Victim of Culture

A swiftly tilting media landscape

For years the promise of one console to unify all games has been little more than a pipe dream for gamers.  Yes, it would be wonderful to play Mario, Gran Turismo and Halo all on one console–but gamers no better than to dream for such things.  But why?

Video games remain the only major media that is technology specific.  By that I mean it’s the only media you have to purchase specific technology in order to enjoy specific media.  Compare that to the movie and music industry where any DVD or CD player can access whichever media you want.  The print industry is even more wide open, where essentially there is no technology at all required as all media is sold within its own delivery format.

But that is perhaps a gross over simplification of the situation.  Music has evolved from vinyl to 8-tracks to cassettes to CDs.  Each step of the way new technology had to be purchased to keep up with the releases, and this is to say nothing of failed audio format such as Sony’s Mini Disc.  Video has been the same way with VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray.  In fact, video provides the most recent example of a technology war with Blu-ray versus HD-DVD.  Still, when that format war died down after a couple of years consumers and media producers were left with one clear winner that will likely remain the de facto physical media standard for the next decade.

Now, compare that to video games.  Every five years or so gamers must purchase entirely new technology that will, at best, play half to one third of the games being released.  In recent years this has been negated some by the fact that there are so many cross-console ports, but it remains an issue that consumers must invest in nearly $1,000 worth of technology just to access the media they want.  This is to say nothing of the PC games they might also want to play.  In fact, the PC has come closest to the other mediums in providing an open outlet for the distribution of media regardless of brand of manufacturer.  Still, minus emulation I cannot play Mario and other first-party titles without buying their hardware.

This may seem a case of simple greed on the part of game companies.  After all, other mediums avoid this pitfall..or did.  But the once great days of open technology standards are rapidly vanishing.  While a few companies have always held patents on technology such as the compact disc, in recent years their tight grip has extended further.  Apple makes sure that songs bought through their iTunes store only work with iPod technology they produce.  Yes, you can burn a CD with your iTunes tracks and then rip those to MP3s, but Apple makes it as difficult as possible to use your media on whatever technological device you want.  That’s in stark contrast to the days of buying whatever CD player brand you wanted to play whatever CD you might want.  Amazon has recently tried to extend this even to the publishing industry with their Kindle e-readers.

So, while a unified gaming console might be the holy grail for many gamers, it seems less and less likely with each passing day as the media world gets more and more proprietary.  The major media corporations have discovered there is great benefit to not only drawing money from one end or the other of the distribution model, but owning the entire thing.  And that’s a scary premise for consumers.

What’s the solution?  The obvious one is to whenever possible buy your media in open standard formats that allow it to be played on a multitude of devices.  Avoid Apple’s iTunes store for more favorable venues such as Amazon’s MP3 store.  The other option?  A lot of hope for a rapidly advancing future that ends up looking more like the past than the present.

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