different? As the article above says, do we want the gaming industry to be any more standardized than it already is?

I, for one, am strictly against it.

[pubjoe]

Bad idea.

I'm glad most people here see sense.

Every (original) company takes a different angle on games realisation. Their individial consoles are a reflection on this, if we just had one do-all box, then we would lose a lot of originality and a lot of potential.

Sadly, it may well go that way in the end. If Nintendo don't survive, Sony and Microsoft seem to be going for the universall entertainment centre thing....

...Actually ...Nah!... There will always be competition