The state of gaming

PlayStation architect, Mark Cerny has been speaking about the PlayStation 5’s potential feature set recently, and it has gotten me thinking about the state of video games as they are right now and where this is all going to lead in the future.

In the console space, we have the usual big three companies, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony competing against each other. While in the PC gaming space, we’ve got a newly minted competition forming between Epic Games Store and Steam that is shaking things up.

Let’s take a look at what’s happening…

Sony

Coming into this generation, I was heavily supporting the PlayStation 4 straight out of the gate. It was clear that Sony had learned a lot from the PlayStation 3 and its competition with Microsoft and the Xbox 360. They spent time and effort improving their online network, investing in digital distribution with PlayStation Store and reaching out to developers to ensure that they had a much easier time with the PS4 than they did with the PS3.

Of course, Sony’s rise to the top brought with it the usual arrogance that comes along when a company out-performs its competitors and we currently have a Sony that is doing harm to itself more than anything else.

The name of the game with Sony at the moment is censorship, and they’re committed to this direction since the move of Sony Computer Entertainment’s headquarters to California. Primarily, this censorship affects any kind of sexual content, more specifically found in Japanese games, most of which I have no interest in to begin with. However, on principle, I don’t support censorship and as a result, they have lost my support.

From the moment the accusations of censorship were launched against Sony to Sony finally admitting their stance officially, I have distanced myself from Sony and have decided that I’m not going to be investing any time or money in them and their efforts with the PlayStation 5.

Does that mean I will end up missing out on stuff? It sure does. I haven’t played the Spider-man game on PlayStation 4 for this reason and at this point, I haven’t touched that console at all.

Sony, for me, has shot itself in the foot and I’m not going to waste anything on them any more.

Nintendo

This is where Nintendo comes in, because they are in a very interesting position in relation to Sony’s current stance on censorship.

Nintendo has found a renewed sense of success with the Switch, and while it’s not a system that I have invested a lot of time and money into (I only own two games for it), it is a system I strongly believe deserves as much success as it can get.

At this point in time, the failure of Wii U has bore some pretty sweet fruit for Nintendo because it has allowed them to learn from some pretty big mistakes. Of course, Nintendo has a lot to work with in terms of series like Mario, Zelda and Pokémon, but the Switch has way more going for it than a slew of first and second party titles.

Nintendo has also found itself in the position of being the friendliest place for Japanese developers in light of Sony’s censorship crackdown. If you’re making games in Japan, the fact that you have a company like Nintendo, with a mobile console platform that is open to any kind of game you can throw at it, means that your attention will be shifting away from Sony and toward Nintendo in the long run.

As always, Nintendo’s success comes from exploiting every niche it can get its hands on… and it’s working. The Switch is the go to system for those who want something different, whether it’s the games themselves of the fact that the Switch is a mobile system, Nintendo is rock solid and I believe they’ll continue this success into the future.

Microsoft

Here is where things start to get interesting, because at this point Microsoft hasn’t done a whole lot with the Xbox One. On top of that, they started off this generation trying to run up hill and almost defeating themselves entirely with the “always online” debacle at launch.

In fact, Microsoft has been struck down pretty hard this generation and it seems as though they’ve been spending all this time trying to regroup and find a new way of becoming relevant again. So what exactly have they been up to?

All you have to do to get an idea of where Microsoft is headed with the Xbox is to, ironically, look at all the things they’ve been doing on PC. The most obvious example of this is the announcement that the Halo: The Master Chief Collection is coming to PC via Steam and Windows Store, but it’s more than just that. All the previous Xbox One exclusive games are now on PC as well.

They’re all there and on top of that, some of them even have PC specific features such as the ultrawide monitor support being added to The Master Chief Collection. This entire thing has gotten my mind racing because it seems as though Microsoft does have a plan… a very interesting plan.

A while back, Valve pushed for Steam Machines, pre-built PC gaming systems that would try to make it easier for people to enjoy all the advantages of PC gaming while not having to worry about the learning curve of figuring out PC hardware. Unfortunately for Valve, their idea to attract console gamers to PC gaming didn’t go anywhere… but I think Microsoft may actually have what it takes to do what Valve couldn’t accomplish.

Microsoft has Xbox and if they were to position the next Xbox as a pre-built, no hassle, gaming PC system where storefronts such as Steam, GOG, etc are all welcome, then we could see the beginnings of something huge for Microsoft.

Currently, Microsoft isn’t so much focusing on the Xbox as a hardware platform as much as they are focusing on taking advantage of all the features that have been born from that platform. Microsoft allowing Xbox Live functionality on Switch games, their push toward PC… all of it is extremely encouraging.

With Xbox as an entry level PC gaming system and the rest of the PC gaming market to explore, this could be the way to go for Microsoft.

PC Gaming

Speaking of PC gaming, things are going pretty well, for the most part, on that front. In fact, in the last year, I’ve put my focus more on playing games on a PC than I have on consoles. Thinking about it now, I haven’t actually played a console game at all since God of War.

On the up side, there are a lot of games coming out for PC from developers that use to focus solely on consoles. I’m talking about Japanese developers like FROM Software and Capcom who have released a lot of PC games with various levels of success and optimisation. The good news though, is that they’re getting better the more games they release.

Then you have developers like CD PROJEKT RED who, at the point, are an unstoppable force, leading the charge with games like The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. There is a lot to look forward to on PC, provided you can get pass the learning curve required to enjoy all of it. I’m hoping Microsoft helps with that, though.

The current issues we have with PC gaming are the things going on with its store fronts. Again, issues of censorship are a problem here too, but there are other issues too. Currently, we have a new rivalry forming between Epic Games Store and Steam, with Epic Games Store coming out of the gate with a number of exclusivity deals with various developers.

They certainly have the money to spend after the success of Fortnite to make this happen, however, I don’t like the idea of exclusivity deals on PC and, as such, do not support Epic Games and their efforts.

Overall, PC gaming, for me, has become a much more attractive prospect than it has in the past, and I’m glad to be primarily on PC from this point on.

The road from here out…

It looks like Sony is going to end up learning a hard lesson, at least, I hope they do, because censorship isn’t something anyone should be encouraging. Nintendo needs to continue what they’re doing with the Switch and Microsoft seems to be investing in services for other platforms rather than playing the hardware game.

In short, PC gaming and Nintendo’s exclusives are where you can find the good stuff at the moment. I look forward to seeing how this all turns out.