David Jaffe joined many others recently in calling for a ‘one console’ world. In other words, a single system or standard which anyone could develop for and which many different manufacturers could produce, instead of the plethora of competing standards we have now, from the Playstation 2 to the XBox 360.
The analogy usually made is to home video, where there are quite few different companies that make DVD players but all of them play DVDs. The present format war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD is an argument both for and against this possibility in the gaming industry. It points to the fact that format wars are inevitable in this day and age, even in a highly stable and established market. However it also shows that format wars are dumb.
Whenever anyone makes a case for the benefits of a one console industry, the counter-argument is almost always that it “simply isn’t going to happen”. The present situation is too entrenched to ever change. Occasionally someone will make a cogent rebuttal, perhaps citing the need for competition to drive innovation, but the truth of the matter is that it’s generally agreed that one set-top box to rule them all would be better for everyone. As Chris Kohler of Wired pointed out though, none of the industry heavyweights wants to be the first to blink.
There is a distinct possibility however that both sides are missing the point. There will never, even in the distant future, be only one console because in the not-to-distant future the idea of a ‘console’ may disappear entirely.