Old Dogs Do Old Tricks

So do you have the shelf space for more consoles?  Personally I am a collector and literally lost count of the amount of consoles I have-I am always ready to try something new (or old) in gaming I always have room for more.  I was lucky enough to witness gaming from Pongs to current day and I long for the early 90's.  Games were just starting to prove themselves both in major profits and as the dominant force in home entertainment.   Companies were experimenting with all kinds of formats, game styles, ideas you name it.  It left the era looking like a battlefield with winners, losers, and heaps of obscure smoking machinery that would become odd footnotes in gaming history. So you know I  am stoked about what will be happening soon.  This is going to be happening

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1523379957/oculus-rift-step-into-the-game?ref=live

Looking like this thing is set to be in the ball park of 300 bones and along with Ouya (set to be bout 100 bucks) I can jump my console collection by two for less than the price of a next gen console because let's be honest folks PS4 and Xbox 720 (?) and the uh WiiU won't be cheap...maybe WiiU.  But apart from price I am excited for innovation once again.  When I was a pre teen and an early teen a gamer literally had a bunch of choices.  Aside from your standard Sega and Nintendo, we had 3DO, CD-i, Turbo graphix, Neo Geo, and two other obscure contenders that made people scratch their heads at first, Microsoft Xbox and Sony Playstation.  No matter how history has judged some of the named the point is we had a choice.

PS3 and Xbox 360 while absolutely groundbreaking and both deserving of their place in video game history; are old.  Wait, no that is not what I mean to say.  A console's longevity is directly linked to its game library.  I could play PS3 for the next 20 years and be happy so long as the game ideas stay fresh and franchises are always improving.  That however is not the case anymore.  Many people feel as I do: dropping 60 bucks on a minimally changed franchise title sucks.  Clones of the franchises are almost never as good so it leaves a small library of actually innovative different games that sometimes don't receive much press.  Sony and Microsoft have painted themselves into a corner with asking (or demanding) relative sameness from their game studios.  When gobs of millions can be gained or lost on a game no one is brave enough to risk it all in the name of innovation.

So one of two things is going to happen in the near future.  Ouya and the Oculus (and hopefully some others) will claim their spot in people's collections and be viable sources of entertainment.  This will of course cut into Sony and Microsoft's profit margin.  Not too deeply mind you I don't see an Indie heavy console along with a VR helmet with no real launch library (yet) doing too much damage at least at first.  But let's say that combined they cause Sony and Microsoft to both lose 100 million on the first year-let's just say.  Both companies measure profit in billions so shouldering a hit like that wouldnt be impossible.  But it would mean that Sony and Microsoft might have to adapt their tactics to what is catching on.  I don't see either company making a VR visor or turning the keys to the kingdom over to Indie developers but they would have to come up with some kind of answer-meaning more experimenting and innovation; making me a happy guy!

Scenario two is Ouya and Oculus go down in flames.  They emerge into a brick and mortar storefront or a digital one and either no one buys it or even worse people do buy it and tell others not to.  This means Ouya and Oculus end up as one of those heaping smokes of machinery in this battle that I mentioned.  We as gamers go back to playing "new" installations of franchises and playing what the megas think is a safe bet to make them more money.  Of course graphics will be updated but come on I was playing red square vs yellow square on Atari and loving it.

If you truly love games and not just how they look but really love the idea of games and how they influence our lives you will be looking forward to Oculus and Ouya and hoping that they make it.  Because quite frankly folks I don't see Sony or Microsoft making any daring moves...they don't have to.  You buy what they sell-why? Because you have no choice.  Introduce some choice into the market-let's relive that strange (and somewhat confusing) yet fun time I saw.  For you young ones you're gonna love it and for those other OG's like myself...come on you know I am right.