Golden Joysticks ‘07: Innovation of the Year Shortlist

Innovation is not something that you see coming out of the big games industry movers, unless they can guarantee a return on the huge investments they have to put into their products. This year however has seen some startling new developments in hardware and games which have moved the medium into new ways of thinking and interacting. Here’s the contenders for the Innovation of the Year Award 2007.

The Nintendo Wii

The most obvious innovation of the past year, the Nintendo Wii is the biggest development in console technology since Sony decided to make their first console CD based rather than solid state cartridges. Unless you’ve been living under a rock or in a cave in the Appalachians for the last year you’ll know what the innovation consists of, but for those of you who have been out of circulation here’s a brief rundown: The controller for the Nintendo Wii is the innovation. Instead of the by now ubiquitous game pad the Wii’s controller is basically a remote which can be connected to a variety of other peripherals. The remote uses micro accelerometers and directional IR technology to detect its movement, you control the games by waving your arms around basically.
To begin with developers and publishers were hesitant about making games for the Wii, thinking that it would be a flash in the pan. Their fears were unfounded however and even Nintendo themselves have been caught out by the console’s popularity, with supply problems dogging the system since release. With more and more developers and publishers coming to terms with the Wii’s unique control system, and the console itself taking an early lead in this round of the console wars, Nintendo’s gamble seems to be paying off. This one will be getting my vote.

The PlayStation 3
The PS3 is reputedly the most powerful games console ever created, that’s not just hype, benchmarking proves it. Its also the only console this generation to have a high definition optical drive (in this case Blu-Ray) built in. Its IBM developed Cell processor is highly flexible and has many applications beyond games consoles and is already being put to use in high performance servers and supercomputing applications. The performance boost made possible by the Cell has had its drawbacks, most important of which is that its a bugger to program for, as has been proven by the slippage of many multiplatform games as developement times have stretched. There is a distinct lack of experience in the games industry when it comes to programming for the Cell’s unique architecture. In my opinion, none of the above merits an innovation award, piling more power into a console is not innovative, its something that has been going on for years. I fear that the costs associated with licensing the Cell and adding the Blu-Ray player have made the PS3 too expensive, a pain to program for, and that it is basically a PS2 with prettier pictures. When stacked up against the completely new direction that Nintendo have taken with the Wii it doesn’t really compare.

DirectX 10
DirectX is a series of API’s (Application Programming Interfaces) which game programmers use to build standardised software which works with a wide variety of hardware, essential in the creation of PC games where the computers they run on are far from the standardised formats of the consoles. Much has been made of DirectX 10’s stunning visuals and how only it can get the best performance out of the latest graphics hardware, that is not all that DirectX does though. There are many components to DirectX for handling the variety of functions which developers want to include in their games. Direct3D and DirectDraw handle the graphics, DirectSound the sound, and so on. DirectX 10 would be more worthy of this award if its creator, Microsoft, wasn’t using it to push their latest operating system. It may be claimed that changes in the way graphics are handled between XP and Vista precluded DirectX 10 being made to work with XP, however many of a cutting edge graphics card’s supposed DX10 only functions can be accessed with DX9.0c, as Gabe Newell pointed out last week. DX10 may well be a marvellous development in how games and other multimedia applications are written but that benefit has, in my opinion, been lost by the fact that you have to use an incomplete and buggy operating system to use DX10. It may be that Service Pack 1 for Vista, due out in the spring of next year, will remedy alot of the problems which many gamers have been frustrated by and an upsurge in DX10/Vista usage will follow, but only if Microsoft are really serious about fixing them.

Wii Sports
What can I say about this game that I haven’t said before? On its own it really isn’t anything more than a great fun introduction to the control system of the Wii, its innovation stems from that of the Wii, and it would simply be a collection of five fairly mediocre sports games without it. Its merely a glorified tech demo, included in the box with the Wii hardware so that you’ve got something fun to play straight out of the box.

Halo 3 Beta
When I saw that this was in the list I found myself asking “What is so innovative about a beta test?” They’ve been happening with PC games for years. The Halo 3 Beta may have been extremely popular, with over 1400 years of play put in over the 3-4 weeks it was running, it may have been the first such public test opened on a console, but the game itself is really nothing new, it is after all Halo. The biggest innovation which the full game will include is the 4 player online co-op, which wasn’t included in the beta. So I find myself asking once more “What is so innovative about a beta test?”

Steam
Steam was lauched in conjunctino with Half Life 2, as a way for valve to bypass the costly and cutthroat world of games retail. Offering games downloaded directly to your hard drive, built in anti-cheat and server browsing, and more recently a new community system allowing you to chat with friends in one game while you play in another and all sorts of other functions. Since its release Steam has gone from strength to strength, with big name developers such as Id, Eidos, and Introversion, rubbing shoulders with smaller independent companies and casual games. Steam has gone from offering only Valve’s own titles, to providing digital distribution and server administration to a whole slew of apparent rivals. Whether or not Steam should be eligible for this year’s award is up for debate, seeing as it came out a couple of years ago. It’s unquestionable that at the time it was something very innovative and hadn’t really been done before, not it seems that everyone is at it.

Xbox Live Arcade
Its an online store where you can buy games and have your scores posted to international leaderboards, its been done (Steam). You can download games, demos, music, videos and other gubbins directly to your hard drive, again, its been done (iTunes/Steam). Its a closed system, only those things authorised by Microsoft are available, so you can’t upload your own videos, music, home made games, images etc. and share them with your friends. Microsoft have already alienated some developers with this closed attitude, Epic being the most prominent. Epic have a tradition of making extras for their PC games, such as the Unreal Tournament series, freely available online and wanted to do the same for Gears of War on the 360. Microsoft was having none of it and, because it’s their network, said we’re going to make some money off the back of your hard work. Epic, understandably disgruntled with this attitude, are now only releasing UT3 for the PS3 and PC, though they are in talks with Microsoft to see if their mercenary attitude can be overcome. Back to the question of whether this is an innovation or not, I would be tempted to say not, simply because its all been done before, admittedly not on a console, and possibly not in such an easy to use package.

The Playstation Network
Much the same idea as XBLA and Steam, but with some fairly big differences, for one thing its free, the only thing you have to pay for is content that has a price, access to the network is free, as will be Home participation when it is released, Another difference, mainly with XBL, is the ability to browse webpages. The other thing I personally like about the PSN and think that Sony went the right way with, is the fact that the network is open. It is theoretically possible to upload pictures, video, and other media to a location on the web (either part of the PSN or not) and currently is just waiting for the software to make this a reality. Epic’s Mark Rein was also full of praise for PSN as opposed to XBL, because of its open nature, if you create a map or mod for UT3 on your PC, you can then put it on a flashdrive, plug it into your PS3, and play it. You may also upload said map/mod to your PSN space and share it with your friends. While still not really that innovative it terms of what it is, it is still different enough from other consoles to be notable.

Wii Play
Another collection of mini-games designed to show off the capabilities of the Wii, certainly fun but not really that innovative. Again it riding on the coat tails of the platform to get a nomination here I think, I could go off on a rant about how the games consuming public who voted for these lists don’t really know what innovation is, but then I think to myself that there really hasn’t been very much innovative done over the last year (Wii notwithstanding). If this makes it into the innovation shortlist then it says more about the risk averse state of the industry than the recognition of innovation by the voting gamers.

Crackdown
I’ll have to plead a touch of ignorance regarding this game, I played the demo and didn’t really think much of it, but have heard great things about it since then and may return to the full game in future. Notable mainly due to the fact that ownership of this game got you an invitation into the Halo 3 Beta. Reading up on it for this article I found that there’s actually quite a bit that is interesting (if not actually innovative) about this game. At first glance it looks like a GTA clone, you run around a city taking on the criminal gangs and bringing law to the lawless. What makes it slightly different is the sheer level of detail that has been poured into the environments, you can literally go anywhere. If you can see a ledge three stories up the side of a building, you can get there. You can also use the destructible environment as weaponry, benches, lampposts, cars, if you can pick it up (and you can pick up cars later in the game) you can wield it as a weapon. So without having played the game, I can’t really give an opinion of whether it is innovative or not, so I would say that you should vote with your conscience on this one.

So those are the nominations for the Golden Joystick for innovation this year, as I mentioned before the state of this list says more about the current atmosphere in the industry than the nominees. In a climate where games are costing more and more to make and hardware development costs are sky-rocketing , its understandable that manufacturers and developers are unwilling to take many risks. I foresee this phase passing though as the industry rethinks its processes and the consoles start to turn a profit (2010 for the 360 and 2012 for the PS3, barring any disasters.)

Cast your vote here.
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