In Machine Wars, a Game Box for You
This is a very good year to be someone who plays video games. Confusing, yes, with new set-top consoles from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony competing for attention. But, frankly, it will be very difficult to make a bad choice--provided buyers understand what they really want from their game machine.
Over the next three days, console makers will show off their wares at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center as they try to make the case that their particular box is best.
In a way, all can lay legitimate claim to the title. The technological differences between Microsoft’s Xbox, Nintendo’s Gamecube and Sony’s PlayStation 2 are relatively insignificant to the average consumer. All boast incredible graphics, lightning-fast play and the ability to host bigger, more complex games.
But after playing Xbox, Gamecube and PlayStation 2, it’s quickly apparent that these are three distinctly different machines backed by three distinctly different companies aiming for an amorphous market.
Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony aren’t making it easy. As anyone who plays games knows, hardware takes a back seat to software. The fastest, most powerful console on the planet won’t be much more than a doorstop if it hosts a shoddy library of games. Or, if every console on the market has an identical lineup, there’s no compelling reason to buy one machine over another.
Many popular games--such as Electronic Arts’ “Madden” football franchise--will appear on all three consoles. So will games from Sega, the onetime hardware titan that dumped its money-losing Dreamcast console earlier this year to focus on developing games for other platforms. Other independent game companies know it’s tough to make money by selling titles for just one console, meaning there is intense pressure to publish games across platforms.
What that means for consumers is that most popular games ultimately will end up on whichever console they buy. So console makers are betting on a relatively small crop of exclusive titles to make their machine the must-have box.
Talking to the teams behind the various machines, they almost seem to be reading from the same script.
“It’s not about hardware specs,” Nintendo Executive Vice President Peter Main said. “It’s not about horsepower.”
“It’s about the games for us,” said Robbie Bach, Microsoft senior vice president for games.
“Everything is about content,” said Sony Computer Entertainment America President Kaz Hirai.
Although they downplay the hardware, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony know that the way their boxes are configured appeals to different segments of the market. Xbox aims at the hard-core gamer with a box that’s based on the PC. Gamecube appeals to families with a simple, colorful cube that looks virtually indestructible. And PlayStation 2 fits right in among the audio and video components found in any living room.
Here’s how the machines--in alphabetical order--stack up.
Microsoft Xbox
No matter how one feels about Microsoft, it’s tough not to be impressed with what the company promises in its first video game console. The Xbox is--not surprisingly--the most PC-like of the three consoles, with a built-in hard drive and high-speed Internet port.
Due out this fall, Xbox aims at the hard-core gamer, whether it intends to or not. The crew behind Xbox has said time and again that it wants to create a mass market for video games. But, based on some of the titles shown to The Times last week, Xbox is not a mass-market machine right out of the gate.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Although Microsoft is one of the most recognizable brand names in the world, it’s not a name widely associated with fun and excitement--despite some fine PC games such as the “Age of Empires” and “Flight Simulator” series. If Microsoft is to crack the fickle game market, it must first prove to hard-core gamers that it can deliver the goods.
Games such as “Halo” help make the case. An action-adventure game, “Halo” is a signature title for Xbox. It combines first-person action with squad-based combat to create a seamless blend of firepower and tactics. Visually delicious missions sprawl for what seems like forever. As the Xbox graphics processor pumps out super-fast movement, the main processor handles some pretty wicked artificial intelligence.
The same goes for “Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee,” the tale of some very sweet creatures fighting their way back from the brink of extinction. “Oddysee” was one of the games Microsoft showed off earlier this year to build excitement for Xbox--and it continues to grow. A single level can take hours to play.
The reason, according to Ed Fries, Microsoft’s vice president overseeing internal games, is that Xbox is relatively easy to write for. Because developers are given a set of tools that make game creation simpler, they can focus on creating new worlds and new adventures, rather than on figuring out how to make the system do what they want.
“There’s an opportunity for interactive entertainment to be more than just what we’ve used it for--which is playing games, “ said Fries, who has said in the past that Xbox holds the potential to make interactive entertainment a mainstream experience.
It’s not there yet, but Xbox is clearly built to accommodate more than just rapid-fire games. Its hard drive will allow users to store game data as well as music copied from a CD and data pulled off the Internet through the machine’s broadband port.
In the short term, those hardware features will be used primarily for games. Players can store huge amounts of character or game data or customize the soundtracks on games by adding their own music mix. They also will be able to compete head-to-head in online gaming areas.
Bottom line: Xbox delivers a hard-core game experience but will grow into a more accessible box in the months after its launch. Buy Xbox as a steppingstone from the PC or to play fast-twitch games such as “Halo.” This is not a kid’s first video game console, but it might be the perfect system for a teenager who loves games.
Nintendo Gamecube
For years, video games and Nintendo were synonymous. With Gamecube, the company hopes to show that it can offer more than just a never-ending slew of Pokemon. Of the three machines, Gamecube is the most tightly focused on just games--expressly to accommodate titles from Nintendo’s in-house genius, Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario.
Like Xbox, Gamecube is due out this fall. And like Xbox, Gamecube is designed to make game development easy. “Game developers spend too much time working on the technical elements rather than the creative elements,” said Nintendo technical director Jim Merrick.
Also making the system more attractive to outside developers is Nintendo’s decision to use a proprietary disc for game storage rather than the traditional cartridges on which every Nintendo system to date has relied. Cartridges are significantly more expensive to produce than discs, which can be pressed quickly and cheaply.
The bigger storage capacity of discs means Gamecube games will be much more detailed and deep than in the past. And although Gamecube has the fewest bells and whistles of the three consoles, it is the fastest of the bunch in its ability to render certain kinds of graphics.
That shows up in such games as “Rogue Leader,” the sequel to “Rogue Squadron” developed by LucasArts. It’s a simple space-based shoot-’em-up set in the “Star Wars” universe, but “Rogue Leader” is one of the most beautiful games ever created. The action moves at a steady 60 frames per second, even when as many as 50 ships are moving on the screen at once.
Nintendo is betting big that splashy games such as “Rogue Leader” will lure players to Gamecube. For Nintendo, it really is all about the games. Gamecube won’t play DVDs. It won’t connect to the Internet--at least not right away. It doesn’t have a hard drive.
What it does is play games.
“Being ready for tomorrow is secondary to being there today,” said Main, the Nintendo vice president. He added that the company intentionally eschewed doodads such as a built-in modem, hard drive or DVD player because it’s not convinced the market is there.
That cuts both ways, though. Unless Nintendo delivers great games, Gamecube could fall out of favor fast if for no other reason than there’s nothing else to do with it. But by focusing so tightly on games, Nintendo does not risk diluting Gamecube’s audience with folks looking for some all-in-one wonder box.
Bottom line: Gamecube is an ideal first system for a family with young kids. Nintendo has a proven track record delivering titles that parents can feel good about letting their children play. Gamecube is sturdy and portable, making it easy to tote around--or even hook up in the back of a minivan for long road trips.
Sony PlayStation 2
By the time Xbox and Gamecube land on store shelves, PlayStation 2 already will have been out for a year. Despite a slow start complicated by massive shortages, Sony claims to have sold 3 million PS2s in North America and expects to sell 4 million more by the end of 2001--essentially giving the console a head start of 7 million consoles.
Why does that matter to consumers? Because developers build games for machines that people buy. More installed units mean more potential customers. By the end of the year, PlayStation 2 will boast more than 200 titles across a wide range of genres.
PS2 differs from its competitors in that it aspires to be more than just a game machine. Particularly when Sony releases a hard drive and broadband adapter to slip into the PlayStation 2’s expansion bay, the box will be poised to be the gateway into living rooms for all kinds of Sony content--from games to movies to music.
Right now, PS2 is a really nice game machine that can play DVDs. It does a pretty good job at both. The knock on its games is that they have been too shallow to hold interest for more than a few hours. That’s changing as developers get the hang of the machine’s difficult programming.
Unlike Xbox or Gamecube, PlayStation 2 has few developers singing its praises in terms of ease of use. But many do recognize the long-term potential of PS2. Because game creators have more control over the inner workings of PlayStation 2, they can make it do things impossible on the other boxes. It will just take time, they predict.
“Gran Turismo 3,” the third installment in the popular racing series, shows off how PlayStation can combine gee-whiz graphics with long-term playability. The game features 20 courses--including some rally tracks--and scores of cars that perform according to real-life specifications. When the game launches this summer, players will have the option of buying a special wheel made by Logitech for extremely realistic racing.
Bottom line: PlayStation 2 is a solid all-around box that Sony clearly hopes will be the pipe for more than just games into American living rooms. Although its initial games were disappointing, the library is improving as developers get accustomed to its more difficult programming. It’s a safe bet that PlayStation 2 will host the largest library of games for the foreseeable future, giving gamers plenty of choice. The quality of kids’ games, though, is spotty.
Aaron Curtiss is editor of Tech Times.
