What It Will Take To Win The Next Console War

Veteran video game designer Soren Johnson doesn’t pick Great Motion Controls or Best Graphics as the most important weapon in the next generation of video game console wars. He picks the thing that Apple’s doing so well.

Know this about Soren Johnson: he helped figure out the mathematical formula for religion (video game version). He’s no fool

Soren Johnson’s Twitter Feed

Discuss

(21 Comments)
  • [–]

    James Mac

    Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 8:54 AM

    Is it something to do with not being able to put the XBLIG market in your pocket and access it on the bus?

  • [–]

    al

    Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 9:19 AM

    Im glad this guy isnt working at sony/ms/nintendo

  • [–]

    Turd burglar

    Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 9:31 AM

    I’m glad XBLIG didn’t become the iOS App Store. It’s so full of shit, it’s hard to find the real gems.

    • [–]

      dave

      Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 9:36 AM

      Video games are different?

    • [–]

      Sam Timmins

      Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 9:37 AM

      In Australia, you can’t find it at all!

  • [–]

    Intercept

    Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 9:37 AM

    Well the Microsoft marketplace is just too expensive. Including XBOX both console and phone, games on demand, and GFWL.

    Gamers are savvy. I have no idea how Microsoft expects gamers to buy some from GFWL marketplace.

    With that said I am calling that PC gaming is making a comeback. It’s where all the cool people hang out.

    If MS properly gets GFWL intergrated with its other live services and with Windows we might be in business.

    • [–]

      andy

      Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 3:56 PM

      just use steam 1000x better than gfwl, origin and xbox live combined.

      • [–]

        N0NEoftheAB0VE

        Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 9:24 PM

        Well as far as I’m concerned if M$ let devs set their own prices they’d be in a much stronger place. I prefer to play games on my Xbox using a controller but Steam canes XBLA when it comes to specials and promotions.

    • [–]

      FitzBatman

      Friday, September 23, 2011 at 1:25 AM

      GFWL is done. They are scrapping it amd integrating the Xbox live system into windows 8 and the win phone. Eventually it will all just be Live and will be interconnected across all devices.

      My great hope is for multiplatform digital purchases.

  • [–]

    Todd

    Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 9:56 AM

    When I can actually use my Live points to purchase full games rather than just movies, DLC and themes etc then Ms will see more business from me…

    • [–]

      Jack

      Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 10:51 AM

      But you can do that today. Full games on console can be bought with either credit card, paypal or points – there’s an option to change payment options…

  • [–]

    Lt HELI

    Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 10:01 AM

    Indie channel? what is this indie channel you speak of? …oh that’s right…

  • [–]

    El Phantasmogoro

    Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 10:23 AM

    If they could just get their shit together on GFWL I would be all over that. CP/Xbox integration is a good idea. THe idea of being able to play certain Live games from Windows and Xbox on a win7 phone would be cool, too. They just need to make it actually work. GFWL isn’t a bad system. It just doesn’t work. Everything is fragmented, everything takes forever, the menus are unintuitive, simple things are hidden 3 and 4 levels down. EVERYTHING IS EXPENSIVE.

    • [–]

      dave

      Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 11:34 AM

      not sure if intergrating CP into the xbox would be the best idea

  • [–]

    Wade

    Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 11:42 AM

    Im hoping that the console market will start to appreciate high end gaming and start to explore the PC market, similar to what everyone (i bet) who frequents this site went through back in high school etc.

    • [–]

      andy

      Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 3:59 PM

      i remember back in the day when everyone was all over N64 and ps2 going on about the death of PC gaming and then Battlefield 2 came out and everyone purchased it because it was awesome.

  • [–]

    Astroboy440

    Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 12:55 PM

    PS4 has already won my money, as long as there is no major misstep by Sony. I own all 3 current consoles but I’m not 17 anymore and I don’t have time to play every single AAA release that comes out. And I just think the Japaneese have the upper hand on the Americans when it comes to hardware.

  • [–]

    dfgd

    Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 1:22 PM

    it will be won by the one that prints real money

  • [–]

    Franz

    Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 4:27 PM

    The console wars are over. The wars were about forcing people to buy a particular console because it had the best games (or the ones you wanted), now we have some pathetic, politically correct communism system, almost every game is on every machine.

  • [–]

    AerintheADEQUATE

    Friday, September 23, 2011 at 2:29 AM

    So ATI and Nvidia should just start making MacBooks.(?)

    :-P Coming up with mathematical simulations doesn’t mean you’re magically a genious in every possible topic of inquiry.

  • [–]

    Steve

    Sunday, September 25, 2011 at 9:14 PM

    Am I the only one who thinks XBLA is preferable to the IOS app store? I’d rather it didn’t take the lowest common denominator approach.

    Other than that, I agree. Future consoles will probably have to appreciate the cataclysmic changes offered ever-increasing internet speeds. Methinks they can work just fine even removing disk drives altogether.

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