XBOX-HQ.COM - David Jaffe Calling All Consoles to Merge

Leading game companies must come together and make “the right decision on the one thing… that could benefit gamers and game makers in a massive way: a single console”, says David Jaffe.

Famed God of War designer Jaffe, who previously predicted that a one console future is inevitable, has now wholeheartedly jumped on the train in favor of a standard platform, joining fellow proponents of the school of thought such as Denis Dyack and EA exec Gerhard Florin.

“Can anyone explain to me how having one console would be bad for gamers? Or game developers for that matter?,” Jaffe wrote in an impassioned post on his Game Design blog.

Jaffe rejects the often forwarded argument by those adverse to a one console future that a unified platform would stifle healthy competition.

“I don’t understand this in regards to console hardware. One game publisher would be bad. One giant game developer would be bad. I get how those things would hurt gamers. But why would one unified hardware platform?

“We have it with DVD, we had it with VHS. We have it with televisions (in the sense that- for the most part- every TV is capable of broadcasting the same signal). So what do we lose by having it for game consoles?”

“Sure you miss out on some features that may otherwise be available if another console was there to compete. But this is always the way when one format wins over another and becomes the standard. And for those few features you lose, don’t you make up for it in so many other ways?”

Jaffe goes on to argue that massive content choice, as opposed to system exclusive content, would be one major benefit of a unified platform, and that more competition on the software front would lead to better quality products.

“… You get more competition on the software side - which is, to me, where it counts - because there is more competition to be the best on a single system instead of content creators splintering and never ever worrying about competing with two out of the three groups.

“For me, those are much bigger reasons to want a single console. Sure, you miss out on a cool feature here, a neat feature there. But we’ve gotten used to this in so many other hardware products and - in doing so- reaped the many more benefits of a single system.”

News-Source: Next-Gen