We are currently more than three full years into the 7th generation. Although it doesn’t feel like it has been that long, the 360 released in November of 2005 in the Americas to start the frenzy. Since then the Wii and PS3 have all released and essentially the consoles have been able to reach the majority of the world.
The question is how do you define a generation? What things in a generation separate it from the previous? Usually gaming journalists will give out primitive answers such as design and hardware changes. However, there has to be more to defining a change in the generations. Maybe not in the literal sense but in a sense the gamers notice. In the 5th generation these noticeable changes were 3D graphics, analog sticks, introductory of epics such as OOT and FF7, and so on.
The 7th generation has been no slouch for such defining features. These select five features may not be on every console or they may be on all three. They could even be on all three but only one of the three really defines this generation by being the greatest. After you hit the jump, I present to you the five greatest features that definte the 7th generation.
5. Online Services as Social Networking
Last generation was the start of the online gaming sector in gaming. It started when the Sega Dreamcast introduced its online service and changed console gaming forever. Previously online gaming was meant for PC gamers but now console gamers could jump in. Eventually Xbox, PS2, and even GC all had games that could be taken online, although Gamecube only had one game. Microsoft, however, took it to a new level with their Xbox Live Gaming service. They introduced a service that was universal and used paid for gamertag subscriptions. You were able to play every game online with one name and communicate with a universal friend’s list.
These innovations carried into the seventh generation but in ways people had never imagined. The Xbox Live, Playstation Network, and Nintendo Wireless Connection services turned online gaming into more than just a place to compete against competitors around the world. Setups like under Nintendo’s services allowed for a virtual representation, Miis, which you could share with the world and mainly your friends while communicating or competing. Both competitors eventually followed suit with Avatars (360) and Home (PS3). Xbox Live expanded with easier ways to communicate in parties with your friends in either chat or voice chat. Sony and Nintendo quickly followed suit.
What it eventually led to was three competing services that not only focused on competitive online gaming around the world, but social connection with friends and fellow gamers alike. All three helped to achieve this in gaming, but the main pioneer was Microsoft with their Xbox Live service which even today stands tall as a huge social networking service. However, no matter who the pioneer was, all three made social networking a great defining feature of the seventh generation.
4. Gaming for Everyone
Gaming has usually been a hobbyist phenomenon among the gaming elite. Not until the fifth generation did gaming really take off with the mainstream outside of Japan. However, even during the fifth and sixth generations, games were still catered to the gaming elite. While mainstream gaming population was growing mainstream support from the media, publishers, and console makers were not.
However, towards the end of the sixth generation this started to change with the introduction of such products as Singstar (Sony) and Guitar Hero (Activision). Music has always been a huge mainstream entertainment market so combining it with gaming was going to be an obvious hit. But, it wasn’t till the seventh generation until we saw mainstream support for a mass selection and variety for all gamers. Most of these things were present in some way before the seventh generation, but attitudes changed during this generation. The main backer of this new thought was Nintendo. Although, the attitude technically started with the Nintendo DS, it was carried over into the console market with the Nintendo Wii. Ever since then, gaming has never been the same.
The Nintendo Wii’s focus was gaming for everyone. No longer would people get the shaft. They had the selection before but now they had the attention. The Wii came bundled with the largest mainstream hit ever, Wii Sports. Games from Nintendo such as Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree and Endless Ocean while still providing such gems as Super Mario Galaxy and Zelda: Twilight Princess. Then of course in 2008 they further expanded with Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii which are almost at 30 million in combined sales. But it didn’t start and end with Nintendo. Microsoft quickly tacked on mainstream hits such as Lips and Viva Piñata while bundling mainstream games such as Kung Fu Panda and Lego Indiana Jones. Sony, who had already jumped on the mainstream bandwagon, started to show more attention to their mainstream properties such as Singstar and Buzz Quiz while introducing new games like LittleBigPlanet.
Third Parties didn’t hesitate either. Guitar Hero became more popular than ever with its first complete seventh generation iteration on all three consoles, Guitar Hero III. The game has become not only one of the best selling games ever, but the only game to ever achieve revenues of more than one billion. Electronic Arts jumped on board with Rock Band and other mainstream properties. Take Two brought in Carnival Games; Ubisoft brought the Petz and Imagine series to the Wii, and so on from large and small developers alike. Niche and large mainstream properties alike were finally getting the attention they deserved and they have been huge for the gamers and developers alike. It is no contest that gaming for everyone is one of the greatest features that defines the seventh generation.
3. High Definition Gaming
High definition televisions have only recently been on the craze. Before the seventh generation of gaming progressive scan and widescreen gaming was the only advancements over previous modes of playing games. But, as high definition televisions became more popular and less expensive to implement, Sony and Microsoft both implemented the feature into their systems. Both the 360 and PS3 have the capabilities of playing video games in high definition settings.
The question is what did this do for gaming? Well it changed not only the way we view video games but the way games are presented. Both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 sported huge advancements in hardware that allowed them to produce visually pleasing video games. But, on a normal standard television, most of this goodness wouldn’t show up. Minor details in environments that took developers numerous months to perfect would go unnoticed. However, with HD gaming on the prowl we saw the games how they were truly developed for the console. We achieved crisper graphics. More importantly though, we saw the true polish that these developers achieved for our gaming pleasure.
Many were saying that the seventh generation was about this aspect and in most regards they were correct. Yet, we can look deeper than it just as a connection between a console and a television. What it truly is is experiencing gaming in deeper graphical polish and the way the developers wanted it to be seen on the two respective consoles. It gave us greater respect for the creators of these games as we see their tedious attention to detail. Most importantly, though, it provided our televisions with visuals that stunned and awestruck us with beauty of both realism and artistic style. High definition expanded graphical design making it a great defining feature of the seventh generation.
2. Motion Sensing
Although everything before number 2 had been involved in gaming in some way or form before this, this one, for the most part, hadn’t. Motion sensing controllers were around in some forms as tilt controllers during the fourth generation and in the second generation of handhelds. However, none had ever backed it as more than just a gimmick. It was always for something small or specific. The seventh generation changed this perception.
In November 2006, the Nintendo Wii launched with Wii Remote and Nunchuck. The remote sported tilt control, accelerometers, IR, and many other things that allowed it to be a multi-functional controller. Before it released, many doubted its possibilities and whether or not it would work for multiple genres. The dissenters were quickly proved wrong when the first game that used it, Wii Sports, started a cultural phenomenon. Nothing as revolutionary or huge in proportion had been introduced in the gaming world since Super Mario Brothers itself on the Nintendo Entertainment System. At heart, Wii Sports was a simple sports party game. But, when combined with the Wii Remote and Nunchuck it became a groundbreaking moment in gaming history.
Quickly everyone had to demonstrate what the motion sensing capabilities of the Wii could do. Many developers made disappointing games based off the technology while other developers released revolutionary ways of transforming genres into something completely new. Either way, developers regained a sense of creativity. They gained a new toy that allowed them to expand pass traditional ways of thinking and developing video games. In the end, gamers of all kinds won as they got to experience new and old games with this new way of playing. Arcade shooters were brought into the homes; sports played in the living rooms; parties conducted with three other friends with remotes and a television.
There are still numerous critics of the setup, but Nintendo seeks to end the dissenters with Motion Plus which releases with Wii Sports Resort in spring 2009 as it perfects the control setup. Either way, motion sensing control brought upon a new phenomenon in gaming that wasn’t a gimmick for one year but a defining feature of gaming. Using video games as a way to get physically and emotionally involved. Motion sensing is one of the greatest defining feature of this generation and showed our willingness to progress pass traditional means of thought and play.
1. XBLA, PSN, and WiiWare/VC
After it was all said and done and the seventh generation was kicking off many asked the question, “What is the single feature that will define the seventh generation?” Up to this point four features have been listed. Many answered the questions with High Definition Era or the Motion Sensing Era. Both are great answers and more than likely one of those is what will go down in the history books of gaming. However, as a long time gamer, there was something else in this generation that did more. Something that was completely new to the consoles. I speak of downloadable games.
Before this time retailers and large publishers had monopolies on who could release games or who could even create games. Gaming was a business and it was an expensive one. However, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony offered services that allowed downloadable games. Many underplay this aspect, but this was a huge moment in gaming. No longer did you have to go to a retailer to buy a game. No longer did a developer have to go to a publisher to pay for the costs of developing and placing a game for sale. The developers brought the games straight to the people. Call them micro transactions or whatever, but this brought gaming to a new level. Variety in gaming surpassed anything we’ve ever seen before as it allowed indie developers to provide us with something new and creative.
Many great games have come out of these services that would have never made consoles had it not been for these abilities: World of Goo, Braid, Castle Crashers, and Echocrome to name a few. These services were Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare, and Playstation Network. However, if this was all the feature was, then it wouldn’t surpass two and three. No there was one service who took it even farther and made digital downloads of games the greatest feature of the seventh generation. Obviously, I speak of the Virtual Console. This is not only one of the greatest services introduced in gaming, but it provides a medium for the past to meet the present and stay for the future. XBLA and PSN allowed for old school games as well but it was the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console that gave us the old school goodness that completed this feature.
Games such as Super Mario Brothers, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Mario RPG, Sonic the Hedgehog, Secret of Mana, Golden Axe, Splatterhouse, Bonk’s Adventure, and so many more. Even more, it allowed for such things as Sin and Punishment and Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels to make their first appearances outside of Japan ever. The service offered gamers a way to relive their past and the current gamers to experience the golden ages of gaming.
With the VC and XBLA/PSN/WiiWare, downloadable games easily have become one of the biggest things to do this generation. VC has brought our past to life in the present giving us old school gaming goodness while XBLA/PSN/WiiWare have brought to us new and innovative games from large and small developers that we may have never seen without the services. Most importantly it gives gamers a way to download good but cheap games right to their systems in their homes.
The seventh generation had huge features such as High Definition support, motion sensing, social networking, and gaming for everyone, but what it always comes down to is the games. The new services on the consoles of the seventh generation that allowed you to download the new and the old gave this generation a dynamic and edge over any other showing how far this generation has progressed. I have no regrets in saying that the seventh generation is the Era of Downloadable Games as this been the feature to separate this from the rest.
Zucas
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