Tech Review of the year
Gaming losing its way? It’s fair to say that the gaming industry didn’t have the best of years, but the question endures of who is to blame. Early in the year Sony released their PlayStation Vita; a fantastic games console which finally brought high quality gaming to a handheld device. However, while the device is almost universally revered, it has struggled to hit sales targets all over the world. So, what’s the story? Apart from a handful of release titles that made excellent use of the Vita’s features, there has been little for gamers to get excited about other than ports of existing titles from other consoles. Of course, it isn’t Sony’s fault that third party developers are risk averse, but it is a problem that needs addressing. There is also a strong argument that, thanks to the rise in smartphone and tablet gaming, only hardcore gamers need a device with the kind of power that the Vita can throw out. Elsewhere, Nintendo finally released the Wii U. The console allows you to play games through a touchscreen gaming pad and your TV simultaneously. Again, few games have been released that really make the most of the technology and pre-Christmas sales figures were disappointing. The major consoles, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3, are both clearly at the end of their lifecycle, yet no successors have been confirmed and so, other than a few standout titles, 2012 will be remembered as a poor year for gaming.
Lawsuits This was the year that big tech companies all over the world were at each other’s throats in the courtroom, and mobile giants were the worst culprits. Throw Apple, Nokia, Research in Motion and Samsung into a room and within a few seconds they’ll all be filing lawsuits against each other for perceived copyright infringements and asking increasingly bored judges to ban handset sales for the most spurious of reasons. The biggest court battle of the year was, of course, the interminable Apple vs. Samsung debacle that dominated the late summer. Taking to the US courts to argue over who copied whom, the case reached farcical levels when a judge was forced to ask a lawyer if he “was smoking crack”. At the time, Apple’s victory — and the subsequent $1billion fine — seemed like huge news, not to mention the end of the saga, but within weeks the two were at it again in courts in the UK, Germany and the Far East. Hopefully CEOs of mobile companies have made a resolution to simply ‘play nice’ in 2013.
January 2013
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