The 7th Generation Console Wars

Introduction

Ah fandom wars. From Star Wars Vs. Star Trek to the Lakers Vs. Celtics, fandom wars exist either because of a received similarity between two works, or simply because they existed at the same time. They can become rivalries because a creator may have left his company and worked on the new thing in another. Whatever it is, fandom discourse can spread to many parts of life, and is most certainly everywhere on the internet.

I myself have been part of several fandom wars. I was an avid supporter of Street Fighter against Mortal Kombat in the early 2010s, for example. Fandom wars can become so heated that people will start making memes and the

But the fandom war I’d like to talk about is the Console Wars of the 7th Generation. Sony’s PlayStation 3 Vs Microsoft’s Xbox 360 vs Nintendo Wii. In the Console Wars of the 7th Generation. I was on the side for Microsoft and Nintendo, as I had fondness for the first Xbox since my best friend always played Halo 2 with me before. And with the Wii, I owned a Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS, so I of course had a lot of fondness for Nintendo characters. The Wii was also everywhere here in the Philippines, so I was able to play it in the houses of many of my friends. 

Despite me owning a PlayStation 2, I never got to play the best exclusives for it until I was already a teenager. And that was way after the 7th Generation had ended. The key thing here is while I supported Microsoft and Nintendo, I never directly participated in any real discussions. I was actually more of a PC gamer until I was a teenager, playing games like Warcraft III or Need for Speed: Underground 2. I was only 5 when the Xbox 360 came out, and 6 when the Wii and PS3 came out. I grew up seeing these wild discussions on the internet, so they left quite the mark on me. And that’s why I want to discuss it. I want to receive some sort of closure, as I never really got to the end of that sage. The 8th generation started when I was a teenager, and that’s when I really got into discussing things.

Xbox 360

So I’ve said when the consoles were released. But what features did each have that the others did not? I’ll start with the Xbox 360, since it was the first released. The Xbox 360 was the first console built with HD graphics in mind. The previous generation had PS2 and Xbox games that could output in HD. However, the textures and graphics were not meant for HD Resolution. The Xbox 360 was powerful enough to run games at a standard of HD resolution. 

The Xbox 360 was the first console to launch with an online service. Xbox Live was previously released in 2002, a year after the first Xbox had launched. Since the Xbox 360 launched with an online service, this meant that many of its multiplayer games also had online multiplayer. But there was a catch. To access these multiplayer games, you had to join the Xbox Live Gold service, which was 49.99$ a year. Without Xbox Live Gold, you still had access to things like achievements.

Another first that the Xbox 360 had was that it launched with wireless controllers. These wireless controllers were not the first of its kind, but they were certainly the most compact wireless controller yet at the time. They could run on AA Batteries or from a rechargeable battery pack, letting you choose how to charge your controller. It also had a headphone jack for online gaming, allowing you to talk with your friends while holding a controller.

The biggest thing that the Xbox 360 had over its rivals was that it was powerful AND easy to program for. The PS3 was a bit more powerful than the Xbox 360. However, this was countered by the fact it was very hard to program for, because of its unique CPU. The Wii on the other hand, was far weaker than both, which meant that games ported to that system had to be downgraded in a lot of ways. The Xbox 360’s multiplatform games had the most stable performance and had good graphics because of this. Many developers decided to develop for PC and Xbox 360 first, and then port their games to the other systems later on.

However, one thing that the Xbox 360 lacked was a Japanese presence. It tried attracting Japanese audiences early on with games like Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, but they failed to catch interest there. Microsoft realized it could not compete as a brand against PlayStation and Nintendo, and quickly gave up. Another bad thing it had was that its first model had unreliable hardware. The Red Ring of Death happened because Microsoft had rushed many models out the door before they were ready. The high failure rate caused Xbox to issue a 3 year warranty for these models, with later models dropping them because of better reliability. 

PlayStation 3

Now comparatively, the PlayStation 3 was the console that had its missteps, but regained its footing in the end. Because its downsides were more apparent immediately, I’ll talk about them first. First, the biggest problem the PS3 had was its initial prices. At 499.99$ and 599.99$, few people could afford one. Comparatively, the PS2 had launched at 299.99$, and the price dropped later at 199.99$. This steep price hike meant that many people who had bought the PS2 could not afford such an expensive console. Instead, the Xbox 360’s 399.99$ and 299.99$ packages were seen as more affordable. The Wii’s 249.99$ launch price with Wi Sports meant that most people instead looked to that console as well. The PS3’s price eventually dropped down by 100$ in a year.

Another reason was that many of its games were also available on Xbox 360. Many of the games showcased for the system, like Killzone 2, were not actually rendered on actual hardware, but on computers. This was because the hardware was not fully finalized, which led to many people criticizing Sony for false advertising.

But the PS3 did have its advantages. For one, it had a built-in Blu-Ray player in it. Because the Blu-Ray eventually won the HD format wars, this meant that it had more built in value than the Xbox 360 and Wii. But the Blu-Ray didn’t win the HD format wars immediately, so this feature was not as appreciated immediately. The system was also backwards compatible with PS2 games and had Linux support, though later models discontinued both. Some PS2 games were eventually available as PS2 classics, but only as software downloads. You couldn’t put in a PS2 disc in the disc tray.

Unlike the Xbox, the PS3’s online service, the PlayStation Network, was a free online service. This was a huge boon to people in third-world countries who could not afford the Xbox Live Gold. The PS3 eventually got a subscription service in 2010 called PlayStation Plus. PlayStation Plus’ biggest feature was that you were given two games for free to play every month. They remained playable until you were no longer a member of PlayStation Plus.

The PS3 launched with the Sixaxis controller, which had some motion sensors built in. The Dualshock 3 was delayed by a few years because of a lawsuit regarding haptics, and released in 2007. The Dualshock 3 had the vibration that the Sixaxis lacked. The PS3 could also connect to the console using a USB mini-B console, allowing for it to be charged while it was being used.

The best thing that the PS3 did right, it never abandoned the core gaming audience. The Xbox 360 in its later years tried chasing the casual audience with the Kinect peripheral, a camera that could track your movements. Because the PS3’s own motion controller, the PlayStation Move, never caught on, it never tried chasing that audience. So many of its games were still aimed at the core gaming audience, which let the PS3 eventually outsell the Xbox 360.

Nintendo Wii

Now with the Wii’s release in 2006, many people were not expecting much out of it. After all, it was a non-hd console that was only moderately more powerful than its predecessor the Gamecube. But with the Wii came a revolution in gaming. Motion controls. The Wii, unlike other consoles, did not come bundled with a normal controller. It came bundled with a controller called a Wii Remote, also known colloquially as the Wiimote. Before the Wiimote, there were motion controllers, but these motion controllers were clunky and inaccurate. 

The Wii’s marketing was marketed heavily to casual gamers, because Nintendo knew they could not compete with the core gaming audience. The motion controls allowed for simple and unique experiences, which let the popularity of the system skyrocket. Many of the Wii’s best selling games used the motion controls excellently.

However, the Wii’s weak hardware meant that many of its games were shovelware. Many of the games ported or made for it had a tendency to shoehorn unnecessary motion controls. Some games didn’t even support the classic controller, the Wii’s controller that was more akin to a regular controller. The Wii also had some games from the previous generation ported to it, which meant it had a lot of games that were introduced to a lot of new gamers. 

A big problem with the Wii however, is that many third party games did not sell particularly well on it. The best selling third party game on the console was Just Dance 3, at 9.92 million. Comparatively, Wii sports sold over 82.90 million units! This discouraging difference eventually led to third party consoles not bothering trying to make games to the Wii unless they were for a casual audience. While there were still third party games made for it, most of them were now exclusives.

The Wii had a free online service in its Nintendo Wifi Connection, but it did not have good features. See, the Nintendo Wifi Connection instead of using a username system, had exclusively generated friend codes for each copy of a game. Using a different copy on one system did not give you the same friend code. These friend codes were 12 digit codes that could be sent to other people to add people to their friend lists. This was extremely clunky, and because they were unique for each copy, you would have to add people again and again over multiple games. This method was used by Nintendo because they thought there could be conflict with people with the same screen name, and it would be potentially easy to guess at a person's screen name which created issues with privacy concerns. It was heavily criticized, and Nintendo acknowledged the problems with the system and worked hard during the next generation to improve it.

Other Features

Now that I’ve talked about the advantages and disadvantages of each system, I’d like to share a few features that all consoles had.

All consoles had an online store, and had digital only games. The Xbox had  Xbox Live Marketplace, the PlayStation Store, and the Wii had WiiWare. This was a first in console history, as before this, console games were usually only sold on discs.

Another first was that individual titles were sold as emulated copies. Beforehand, old games were either ported to newer systems, or were compatible through backwards compatibility in hardware. But with this generation, software emulation was now possible. The Wii’s Virtual Console had the best selection, having multiple games from its NES to N64 consoles. It could also natively use Gamecube games and accessories. The Xbox had Xbox Originals, but this branding only lasted from 2007 to 2009, with these games moving to the “Games on Demand'' section of the store. The PS3 had PlayStation classics, which either used hardware emulation on older models, or software emulation on newer ones. The newer models notably did not emulate as well as older models. However, PS1 games were supported on all models.

One disadvantage the Wii had was that it could not download full games, only Wiiware exclusive games. The internal storage was not big enough for that, and you could only use SD cards for external storage. You had to modify the system so that it could run games out of hard drives, which was considered as piracy by Nintendo. Comparatively, the PS3 and Xbox 360 could use any hard disks that met a specific requirement, with the Xbox 360’s proprietary hard drive allowing for the downloading of Xbox Originals.

Multimedia features such as Netflix also boomed during this period, so the PS3 and Xbox 360 had software such as Netflix included, and each had their fair share of exclusive streaming services. The Wii was notably lacking, as it only had Netflix and Hulu for streaming.

Fandom fights

So I’ve spent all this time talking about features. How did that lead to fandoms talking? They argued endlessly about the advantages and disadvantages of each system. People would argue over and over again which advantages mattered and which disadvantages didn’t matter.

But other than that there were a lot more arguements. If you were a Wii Gamer, you would be branded as casual. If you had a PS3, you were considered a rich guy with no games to play. If you had an Xbox 360 you were called a nerd with no outdoor life. Because games during this time had a very noticeable improvement thanks to HD graphics, you also had people fighting over graphics. People also talked about performance of games, as the more complex games of this era had noticeable performance issues. So people would argue about which consoles had better performance. 

And of course, because of both graphics and performance, you had people fighting about how realistic games were. You had people talking about the sales of games as a measure of quality. They felt proud for being a part of a big system. The Wii won here. You had people fighting over specs. The PS3 was king in that department, at least. And there were always people talking about the best online, where the Xbox 360 was the clear winner.

One thing that I never talked about was exclusive games. Xbox had Gears of War, Halo, and Forza. PlayStation 3 had Uncharted, God of War and Gran Turismo. Comparatively, the Wii had Mario, Zelda, and the Wii series of video games, all of which were very different from their competitors. These exclusive games had people lauding their quality and uniqueness, and were used to trash talk fans of other systems because they didn’t have them.

Conclusion

So in the end, who actually won the console wars? Sales only, Wii, since it sold over 101.. Profits wise? The Xbox 360 sold way more peripherals and accessories and had Xbox Live Gold. The PS3, had an odd finish since while it did outsell the Xbox 360, it did not end up making as much money since it was sold at a big loss, and it didn’t have a lot of accessories that sold well. However, the lines would switch in the next generation, as Sony would learn from their mistakes, while Nintendo and Microsoft would noticeably stumble because of their arrogance. But that’s a different story altogether. In my opinion, everyone won in the 7th generation, because there were no real failures.

Writing all this really gave me a sense of closure. It allowed me to understand the differences between each console, and allowed me to understand why people acted the way they did. I think I can use this later on in my life to reflect on things. 

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