Console is evolving! How MotionPlus, NXE, and Project Natal are changing the way we view our gaming machines

The past decade has brought an exciting number of new trends to the gaming industry. Budget games (XBLA, WiiWare, PSN, etc.) are letting small-time developers make a big splash. Downloadable content is letting us expand our games past their expected life-time. And game-specific peripherals are allowing us to experience a new level of immersive gameplay. But one of the most important ideas to hit the console arena is the ability to expand the features of a console after its release. Console manufacturers have experimented with the idea of adding more power to their machines down the line to earn some extra money and bragging rights. Sega released a number of add-ons such as the 32x to the genesis, and Nintendo released a “disk drive” for the n64. But none of these were able to really catch on in a significant way. Most of these products were not well supported by wary developers, which made consumers skeptical: a nice catch-22.
But things might be changing on that front. Game-specific peripherals have been around for years, but it took a game called guitar hero to make them truly main-stream. The game took off like a rocket, and since then it has become one of the highest selling franchises in gaming. Consumers were willing to part with the extra cash for a reasonably priced peripheral with a great game. With the release of the Wii, Nintendo promised a slew of cheaper peripherals utilizing the Wii remote’s technology. And since then we have seen 5 peripherals (WiiSpeak, wheel, zapper, balance board, and motionplus) for the wii, all of which were packed in with a game and all of which sold through the roof. But these peripherals are merely the tip of the iceberg. Last year, Microsoft announced the launch of NXE, the new Xbox 360 dashboard, which it promised would re-define the way we look at Xbox. Many laughed at this, but since its launch Microsoft has added or promised in support for Netflix, facebook, avatars, twitter, streaming movies and games, Primetime channel (I could do a while feature on this one alone), etc. The xbox has transformed from a gaming-focused machine to a livingroom-dominating powerhouse. And with the release of project Natal, we can expect an incredible amount of new features.
The point I’m trying to make with this is that we can no longer judge a console based on its specs and launch games. Now more than ever, the attitude of the company calling the shots is the real deciding factor in how a console progresses throughout its life. We’ve seen the Xbox evolve from a hard-core only console to an incredible social machine, and Sony and Nintendo are not letting this slip past them. Sony is constantly tweaking its Home service, adding in features to its PSN, and is introducing its wand motion controller soon. And Nintendo has given japan a Wii streaming video channel and the Dsi a facebook app. Natal has been proclaimed to be treated to a launch event that “will be as huge as a new console”, and Sony and Nintendo have both claimed to have more tricks up their sleeves. It’s likely that things are going to heat up pretty soon, and I can’t wait to see how everything goes down.