Jon22: The Website of Jonathan Dobres

Gamers are in an uproar over Microsoft’s proposed pricing plan for its highly anticipated Xbox 360 game console, coming at you this holiday season. Microsoft intends to offer two different packages: The full-featured “Xbox 360,” priced at a rather hefty $399, and “Xbox 360 Core System,” which is a bare bones package that goes for $299. The logic of the pricing tiers is obvious enough; one for the hardcore gamers willing to pay top dollar, and another for your Average Joe consumer. There are, however, a number of problems with this model. Although the Core System is one hundred dollars cheaper, if you look at the retail prices for what’s been taken out of it, you’re missing out on much more than a C-note. Tycho over at Penny Arcade is right when he says that the low cost option does not exist, as it is really a crippled system masquerading as a discount. When a consumer buys one of the missing peripherals for use with their allegedly cheaper Core system, they are instantaneously losing more money than they should. It’s a bad investment.

If pure mathematics doesn’t work for you, consider history. Every console system that has demanded that users buy additional hardware to get maximum enjoyment out of a game has failed, without exception. I’m not talking about purchasing a headset or even a controller shaped like bongos. I’m talking about memory capacity and Internet connectivity, the essential hardware. From Colecovision to the Nintendo 64DD, extra hardware is always the kiss of death for a system. One of the greatest selling points of console videogame systems is that, unlike a computer, with a console you don’t have to worry about keeping up with the latest evolution in hardware. Buy the game, pop in the game, play the game. Simple. Extra hardware flies in the face of this. Microsoft has stated outright that they see the console system eventually becoming indistinguishable from a standard computer. While it’s true that the two have been converging since as early as the first Playstation, that’s not the point. Ultimately, Xbox is powered by Microsoft, a company that makes its living off of computers. Is anyone surprised here?

Sony has warned that its upcoming Playstation 3 will be “expensive.” Moreover, it will debut months, if not a full year, after the Xbox 360. Good systems have been killed by poor timing, and this is certainly not a good position to be in. Then again, Sony could use the lag time to observe how the Xbox 360 is marketed, and potentially avoid some of the risks that the earlier system inevitably takes. I believe Sony has even mentioned that the Playstation 3 is supposed to have a shelf life of something like ten years, so maybe a little extra wait at the start is a non-issue for them. All that aside, the Playstation 2 is still a very good console and certainly still has some fight left in it, not to mention a tremendous brand reputation.

Fanboys are already getting into a pissing contest over which next-generation system will be the better one, meaning which one has more technological juice, but again, it doesn’t matter. The technological jumps from Nintendo to Super Nintendo to Playstation were tremendous, but as the hardware becomes powerful enough to realize anyone’s dream game, it paradoxically becomes less impressive, less of a selling point. Just as the dominant TV network is defined by its television programs, the dominant console is defined by good games. Forget how many polygons your platform of choice can push. Nintendo would have been nothing without Mario, and Sega nothing without Sonic the Hedgehog. Sony, while it lacked an adorable mascot for its Playstation, wasn’t trying to market to kiddies (the closest they ever got to a mascot was Crash Bandicoot, and even then, I think the award for most well known Playstation character goes to the much darker Cloud Strife). Sony just concentrated on lining up some of the greatest games the world has ever seen, and really, the videogame industry is all about finding that killer game that will move the most consoles.

The fact of the matter is, the Playstation 2 has the most playable version of Soul Calibur 2, Final Fantasy X, the entire Tekken series, Kingdom Hearts, the Devil May Cry series, and oh yes, God of War, an utterly stunning game that debuted all of five months ago. What does the Xbox have? Two games, that’s what, and they both have the word “Halo” in the title. Looking at the 360’s opening lineup, I see fully a third of the titles are sports franchises. With rare exception, sports games are a tired, formulaic affair, and I’m not going to shell out $450 (or even $350) for Madden NFL ‘06 when Madden NFL ‘05 will play just as well. It is somewhat surprising to see Final Fantasy XI in the Xbox 360’s line-up, but it remains to be seen whether a game of that type will sell well on a console.

There’s a lot more to be said on this issue, I’m sure, but I think I’ve just about worn out the topic for now. It’s worth noting that Nintendo seems content to stick with the Gamecube and instead focus on its portable Nintendo DS (let us not forget that Nintendo’s Gameboy has dominated its market for over ten years, as no other piece of eletronics ever has). In any event, it’ll be an interesting year.