Next Generation Consoles Archives

The next generation is nearly upon us. We’ve seen the first wave of information from both Sony and Microsoft and both of them have made it clear that new consoles will arrive in 2020. So, naturally, it’s time for us to throw out our wishlists for console features. We’ve already published one list for the PlayStation 5 and another for whatever Nintendo has up their sleeves.

I was given the task of writing up a wishlist for the Xbox Series X. This turned out to be a very challenging task. You see, the Xbox One had an incredibly rocky start thanks to some incredibly poor decisions before its release. Phil Spencer has taken over as the head of Xbox and made a lot of great moves, but he was never able to overcome Sony’s commanding lead.

However, he has been making all the right moves leading up to the new console’s launch. They have been buying studios, improving the value of being a part of their ecosystem, and more. Xbox has already announced a lot of the things I wished for.

The show must go on though! So, here is my list of five things I want from the Xbox Series X

1. Good First Party Games (Other than HALO)

The Xbox Series X needs its own slate of first party games to compete with the likes of God of War, Spider-Man, and Horizon: Zero Dawn. They will, of course, always have HALO and I am sure 343 Studios is going to do a wonderful job. But, Xbox needs to come out guns blazing as quickly as possible. But, they can’t settle for quantity. They need some of these new studios to release games that start or resurrect first party franchises.

This isn’t an impossible task either. They own a wide range of developers who are all working on games as you read this. I can’t imagine a world where at least SOME of those games end up being hits.

2. Continued Momentum With Xbox Game Pass

It is no secret that I believe Xbox Game Pass is the best value in video games right now. $9.99 fro over one hundred games (including day 1 access to all Xbox exclusives) is just bonkers. I don’t think they can rest on their laurels though, because their competitors are absolutely looking at the success of the Game Pass model and considering their own options.

No one has been a “fast follow.” Game pass has been around for more than a year and still stands at the top of the heap. You could argue that PlayStation Now is a competitor, but the services are pretty different right now. With that said, Sony could up and change PS Now and make it a real competitor at any time.

Xbox needs to stay ahead of their competition and continue to innovate. The biggest opportunity they have for innovation is original, exclusive games. They have a bunch of studios at their disposal and directing some of them to create content that is exclusive to the Game Pass platform would go a long way towards making the service desirable.

3. Keep Being Transparent

Phil Spencer and team Xbox have been VERY open about their plans, their goals, and the way that the prevailing conditions have impacted them. We know a lot about what the Series X is going to be able to do. We know that they have a LOT of teams making games. They have gone so far as to straight up tell us that all of their games will play on both Xbox One and Xbox Series X for the first year and beyond.

This level of communication is refreshing and they need to keep it up. It has made me confident in my buying decision and happy to support them. These are uncertain times and I want as much certainty as I can get, especially when it comes to an expensive hobby like console gaming.

4. Hardware Improvements Beyond Just Graphics

The big focus for the marketing communications we have been shown so far has been about graphics. Microsoft has talked endlessly about Teraflops, Ray Tracing, and SSDs. We have a more practical request for our next Xbox console.

We would like a more resilient piece of hardware. All of our Xbox consoles have had some kind of mechanical defect that hampered our enjoyment. Our Xbox One has a very flaky disc drive that doesn’t like to read discs unless you tilt the console to 45 degrees. We could have ignored it if the problem wasn’t so common that there are several YouTube videos with instructions on how to deal with it. We even skipped the Xbox 360 generation entirely because of the “red ring of death” fiasco. I don’t expect the new Xbox to be indestructible, but it will likely never move more than a few feet after we install it in our entertainment center. We’d like it if it wouldn’t break under use.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments and let us know your thoughts!

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It is no surprise that Nintendo has been very successful with its handheld and console hybrid, the Nintendo Switch. In 3 years, the Nintendo Switch has sold almost sixty million units. That puts it as Nintendo’s 7^th best-selling console and 3^rd best-selling home console when handhelds are taken out of the equation. With the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X come out at the end of this year, people are wondering where that leaves the Nintendo Switch. Will it be left in the dust of these better performing, higher operating systems? Or, will it continue to be the juggernaut that it is. Even though we are quite a few years away from the next Nintendo console being released, here are some ideas I want Nintendo to consider for the Switch or whatever the next console will be.

1. It Still Needs to be a Hybrid Between Handheld and Console

One of the biggest selling points of the Nintendo Switch is that it can be played on a television like any other console, or you can play it as a handheld system. I believe that whatever system Nintendo comes up with in the future must still have this feature. Nintendo’s next console will not be as successful without this feature. I also do not think it will be called the Switch 2. Nintendo has a habit of giving their consoles unique names. The one time they tried to keep the same naming convention for a console (Wii U) it was a complete failure and is the lowest selling Nintendo console of all time. If Nintendo’s next console does not “switch” between handheld and television play, it will be a huge step back for Nintendo.

2. Better Online Infrastructure

It is no surprise that Nintendo’s online infrastructure is severely lacking. In even some of the simplest games that do not require a lot of extensive action, Nintendo games will still stutter along and dip in framerates. It does not bode well when EVO, one of the largest game tournaments in the world, cancelled the Super Smash Brothers Ultimate tournament because it could not reliably run on Nintendo’s online system. If Nintendo wants to compete against these more powerful systems, it needs to be able to take its games online with better quality and not have all of these hurdles that need to be jumped over. The next Nintendo console needs to allow headset to be used through the controller so that you can talk to your friends while you are playing. It should not require the use of a separate app as a means to talk to each other while playing a game.

Nintendo also needs to not have as many restrictions on their online play. Allow more than one island in Animal Crossing or allow my friends to be able to send more than 3 gifts to me during a day. Also, if my friends and I want to play some Super Smash Brothers online, allow us to put in a couple of computers so we can have a full four-person game going. It was really surprising when Super Mario Maker 2 came out and Nintendo’s original plan involved not being able to play online with your friends. I also do not understand why we still cannot play games like New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe online and can only play them locally.

3. Bring Back the Virtual Console

When the virtual console debuted with the Nintendo Wii, it was a gamechanger for Nintendo consoles at the time. Finally, we would get the chance to play these legacy titles without having to hook up an older system. They were also fairly inexpensive to buy through the Wii’s online store. Most first party games were released through this system and even involved other systems such as the Sega Genesis, Turbografx 16, and Commodore 64. They then proceeded to release the virtual console on Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. For some reason, this all stopped with the Nintendo Switch. They do have the NES and SNES Online, but you must have Nintendo Switch Online in order to play these games. You must also be able to connect to an internet connection every 7 days to continue to use them. The virtual console would give Nintendo the chance to sell the games separately without an online subscription. This would be hard to implement on the Switch currently because a lot of companies went and made their own collections of their games.

4. Achievement/Trophy System

It still amazes me that Nintendo has not implemented an achievement or trophy system into any of their consoles. Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam all of trophies or achievements built into their games and I believe that adds a lot of replay value. Most first party Nintendo games will have some sort of achievements already inserted into the game, so why not just add the format into the system as the whole. If a game is a multiplatform game, they already have to come up with trophies and achievements for the other systems and Nintendo already implements them into most of their games, it would not take a lot of work to add them in to whatever Nintendo is planning to do next. I am a huge fan of achievements in games. Whenever the sound or graphic goes across the screen, it gives me the feeling that I accomplished something, and I have to immediately go and check what I achieved.

5. More Perks for Their Online Service

This reasoning coincides perfectly with a better online infrastructure. Currently, you pay $20 to be able to utilize the Nintendo Switch online and their library of NES and SNES games, but it could be so much more. I would love for Nintendo to allow a free game every month like PS Plus or Xbox Games with Gold. The NES and SNES games are great, but I think it overwhelms people when they see how many games there are. If they could tie this in with a possible virtual console so that the developers and publishers get some amount of compensation, it could be a huge success. I doubt that we would ever see Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VI on their library of NES and SNES online games. Square Enix may find it more enticing to allow people who join for that month to be able to play the game that is being given away. If Nintendo took the same approach as PlayStation and Xbox, they could easily charge $60 like their competitors. The only problem would be improving their online and adding these perks.

These are just a few of the perks I would like to see added to Nintendo’s next system or even implemented into the Switch’s future. I do not think the Nintendo Switch will struggle with the competition coming out with their more powerful machines. It will continue to be successful due to its portability and unique characters that only Nintendo can bring.