Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
The year is 2020, and the console wars have begun anew. Gaming is seven years older, but seemingly none the wiser: on forums, website comment sections and social media, the same old arguments are being had, as passionate fans of multinational corporations sling strawmen and ad hominems at their supposed opponents. In a way, this is fine – just evidence that the universe is operating as it should, at least in our little corner of it. But those noble footsoldiers are overlooking a vital point: they are fighting the same old battles, not noticing that war has changed.
Look at what has happened already this year. Sony pulling out of E3 is disappointing, certainly. But it is hardly a surprise given that the industry at large, Sony included, spent the tail end of the 2010s finding new, more effective ways of reaching its players. Similarly, to blast Microsoft for saying it is not making any exclusive games for Xbox Series X at launch is to overlook the fact that it has been building towards this point ever since it first made Xbox 360 games playable on Xbox One. It was never about backwards compatibility; it was about compatibility full stop, and this is merely the logical evolution of it.
The lesson from all this is that we must reexamine the meaning of the phrase ‘next generation’. It is no longer just a matter of raw compute power, of which platform holder has the better exclusives or sets the more attractive price point. The same applies to games; something this issue’s cover star proves. Hytale is perhaps best described as Minecraft for a new generation, but not in a traditional sense. Minecraft is a game that was turned into something else – a platform, a social space, a scene – by its community. This is what happens when the leading lights of that very community make something that ticks all those boxes from the start. If the stats are anything to go by – with 54 million views, its announcement is one of the most-watched trailers in YouTube history – the crew at Hypixel Studios might just be onto something enormous. The story begins on p52.