Ask a Dork: Game Consoles as Entertainment Hubs

“Do you think that video game consoles should be purely gaming devices or all in one entertainment hubs? What is the line?”

I don’t wear a watch, nor do I carry around a PDA or mp3 Player. To the same effect, I do not own a Netflix box, DVD/Blu-Ray Player, or PVR. This is not because I’m poor so much as it is that owning many devices to do many tasks isn’t as efficient or economical as owning one device capable of many things. Much in the same way my smartphone has reduced the amount of gadgets and gizmos on my person at any given time, my video game systems and their various streaming/recording functions have replaced most of the clutter in my entertainment centre. It’s not a bad thing from an entertainment perspective because they do the same jobs just as well and still act as a platform for gaming.

The line is where priority shifts from gaming to entertainment. While I love that my consoles are brilliant entertainment devices, they were built to facilitate gaming and it makes me nervous when console manufacturers place I higher value on non-gaming content such as films, music, and using social media channels. In fact, I find the incorporation of social media into each of the console platforms to be downright befuddling; who would want to boot up their PS Vita or Xbox just to update their Twitter status? We have smartphones and computers for that. Regardless, the focus should always be to produce the highest quality of games and gaming content; entertainment should be a secondary concern.