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■ ■ ■ ■ Gaming 2013 is the year when the Big Three face off again, but expect some unexpected competition By Karen Moltenbrey m ost of us probably do not remember the first generation of video game consoles, or the second for that matter. In all likelihood, the third generation (the Nintendo Entertainment System) kicked off console video gaming for the majority of us in the mid-1980s, introducing us to Mario, Luigi, Zelda, Donkey Kong, and other fun, beloved, pixelated characters. A few years later came the fourth-generation consoles, and approximately five years after that, the fifth generation, which included the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64. The sixth-generation game consoles – surprise – rolled out nearly five years later (notice a trend?). These are the systems that helped define a totally new era in gaming, starting with Sega's Dreamcast, followed a year later by Sony's PlayStation 2, Microsoft's Xbox, and Nintendo's GameCube. With this hardware, and with the seventh-generation systems (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) a halfdecade later, gameplay moved into a whole new realm thanks to highdefinition CGI delivering amazing effects, realistic, emotive characters, and jaw-dropping environments. Nintendo, however, took a different route, as the Wii focused less on gaming realism and more on fun via motion tracking and sensing. It's now been seven years since we have seen a major upgrade in terms of gaming hardware. But, the time has now arrived and we are seeing the first embers of the next round of console wars, which will be heating up in the coming months. The Big Three The Ouya is an inexpensive console that runs a revised version of the Android operating system. 16 First to market in the eighth-generation console war was Nintendo, with its Wii U in late 2012, although some do not consider the Wii U part of this next generation. The Wii U is the first Nintendo console to support highdefinition graphics (so seventh generation) capable of producing video output 2gb up to 1080p. It also sports 2 of RAM, with half of that dedicated to the console's operating system. The Wii U ships in two versions: one with 8gb of internal 8 32gb. flash storage, and another with 32 The system's Wii U GamePad controller contains an embedded touch screen for gameplay when the television is off. The system also connects to the Nintendo Network – Nintendo's network infrastructure answer to the Sony PlayStation Network and Microsoft Xbox Live (again, so last generation, but a necessary catch-up to the last-gen consoles). March/April 2013 CGW0313-Game Devicespfin.indd 16 3/14/13 12:13 PM