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SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST: WHY THE SWITCH IS GOING TO OUTLIVE THE XBOX SCORPIO - by Mr Biffo

10/4/2017

67 Comments

 
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The mangrove finch is one of the rarest birds in the world; it is thought that there are just 100 left alive today, all living on one small island in the Galapagos. They're split into two colonies - one of about 80 birds on the west coast, and another 20 living on the east coast. Due to the volcanic terrain between them, the two colonies have had no contact for over a century. 

In the intervening years, the split colonies have continued to evolve - as living species do - albeit without contact with the other. Consequently, they have diverged, and no longer sing the same songs; a vital part of the species' courtship ritual. Additionally, the eastern finches have developed a dark stripe along their breast, which their western counterparts lack. Studies have found other, less obvious, genetic and morphological differences between the two. 

As a result of all this there can be no interbreeding between them, and due to such a tiny population size, the mangrove finch is likely to evolve itself extinct. What a bunch of idiots.

The point of all this is to say that evolution doesn't always get it right. The natural world is all about survival of the fittest, and sometimes evolution gets it wrong, and heads down dead ends. Newer isn't always better, see. Sometimes natural selection kicks in, and boots a species into the dust.

And it isn't just the natural world this happens in; think of technology. It's full of evolutionary dead-ends, and "better" isn't always better; Betamax, Digital Audio Tape, 3DTV...

This "speciation" happens all the time in gaming. Sega's hardware business evolved itself to death. See also Atari, 3DO, Philips CD-i, Nokia N-Gage... Sometimes it's quick, sometimes it's slow... and sometimes... crocodiles win. And in terms of modern gaming, Nintendo is our crocodile; ancient, effective, and robust.

What?
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CROC ON
Crocodiles evolved around 200 million years ago. They might not be the fastest, smartest or most aesthetically pleasing creatures, but they survived the extinction of the dinosaurs - their aquatic nature helping them live through the asteroid strike which wiped out pretty much every major land animal 65 million years ago.

Not every crocodile species survived - the ten-ton sarcosuchus isn't around anymore, thank heck - but speaking broadly, crocodilians have evolved at a snail's pace, remaining largely unchanged for millions of years.

In short; if it ain't broke, evolution ain't gonna bother fixing it. 

For at least the last few generations of hardware, Nintendo has stuck to its guns. At least in terms of internal hardware, it isn't trying to be the fastest, the prettiest, the most powerful, the noisiest. It's content to lurk in the water, doing its own thing, while bigger, more aggressive, creatures fight it out on the shores of its habitat.

We're witnessing gaming evolution happening before our eyes right now, and it's happening in a very different way to how it has done in the past. After decades of evolutionary leaps, the console giants are now attempting a slow and steady approach, albeit one which feels somewhat misguided.

Instead of wiping out their previous generations in a sudden Darwinian lurch, Sony and Microsoft are evolving in a way that will keep their predecessors around for longer. The PlayStation Pro and - unveiled last week - Microsoft's Xbox Scorpio are intended to replace their PlayStation 4 and Xbox One at a more crocodilian pace.

The question is whether the games console's natural environment - the gaming market - will care enough to let both survive. It feels like this is a battle to the death, and - while it may be a long, protracted battle - only one can survive.
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HE SHOOTS HE SCORPIOS
By all accounts, Xbox Scorpio is going to be the most powerful games console ever released. It'll boast even more power than the current apex predator of the gaming scene, the PlayStation Pro, by a considerable margin.

When it arrives later this year, it'll be able to play all the existing Xbox One games, but be capable of displaying visuals which feel like a significant generational leap. According to Microsoft, it'll be comparable to the leap we're used to seeing from console generation to the next. 

Microsoft has shifted a not inconsiderable 26 million Xbox Ones - though that's still less than half of the number Sony has achieved with its PlayStation 4. Microsoft's Xbox 360 was slightly more successful - possibly - than the PlayStation 3, selling around a million more units over the course of its life.

Something went badly wrong for the Xbox One, and it can be argued that the Xbox brand headed down an evolutionary cul-de-sac - bundling the One with the Kinect 2.0 (like a hen evolving a third leg, which it keeps tripping over) - from which it has struggled to reverse. 

The thing is... while a more powerful games console might seem like a good thing, since the arrival of the Nintendo Switch it feels like we've entered a new epoch; one in which raw power no longer seems to matter as much.

Crocodiles don't need the longest legs, the brightest plumage, the sexiest roar to survive; they simply need to be able to survive in the environment that they call home.
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EXCITELESS
The Xbox Scorpio doesn't excite me. I'm still playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the weakest of the current generation of games machines, and it is better than anything available currently on any other machine.

Better, more powerful, high-resolution, graphics wouldn't necessarily make Breath of the Wild a better game. I don't need a Nintendo Switch Pro, or a Switch Scorpio; I'm happy with what I've got, so long as Nintendo can keep supporting the hardware with games of comparable quality.

I'm sure there are millions of existing Xbox One and PlayStation 4 owners who have absolutely no intention of upgrading to the Pro and Scorpio. Game graphics are already amazing, but for some reason Microsoft and Sony fail to appreciate that . They're coming at gaming from the perspective of tech guys, not artists.

Nintendo on the other hand are artists - in both aesthetic terms and gameplay. They create their machines with input from the people who create their games, the people who tell them what they need. The bigger console guys seem to just copy what everyone else is doing, rather than consider the potential of what gaming can be.

Nintendo has a culture of games creation, and while it doesn't always get it right - hello, Wii U - more often than not their hardware starts at the point of the gameplay experience. 

​ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN
Games are the environment in which consoles thrive; without the games, the hardware cannot rise to the top. It's part of why the Xbox One has struggled, relatively speaking, in comparison to the PlayStation 4. Having stumbled out of the gate, its exclusive games simply haven't been strong enough to close the gap between its nearest rival.

There's no point pretending that Microsoft is trying to be anything other than top dog; it wants to be back at the pinnacle of the evolutionary tree, and it's trying to force that evolution by chucking raw graphical power at its hardware, rather than focus on the games. Last week's unveiling of the Scorpio was met mostly with a collective shrug from everyone but the tech nerds; "Fine, but what about the games?"

Microsoft's main selling point? "6 Teraflops of graphical processing power". Could they have been any more boring? Well actually... yeah. Yeah, they could - and they were.

Microsoft also threw around quotes like this: "Project Scorpio’s Vapour Chamber uses advanced liquid cooling to ensure the Scorpio Engine stays cool... A supercharger-style Centrifugal Fan rapidly pulls in and compresses air to deliver maximum cooling with minimum noise... To maximise performance and minimise power consumption, Project Scorpio uses the Hovis Method, a cutting edge digital power delivery system that custom tunes each console’s voltage."

Attention, Microsoft: most people don't care about ANY of that! Games, please. Make it about the  GAMES - or you risk your Xbox brand going extinct. You're too far behind the PlayStation 4 to ever catch up or defeat it, and have to stop trying to compete for the same prey. You need to do something new, offer something different. You need to find your own environment to compete in. 

Nintendo long ago side-stepped that processing race, and is content to do its own thing, to be apart from the battle between the big, heavy, predators.

Dinosaurs might have been the biggest, most powerful, creatures that ever walked the earth... but where are they now? They got wiped out, and those that remained became tiny, and took to the skies, where they stayed out of reach while mammals took over the land.

It's a lesson Nintendo learned generations ago; by not trying to compete, by being the best at what it does, by being the apex predator of its environment - rather than the planet - it has thrived, and continues to thrive. For as long as it continues in this way, I genuinely believe that Nintendo - while maybe not having the biggest-selling consoles - will outlive us all.
FROM THE ARCHIVE:
TEN GAMING CONTROVERSIES YOU NEVER SAW COMING
​
HOW THE GAMES COMPANIES GOT THEIR NAMES
​
A TRIBUTE TO THE ART OF BOB WAKELIN​


67 Comments
RichardM
10/4/2017 11:32:53 am

Hear, hear! The world would be a sadder place without Nintendo hardware. Happy times ahead if they continue to embrace innovation in their software titles too, a la Breath of the Wild. Open world Mario anyone?

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Darren link
10/4/2017 11:55:27 am

I actually shrugged when I watched that stupid reveal video last week on the YouTubes. Shrugged... I SHRUGGED. I went "meh" and shrugged. That's the first time ever in my gaming history that it has happened on the back of news of a "new" launch console.

Even the Switch didn't make me shrug - it left me confused and bewildered by Nintendo's strategy, but I didn't shrug.

Soooooo... Sony and Microsoft have become obsessed with 4K gaming for some reason, because having your eyes bleed at 60fps is important to gamers. This is great if you are that anal that you are counting the frames, but here I am enjoying the pants off Zelda: Breath of the Wild and it stutters like fuck and I don't care. It's all about the game.

So for me to leap about this next generation, I'm going to have to out and upgrade my current nine-year-old plasma TV and spunk a further £700 up the wall for the Scorpio. So that's over a grand I've done before I even start thinking about games. It's makes the initial investment in a Nintendo Switch look like peanuts.

I don't care. I really don't care. 6 teraflops...a load of techno-jargon that only absolute wankers will get off on. That's how they are selling this to the gaming public. They are trying to appeal to the PC gamer types who treat their computer the same way a petrolhead treats their car. Those sorts who are always banging on about frame rates and the latest graphic cards. (There's nothing wrong with that, but I don't have a horse in that particular willy-waving race).

Does your average gamer give a toss about teraflops? Nope. How about 4K gaming? Prolly not. But this is where we are at. We don't have any games to show you, but here's the specs. And it appeases all those people who bang on about that sort of stuff and nothing else.

It shows a complete lack of imagination and further alienation from the gaming market these companies are supposedly serving.

Heigh ho!

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Gary Barlow
10/4/2017 01:05:03 pm

Hovis!

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Nick
10/4/2017 12:02:03 pm

"Hovis Method" Bugger off.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
10/4/2017 12:25:35 pm

This conjured wonderful images of the next Xbox ad campaign being set in a non-specific northern town in the 1950s, with a young boy (or "lad") running to a bakery to pick up an Xbox Scorpio. Perhaps not he way he encounters idyllic scenes of heavily idealised northern life played out by popular Xbox characters, before a warm, grandfatherly voice reminds us of the wholesome family tradition of the Xbox's Hovis method.

I'd buy it.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
10/4/2017 12:28:02 pm

That should say "perhaps ALONG the way". I used to appear literate before Autocorrect was invented...

David W
10/4/2017 07:57:56 pm

Breadbox.

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Nick
10/4/2017 08:37:54 pm

Brilliant.

Voodoo76
10/4/2017 12:04:35 pm

That has to be one of the best intro's to any of your articles yet, so interesting and enjoyable. To be fair i didn't follow the development of BOTW nor was I interested in the Switch prior to release. I only got one on launch based on reviews and so glad I did. Its the game I've been waiting years for, a throwback to the good old times brought up to date. More then anything I'm relieved Nintendo still have it in them to produce such quality, and it confirms raw power means shit. My PS4 is now used as a dvd and amazon prime player. I just wish I was better at BOTW, you'd think after over 30yrs of gaming I'd have a clue, but no..... I'm absolutely useless!!

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Keith
10/4/2017 12:11:16 pm

I just wish there was some sort of middle way. Nintendo are absolutely right to focus on games and gameplay, and to all but abandon the cliches of identikit gruff protagonists and hat sport of thing.
But do they really need to do so by essentially saying "Hey look! Our console is less powerful than the other ones! Isn't that GREAT?"

I don't understand why NIntendo doesnt do this: plan its next console to be, at the time of release, the most powerful games console. at a stroke it would surely attract everybody's interest - the people like me who want a nintendo console to play Zelda/mario Kart etc, but can't justify the outlay because of the lack of other games, the fact that cross platform titles wont be on it. NIntendo's exclusives are so good that if they made the hardware the best, they would overtake, or at least compete with, Sony and Microsoft (and I'd argue are uniquely placed to overtake Microsoft at least and render the XBox obsolete)

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Bruce Flagpole
18/4/2017 01:57:43 pm

Agree with this really. Or if not the 'most powerful', at least be 'as powerful' as the others. And it's not like Nintendo consoles are cheap either. Both Wii U and now Switch are for me, too expensive for what you get.
A bit cheaper, or a bit more powerful and it would seem ok...but there seems to be a premium charge just for being Nintendo...who then also maintain premium pricing for their games cos you can't get them anywhere else.

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Keith
10/4/2017 12:13:33 pm

Yes, I said "hat sport of thing". What of it?

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Dr Budd Buttocks, MD
10/4/2017 12:22:38 pm

I would argue that the traditional 5+ year cycle of console generations is the evolutionary dead end. PS4 Pro and Project Scorpio are both clear signs of Sony and MS embracing the continual and incremental hardware refreshes of the phone/tablet markets, using less specialised hardware that retains backward compatibility. Nintendo are taking the same approach with Switch, which is almost literally an off-the-shelf Android tablet with a little bit of Nintendo magic mixed in. They've also dabbled with the idea of mid-generation refreshes with the DS and 3DS lines, if you can call confusing and badly thought out products dabbling.
If Nintendo hadn't been muscled out of the traditional home console space by Sony and MS, they wouldn't be making Switch and Super Mario Run today.

I would also argue that dedicated gaming hardware in general is an evolutionary dead end.

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Wicked Eric
10/4/2017 12:23:39 pm

For all this talk of it being the games that are important, Nintendo doesn't exactly have much to offer on this front do they? Admittedly their first party stuff is among the best in the biz, but it really is about time they started properly courting third parties in the way that Sony does. This is something they should be able to do without engaging in a tech arms race.

As for the Scorpio. Who cares. Hardly anyone is going to pay £450 or whatever it's gonna cost just to play the same games their £200 PS4 can already play.

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dab88
10/4/2017 12:56:02 pm

How exactly do you 'court' large 3rd party publishers? Because Sony and M$ just throw money at them. It that what you mean? Nintendo would likely have to throw more money since their systems have a smaller user base and therefore less attractive to a 3rd party publisher. You have a point but there really isn't an easy (cheap) way around it until the amount of Nintendo consoles in peoples homes grows by a large amount.

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Wicked Eric
10/4/2017 01:48:15 pm

It's got nothing to do with throwing money at them though.

It's about approaching developers and demonstrating to them why they should be making games for your console. It's about making the system accessible to developers and giving them the support that they need.

Nintendo have been notoriously shit at all of this since at least the N64 era.

The reason the PSOne had such a mountain of third party support wasn't because Sony were paying anyone to make games for the system. Sony went to developers and demoed the tech to developers and got their creative juices flowing by showing them what was possible and then backed all this up with a toolset that made it relatively cheap and easy to make games for.

Darcy
10/4/2017 12:28:44 pm

It always amuses me the lengths those hardware-obsessed nerdy nerds will go to to revise the Wii's success out of "the gaming picture".

"It wasn't a proper console!"
"Nobody ever played it outside of Christmas!"
"It wasn't HD so it wasn't the same 'gen'!"

Why so insecure, Dave???

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Spiney O'Sullivan
10/4/2017 12:51:08 pm

I liked the Wii, but it's a funny one. Commercially a massive success, but full of awful shovelware aimed mostly at tricking grannies into buying junk for the kids. The motion controls didn't really revolutionise gaming, so it's kind of a weird cul-de-sac in gaming evolution.

Skyward Sword and Mario Galaxy were great, but that was part of the problem: with exception to a few small studios like the Lostwinds lot, only Nintendo really knew (or cared) how to do anything worthwhile with it.

Also graphics aren't everything, but just think how good Skyward Sword would have looked in HD...

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Darcy
10/4/2017 01:31:39 pm

There were plenty of decent games on the Wii, though, it's just that nobody in "the Gamer's Circle" cared to acknowledge them, so strong was their "Wii has no games!!!" narrative.

Wicked Eric
10/4/2017 01:57:14 pm

I dunno about all that.

I owned only a Wii from 2006 till 2009 and I felt like I was totally missing out compared to what was coming out on the 360 at that time.

While everyone else was playing Bioshock and Fallout and Assassin's Creed and CoD4 and Gears of War and FIFA and Grand Theft Auto and Mass Effect I had to make do with the odd Nintendo gem once in a blue moon and piles upon piles of shit like "Big Brain Academy".

Spiney O'Sullivan
10/4/2017 02:09:48 pm

The Wii very much pitched itself as "the other console" by being a generation behind the others and having a few good games. I think that's Nintendo's strategy now: don't compete for top spot, do your own thing, let the others duke it out, and get bought anyway as a side-console for when a new Mario or Zelda comes out.

Darcy
10/4/2017 03:24:39 pm

While other people were playing Bioshock and Fallout and Assassin's Creed and CoD4 and Gears of War and FIFA and Grand Theft Auto and Mass Effect, I was playing Harvest Moon, the Last Story and Xenoblade, among others, all of which I find infinitely preferable.

"No games I enjoy" =/= "no games".

Wicked Eric
10/4/2017 05:38:12 pm

Sorry Mr Darcy, but that's an incredible self-own of a comment right there.

Dave
10/4/2017 12:56:07 pm

Because I'm 33, live with my parents, stay in my bedroom permanently and piss in a bottle. I'm not a virgin though, but admittedly it wasn't 'real' sex, as the other person wasn't actually in the same room as me.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
10/4/2017 12:58:29 pm

Oh, look at Mr Ladies Man here. You don't have to go rubbing your success in the faces of all the other Digi readers.

Some people just have to brag...

Darcy
10/4/2017 01:32:51 pm

TBF, no one brags as much as Melvin

NOdab88
10/4/2017 12:53:10 pm

Great article. I brought a Wii U and a bunch of games a couple of years ago. It's basically sat gathering dust until BOTW came out and now it's my go-to console. I actually love my Wii U now... but only because of BOTW. Maybe I'll try some other games when I'm finished...

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Spiney O'Sullivan
10/4/2017 12:56:43 pm

So when you say "go to console", you mean "console I go to for BotW?"

(I have a Wii U, and consider it legitimately the most underwhelming console I have ever bought. And I own a Sega Saturn.)

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NOdab88
10/4/2017 01:00:39 pm

Yeah that's pretty much what I meant. Before March I would've agreed with the underwhelming assessment, however BOTW has changed that. I almost feel like it was worth buying the console for

Spiney O'Sullivan
10/4/2017 01:10:41 pm

I'd like to say it was a Wii U success, but ultimately I could have got it on Switch.

Once Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is out, the only thing my Wii U will have left is Smash Bros.

(And before anyone says it, I don't care about Splatoon)

Darcy
10/4/2017 01:34:19 pm

I'll be using my Wii U until they port Hyrule Warriors to the Switch.

Spiney O'Sullivan
10/4/2017 01:45:42 pm

They will eventually port everything worth having to Switch, then the Wii U will be an awkward footnote in Nintendo's history alongside the Virtual Boy.

I'm mostly keeping mine in the hope that nobody buying it will make it valuable to collectors eventually...

Bongo Calrissian
17/4/2017 01:29:38 pm

There's always Bayonetta too, if you're after reasons to keep the Wii U plugged in.

Euphemia
10/4/2017 01:24:41 pm

As niche and pointless as the PS4 Pro and Scorpio are, they're less likely to be dropped on the floor by a child, so I'd argue have more longevity. In a purely physical sense.

To be fair to any of the twats that do buy one, anyone that bought a Switch at launch is also a twat. TWATS, all of you. x

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Laurel Rester
10/4/2017 01:30:46 pm

Breath of the Wild is only one game, people keep forgetting. It's amazing, but it's a single unit - Nintendo have produced one thing of exceptional value in the past 7 years, along with some good games, some average games, and for the first time in their life, some utter indefensible shite, produced in-house.

Saying their fiddly, no line-up, literal-bender of a console is a success at this point seems short-sighted, and, dare I say, somewhat sycophantic? Is BotW really going to keep you going until xmas (or earliest end-of-Q3), when we finally get that new Mario?

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Antony Adler
10/4/2017 02:37:12 pm

No line-up? Utter nonsense. Having indulged massively in botw, my switch currently plays host to Fast RMX, Binding of Isaac, Lego City Undercover, Snipperclips, and some neo geo classics. Coming soon? Puyo puyo tetris, MK8, Shakedown Hawaii, Arms and plenty more.

Success? Nintendo's stock price has shot up and they've doubled their run from 8m to 16m units.

Sycophantic? How dare someone enjoy a product? The switch is getting rave reviews, people are having a great time with it, including Mr Biffo.

Sour much?

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Laurel Rester
10/4/2017 03:45:30 pm

Sour? Like jealous? I have one, so no, I'm fine. This is about whether or not the Switch will remain a success, as claimed in the article.

Aside form the fun Fast RMX, I played all the games you listed about 5 years ago. They are all 'I may as well get it as I have the system' titles imo: indies and oldies. Fine, but as I say, hardly exclusive. I don't see many beat-em-up fanatic Neo-Geo fans dropping cash for a switch.

It's not hard for stock prices to 'shoot up' when they have been at their lowest point ever for the past few years, and they just launched the console. I'll check how they're doing in July.

And the claims of sycophancy were made as we are claiming the Switch will remain a success (or at least self-sustaining) less than a month after release. There's literally no way of knowing.

Though the article sets out to show that Nintendo's hardware is where they shine, the only reasoning it offers is 'it's cheap', which it isn't, really. If you never play portable, like me, you're paying for an expensive device that falls behind in every way when compared to it's (now) cheaper rivals.

But I digress: what about BotW would not work on a more powerful console (that won't drop frames everywhere)? What is it about BotW that means it HAS to be on Nintendo hardware? Not the controllers, not the portable aspect...I guess you have to use that magic rumble thing a few times? Other than that, people vastly prefer the classic controller.

Crazy as it may seem to Nintendo fans, and it seems you do find this claim bananas, but innovation and creativity exist in abundance on other consoles. Sony in particular has a fantastic record of taking expensive chances on esoteric titles. Nintendo has never produced anything like NieR or Dark Souls, games that are also pushing things forward with gusto, and they don't need a waggle wand or a sort-of perceived portability to do so. As with Zelda players, classic controller still works best: the hardware is not an indicator of originality. If these titles seem off-putting to you, perhaps innovation and creativity are not actually that important to your grading process.

I agree with the final sentence, which more or less claims Nintendo will probably survive milling about in the background from now on as they have their niche. As much as I would love 'the big N' to be a success again, the success of Amiibos has shown just what form that success can take: ugly nostalgia-effigies that are quickly rendered useless and cumbersome: 'niche' seems to increasingly be their forte.

And here's your snide finisher: It might also be an idea not to end your sentence claiming sycophancy is not issue by arbitrarily comparing your tastes to those of the site's creator

Salem
10/4/2017 01:50:27 pm

I was checking Metacritic a few days ago and out of the Top ten ranked games released this year, none are available on X-Box One (well maybe Shovel Knight is but that was not released this year and the review is for the Switch version). It seems to me that is the issue Mr Soft needs to focus on.

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Nocturne
10/4/2017 02:05:16 pm

Unless the Scorpio is going to uncancel Scalebound then I've got no interest in it. Or the PS4 Pro for that matter. I'd need to upgrade my telly first for a start and I've got no plans to do that anytime soon.

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Nocturne
10/4/2017 02:06:21 pm

Frankly I kind of regret having bothered to even get an Xbox One at all.

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Seano
10/4/2017 02:26:42 pm

Hank Scorpio?

Anyone?

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Panama Joe
10/4/2017 02:43:49 pm

Reminds me of the evolution of razor blades where more blades is meant to somehow make them better. What are they up to now, Mach 19? I still use 2 blade razors - they do the job and I can shave my top lip without simultaneously removing chunks of my nose. More is not always better.

There have been times when hardware imposed severe limitations on games and the extra muscle radically improved the gaming experience. Spectrum 128k was an evolution of the 48k machine. For some games this meant you could have actual sound and music in the 128k version, compared with the complete silence of 48k. The Speccy had zero flops, but I loved it all the same.

But there comes a point where there is no obvious gain from added grunt. Sound in games has evolved from monaural bleeps to digitised music, to stereo, then to 5.1 and 7.1 or something. Stereo is fine. It's practical. We all have 2 ears but we don't all want to set up 8 speakers. Audio tech essentially plateaued several years ago, and I feel that graphical detail has reached a similar point. I sincerely hope that 4K is as far as visual detail on a flat screen in your sitting room goes, and that a higher resolution is never the main reason behind releasing new hardware again. Producing massive worlds of such hi-res textures is costly and time consuming. Give us tolerable graphics with slicker gameplay and more content instead.

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Antony Adler
10/4/2017 02:46:15 pm

Competition is a great thing and without Microsoft kicking the arse out of the PS3 on launch, we'd not have seen the amazing resurgence in PS3 and on to PS4. Having said that, and despite owning both a 360 and Xbox one (gathering dust), I hope we're starting to witness the end of Microsoft's Xbox project. A project which seemed to involve a bunch of accountants looking at a profitable market and saying "we'll have some of that". Whereas Nintendo clearly and to a decent extent Sony have demonstated a love of gaming and gamers, Microsoft have none of this. All they were ever interested in was money and 'strategic placement'. It all came to a head when they created the hilariously disastrous Xbox one launch, where they wanted to be "at the heart of your living room",with their godawful kinect, TV offerings, always connected, no reselling games etc. Games? Whatever. Buy out a few studios, throw some cash around. Have another halo. Thanks. So what's their response now to not being able to throw their weight around? Build an even more powerful machine that will surely appeal to nobody ! Whoever has that sort of cash / desire for power will be a PC gamer, which is always going to be far better, not to mention that all the Xbox exclusives can now be played on PC. Further signs of an out of touch, bloated, cash rich corporation.

I'm enjoying seeing their repeated kickings now, long may it last.

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Biscuits the character
10/4/2017 04:47:23 pm

What are they thinking with this Scorpio business? Is this why no Scalebound? I remember doodling Cuphead in the training of a job I started January 2014...where is that?

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DEAN
10/4/2017 06:31:59 pm

That's an insult to accountants!

All the talented people and studios they've shafted and how they've robbed gaming of some superb franchises (Project Gotham and Fable) just beggars belief.

How they treat their customers - yeah, the Kinect is part and parcel of the Xbox One experience...
What their ultimate vision for the Xbox One was...oh the lies and the greed.. where does it end?

And it was always there, right from the start - the HDD bearing original that wasn't there for patches, the unreliable hardware (my 1st 360 red-ringed out the box, never had any other console failure), the disc scratching...

It's lowered the standards for us all. I mean, it's now normal to pay for a machine, pay for the game and then pay again for the privilege of playing that game online with your mates... and we let the bastards away with it and continue to buy their crap.

MS can get to fuck.

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Lindsay
10/4/2017 02:52:19 pm

A fine article but I am disappoint at the lack of Gary Barlow reveal under 'Hovis'

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Mr Biffo
10/4/2017 05:04:21 pm

You're right. Missed opportunity.

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Meatballs-me-branch-me-do
10/4/2017 03:17:56 pm

So the 360 Red Ring Of Death was allegedly caused. Y the main board flexing in the heat. And now the Switch is starting to bend from heat as well.

I'd rather the power of the Scorpius be used to give us a GTA that shows more than ten cars on screen at once than shows ten cars with elevnty kajillion polygons at 3k. But that's me.

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TechDavid
10/4/2017 04:07:15 pm

See, this is addressed in the paragraph full of the things Biffo says nobody cares about: that cooling system is ridiculous for a console

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Spiney O'Sullivan
10/4/2017 04:30:48 pm

After two PS3s giving me the yellow light of death, I definitely do care about the cooling systems. Though the whole point of a console is that I shouldn't have to care about the mechanics of the thing...

Paul
10/4/2017 03:20:08 pm

Not convinced by these arguments. The switch feels like a retrograded version of the Wii U but marketed as the Wii U should have been—i.e. not an addon. Games coming up, particularly from core franchises, don’t look as good as Nintendo’s past quality—particularly judging from the recent Zelda disaster, commercially successful as it was (look at user metascores). All signs are pointing to a business model focused on financial success at the expense of what earned Nintendo its reputation over the last 30 years—deeply fun and novel gaming experiences. I don’t see a rosy future beyond the shareholder this generation.

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Antony Adler
10/4/2017 03:30:00 pm

Sorry are you smoking crack? Zelda disaster???!!!

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Spiney O'Sullivan
10/4/2017 03:56:14 pm

Since the reviews on there are mostly 10s tempered by a few 0s, I feel like the user metascore might not be that reliable...

Personally if I had to give it a score, I'd probably come in around whatever number means "a good game, but only really revolutionary in the context of this franchise". It feels a bit like Nintendo showing up late by being a bottle of champagne to a party being thrown by Ubisoft and Bethesda, but everyone's already passed out on the couch.

Once the launch hype wears off, it'll be interesting to what opinions are.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
10/4/2017 04:01:41 pm

"It feels like Nintendo is showing up late BRINGING a bottle of champagne"...

Argh.

Laurel Rester
10/4/2017 04:16:58 pm

I'll say this in regards to creativity too: Nintendo's greatest recent creative success was a direct result of using and subverting the existing tropes of contemporary successful franchises. As you say, Ubi and Beth are obvious influences.

I said this at the time, but initially Skyward Sword got 10s across the board, including Edge...(for what it's worth, I liked it. Solid 8). I haven't finished BotW yet but it's shaping up a treat, I really like it.

Biscuits the character
10/4/2017 04:22:14 pm

"look at user metascores"

I would rather look into the toilet post-vacating following a night on tiles

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Bibbo
11/4/2017 11:35:06 pm

Keep it up, genius, I'm sure someone out there will validate your idiotic Zelda-hate someday.

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BT33
10/4/2017 05:24:37 pm

BOTW and the Switch are a breath of fresh air in gaming. I'm bored to tears by most of the rehashes were getting in games these days. There's a few novel games but by in large we're treated to the same mechanics over and over again. The Scorpio barely interests me, it'll be nice to see its incredible 4k graphics but beyond that MS lack any real good 1st party games and shelling out over (probably) £400 for third party titles for me (who already has a 1S and Pro) would be stupid. Anyway, this year I'm much more interested in what Nintendo has to offer, they've ignited my excitement in gaming somewhat again.

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Heeden
10/4/2017 06:28:30 pm

"Project Scorpio’s Vapour Chamber uses advanced liquid cooling to ensure the Scorpio Engine stays cool... A supercharger-style Centrifugal Fan rapidly pulls in and compresses air to deliver maximum cooling with minimum noise... To maximise performance and minimise power consumption, Project Scorpio uses the Hovis Method, a cutting edge digital power delivery system that custom tunes each console’s voltage."

This sounds like the kind of thing that would excite people who enjoy building high-end custom PCs.

Y'know what would quell that excitement? Having it come prepackaged in a console. Swing and a miss from Microsoft I think.

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Starbuck
10/4/2017 10:13:49 pm

I'd thought all the vapour chamber Hovis centrifuge thing was a Biffo Funny when I was reading it. Says a lot.

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Treacle
10/4/2017 09:10:49 pm

Given that so many games offer a minimum of 50-60 hours of play, to me the thrill of photo realistic graphics rendered in 4k wears off after about half an hour but the gameplay is what compels me to spent over two full days of my life inhabiting the games universe and investing in its story. It's always a joy to see graphics and gameplay wedded in one beautiful package, but it's the latter that makes a great experience.

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Watt Tyler
10/4/2017 09:46:49 pm

Zelda BOTW is so good I don't even want to play any other games at the moment. Doesn't bother me there isn't much else for the Switch yet - I'd rather have the best game of the last few years than quantity. But I also fear it might be a once-in-a-generation masterpiece and nothing else on the Switch will ever come close (unless they release a sequel or a new-game like DLC expansion)

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PS1Snake
12/4/2017 12:14:38 am

Despite the Xbox One being a half-baked machine straight out the gate, I don't think Microsoft's main problem is a lack power; instead, it is their inability to take risks which has resulted in an eyerollingly dull software library.
Scorpio feels like it is the result of a bunch of Microsoft employees listening to the vocal minority of Digital Foundry fanatics over on NeoGAF. There's no point having powerful hardware when there isn't any interesting software that makes you want to run out and buy it. It makes me wonder if and how Microsoft will manage to whip up fresh, bold, interesting games that will make a lot of people want a Scorpio before people start talking about PS5.
They've lost this gen to Sony though.

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Geebs
12/4/2017 09:07:37 am

Here's the thing about graphics; graphics are still rubbish. Vast amounts of developer time are wasted on going to extreme lengths faking a bunch of physical effects that aren't complicate but simply computationally expensive. Modern game graphics are still smoke and mirrors and behind the scenes they're held together with baking wire and duct tape.

I don't buy this hoary old argument that conflates a lack of imagination in art design with the graphical whizz-bang. The graphical tricks being used in the likes of Zelda to simulate an open world are incredibly old hat and really a regression of gameplay as well as graphics. No asscreed or hitman-style crowds, for example. Zelda is a very good mobile game, but as anybody knows who has witnessed the blasted wasteland of the App Store, mobile games are their own evolutionary dead end.

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David Heslop link
12/4/2017 08:48:39 pm

Hmmm, I see what you mean. But I think you’re rendering (no pun intended) the argument in a bit of a simplistic fashion.
I don’t think it’s as clear cut as it used to be vis-à-vis consoles and generations and whatnot. I think Microsoft is adopting a similar model with the Xbox that they have with the Surface: make great software that works across the board (see: Xbox games being forwards-and-backwards compatible across a range of Xbox hardware, as well as, in a lot of cases, on PC too), and build cutting-edge, best-in-class hardware to show it off. So in a sense it doesn’t matter if the Scorpio outsells the PS4 Pro, or even the Switch, as they’ll make money from software running on 360, Xbox One, Xbox One S, Scorpio, and Windows 10. It’s a totally different model to Nintendo’s, and, in a way, a different one to Sony’s, too. I think finally Microsoft is making the most of its strengths as a company, rather than the botched all-in-one “TVTVTV” approach that stymied the Xbox One launch.
Also, as good as Zelda looks, if given the choice I’d absolutely get a Scorpio. But I probably won’t, not for a while, because to be honest I just don’t game enough to justify the outlay, and really I’m happy with how my current Xbox One games look on my HD telly, so I’d probably have to buy a brand new TV to make the most of it, and Jesus Christ have you tried to buy a TV nowadays? It’s a minefield. I have virtually no idea what any of the features are. And none of them have a SCART port, either.
Anyway, I think the Switch looks amazing, I really want one, and in all likelihood I’ll get one before I get a Scorpio (coz it’d be, cough, “for the kids”). But MS and Nintendo are chasing different audiences, and as much as I agree that Zelda’s art style is far prettier than, say, Gears of War (just as, back in the day, I thought Wind Waker looked loads better than Doom III), technological grunt can generate new and exciting elements of gameplay. Hands-down the most exciting thing I’ve seen in games in about five years is that Crackdown tech demo with the destructible city. I’ve been wanting to do that since, well, Syndicate Wars had a stab at it.
So: Switch good, Scorpio good. It’s all good.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
12/4/2017 09:43:27 pm

All good?

No.

Videogames is like Highlander.

THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!

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Mentalist
13/4/2017 12:37:42 am

Every single Nintendo handheld console, of which Switch is one has had a mid-life core spec upgrade. Apart from GBA, which was made available in 3 distinct form factors, but all at the same speed, Gameboy Color, DSi, and "New 3DS" all came with up-clocked or otherwise updated processors, more memory and other improvements of the sort seen in PS4 Pro and the plans for Scorpio.

In a couple of years time, I will not be surprised in the slightest to see an up-clocked Tegra X2 in a Switch Pro, maybe with an option for an 8 inch screen, capable of rendering at 1080p in handheld mode, and marketed largely on specs.

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