The question of the day, “Do HD graphics matter to gamers?” If you’re currently rolling with a PS3 or Xbox 360 and you’ve got HDMI and or sweet component cables you’re probably saying, “duh, of course they do.” What about everyone else, those Wii consoles for instance, there are so many of those. What about gamers that do not know what HDMI means?
Let’s face it, an estimated 21-million people are still using over the air TV broadcast signal and a large portion of those think that their TV is high definition because it doesn’t have an analog dial anymore. Recent Nielson ratings are showing most gamers are still pushing PS2 hardware, which isn’t high definition.
In the US, HDTV sales only reach 25-30% of the population. Couple this with the fact that one in five HDTV owners can’t tell the difference between standard definition and high definition content and you’ve got roughly 20% of the population utilizing HD. Looking at the number of gaming consoles out there and the rate of uptake, it’s clear that a large majority of gamers are not using HD resolutions for their gaming needs. (loot-ninja)
We’d like to think 1080p looks much different than 480p but some people don’t seem to notice because, honestly, they just don’t care. We’d also like to think a PlayStation 3 buyer would be aware of the HD content and already have equipment at home to take advantage of the system. Although there are no solid facts to state otherwise, there must be a group of individuals that have purchased a PlayStation 3 and are rolling with SDTV (ghetto).
High definition graphics matter to people who want a true HD experience. Wii gamers don’t care about high definition because they’re focused on the game play environment or are just following the wave of hype and desire to own the infamous white box. The Xbox 360 gamers may go either way, a gamer wants to own the system because they can get a lot of cool new games for it secondary to the HD experience. The hot games just don’t get designed on the Xbox classic or PS2 anymore. We’d presume a PS3 gamer really wants to play a high definition game because the cost of the console is more and you’re getting a Blu-ray player all bundled into one.
HD graphics matter to us, we see the difference, respect the detail and use the HD portion of the console as an excuse for paying so much for the technology. The United States, as a whole, isn’t fully ready or equipped (mentally) for a full HD experience. When will they be prepared to experience high definition at its fullest?
My guess, five years after Nintendo makes the transition to 1080p. Nintendo is capitalizing on the “average Joe” and the average consumer is still catching up on the high definition. Hell, many gamers are still playing the dial-up game!
Maybe we need to start a new government funded orgnization: The No HD Left Behind Act. Everyone should be in HD.
@EA deletes Tweets: Glad they removed the poor taste in tweets that was like rubbing salt into a wound.
I’d like to defend Indy games as you don’t need great graphics for great gameplay. Braid is a nice puzzle platforming game. I’m glad you mentioned Dust an Elysian Tail, Jonah. Not all the Indy games are 8-bit, Dust being one of them. I just completed the game and it was fantastic and very impressive that one person was able to do so much in making that game. Any game that adds to the diversity of games available to play is a good thing.
Also many of these Indy games are on Steam and GoG now.
@Parity Policy: It would be nice to have LAuchn Parity like when Skyrim came out and all DLC was released on Xbox and PC first and it wasn’t until months later that PS3 got anything. That was really unfair that PS owners had to wait so long to get the DLC’s for Skyrim.
I think some people are willing to wait though for the game to come to their prefered console. Take Minecraft for instance First on PC, than Pocket edition, Xbox and finally PS and each platform just adds to the sales of the overall game.
QotW: My favorite game related April Fool’s prank would be when Mojang did Minecraft 2.0. They got several YouTube Minecraft LP’ers to make video’s showcasing the features of Minecraft 2.0. The features ranged from the ridiculous Pink Wither, Diamond chickens, redstone bug monster, & exploding furnaces; to the features that we actually now have like Coal Blocks, Slime blocks, Hay bales, etc. It was a fun laugh to have and even more interesting to see the features that they actually are implementing from that prank.
Alpha: The delay of Skyrim DLC on the PlayStation 3 was strictly a technical issue.
Hey guys,
I couldn’t disagree with you more regarding porting and re-launching titles on different platforms even months after the original launch.
Saying that if someone had wanted to play a game they would have already done it doesn’t make much sense, in my eyes. I only own Sony consoles and my laptop is not able to support even the less demanding titles, since I mostly use it for work. This means that I’m naturally cut off from titles that are not available on PlayStation. That’s why I believe it’s a good idea on Sony’s part to port games such as Fez or Minecraft on PlayStation to make those titles available for people such as me who otherwise have no access to them.
By no means are such titles system sellers but being able to play them on Sony’s machines makes it less and less probable that a given gamer will buy another console, which is good for the company, I presume.
I agree with Alphashard that some people, including me, have no problem waiting for a game to come to PlayStation, in my case. I don’t need to buy all the newest titles since my backlog would keep me busy for months. And if a fun, although older, game comes to PlayStation, I might consider getting it.
@Infamous Second Son
I just started playing the game last week and I’m some 4 hours in. I don’t really see how ‘dumbed down’ the title is compared to the first two games. Jordan mentioned that all the opponents are the same, which I can’t agree with. I already encountered 4 different D.U.P. soldier types and there’s also the drug dealers so I don’t think it’s that different than in the PS3 games. So far I feel that it’s just another Infamous game, with a similar, forgettable story and cool powers and action scenes. I enjoy it quite a bit.
@QOTW I deliberately avoid news sites on April Fool’s so I don’t really have an answer to the question. Let me chime in on last week’s QOTW, though. I used to subscribe to a video game magazine called CD Action, here in Poland. What was great about it was that every month they would include one or two full versions of games on CD/DVD and also tons of demos and other stuff. Back in the lat 90’s the CD also contained funny pictures, gifs, etc. so it was like an offline version of 9gag. I don’t buy such magazines any more, but I also don’t visit video game news websites that often. I get most of my news from podcasts and I don’t mind the delay of several days before the news reach me.
League of Legends never ceases to amuse with its ‘URF’ related jokes 🙂
Great podcast by the way 😀
@EA flogging a dead horse
That was deffinetly a lapse of judgement. In my opinion every company should have an IT expert that approves all internal internet posts. So that if he sees something stupid he can find the person who posted it and slap some sense into him. It’s not nice making fun of disabled companies that are impaired by their management.
@Microsoft Indi
I played some good Indi games on Xbox 360. Mostly rip offs of PC games (Day Z, Minecraft). But they are cheap and mostly multiplayer, so make for a good blast. I absolutely don’t care when and where they are released. If a game is good enough I will eventually play it. I have no problem waiting. Plenty of other games out there.
@QOTW
A long time ago (2007?) the website gamefaqs.com (a cheat, hint website) had an April’s fool joke where entering the website greeted you with a page saying that cheating in video games was a crime and you should enter at your own risk. That was quite amusing. Also, a few years ago we had the Assasin’s Creed Kinect video. Wish it was true.