Consoles as Home Entertainment Systems

I got the idea for this from the Console Wars thread, but instead of posting in there, I decided to make a separate thread for it.

Video games have steadily been changing. It used to be that you and your friend could play a game together if you had two controllers and were beside one another. Now, you can play with your friend, even if you're on different continents, and you can play with hundreds of thousands of people.

And that's not the only change. Video game consoles have more and more things that don't pertain to games at all. With the original Playstation, you could play games and listen to CDs. With the PS2, you could watch DVDs. And with the PS3, you can watch Blu-Ray discs. Nowadays, you can also download TV shows and movies on your consoles. You can even put porn on them. It's amazing.

But is this all good? Is there anything negative about consoles becoming less like video game systems and more like entertainment systems? I don't know how I feel about the subject, but I'm sure some of you have things to say, so go ahead and spill! Say anything you want about how video game consoles are getting closer to shedding the term "video game console" and becoming "entertainment consoles."

That's what we have DVD and Blu-Ray players for, and our PCs. I think it is pointless to try and turn our video game consoles into home entertainment markets. I think I once watched a DVD player on my PS2 because my DVD player was broken. I just don't care to do that. My video game consoles are for playing games, that's it. I'd much rather watch something on my television via a player that is designed for such exclusively, or watch it on my computer.

I guess to each is their own though, but if and when it starts to becomes a burden on the video game industry people will have to step up and say something or the industry will irreparably change into something that most will not appreciate.

Consumerism.

As cellphones went from a simple portable calling device to a mini portable do everything machine. I feel that the console will follow suit. In the sake of technological advancement. Or for consumerism.

I honestly cannot see any negative impact coming from this. The fact that you can watch blu-rays also means you can print the games on blu-ray discs (as they do) which is a rather large benefit for the bigger games. Such as MGS4. Also the other features it has, such as the internet browser, do come in handy sometimes depending on what you're doing. Like me, I play quite a few MMORPGs.

Last night I was on a timed quest on one and had no idea what the hell I was supposed to do. So of course I didn't have time to minimize the game and open my browser on the PC due to the lag spike I get when opening the game back up. So I simply grabbed my PS3 controller since my PS3 was already on, and used it's browser.

As for game systems becoming less like game systems, I do not agree with this statement. They are still keeping their video game side, and only adding to that side. The entertainment half is only adding more to the system other than it's gaming side, not taking away from it.

As far as I've seen, I don't notice any negatives about this "entertainment" and "gaming" integration. I use my PS3 for its Blu-Ray movie player and for gaming.

But of course, these add-ons to the core gaming system are simply for the purpose of being able to brag that their console has more attachments than the others.

I don't really want to sacrifice options for a cheap price. I enjoy my blu ray player and other PS3 abilities as well as the games.

Mike Rowe - "I'm looking for a world with more choices."

I just need PlayStation to add an update so my PS3 can play mkv video format. They said thery were looking into adding it but still haven't. I'm using my PS3 to the full of it's capability.

If the PS3 were to ever be able to actually do that it would be enough to convince me to purchase one. Heh.

That was like 3 months ago I think so I still haven't lost hope. The first couple updates were good ones but they seem to have ran into a slump. We need a worthy update.

I am hoping for a lot of awesome stuff when 3.0 gets here.

I have the opposite perspective. I don't want to pay for stuff I'm not going to use. If I want to watch internet TV on my TV there are other ways for me to do that and they don't have to be forced onto the console. The "options" are still there, they just exist as separate items.

That's kind of how I feel. I'd rather save a bit of money and not have a machine that can do my taxes than have to pay more and get a feature or add-on that I may never use.

Well the thing with the PS3 is that the blu ray player isn't just some needless add on. You're using it each and every time you play games on the PS3. If Sony were to take out the blu ray player they would have to have all the games remade on DvD9 format disks. The blu ray player is a step forwards in console gaming and gaming in general really. I doubt computers will get rid of their DvD9 format anytime soon but when blu ray becomes standard they will. After all we can store 7.5 Gigs on a DvD9 disk and we have blu ray disks that can hold 200 Gigs on a single disk.

I don't nor did mean to turn this into a PS3 topic but really it's the elephant in the room. We can all agree on that I'm sure.

I think having video game consoles as home entertainment systems can be more beneficial than problematic. I don't see why people should be bothered about having more features. Not everyone can have the luxury of having a pc, stereo, dvd player and game console all in one room. And some people prefer not to clutter up their room with all those gadgets. A pc and PS3 is all I need.