Multiplatformulas
There was a time (as I’m sure was the case in many gamers’ lives) when I was forced to decide which hardware system to purchase or receive as a gift for the holidays. As a kid growing up in the late ’80s/early ’90s, it was a no-brainer: Nintendo systems were part of the zeitgeist in American popular culture, so there was almost no way to NOT want an NES or SNES (with due respect to Sega fans, who I know are plentiful in number). Those were the systems I received for my 6th birthday and Christmas 1991, respectively. And while my love for Nintendo proved to be a strong bond (I purchased every hardware system Nintendo has produced since then, with the notable exception of the Virtual Boy since it physically hurt my eyes when I tried out a demo station at a Toys R Us), there was the consumerist zealot inside of me, gently prodding along my envious desire to own a Genesis, a GameGear, a PC (our family computer was a Macintosh, and while Shufflepuck Cafe (1989) and Myst were great, how was I going to play Half-Life and Planescape Torment on that?), a Playstation, etc., etc., even though I knew there was no real way to rationalize and condense such extravagance into a blunt request that my parents could stomach. They were of the mindset that one system per cycle was enough, a perfectly cogent argument and one that even trickled into my sub-conscious and waylaid me from buying any other hardware on top of the one Nintendo system per generation, although with enough elbow grease I could definitely have worked and saved up enough to afford another system every few years or so.
It was the Summer of 2004 in which I finally plunged into the depths of cross-platform hardware ownership. I had just graduated college and wanted to celebrate…SOMEHOW. I wandered into a Best Buy with the sole intent of picking up a copy of Mega Man Anniversary Collection (2004) for GameCube (yes, THAT one) and somehow managed to walk out of there with a PS2 and a copy of GTA: Vice City (in addition to MMAC for GameCube, I’m sorry to say). I remember just being proud that I had really earned the privilege of owning multiple systems—and rivals to boot! Believe me, being a multiple system owner during a single cycle changes your perspective on things. When you see that two competing platforms can occupy, thrive and then eventually wither and gather dust within the same space on your shelf, you become more aware of their materiality than any consumer report and sales chart can hope to illustrate for you.
This cycle (or generation, or permutation, or however you want to classify it) is particularly different and painful for a cantankerous consumer like myself. The market seems to be divisive between the so-called “core” gamers (oh, how I do hate that word, along with other token game journalism signifiers like “mechanic” that are so broad and nebulous they end up diluting their own meanings completely) and the “casual” audience (”casual” meaning recreation I guess, but…EVERYBODY plays games as a recreation, so what is the point of this word).
(I have to interrupt myself and apologize for my frequent use of parentheticals.)
However, the idea of the multi-platform game and, I think it is safe to say, “parsed down” list of hardware one chooses from is actually resulting in a hobby that’s pretty simple to understand and make pat buying decisions about. A triple-A title that comes out from a third-party publisher is, with a high degree of probability, going to come out for whatever computer box you happen to have in your possession at this very moment. Those that don’t, well, that list isn’t as big as it could be, so either you have the liquidity to pay for these “exclusives” (which encompasses the game and the hardware you need to play it with) or you don’t. We can apply digital distribution to this equation as well.
Here’s a couple formulas which should help put things into perspective:*
An Exclusive purchase is the exclusive Game plus the Hardware needed to play it.
A “normal” Game purchase requires the system but without any Exclusivity factor attached to it.
The purchaser Interest in buying a hardware system is equal to the cost of the system itself, divided by the attached exclusives you want to play for it, minus any multi-platform games that you can get for the current system that you own, which therefore render them superfluous.
“I” MUST be greater than “G”, or the result is negative—or “DF,” which in this case is defined as “Damn Fool.”
I weighed these quick and dirty equations last October when LittleBigPlanet and Valkyria Chronicles came out in rapid fire succession, and I made the somewhat impulsive decision to buy a PS3, figuring that my “I” values juuuuust edged out my G values (in this case, G equals an Xbox360 and Wii).
So, am I proud to be the owner of every console system in this current cycle? No, no, I can’t say that I am. Actually, I have to be SOMEWHAT proud, or else why would I spout meaningless and technically incorrect mathematical formulas and parentheticals—and my word, there are so many parentheticals I’m resorting to em dashes now—on this topic? But really, considering the pile of unplayed, unopened games in my library (and they go back YEARS, folks), the stark realization that my amount of free time has been reduced by about 300% since I bought this stuff, and the rising expenses that are going to accompany the tattered U.S. economy for what will probably be quite some time longer, I think shame is a more appropriate characterization.
But not remorse.
*Equations not proofed.
Links:
Write your own meaningless equations!
Shufflepuck Cafe Redux
Posted by Kurt Shulenberger on February 17th, 2009 :: Filed under Posts
Tags :: Gamecube, LittleBigPlanet, Mega Man, NES, Nintendo, PS2, PS3, SNES, Valkyria Chronicles, Wii, Xbox360
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February 19th, 2009
I think it’s interesting that more and more of the “exclusives” for each console are showing up in the downloadable sections of the market. I don’t own a PS3 but I recently had a chance to play Flower and it was something amazing that yeah, I’m just not able to experience on my 360.
The downloadable market is full of many of these little games and once in awhile they’ll catch your eye. Alot go multi-platform because it’s easier for the publisher to make money, but other times they remain exclusives because they rely heavily on the strengths of that particular console. Because there’s less investment, there are higher risks in the game design, and thus create more Interest — but it’s a slower process because it’s not one or two AAA games to be a system seller, it’s 3-4 A games and half a dozen downloadables. Flower looks wonderful, but I really don’t want to be a DF just to fly over grass. After another year or two, I’m entirely likely to break down and finally buy a PS3, and exclusive games like Flower will still be a significant factor.
February 19th, 2009
That’s a great point. The DLC landscape is definitely becoming more prominent as indie titles are getting more exposure in the press and people are realizing that yes, there are some great and more daring games out there at a reduced cost. Are people basing their console purchasing decisions on DLC? Right now, I don’t think so, and I don’t think a game like Noby Noby Boy is going to be a system seller, but like you said, it’s a slow process and by the time you have, say, a handful of DLC titles worth buying, the price of the hardware might see a drop at the same time. As an enclosed system of commerce, DLC has a solid foundation to build on…time will tell if consumers will embrace it on a level that makes publishers take notice and, hopefully, more risks in return.