Gametech: In gaming, size really does matter

THESE days, gamers don’t just run operating systems — they run marathons, too, writes Ronan Jennings

The cliché of an overweight man playing a dainty elven queen in online RPGs just isn’t the reality any more. At least, the overweight part isn’t. Ahem.

You see, the games industry is no better than the fashion industry — convinced that thinner is better. Take Microsoft’s big E3 news, the announcement of the Xbox One Slim, a console 40% smaller than existing Xbox One consoles, with more power under the hood to boot (literally). Honestly, what are gamers supposed to think? Their consoles keep getting smaller, but their phones keep getting bigger. Such confusing messages.

The Xbox One Slim does look good, though, coming in a clean white chassis and with a newly refined controller. It also has HDR and 4K video support for video, bringing it up to speed with the latest TV and monitors. It arrives in August for around €300.

Microsoft seemed to be telling us to slim down for the summer, a message we’ve heard countless times from both TV adverts and our mammies. So there we were, protein shakes in one hand and joypad in the other, ready to lose more than just Overwatch matches, when Microsoft went and made another announcement. They finished their E3 conference by revealing Project Scorpio — a beefed up Xbox One, bigger and more powerful than before.

Wait a second, now bigger is better? The Scorpio will feature 6 teraflops of GPU power (translation: footballers in Fifa might look like actual footballers), will run at 60Hz and will output ‘true’ 4K resolution, meaning it can output for gaming at that resolution too. The good news is that all games and accessories will run across original Xbox One, Slim and Scorpio models. The Scorpio is due for release at the end of 2017.

So why is Microsoft flip-flopping between weight like Conor McGregor in a steakhouse sauna? The reason, quite simply, is because consoles are finally adopting the smartphone model.

This E3, we may have borne witness to the death of traditional console ‘generations’, cycles of five to 10 ears where one set of consoles stay dominant. Now, we could start seeing new, upgraded versions of the same console infrastructure, whenever the industry calls for it.

In this case, Microsoft is clearly preparing for a future of 4K and Virtual Reality. Current consoles can’t handle either of those mediums with any success, but the Scorpio can. Last year, Microsoft announced a partnership with Oculus, so except Scorpio to lead the way with that.

There’s a sting in the tail for Scorpio and Microsoft’s plan, however, in that they aren’t alone in taking this approach. It seems Sony might be taking the same route with their PlayStation Neo project.

Slimmer is better! Bigger is better! It’s all too much. If you need us, we’ll be jogging five miles to McDonald’s.

WEIGHTY ARGUMENT

At E3, Microsoft stripped size from the Xbox One, but they added weight to an old argument. The US giant has been pushing for cross-platform play in a big way recently, and announced a selection of games that, if you buy them on Xbox One, will subsequently become free for you to download on PC platforms too. This news item isn’t getting a lot of coverage, but it may have long-standing ramifications for the industry.

Consoles and PCs have always been worlds apart, but PS4s and Xboxes are really just PCs with stable platforms for developers to create games on. Consoles traditionally have the edge due to ease of development and price. So Microsoft is trying to bridge that gap by merging Windows gaming platforms with Xbox platforms. That means, with select games, you can play on both console and PC in a unified community.

True, Microsoft have promised this before, but it seems like the market is finally ready now.

TAKE A LOAD OFF

Finally, if you really want to shed weight — become a zombie! You could lose all of your limbs and still be acceptable among your peers. The long-awaited Dead Rising 4 was also announced at E3, bringing back Frank West in his role as gaming’s most creative slayer of the undead. The ‘Dead Rising’ series was never particularly weighty stuff, but it’s sure great for taking a load off.