Articles of Interest
Another fun mini-game, The Amazing Flying Brothers, from Petri Purho. (He posted this a few weeks ago but I only just had the chance to play it.) My top score: 22,800. Ian Bogost points out the similarities between the Wii Fit board and Amiga’s “joyboard”. Here in Seattle, Nintendo is piloting new software that enables Nintendo DS owners at a Mariners game to order food at their seats, watch replays, enjoy multiplayer baseball minigames, etc. $5 a session, $30 for ten sessions. Bit pricey, IMO, but otherwise a very neat idea! |

Every so often, I hear someone say that the demise of the video game console is inevitable (and likely not far off). Their reasons vary: “closed platforms can’t survive”, “consoles are becoming too specialized”, etc. Having thought about it, I just can’t come to the same conclusion. Consoles aren’t going anywhere in the next ten+ years or so (beyond which I can’t claim to understand what the market will look like. There’s too much cultural and technological uncertainty.)
To be clear: I’m defining “console” as “a closed or semi-closed hardware platform dedicated primarily to interactive entertainment.” Does that necessarily mean “software and hardware designed, produced, and distributed by a single company?” No. There could be alliances on the software or hardware side of things, and those alliances could result in independent product variants that share a base level of compatibility. What matters is the presence of very stable standards that lead to a reliable, accessible, and affordable gaming experience. In other words, a guiding hand still matters.





