Batteries and Gaming
- Wesley Kurtz
- Mar 8, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 12, 2019
You’re about to put one last clip into the final Boss and complete the game you just binged for 6 hours and… your beefcake with an over-sized gun stops firing, he stops moving entirely. You die… what gives? Batteries! That's what gives- OUT on you and many other people who chose the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii as their gaming console of choice. These consoles, alongside the PlayStation 3, had a vast library of fantastic games, but the fact that the Wiimote and Xbox 360 controllers used batteries as their only power source was a minor inconvenience. But, hey! Anything is worth complaining about if you try hard enough!
Now its worth noting that the seventh generation of gaming consoles, the Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360, came off the backs of gaming consoles that had wired controllers. It's not difficult to imagine each company wanted their console to have some “NEXT GENERATION” features, as many companies do when creating the next iteration of a product. They want their product to sell well and stand out from the competition. So what better mid-2000s futuristic feature than wireless technology? Wireless internet connectivity? Yes, finally we're here everyone! The future! Wireless controllers!? Holy heck! Batteries?... Ew.
In terms of gaming, batteries are inconvenient, an unnecessary expense, and a thing of the past. I feel this was very “last gen” of Microsoft and Nintendo. There could be any number of reasons these consoles used batteries to power their controllers. Maybe Nintendo and Microsoft struck a deal with a drumming pink bunny? Maybe they designed or produced their respective consoles too soon and it was an oversight? Maybe the technology was too expensive or made the product un-consumer-friendly. The PlayStation 3 was $599.99 at launcher after all… Actually, I'm just joking, the price was that high because it was overpriced and basically had a PlayStation 2 built into it.
I’ve mentioned earlier that batteries are a pain, especially when the controller can only be powered utilizing them. Sure, there were third-party additions like rechargeable battery packs and wired controllers, but those are an extra purchase that doesn’t come packed in with the console and one of those options is not wireless (for those that want a wireless controller).
Batteries can be drained if, for example, you left the controller on and the console running because of this or that. Batteries can also be expensive and they sure as hell were back during the heyday of these gaming consoles, particularly if you wanted brand name ones that lasted more than a day’s worth of time. This is especially true for the little twerps, much like myself, who didn’t have money and had to ask our parents, because… Ya know, we were children.
Amazon shopping was in its infancy when these consoles were in their early stages and prime of their life. Most people, if they wanted batteries, had to drive to the ol’ brick and mortar to grab some power packs. Then there were the times when you would get dead, semi-charged, and fully charged batteries mixed up with one another and go on a brain-numbing quest swapping batteries and trying to figure out what combination of the two would stop showing the blinking red symbol on-screen.
It's safe to say batteries and gaming are not a great combo. Their place in the Wii and Xbox 360 ecosystem was a oversight on the designers’ part and a inconvenience to players. The acid filled power sticks work wonderfully for television remotes and flashlights, but a video game controller is much more power hungry and is typically used more frequently for longer gaps of time. This makes a rechargeable controller a no-brainer for console design, but maybe something Microsoft still didn’t learn from considering the Xbox One… Oh, well! Who cares about convenience? Retro is in now! I’m gonna go buy a 64 pack of batteries to feel some nostalgia, see ya!
How do you feel about batteries and their place in gaming? Any other thoughts? Let me know down below!
コメント