image courtesy of Popgadget

My 38th birthday rapidly approaches as the calendar flips and heads toward mid-May, and along with the “OMG I’m almost 40!” thoughts floating in the back of my head comes several perplexities. Why does my right knee suddenly need a massage once a week so that it doesn’t stiffen up? Is being single and childless the right life decision?

Sadly,those aren’t the most pertinent questions; these are: Why have I owned nearly 20 video game systems over my lifetime? And why do they continue to occupy valuable apartment space? The answers to questions one and two are quite simplistic, but three and four would require the joint efforts of Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony to create the ultimate gift to gamers: The universal video game console.

The Atari 2600, NES, SNES, Genesis, Turbo Grafx-16, PC Engine Duo-RX, Neo Geo, Dreamcast, PlayStation, Neo Geo Pocket Color, Game Boy Color, Nintendo DS, Xbox, Xbox 360 and more have all graced my home – - many of which at the same time. I’m neither a pack rat or collector despite the fact that across the room from me at this very moment sits a heavily worn box of controllers, cords, and consoles. I simply believe that the best and truest gaming experience comes when playing original carts and discs in their original systems (despite remake gems such as SEGA’s recently re-released Daytona USA). I hate the clutter and, even worse, the idea of acquiring more. That’s where the idea of the universal console comes into play.

In my brightest, happiest fantasies, the universal console would have hardware built by Sony (Blu-ray, region-free), an online component provided by Microsoft, and the marketing promotion and savvy that only Nintendo could execute. The merger isn’t radical as you would think, at least in terms of hardware. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 have powerful boxes with a heavy focus on entertainment services (such as Hulu and Netflix), and all three systems have embraced motion controls. Already, the consoles are moving toward center.

Still, detractors will ultimately scream that the perceived lack of competition will stymie innovation. That is patently wrong. DVD and Blu-ray players have universal standards that will allow any movie house to produce flicks for those players; the competition exists in creating the best flicks possible, not the greatest hardware. Still, not everyone agrees with this assessment. Johnathan Boutet of Nerd Blerp believes that the universal console would be bad for the gaming industry.

As cool as the concept for universal system is I feel that it would unravel the very alliance that gamers have with big name companies (Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft). If you have one system that can play all games then the space race to have a new system ends. If one company has a universal system then where’s the competition? To have a better system that plays universal titles? No matter how you look at it you can never unite gamers to support one system, making the “universal” aspect of the system obsolete.

I respectfully disagree with Mr. Boutet. The push to update the universal console would come as naturally as optical disc advancement. We’ve moved from CD to DVD to Blu-ray technologies in order to accommodate more data per disc; the same could occur in terms of console’s CPU and GPU power.

Plus, it would kill fanboyism! Have you ever heard of DVD player or Blu-ray player fanboys? “OMG my Blu-rayz betterz n urs, LULZ!” No, because doesn’t exist (at least not in the real world; I wouldn’t discount the ogres that live in the bowels of the internet). Film-watchers have equal access to the same movie players made of roughly the same quality. Sure, some may have better builds than others, but under the hood the technology enables universal interoperability that doesn’t exclude portions of the population that have the “wrong” model. Could you imagine the outcry that would come if say, Iron Man 2, was exclusive to Sony Blu-ray players, making it unplayable in Samsung’s? Or to put it into a real world scenario, remember the heinous Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD race?  Film buffs (wisely) weren’t going to support both formats, so I can’t understand why gamers wish to do so. Simply because we’ve always had competing video game systems doesn’t mean that it’s good for the end user.

Expense is also a huge factor. In order to play all of the great games of this generation (and the next generation), you’re going to spend several hundred dollars on hardware, plus  drop $40 to $60 per game. This hobby ain’t cheap, and an universal console would help keep some greenbacks in you wallet.

The universal console is my pipe dream, but according to Terry Lewis of The Other View, it already exists. And we all have one.

I thought we already had a universal console — it’s called a PC. It plays games most of the consoles have, you have unlimited accessories including endless controller options, which can have rumble features and motion control, mice, keyboards and webcams, plus you have multimedia capabilities (music, videos, and images) including Blu-ray playback, plus it has the best online play that beats even the best the big three have to offer. I say let’s make a big push to bring the PC back to the top as the ultimate gaming machine. PC: The one gaming system that’s truly universal (And should I also mention it plays teh romz??)

I won’t even get into the PC vs. console debate here (well, at least in this article), so I’ll conclude on this: The universal console would be awesome, but I admit i’s unlikely…at least for the next generation or two. The future of the universal console may lie in services such as OnLive that stream games via the internet. One console. Relatively inexpensive.  No clutter.

I can get behind that.