Review of the 7th Generation

So after a long periods of time that lasted from 2005 all the way to 2012, the 7th generation of gaming is coming to a close, and boy it was epic. So I'm going to narrow down this review to how each of the 3 main competitors did, starting with the company who started it, Microsoft:

Now Microsoft announced the successor of the Xbox on May 12th 2005 in the most unlikely of places, MTV with a more in depth analysis of the console at E3 later that month. As the company had established their own online service Xbox Live at the time, it allowed the console to get a head start in the gaming market, with Nintendo and Sony's consoles being released in 2006. Unfortunately, despite the early launch, the console suffered with some technical issues, most notably the "Red Ring Of Death" and Error E74 which since the release of the console, has had very angry gamers constantly going to replace their consoles which made the company lose some money in that respect. Fortunately, Microsoft were at hand with the situation and released further models with some of the many technical issues fixed and also gave people a 3 year warranty should their console corrupt. As the console was multi-platform, it was compatible with it's own games, DVDs and a select number of original Xbox games (the majority of which can now be digitally downloaded from the Xbox Live Marketplace). As time went on, Microsoft wanted the console to be more of a media hub when they put in some third party services like Facebook, Twitter, Netfilx and a few others and when they launched the innovative Kinect, it allowed the 360 to beat it's competitors in the motion market, however due to the development of Kinect games being hard work, it's wasn't beaten for long. The games that came out for it were mostly first person shooters and games that many hardcore players can find very addictive, especially the Call of Duty and Halo games. From my point of view, only a handful of games that were in some way, exclusive to 360 were great, but not all of them. With Xbox Live in full swing, the console later managed to give players an achievement system (which awards them with gamer points and some virtual items) and their own avatars which made a lot of gamers very happy. The console was capable of giving a standard HD experience with an optional component port in addition to an HDMI port, which allowed more freedom for the gamer if they chooses to have either an HD or SD experience. Now as for PC, online gaming was great with the addition of Minecraft, the continuous online experience that just keeps getting better and better World of Warcraft and of course, the freedom to modify Skyrim (along with a few others) and because the PC can be custom made for the gamer, it was known be the best way to play games in any generation (within reason of course). So my verdict for Microsoft is that while it did have a bad start and a few things that many gamers aren't too happy about, they still had a good run with the console and we can hope to see what Microsoft has in store for the future. Will it carry on in the 8th generation, we'll have to wait and see but for me, as long as some new, decent IPs are made that isn't like Halo or Call of Duty, we should be fine.

Next is Sony:

Sony brought out the PS3 in November 2012, but while the console started off bad as a lot of people like myself didn't get it (as in confused), the console eventually was successful as being the cheapest in the Blu-Ray player market. Unlike the 360, the PS3 was compatible with it's own games, DVDs, Blu-Ray titles (the first of it's kind to have that) and for a time, selected PS2 titles, some of which were re-released in a series of compilation games and as digital downloads. The PS3 is capable of Full HD gaming, however most games, only go up to 720p so it's rare to come across one that can do 1080p. It has it's own established online service called PlayStation Network which unlike Xbox Live is a free online service to all PlayStation owners which has it's own achievement system called Trophies which is similar to Xbox Live's system, but gives players a trophy system in that some are worth more than others and on rare occasions, can give players some virtual items for use in the PS3's virtual social app, PlayStation Home. As Sony is a massive company, the PS3 has access to various third party services like Facebook and Netflix and has a massive online store containing apps, games, movies, TV shows, additional content for games like DLC, profile pictures and more which is big and reasonably priced. Despite it's large price, the console doesn't need a power brick like it's competitors and it's quite quiet when a disc is inserted, and when you actually play a game and press the home button, it gives you the home menu and not some little menu with limited options like it's competitors. Even though the console lost a lot of exclusive titles like Devil May Cry and Final Fantasy, it managed to retain it's own franchises and throw in some new ones, the majority of which were critically acclaimed for their creativity (LittleBigPlanet), innovation (Heavy Rain) and cinematic quality (Uncharted) to name but a few. I won't talk about the PSP as it was released way before the PS3 so technically it's not part of the 7th generation of gaming and the Vita is part of the 8th generation so no word from that either. My verdict is that Sony have proved that even if they don't get exclusive titles from third party titles, they can still make some great quality games that everyone will love, and I can't wait to see what the PS4 has in store for us. One thing I would say, is that they should start making better hardware for their consoles which they only show and then never talk about again because they did that with the Move controllers and the Wonderbook so come on Sony, there's more to gaming than just making games.

Last but by no means least, we come to Nintendo:

Now from my point of view, Nintendo took a different approach to this generation and offered a truly motion sensing experience with the Wii. The Wii is the smallest and also the most limited of the 3 home consoles in that it doesn't provide much in the way of downloadable content, the loading times are horrendous, when a disc gets inserted, it's a very noisy console, but despite all that, it was one of the best selling consoles of that generation. The motion controllers were innovative and unique until Sony and Microsoft catched up and the games aren't as good as that of Sony and Microsoft in that it was using Nintendo's old time franchises and using recycled ideas which are good, but could be better. I don't really have that much to say about this console, other than that Nintendo should've thought a lot more about it's content rather than it's innovative approach. The DS was in a way similar in that it didn't provide much in it's content, but it's innovation was well thought out. In many ways, a lot of people would say that the Nintendo consoles of this generation were for a more casual audience than hardcore audience which lost them a lot of money and fans. But with the way things are going with the 3DS and Wii U, Nintendo's future looks bright and I wish all the best for them.

So who wins this generation? Well based on my experience on all the consoles mentioned and all the promises and the content that were given, Sony wins thanks to their great library of quality games, their way of innovation on the PS3 and the fact that it was the only console to have a built in Blu-Ray player at the time. Well done Sony. Nintendo, you did great, but you didn't live up to the standards of your competitors and Microsoft, if it weren't for the paid online service and your lack of quality games (yes Call of Duty and Halo, I'm looking at you), not to mention the bad and very early launch that you had with your new home console, you would've done better.

But of course, that's my opinion, what's yours?