The Cross-Platform Conundrum

Depending upon where you stand as a gamer, you already know that this time in a console cycle is either very exciting, or completely numbing.  The arrival of a new console is heralded with unprecedented media coverage, gamer fanfare, and usually a degree of hyperbolic rambling that make the new machines seem powerful enough that they could be ushering in the Singularity.  Of course, this same level of fervor can be looked at with a certain degree of bemusement too.  After all, when all is said and done, gaming consoles facilitate your enjoyment of gaming, they don’t create it.  The same way that a set of golf clubs allow you to enjoy golf (if that’s your thing), but by definition, the clubs are not golf.

So then, outside of the mire of information that is flooding our mutual hobby at the moment regarding the ‘new’ consoles, much of what people want to see is reviews of games.  And this is where I’ve had a huge problem this week, and yet again realize why I have ever dwindling faith in the journalistic musings of much (not all) of the mainstream press.  With the Xbox One launching tomorrow, a lot of gamers are probably still trying to figure out which machine they want, and this decision is made very difficult by the lack of cross-platform reviews.

I fully expect that over the next few days, we’ll slowly start to see reviews for specific games getting published, but the fact remains that the reviews should largely be up by now.  Consumers want to be able to look around and figure out what console will work best for them, and without specific software reviews I think that initial decision can be very difficult.  How can you compare Killzone: Shadow Fall and Ryse: Son of Rome?  Quite simply, you can’t.  Certainly, you might privilege a particular genre over the other, but at this point, the fact that many media outlets and Microsoft do not seem to be allowing direct game-to-game comparisons is problematic.

To some, this problem might not be a problem at all.  Some people prefer Sony only franchises, others Microsoft.  That’s fine.  This issue isn’t about those people, in all likelihood they’ve already made up their minds.  No, this is about the people who want to see the best gameplay performance out of titles that appear on both machines.  Which in and of itself is also an understandable choice.  The problem I have is that it seems it’s a choice that (for whatever reason) people are being kept from making.  Sony for their part have had a fairly strong launch since last Friday.  Their first-party software lineup has been arguably mediocre, but third-party support has somewhat made up for that.  Much of that third-party library has also been reviewed.

On the Microsoft front, only the exclusives have been receiving media attention.  In fact, when I was looking at the launch review coverage of one of my own trusted sites, the Battlefield 4 review linked back to the PS4 version.  That didn’t fill me with confidence, and nor should it you.  It is not unreasonable to expect a review to be tweaked to include platform specific performance information.  What is unreasonable (and more than a little suspicious), is that it isn’t available now.  Now, I don’t know any specifics regarding the current embargoes that Microsoft has in place regarding Xbox One coverage, but the mainstream media should certainly be resisting any pressure they might be encountering in order to remain as editorially impartial as is appropriate.

Now, talking about impartiality, I’m sure some readers might be wondering where mine currently lies.  I certainly seem to be lauding Sony and blasting Microsoft, but the truth is, I want them both to succeed.  The best thing Microsoft can do now is let the Xbox One freely compete with the Playstation 4 within the realm of the mainstream media.  If they are confident in their product, chances are gamers will also find that positivity for themselves.  However, if they keep their product cynically outside of the realms of fair (and expected) critical comparison, they haven’t learned as much since their lackluster E3 showing as we may have initially thought.