The Punning Pundit

General:
(There isn't anything here that wasn't in the first 2 parts. You can skip this if you wish)

I expect each of the next gen. systems to ship with at least the hardware the X-Box shipped with, and what the PS2 is being upgraded to: a Hard Drive, and a broadband adaptor. I also wouldn't be too surprised to see out of the box 4 controller support. To be completely honest, I don't think that there is a whole lot of room for innovation in the hardware, though the software side of things is set to explode. Other than better graphics, we shouldn't expect too much new next time around…

More Specifically:

The reason for the Hard Drive is simple: the thing is bloody useful. Players are able to turn their consoles into media centers (more on that later), bringing the much-anticipated "convergence" around in a way that no one quite saw coming. It also lowers load time dramatically, increasing the intensity of game play by not forcing the player to pull out of the game's world...

The Broadband adaptor is perhaps the most important addition since the introduction of optical media. As PC games showed; nothing is quite as fun as a good death match. Testing one's mad skillz against the computer is one thing, but going up against an entire team of thinking humans is something else entirely. This is called "value added". Also, the ability to download patches, new levels, weapons, and that sort of thing is something that PC gamers have come to expect, but that consol gamers have only just gotten a taste of. While Sly Cooper may not benefit from this sort of thing, the first football game that allows players to DL the latest real-world stats in real time will be a big winner...

The last pair of consol generations have featured a new game input that doubled as other-media input. I remembered reading at one point that the Japanese consumers were going nuts over the PS2 because it was a DVD player that also played PS1 games. I expect this trend to continue. This time around, the hard drive will double as a TiVO type system. In fact, Sony will be testing that out with their new PS2, seeing if the concept works. I can't imagine why it wouldn't, so I expect to see this feature as a standard next time around…

Software:
(New part)
The Playstation has a long and storied history, as these things are counted. I believe that there are thousands of games (though the decimal place could be a couple of places in either direction) available for the current generation of the Playstation, with seemingly no end in site for new games. In general the Playstation has a huge number of back titles and has managed to leverage this into phenomenal sales for its system...

Graphic Advice:

Sony really needs to invest in the best graphics card possible. I know that Sony likes to develop all its hardware in-house, and by and large they do a great job. The problem is that while I have seen every other piece of equipment in the PS2 being produced by Sony for some other toy, I have never seen a Sony label graphics card. They may be well off in licensing an NVIDIA or ATI board and manufacturing it in-house. Granted, they won't be saving quite as much, but they are likely to get a much higher quality board. They are going to need every polygon they can get their hands on...

Control Issues
Sony's controller is widely considered to be the absolute best one out there. It has reached a state of rumble-pack having, analog stick perfection that no other controller can hope to match. I hate it...

The problem with the controller is that it is complicated. I may be the only person who has ever noticed this, but the damned thing has about a trillion buttons, and each one of those buttons has a million settings. What game needs this? I've never played a consol game and thought "if only I had about 5 more buttons", but then again, I've never before heard or read a negative comment about the controller, so what do I know?

There are times, however, when I have needed more buttons: PC games. And the new generation of consoles will have everything that a PC has, save a keyboard and mouse. Sony should change that...

Perhaps not directly, but if they made their controller ports USB2 plugs, anyone could plug in a keyboard and mouse themselves. This would open up a whole new world of consol gaming. Suddenly it would be easy to control (say) StarCraft or other RTS game. I've always been told how much better it is to use a mouse than a controller for FPS games (though I'm not a fan of the genera), and now it would be trivial to overcome that problem.

If Sony wants to do something innovative and yet easy, USB2 would be it. A world of control awaits, and Sony would rule...

Advice for Sony

To be honest, I think Sony is about to fall. They are trying to be everything to everyone, and may well end up doing nothing well. Sony needs to remember at all times that their system is first and foremost a game consol. Everything they do must be in line with the thought of delivering a first class experience to gamers. By all means, Sony can include the other features, but they should recognize that only people who play games are going to buy their hardware. For a Tivo, my Dad will by buying another product. But I will convince my Girlfriend that we need a PS3 because it has a cheep Tivo built in...

I think Sony is going to blow it and deliver a sub-par machine, and Microsoft will benefit...