The year is 2064.
You've just come home from an exhausting day at work. As you reach the door of your quaint suburban apartment, you smile and say "Hello" to your neighbor as she walks past you in the hallway. Your door unlocks upon identifying you via a retinal scanner. You enter your home and duly mutter "lights on". As the warmth of glowing lights fills the room, you slump into your living room sofa.
You yawn, picking up the remote controller lying beside you. Switching on the screen, you begin to browse the various channels on your recently purchased MSN Viro. You abruptly stop as a commercial catches your eye.
"Mmm," you lick your lips as Sara Lee advertises her new insta-bake "Homemade Apple Pie".
The next commercial flashes onto the screen featuring Honda's new hydro-fuel "environmentally safe" vehicle called the "Aqua". You stick your tongue out, thinking to yourself how much more attractive your teal car looks compared to the chartreuse one shown in the commercial.
Your eyes widen as the next commercial exclaims, "Stay tuned for the 1,500th episode of 'Friends'!" You sigh with disgust, grabbing the MSN Viro remote controller in your hands and selecting the "Game Mode". (MSN Viro is also known as the Microsoft-Sony-Nintendo Environment). Your remote controller acts as a wireless game controller.
A large screen pops up listing the latest video game releases. You see a new game that fancies a look called The Legend of Zelda: Fallen Hero. You press "enter". A screen suddenly pops up requesting you to "Please wait while game downloads". A minute later the download stream has completed. Nintendo's logo flashes, whereupon a screen with bright colors displays a logo for The Legend of Zelda: Fallen Hero. A familiar tune you recall as a child plays in the background.
As you start up the game, you see a short clip introducing the game's story. A deep wispy voice begins, "Many hundreds of years ago, there lived a hero in a land covered in a deep blue sea. One day, however, this hero fell into the sea and was lost to its depths..."
The camera zooms around and you see a young man peering out his window into the twilight. Taking control of the character, you look around his home. He doesn't appear to be well off. There is only but a bed, chair and a small picture framing a beautiful young blond woman.
You open his door and peer outside. Across the way is a house with flickering lights. You briskly walk over, knock on the door and enter. There is a woman inside staring at a lighted television. You walk up to her and hesitantly speak. She shrieks, "Leave me alone, the 1,500th episode of Friends is on!" You sigh, and take your character outside.
To your right is another home. It's a little larger than the last. You enter and find it to be filled with a variety of furniture. There's a bedroom, bathroom, and even a kitchen. It appears oddly quite and that no one is home. Filled with curiosity, however, you sneak into the kitchen. You open the refrigerator and peer inside. You see a box and carefully examine it. In bolded letters it says "Sara Lee's insta-bake Homemade Apple Pie".
Despite your real-life stomach telling you to put the silly video game down, you decide to play 10 more minutes.
The sun has just about set in the land of Hyrule. You walk past your house and down to the large lake. A gust of wind whips at your hair as you reach the water's edge. Out of the corner of your eye, you notice writing in the sand. This strikes you as odd and upon closer inspection you see it says "Honda Aqua". You pull out your sword and swipe it away leaving only the first two letters "Ho". You laugh at your small accomplishment.
Suddenly, you pause the video game and think about what just happened.
What did just happen? Is this a plausible future for you and me?
Maybe. Or maybe not.
Whatever the case, it appears to be the direction the industry is heading right now.
If you would have asked me a couple years ago whether or not an "average" game such as Enter the Matrix could be released and attain such tremendous success, I might have been hesitant to say yes. Today, an answer would be obvious.
For those unaware, the producers of The Matrix partnered with Coca-Cola to co-sponsor both the sale of its Powerade sports drink as well as promote the Matrix movie and video game. In fact, some of you may have noticed the Powerade vending machines meticulously located in various locations of the Enter the Matrix video game.
It's a guarantee this trend will only continue and even pick up momentum.
It's not that difficult to see video games - in 50 years - being the free entertainment that television is today. Advertising and commercials have paved the way for public television and may very well pave the way for public video gaming. Although this sort of product placement may sound far-fetched, the convergence of entertainment is not.
Microsoft and Sony are all about the convergence of multimedia devices. Some also refer to their devices as a "Trojan Horse".
The term "Trojan Horse" comes from a story in Homer's Iliad, in which the Greeks gave a giant wooden horse to their foes, the Trojans, ostensibly as a peace offering. After the Trojans dragged the horse inside their city walls, Greek soldiers snuck out of the horse's hollow belly and opened the city gates, allowing their compatriots to pour in and capture Troy.
This is essentially Microsoft and Sony's goal. They want to capture and moreover, control your living room entertainment center, from the electronic devices all the way down to the code that runs it. And if Nintendo wants to stay competitive, it has no choice but to have the same goal (whether it decides to go it alone or with Matsushita is yet unknown).
Thus, in our imaginary story, 2064 sees the introduction of the MSN Viro.
Don't assume the "Trojan Horse" is just fairy tale. Sony has already initiated the inevitable. Sony recently announced its remodeled PlayStation 2 called the PSX. This system will feature the ability to play existing PlayStation 2 software, as well feature a personal video recorder (PVR), satellite tuner, 120GB hard drive, and DVDRW/-R functionality. So conceivably, the PSX will be the center of a home network that allows you to stream pictures, audio, and video throughout your house. Analysts predict this is Sony's "testing of the waters" before its debut of PlayStation 3.
And if that's not enough, take a look at how much Sony and Microsoft are pushing online gaming. Microsoft especially is touting online gaming as the be-all end-all of gaming.
Do you need another example, perhaps one more closer to home? How about Nintendo's GameCube + Game Boy Advance connectivity? Is it impossible to conceive a time when Nintendo's home console and portable will be one and the same? It's the way things are currently heading. You already play your Game Boy Player on a television and your Game Boy Advance SP on the go.
Also, don't forget Nintendo and AM3's E3 announcement regarding the Game Boy Advance. AM3 Inc. will be creating a dedicated adapter for the Game Boy Advance and SmartMedia memory cards that will provide full motion video play on the Game Boy Advance handheld. Various developers including Majesco and 4 Kids Entertainment are providing "video paks" to use with the system that will allow 40 minutes of full motion video or cartoons - including Pokemon, Kirby, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Then there's Sony's recently announced handheld which will feature, among other things, the ability to listen to music and watch movies. There's even a good possibility developers will release software for users to access the internet, download and read full length books, and more.
Both Sony and Microsoft have alluded that their future consoles will be more than gaming devices. It is only a matter of time.
One can't predict the future with 100 percent accuracy but if things continue on the path they are now, you'll be listening to music, watching television, and playing games on a single device. One question I posed earlier is who will be the manufacturer of this device? Will it be Sony or Microsoft or Nintendo or perhaps a collaboration between them all? That is even less known.
Nevertheless, it's an interesting thought. Especially since much of us are young enough to be an audience of this gradual evolution of the home entertainment center.
End.
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