Online gaming - pfft!
Each of the three current consoles have online capabilities, though some have better services than others. That's not what this article is about however. This article is here to say that the importance and effects of online gaming on consoles is completely overplayed by the media and hardcore gaming fans. I'd like to inform the few of you who are already sharpening their spears and assembling lynch mobs that this is not a rant about online gaming sucking (saving that for another day), just a rant about how online gaming's impact is overstated.
There are around almost 100 million current generation consoles in circulation (70 million Playstation 2s, 15 million Gamecubes and 14 million Xboxes), but there are only around 3-4 million online adaptors in circulation (750,000 Xbox Live users, and approximately 2-3 million PS2 online users). That's 3-4% of the current console install base playing online - really making or breaking the generation isn't it?
There are many reasons for low online gaming penetration - low broadband penetration being the most significant (I've covered that before), but other issues such as the quality of games (A million Tom Clancy games and a few average racing and sports titles, woohoo!) and price of the service on offer can easily decide whether a user purchases an online gaming adaptor or not. A lot of people are perfectly happy playing against their friends, rather than an obnoxious American teenager.
Many people go on record as saying that online gaming is the way of the future. Webster's Dictionary defines the future as "That is to be or come hereafter; that will exist at any time after the present; as, the next moment is future, to the present." Online gaming is just that - sure, it's here now, but it won't be influential for some time yet.
The views expressed by Matt Keller in the Easy Mode editorial are his own, and are not indicative of the views of the PAL Gaming Network.
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