Mushroom Kingdom
DANIEL WILKS is never prone to hyperbole
In the PC market, when it comes to new tech we’re accustomed to some hyperbole when it comes to press releases and announcements. When a new videocard comes out, the maker of the chip will usually put up some graph showing how much more powerful it is that a previous generation card, hoping that people will concentrate on the graph rather than the small print saying that the card the new model is being tested against is generations old. The same goes with CPUs, often to show their power they will be pitted against something far inferior or much older. Despite these cheap and rather cheesy tactics, one thing that tech vendors will always do, is release detailed tech specs, often with accompanying numbers to show the real power of the new product. Sure, these number may come from absolutely ideal circumstances all but impossible to replicate outside of a lab, but they are a genuine indicator of what goes into the technology and its general capabilities. Most vendors will also answer questions to the best of their ability to fill in any gaps.
Imagine what it would be like if big tech vendors, like Acer, Dell, Asus, Corsair and the like treated consumers in the same manner as Nintendo did at their recent Switch announcement. Next to no technical information was given out during the announcement, and what was announced was cursory at best. After the announcement, Nintendo approached me to see if I had any questions that needed to be answered about the product. I had five questions detailing the capabilities of the console. Of the five, two were partially answered with single sentence answers that ignored the actual question and instead rephrased it so generic marketing spiel could be used. One was given what appears to be a back of the box quote about resolution and the other two were answered by not being answered at all.
It would be easy to say that this lack of transparency is a reflection of the console market, but given the fact that both Sony and Microsoft are more than willing not only to give out their tech specs but answer indepth questions about design and hardware, it seems that Nintendo are the only anomaly. Are they afraid that their specs will be so inferior to competition that it will hurt the brand, or do they genuinely believe that people don’t care to know what their new console is actually capable of? After I failed to post the “interview” on one of the Next Media websites, Nintendo got in contact to ask why. After a polite but rather terse explanation, I was asked to send some more questions. I wonder how many of the ten I sent over will actually be answered. Given that all of them are looking for technical detail, I doubt any will.
So why am I talking about a console on PC PowerPlay? Don’t worry - the much maligned and wrong-headed Xbox section isn’t making a comeback or anything like that. It’s just that, despite how frustrating it is to receive dozens of press releases a day, nearly all of which proclaim that X new product is a revolution in PC gaming (like RGB fans, RGB mouse pads, RGB power supplies and the occasional thing that doesn’t have RGBs), I’d still rather have to wade through the bullshit to find the facts than have shit shovelled on me and be denied the facts. I’m not a mushroom, and neither are consumers, no matter what Nintendo seems to think.
Imagine what it would be like if big tech vendors treated consumers in the same manner Nintendo did at their recent Switch announcement