When this current generation of consoles launched, both Sony and Microsoft expressed an intention to produce original TV content - clearly seeing the way the industry was moving towards platform-exclusivity - as pioneered successfully by Netflix and Amazon.
Unfortunately, that dream has now crashed and burned like a content Zeppelin; you may have read over the weekend that Powers, the first and last PlayStation TV show, has been cancelled.
And yet... I'd argue that this doesn't have to mean the end for console-exclusive telly...
Unfortunately, that dream has now crashed and burned like a content Zeppelin; you may have read over the weekend that Powers, the first and last PlayStation TV show, has been cancelled.
And yet... I'd argue that this doesn't have to mean the end for console-exclusive telly...
WHAT DID YOU NEVER GET AROUND TO?
I never got around to watching Powers, despite enjoying the first few years of the comic it was based upon.
In truth, I was put off by the lukewarm reviews of Season One, and a perception - which I accept may have been wrong - that it was a bit cheap and cheerful, due to it being on the PS4.
The promotion for the show didn't break through, and somehow the promo images of Sharlto Copley with his unconvincingly-dyed hair and beard, just turned me off.
Plus I don't watch TV on my PlayStation 4. That isn't why I bought a PlayStation 4. It isn't hooked up to my main telly, in the front room.
On that big telly I can watch Netflix, Amazon Prime, iTunes, as well as regular TV. And it's probably an important assertion that all of those platforms are software-based; to watch Sony's Powers you could only watch it on the PS4 hardware, which obviously limits the audience's viewing flexibility.
That, I suspect, is the biggest challenge faced by TV shows on consoles. Not least because the PS4 - and the Xbox One - aren't ideal as dedicated TV-watching devices. They're terrible for watching stuff on, frankly. Utterly awful, with their cluttered, confusing, off-putting interfaces.
NOT CRITICISM
None of this is meant necessarily as a criticism of the idea of console-exclusive TV, or of a TV show I never watched. It's just trying to explain why I never watched Powers, and why Powers might've failed as an experiment.
Unfortunately, it now stands as the only example of a PlayStation Plus TV show, and - at least for the foreseeable future - will have probably discouraged Sony from trying another.
Of course, Microsoft also backed out of the market in 2014. It's fair to say that the Halo: Nightfall web series - despite the involvement of Ridley Scott - was seen by about ten people. You'd be forgiven for not having heard of its other Xbox Originals TV shows - street football reality series Every Street United or the Atari: Game Over documentary movie.
Channel 4's moderately successful sci-fi series Humans started life as an Xbox Originals co-production, before Microsoft dropped out, and cancelled all development of future Xbox Originals shows. Including the sitcom based upon the doomed Fable Legends, which I was approached about writing.
I never got around to watching Powers, despite enjoying the first few years of the comic it was based upon.
In truth, I was put off by the lukewarm reviews of Season One, and a perception - which I accept may have been wrong - that it was a bit cheap and cheerful, due to it being on the PS4.
The promotion for the show didn't break through, and somehow the promo images of Sharlto Copley with his unconvincingly-dyed hair and beard, just turned me off.
Plus I don't watch TV on my PlayStation 4. That isn't why I bought a PlayStation 4. It isn't hooked up to my main telly, in the front room.
On that big telly I can watch Netflix, Amazon Prime, iTunes, as well as regular TV. And it's probably an important assertion that all of those platforms are software-based; to watch Sony's Powers you could only watch it on the PS4 hardware, which obviously limits the audience's viewing flexibility.
That, I suspect, is the biggest challenge faced by TV shows on consoles. Not least because the PS4 - and the Xbox One - aren't ideal as dedicated TV-watching devices. They're terrible for watching stuff on, frankly. Utterly awful, with their cluttered, confusing, off-putting interfaces.
NOT CRITICISM
None of this is meant necessarily as a criticism of the idea of console-exclusive TV, or of a TV show I never watched. It's just trying to explain why I never watched Powers, and why Powers might've failed as an experiment.
Unfortunately, it now stands as the only example of a PlayStation Plus TV show, and - at least for the foreseeable future - will have probably discouraged Sony from trying another.
Of course, Microsoft also backed out of the market in 2014. It's fair to say that the Halo: Nightfall web series - despite the involvement of Ridley Scott - was seen by about ten people. You'd be forgiven for not having heard of its other Xbox Originals TV shows - street football reality series Every Street United or the Atari: Game Over documentary movie.
Channel 4's moderately successful sci-fi series Humans started life as an Xbox Originals co-production, before Microsoft dropped out, and cancelled all development of future Xbox Originals shows. Including the sitcom based upon the doomed Fable Legends, which I was approached about writing.
TV = HARD
Television is hard. I say this as someone who has been writing for TV for almost 20 years now.
For every show I've worked on which has been produced, there are many more which never made it, and the reasons things don't get made are myriad.
Sometimes the project just isn't good enough. Sometimes there are political reasons, or the person championing it has moved onto pastures new, or died, or been swallowed by a whale, or an almost identical idea gets green-lit.
Or... the wind is blowing in the wrong direction, or... the channel controller insults the Queen, and has to resign, so that your BBC1 sitcom ends up in limbo and then you hear that the commissioner has shown your pilot to another writer and said "We really like this - could you do something like it?".
Or whatever.
Sometimes it's fair, sometimes it isn't, but there are no guarantees. And the audience has fragmented hugely; it's no longer four or five channels. It's hundreds of channels, and Netflix, and Amazon, and iTunes, and Hulu, and YouTube, and heck knows what else.
I mean, I probably watch as much YouTube stuff as I do TV these days. And I hardly ever watch linear telly; it's all on catch-up or iPlayer.
TOO BIG
Personally, I think both Sony and Microsoft were thinking too big, trying to do too much too soon. Yes, they were approaching the right sorts of people - people with experience - but they were limiting the distribution of the end product to walled-off boxes, which were a horrible way to watch TV.
Plus, Powers seemed like a weird show for Sony to start off with - a strange statement of intent. The trouble with Powers was that it didn't appear to be offering anything particularly original, that would've made it worth the faff to watch it on the PS4. It looked like the sort of show you'd see on SyFy.
I do think it's a shame Microsoft never moved forwards with its plans. Basing its TV shows on its gaming properties was an interesting model, and it would've been intriguing to see whether that gave them any additional traction with Xbox One owners.
It's also a bit disappointing that Microsoft cancelled Inside Xbox four years ago - that kind of insider magazine show is precisely the sort of platform that I think could've been built upon, offering the kind of content that YouTubers couldn't hope to have (and which terrestrial TV refuses to cover).
WHAT IS THE THING THOUGH?
Thing is though, the PlayStation and Xbox are gaming brands. People are very happy with them as that. Why would Sony and Microsoft even need to move into TV production? Shouldn't they just stick to what they're already successful at?
Games are one of the main things drawing audiences away from linear TV. And games are great! Maybe some gamers don't want to watch TV at all; certainly, given that Powers hasn't set the world alight, it might be worth considering.
Still, if they're going to ever again move forwards with creating original telly content, they need to think about what they're offering. What's original about it that's going to tempt us to their stalls, in what is an already overcrowded marketplace?
Simply selling the same colourful hats as everyone else isn't enough. Give us something new and different.
Television is hard. I say this as someone who has been writing for TV for almost 20 years now.
For every show I've worked on which has been produced, there are many more which never made it, and the reasons things don't get made are myriad.
Sometimes the project just isn't good enough. Sometimes there are political reasons, or the person championing it has moved onto pastures new, or died, or been swallowed by a whale, or an almost identical idea gets green-lit.
Or... the wind is blowing in the wrong direction, or... the channel controller insults the Queen, and has to resign, so that your BBC1 sitcom ends up in limbo and then you hear that the commissioner has shown your pilot to another writer and said "We really like this - could you do something like it?".
Or whatever.
Sometimes it's fair, sometimes it isn't, but there are no guarantees. And the audience has fragmented hugely; it's no longer four or five channels. It's hundreds of channels, and Netflix, and Amazon, and iTunes, and Hulu, and YouTube, and heck knows what else.
I mean, I probably watch as much YouTube stuff as I do TV these days. And I hardly ever watch linear telly; it's all on catch-up or iPlayer.
TOO BIG
Personally, I think both Sony and Microsoft were thinking too big, trying to do too much too soon. Yes, they were approaching the right sorts of people - people with experience - but they were limiting the distribution of the end product to walled-off boxes, which were a horrible way to watch TV.
Plus, Powers seemed like a weird show for Sony to start off with - a strange statement of intent. The trouble with Powers was that it didn't appear to be offering anything particularly original, that would've made it worth the faff to watch it on the PS4. It looked like the sort of show you'd see on SyFy.
I do think it's a shame Microsoft never moved forwards with its plans. Basing its TV shows on its gaming properties was an interesting model, and it would've been intriguing to see whether that gave them any additional traction with Xbox One owners.
It's also a bit disappointing that Microsoft cancelled Inside Xbox four years ago - that kind of insider magazine show is precisely the sort of platform that I think could've been built upon, offering the kind of content that YouTubers couldn't hope to have (and which terrestrial TV refuses to cover).
WHAT IS THE THING THOUGH?
Thing is though, the PlayStation and Xbox are gaming brands. People are very happy with them as that. Why would Sony and Microsoft even need to move into TV production? Shouldn't they just stick to what they're already successful at?
Games are one of the main things drawing audiences away from linear TV. And games are great! Maybe some gamers don't want to watch TV at all; certainly, given that Powers hasn't set the world alight, it might be worth considering.
Still, if they're going to ever again move forwards with creating original telly content, they need to think about what they're offering. What's original about it that's going to tempt us to their stalls, in what is an already overcrowded marketplace?
Simply selling the same colourful hats as everyone else isn't enough. Give us something new and different.
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