What makes a console?

[Arcaneum]

So let's say you're in charge of development of the next console of choice, what do you think is vital for a console to be successful? What is it that makes the PS2 the best-selling console to date that you think needs to be harnessed by developers nowadays, etc etc.

I'm aware that of course you want a perfect mix of performance, price, backwards compatibility etc, so I'll limit to a Top 3 Factors which you think are imperative.

For me, I'd go with: Performance, Backwards Compatibility and Exclusive Titles.

 

[Nah]

The most important thing to me would be the console's library. It's having games that you want on it that make you want to buy the console in the first place, right? So the better the selection of games available to it, the better it should do. Backwards compatibility also helps with that by expanding the library further to games for older systems. Although I suppose you can achieve a similar effect (and possibly get more $$$) by doing re-releases of stuff a la Wii U VC and the like, but that also limits your selection to whatever you choose to re-release. Price is important too. Make your console too expensive and you reduce the number of people buying it simply because they can't afford it. Paid online is gross too.

The stuff that isn't too important for me personally is stuff like it running the latest/most cutting-edge hardware or having additional functions like being able to stream Netflix or act as a toaster or whatever the fuck consoles also do these days. As long as it doesn't look like total shit and doesn't lag and it connects to the internet without additional hardware, I'm good, and I bought my console to play video games on, not do other stuff, though I see why that appeals to some people.

So in short list form: Selection of Games/Backwards Compatibility/Price

 

[colours]

This is kind of a difficult question for me to answer because what I would personally prefer in a console and what would generally make consoles successful are two wildly different things. Like, my ideal console would have a bunch of weeb anime RPG exclusives, but I know that would tank since that would appeal to no one outside of maybe Japan, so there's one example lol.

Anyway, in no particular order, if I had to pick my top three...

• Backwards compatibility
• A decent graphics chip
• A good library

A side tangent: One of the things I wish the Switch had was a better graphics chip, at least that way it'd be able to get PS4-esque games without the worry of terrible framerate dropping or anything like that. Also, backwards compatibility is nice, but I'd go the route of something like Nintendo's Virtual Console. While physical backwards compatibility would be nice, I do feel like the era of physical copies is slowly but surely not going to be a thing as much anymore, plus physical copies of older games are sometimes much harder to come by. So this knocks two birds with one stone, really.

That'd be about it. Honestly, beefier hardware ordinarily wouldn't matter as much to me, but being futureproof does, so to me that takes precedence.

If I was allowed to pick a fourth, it'd be price, but I feel like in this scenario you'd be getting exactly what you pay for in quality.

 

[Zerotwp]

Good library and price were the selling points 10+ years ago. Nowadays making a console doesn't mean just making hardware and games, it's also about making infrastructure and network services. I'm not complaining, but playing with a friend via splitscreen seems like a dying feature now.

 

[Solez]

I think I'd go with Exclusivity, Price, and Third-Party Support. Something that finally convinced me to buy a PS4 - having long been a staunch Nintendo-only fan - was the fact that it had titles unavailable on Nintendo consoles. While a lot of PlayStation games were available on the Xbox as well, Sony had/has more exclusives in general, and they eventually swayed me to buy a PS4. AND the reason I'll always buy Nintendo consoles is for their exclusives, too. Price is important because, while it's cool that Nintendo games hold their value, PS4 games are usually only expensive for a few months; after that, the price falls dramatically. Support from other companies means that that SIE aren't the only ones producing quality games.