The numbers from the NPD Group are promising for the game industry. The Wii took the title for selling the most systems in '07. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 came in second and third place respectively. This news is not a shocker to anyone, but I question if the Wii has the lasting power as Microsoft and Sony look to make up ground. This will be another great year for gamers.

Wii

Nintendo is enjoying good times--The Wii and DS Lite are selling well around the world. The company outsold its inventory of Wiis consistently in 2007. Unfortunately, the company screwed itself by not having enough systems made available for the public. That will not factor too much into another issue that people are starting to realize.

The Wii might take a hit because the development of new and fresh titles for the system is slowing down. Thinking off the top of my head, I fail to think of a single title that I might be purchasing for the Wii this year. As far as other systems are concerned, I could name several games that I am looking forward to. This is an issue that gamers will be considering. After all, what is a great system without great games?

Xbox 360

Microsoft faired pretty well with pushing out 1.3 million units. The company holds the biggest share in the next-gen console wars; however, the Wii seems destined take over the Xbox 360 by the end of this year. Xbox Live is the biggest contributing factor to the system's dominance. Great multiplayer connectivity is an area that the PS3 and Wii needs to make great strides in.

The system is solid and stable, well, with the exception of those who have received the "red ring of death." Reliability issues aside, the gaming division at Microsoft have a lot to be proud of with their performance in 2007. Top notch games are sure to come in the late first and entire second quarters 2008, and the system will maintain healthy numbers throughout.

PlayStation 3

The 2008 year is do or die time for Sony's PlayStation 3. The company managed to put 800,000 consoles in the homes of gamers. This has left Sony in last place with around 16% of the market share; disappointing at best. Sony does have that awesome "Universe of Entertainment" commercial with rockin' music by Saliva, but a commercial can only go far. This could potentially be the year that the Play Station 3 bites the dust.

Not all is gloom and doom at the Sony camp as the PlayStation 3 does have a few important things going for it. First off, being the most recent news, the Blu-ray disc format has pretty much sealed the deal in the physical format wars, and thus the console will benefit from those who are going to view high-def content on their HDTVs. Next, the PlayStation 3 will receiving the most impressive lineup of games since its incarnation. Last, but not least, the do or die attitude will have to motivate Sony to work hard for their current and potential new console owners.

A Look Ahead At The 2008 Console Wars

The Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 are going to mix it up for another year: The Wii needs a killer title, the Xbox 360 needs to avoid the red (ring of death), and the PlayStation 3 just needs everything to go right. The one thing in common with the three systems it that they all have have room for improvement.

It is going to be a great ride for gamers worldwide this year. The competition is getting fast and furious. To put it simply--there has never been a better time to get your game on.

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How do you make a wireless controller even more wireless? You cut the cord of course! Seriously though, as you may know, the Wii controller is not 100% wireless. It has the cord that connects both the Wiimote and Wii Nunchuck together. This can be slightly annoying (especially when playing boxing), but that is no longer an issue with the Nyko Wireless Nunchuck.

What It Is

The Nyko Wireless Nunchuck is a controller that allows you to replace your Wii Nunchuck with a wireless alternative. This thereby makes your wireless controller legitimately wireless. A wireless dongle attaches to the end of your Wiimote, and this allows you to play games without the cord hampering your style.

What It Does

It cuts the cord on your Wireless Wiimote. There is not much else to say about it. It could certainly be useful in games that require a vast amount of movement from both components. Why this wasn't included by Nintendo in the first place is a head scratching conundrum.

What It's Worth

The Nyko Wireless Nunchuck will take about $30 out of your wallet. If you are an active Wii gamer, I believe it is worth a look. The battery life--Nyko said the nunchuck will run on two AAA batteries for 30 hours--seems reasonable. Quality from Nyko is questionable though.

My Thoughts

I still wonder why Nintendo did not include this from the start. The quality of Nyko products is somewhat questionable from personal experience in the past. Oh, and where are the protective straps? I don't think your television would appreciate the idea of objects flying towards it at a high velocity.

The Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) received mixed impressions during its late 2006 launch. Some people had considered the PS3 to be far too expensive, but others were ready to pay the big bucks for the pure power the system has to work with. A year after the PS3's launch, the fate of the system is still unknown, but the potential for a huge comeback still remains.

Editor's Note: After the initial writing of this article, which began in late November, there has been widespread news about the fact that the PlayStation 3 has outsold the Nintendo Wii in Japan for the first time. This news could be relevant to the future performance of the PlayStation 3. It most certainly is a morale boost to Sony.

VG Chartz reports that the PlayStation 3 is far behind its competition with the console selling 6.71 million consoles worldwide while the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii have both sold 14.06 million and 15.48 million respectively. This all adds up to Sony having less than 20% of the market share. Hardly impressive numbers; however, it could be much worse for Sony.

(Credit: VG Chartz - Hardware Comparison Charts - Updated and as of 12/6/07)
Ever since the release of the PlayStation 3 there has been much criticism of the console. Many of the points raised in the past have been validated. The system was priced too high, and even if worth the price, the high cost ultimately lead to lower sales. If Sony had put out a system that was around the same price point of the Xbox 360 or Wii, then I would not be writing this article. Unfortunately, for Sony, there are even more basic problems that plague the PS3 as a result of the above.

As I sat here writing this article, I failed to even come up with a single spectacular title available for the PlayStation 3. Oh wait, Metal Gear Solid 4 must be it! Nope, a long wait until--Q2, 2008. How about Grand Theft Auto IV? Gran Turismo 5? Soulcalibur IV? Any game at all?

Forget about it, there is not one single "killer app" for the PlayStation 3 available. Resistance: Fall of Man and Motorstorm, while both being impressive titles, do not come anywhere near Halo 3 or Super Mario Galaxy. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriot might be the title that inspires consumers to pick up a PS3, but then there is also the possibility that a smaller development house with a new game idea could pull off a winner.

It all comes down to Sony needing to perform all the tricks to sell more units before it is too late to recover. The expandability of the PlayStation 3 will allow this to happen. The company already took action to encourage new games by reducing the price of their Software Development Kit, and this hopefully encourages more game development by new and smaller game development studios. However, game developers will be hard pressed to develop games exclusively for the PS3 while the other consoles have the potential to provide much more revenue for their games.

Improving or overhauling the multi-player services would also be in the best interest of Sony right now. There is much work that needs to be done on that front of the system. There is also a lot of distance between the Xbox Live service and the PS3's online component; I am sure the company knows this, and is working hard to improve the online gaming experience in the future.

The PlayStation 3 will make up ground in 2008. Whether this be the result of demand for the other systems slowing (potentially as a result of many gamers owning other systems), Sony getting their act together, or the PS3 getting its "killer app" early is something to keep an eye on in 2008.

If the PS3 ends as a huge failure for Sony, expect to see the latest generation of console wars start early. Development on the "PlayStation 4" beginning before the end of 2010 anyone? Anything is possible.

Update 1 - 12-12-07 @ 2:11 PM Est.:

It appears that Sony is indeed getting their act together with the latest news from GameStop reporting that the company is expanding connectivity for hardware, and improving their online network to compete with Xbox Live.

The thought that the most noticeable game company in the world with some of the most popular titles today would be one of the greatest threats to the game industry sounds ridiculous, right? Wrong! Reality of the situation is that while Electronic Arts might be a hit on the sales charts, this does not equal success for the game industry overall.

Some of the reasons that the game industry has thrived so well in the past is that many different development studios were able to compete with each other. Each development house had different standards, different methods, and different potential. The competition was fierce and hard work was done to earn your buck. This is still the case today, but not as prevalent, and also not necessarily done in the same fashion.

Takeovers, Takeovers, And Some More Takeovers

The rapid increase of studios being acquired is quite impressive, but its impressiveness shows the changes of the game industry. Smaller development studios can not flourish if they have millions being thrown at them to merge. The temptation to sell out is an easy choice for many development studios. Electronic Arts has embraced this method of doing business:

Some Acquired

• BioWare
• Pandemic Studios
• Critereon Software Group (Purchased RenderWare which was "used to run a quarter of all video games worldwide" as of mid 2004 - Technology Briefing)
• Maxis (The Sims and SimCity; sound familiar?)
• DICE
• Mythic Entertainment
• Westwood (By way of Virgin)

Some Candidates:

• Activision (Unlikely to be acquired by EA; Activision offers some of the best competition to EA, but they would undoubtedly love to own the Call of Duty franchise.)
• 2K Sports (Unlikely; EA could pretty much end sports gaming competition in the US market.)
• Bethesda Softworks (Likely; who wouldn't want to own the Game of the Year title in The Elder Scrolls series.)
• Bizarre Creations (Probable; EA currently lacks a realistic driver simulation after losing the Formula One license, and while Project Gotham Racing is not a sim, it a competitor.)
• Codemasters (Possible; the company will not remain independent forever.)
• Crytek (Very likely; a partnership must end eventually, so they will be acquired.)
• Epic Games (Unlikely; I believe Epic Games will hold off on any offers.)
• JoWooD Productions (Unlikely; well, unless EA can't acquire Bethesda Softworks.)
• Paradox Interactive (Doubtful; Paradox focuses on a slowly dying genre of games, but still creates quality games nonetheless.)
• SCi (Likely; the company will be sold eventually and there were reports of EA interest.)
• Ubisoft (A question of time; EA already has further increased stake in the company.)

A Big Problem

It is really common knowledge that in the past Electronic Arts has put eye candy before functionality in their game titles. A great example is Madden Football. Without competition from 2K Sports due to license exclusivity with EA and the National Football League, the game remained primarily stagnant. Some opinions floating around the web indicated the game was decreasing in quality year by year. However, this year Take-Two Interactive released All Pro Football, and while it did not have a chance of being a huge detriment to Madden sales, it certainly motivated EA to go for a touchdown pass this time around.

The Reality

The game industry needs competition to keep things moving forward for consumers. There will always be video games, and it is the greatest form of entertainment. Consumers in general are complete idiots, but hopefully some common sense can kick in if it gets to the point where we are paying $70 or more for games loaded with ads.

Fortunately for all gamers, things are not as bad as they could easily be right now. Other companies like Take-Two Interactive and Activision are doing better than expected, and they are still able to compete with EA; however, nothing is certain for the future and if there was ever a company to put a monopoly on the game industry, Electronic Arts would fit the bill. Consider this a yellow card to Electronic Arts, a warning to the game industry, and an eye opener to those consumers who pay the bills of the publishers.

Let the games begin, not end.

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In the early 1980s, Pac-Man made its debut in Japan, and then shortly after made its impact felt throughout the United States. Over 25 years later, Pac-Man is still played, well-known, and interpreted as a distinguished icon of the gaming industry's growth in the early going. Some of you experienced this first-hand, and some of you were not even born yet.

Programming a game back then was quite the difficult task. The hardware available was severely limited, and the programmers had to push the systems to the limits. If better hardware was available, we would have seen even better games sooner.

Compared to the current time, it could be reasonable to say that game development was much more simplistic, and could be accomplished with far less resources. Those days are long gone. Today, many game studios have more than a dozen employees working on a single game, and the costs to put a game into production are enormous.

If you are nostalgic about what many consider the glory days of gaming, and have the slightest interest in developing games as a hobby or career, then this product is something to seriously consider. At around $200 USD, it appears to be priced just right for all that you are getting.

The HYDRA Game Development Kit, created by Andre LaMothe, comes with all that you see to the right; it is essentially a gaming computer that runs on your television. You will not be designing Halo 4 on HYDRA; however, you would be learning and experiencing plenty about game design and programming. This is a pleasant way to introduce someone to game development as HYDRA avoids the complexity of developing on a computer.

The mouse, mini keyboard, game-pad are all fully functional, and you can use a combination these input devices for your games. You can perform all of the programming without the use of a PC.

Even though this is not a powerhouse gaming system you are probably familiar with, your imagination can lead to creating some quite amazing applications. The processor functions similar to the PlayStation 3's Cell processor technology. You would actually be developing on a multiprocessor, which is becoming standard these days. The things you could learn with HYDRA are easily skills which can assist you to developing software for computer systems.

Obviously, it is easier to be motivated to learn by developing games, than just picking up a "Programming For Dummies" book and creating programs that do almost nothing useful. So in that sense, it could be a worthy product for anyone who is interested in programming period. The HYDRA Game Development Kit is quite the throwback, but it is one that should easily be appreciated.

Xbox Live is choking? Oh my! I already saw this coming. If I could "predict" the future, then why the hell can't Microsoft? Halo 2 broke Xbox Live several years ago when it was released. There were problems for days with the service. So you would think they would come prepared for Halo 3? Nope. Microsoft never fails to make themselves look bad.

Of course Halo 3 is going to push Xbox Live to the limits on the Xbox 360. This was Microsoft's moment to give Xbox Live some extra juice in preparation for the game; prove to the world how powerful Xbox Live is. So how do they fail to prepare for this? You need not be a rocket scientist to utilize the amazing power of common sense.

Bungie will likely be disappointed by this as well. People that hear about Xbox Live being down might be hesitant to buy the game immediately. While that is not very likely, it could end up costing Bungie sales at the end of the day. It is just sad how a great company like Microsoft can get this wrong repeatedly, and not learn from their past.

Microsoft, your company has been disappointing for the past couple of years. If your company did not have the Xbox 360, then I have no idea what your company would be good for. Your trashy Windows Vista operating system has been a downgrade from Windows XP, and you fail to properly represent yourselves as a superpower in the tech industry anymore; you just come out looking like idiots in the end. Get your act together. Better yet, just sell out to Google.

Following the news of Ubisoft releasing a few select games for free with included advertising (and also closing it thereafter), it is making me wonder if this is the future of gaming? Would you prefer having access to games for free, but having advertisements included in those games as a result?

Pros of Ad Supported Games:

• Game publishers potentially receive more revenue and a wider audience as a result of the games being free.
• Possibly less stress on developers to hit set deadlines.
• Developing add-on content could be more affordable and accessible for developers in the long-term.
• Games will generate revenue for a longer period of time.
• Smaller game developers and publishers could benefit heavily from this.

Cons of Advertisements In Games:

• More focus on optimizing ads instead of game-play by developers, and as a result, less quality of game design.
• Gamers could (and some will) be turned off by advertisements in games.
• Certain genres of games would suffer eventually. (e.g., Grand Theft Auto would benefit, but Total War would suffer due to advertising not working well in a game like it)
• Exclusivity deals with game advertising agencies could harm smaller companies from possibly competing. (e.g., Google signing a deal to provide Google Adsense only to the top 100 ranking websites would damage many other websites that wish to use that service as well.)
• Advertisements could interfere with game-play.
• Publishers could (still) over-charge (I believe game publishers are currently over-charging) game prices.
• Developers could find malicious ways of spying on you and your documents on your computer to try and target advertisements at you (appealing to the advertising agencies and advertisers themselves); this would be a privacy concern for many people.

It is something to think about as the game industry adjusts to newer technology, and new methods to generate revenue. This is going to be a path that game publishers will be pushing for. The game industry has been on a significant rise lately and you could say it is exceeding expectations. It is more money in the bank for the people who develop and publish games.

There are problems with the idea of having advertising in games. A game like Madden really does work perfectly for in-game advertising, and the game already has it included. How does a company work in an Old Spice advertisement in a game like Call of Duty? How about working in advertisements in a game like Empire Earth or Total War? It would be very difficult, and completely ruin the atmosphere.

Disclaimer: I did modify this image, and it is for demonstration purposes only.
Advertising in games is still an area of game design that has been relatively untapped by game developers and publishers for quite awhile now. The whole scenario is really a double-edged sword, but it will happen; it already has become a part of the game industry.

Would you be willing to play games, at no cost to you, that displayed advertisements targeted to you? Let Tech In Demand know! Leave a comment and voice your opinion.

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With a Possible Decline In PC Game Sales, Would Linux Ultimately Benefit?

Update: 9/21/2007 @ 11:38 PM EST:

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