Video Game Revolution Prospect Heights IL

When you're in the game, connections are everything. As you might expect when the subject is raised here, the game in question is broadly categorized as a console video game system, which is fancy marketing talk for a PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo.

At the start of the video game revolution, connections were purely physical, as the person you were playing against had to be right next to you and using a controller hooked up to the same console. The dimensions of gaming began to change when PC-based games evolved into massive multiplayer games, also known as MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games). They popularized the concept of using broadband connectivity to permit one player to go up against one, or many others, regardless of where the individual gamers were located. MMORPG is a great idea for the die-hard gamer, but for the average consumer it requires technical knowledge and a level of hardware that is just too complex. Recognizing the appeal of online gaming, the current Xbox and Playstation2 platforms have each incorporated connected gaming, Xbox via a built-in adaptor and a subscription payment option, while PS2 uses an external adaptor and a different transactional model.

The results have been nothing less than spectacular. Indeed, many pundits in the game world have suggested that the Xbox Live has been as important to the traction that Microsofts game system has gotten in the market as almost anything else. Sony has also gotten into the fray with a successful online franchise with titles such as its SOCOM series, and connectivity has been a key part of the plan for the PSP (PlayStation Portable) system. Learning from experience, Microsoft is making the online capabilities of its just-released Xbox 360 system a major selling point. Sony, along with Nintendo, has promised that connectivity will be a major focus for its new game platforms as they reach the market in 2006.

All of this is in line with the major efforts the game industry as a whole is making to raise the demographic profile of console gamers from the stereotypical teenage boy playing games on his own to boomers using the consoles in a more elaborate viewing and listening environment. Why not take advantage of the high profile that these games and the software, services, and accessories that surround them will have in the general media and business press to raise the profile of your own installations and the appeal they have to your clients?

To get the total picture on the range of connections required and possible with video game consoles, one needs to take a step back to the basics of audio and video before moving to the more exotic area of online. On the video side, any installer who encounters one of the current generation consoles and who does not provide a Y/Pr/Pb component connection is missing the boat and denying the client optimal video quality. With digital displays featuring component inputs and HD capability now quickly becoming the norm, it ...

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