With 2008 come and gone, we make some wishes for 2009 looking at the 3 major platforms in the current generation.
Nintendo
The past-
What a year it has been for the Wii, with a lackluster E3 showing followed up with an excellent Media summit showcasing games to look forward to in 09. With no signs of slowing, the Wii has dominated the gaming industry. The DS is also no slouch, with a new redesign, the DSi and hit after hit each month of never ending software titles giving hardcore and casual gamers a run for their money. 08 also had a lot of remakes as well as brand new IPs.
The future-
With 08 full of shovelware releases and badly implemented games, let’s hope they start to realise that there still is the crowd that made them so popular in the first place. Let’s face it, the Wii is only selling because of Wii Sports and Wii Fit. Let’s hope Nintendo gets their priority straight and start churning quality software. With DS and the new DSi due out in late 09, the current supply of games is going strong and let’s hope it stays that way in 09.
Microsoft
The past-
The Xbox360 had a massive year in 08 with hit after hit of top releases. The year saw releases such as Gears 2, Fable II and hit franchises such as GTAIV on the console. The New Xbox Experience also rolled out a complete overhaul of the console making it a whole new experience again. The amount of exclusives also kept rising with Square Enix’s Rpgs and Sierra’s Left 4 Dead.
The future-
Let’s hope that in 09 they keep up the exclusives and also maybe give Xbox live a price drop since Sony is able to deliver a similar service for free.
Sony
The past-
The PlayStation 3 is in third place but the console shows no sign of losing as seen in 08. With many important and key franchises to the PlayStation network such as Metal Gear Solid 4 and Resistance 2 hitting the console. The PS3 also showed that it is more than just hardcore gaming with the launch of Home and Little Big Planet to bring community to the platform. The PSP had a lackluster year with a new redesign but virtually no new hit games on the handheld. Support for the device was worsened when God of War Developer SCE Santa Monica sent all it’s PSP dev kits back to Sony.
The future-
Sony needs to rethink it’s position in the market and fix it’s major issues. The first being the high price of the console and it’s capabilities with the still missing PS2 support and features promised at the start removed. The second is the lackluster support for the PSP. Redesigning a console but having no support to move them doesn’t help and Sony really needs to rekindle the flame. The third is the whole online infrastructure with PlayStation Home and Trophies. With the terrible speed of Home, it’s loading times and making game launching a chore, why would someone ever use it?. Trophies also needs to be a standard on game releases, why are there still games are just released without Trophy support? These issues should be solve in time, let’s hope 09 is the year it is.
That’s it, Happy New Year Everyone!
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