I’ve always wondered how beautiful it would be to have a unified gaming architecture. I always thought having multiple gaming platforms made it harder for the developers to single out their demographic. That along with fanboy wars, system exclusives and the era of new gaming generations made it even worse. So I’ve decided to fantasize about what would be the ultimate unified gaming architecture.

- Name the system

I first had to come up with a name. I figured since Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are too greedy to ever work on one gaming system together, I’ll call it Pipedream. Pretty slick huh? It rings a bell, sounds cool and has that Dreamcast ring to it.

- Choose The Hardware

Now I’m not gonna get too technical here. I’m just gonna give you the basics.

We’ve all seen how great standard Intel processors work in gaming systems. It’s very cost effective and I’d say %100 percent of the developers on the market can work with a PC based architecture. I’m gonna go with a Quad Core Intel 6700. It’s a fast 64-bit processor that will go a long way. By the time Pipedream is being manufactured, these chips should be pretty cheap to produce.
For memory I’d go with 4gb. This would give the devs PLENTY to work with. As demands grow for more graphic intensive games, they’ll already have the RAM to accommodate the task.

The video processor would be an ATi chipset. If I were building it today, my choice would be the X2900XT. I would also consider throwing 2 of them in the box Crossfire style.

For I/O, It would come with component and HDMI outputs, optical outputs, 5 USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet port, wireless lan, an SD memory card slot, external power supply and standard RGB AV outputs. That’s everything you could possibly need for gaming.

- Controller Options

With a great system comes great controls. We’ve all grown to love the Dual Shock style controllers from the Playstation camp. For many years they gave us a comfortable joy. I do however, like the concave analog sticks of the Xbox 360 wireless controller much better than the convex sticks on the Dual Shock. This is personal preference. After hours of play with the Dual Shock, sweaty fingers can lead to thumbs slipping of the analog sticks. The 360 controller sits very well and my hands never get tired using it. So for Pipedream, I would go with the 360 type controllers. To add to that, I would like Nintendo to add Wiimote functionality to the system. This way the gamers and non-gamer crowd would have an interest in the system. Imagine Wii Sports games with high definition next generation graphics!

- Media Types

Now I originally had this idea that we could store the games for Pipedream on 16gb SDHC cards. They are fast and solid state. You could store lots of data on them(more than a standard DVD), they wouldn’t take up space, they would levy the need for an optical drive and they come in several sizes. Looking at the pricing for these cards, I had to change my mind. 16gb of SDHC on average is around $150 bucks. It’s just not cost effective at all. So now we go back to optical media. Our choices are DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. DVD is what’s hot but it’s limited on space. It’s cheap to press a standard DVD which is a plus. HD-DVD’s have higher capacity and a slightly higher production cost than standard DVD. Then you have Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray has the highest capacity but also has the highest production cost. Being new and innovative, I would launch Pipedream with a built in HD-DVD drive. 25gb of data is a lot for developers to play with. It’s not as much as Blu-Ray’s 50gb media, but it’s not hard on the pockets.

Now the system has 5 USB 2.0 ports included. 4 in the front for wired controllers, mice and keyboards, and 1 in the back for external drives. The system would ship without a hard drive. If you wanted to add an external drive you could. You can pick any external drive you like, plug it into the system, format it using the system tools and you’re set to rock and roll. If developers wanted to require a hard disk for their game, that would be up to them. External hard drives are really cheap these days and if you needed to get one, you could do so very easily.

- Delegations!

So if the big three were to work together on a single system, what would their responsibilities be? Well first and foremost would be the hardware. Now we know that Microsoft has had problems with the 360, but Sony also had similar problems with Playstation 2 hardware. If you look at the track record of the 3, Nintendo has the cleanest slate for hardware QA. However, I still think Sony puts out rock solid hardware products. I would put Sony in charge of hardware manufacturing and design. There would be no custom chips or cells to concern themselves with. They would take the existing Intel architecture that is in full supply and built the Pipedream around it.

Microsoft would do what they do best, they would implement Pipedream Live. Pipedream Live would be the next incarnation of Xbox Live. Same concepts of persistent friends lists in all games, voice and video chat, text messaging, game invites, demo downloads, Live Arcade, movie rentals and a rock solid multiplayer network. Pipedream Live would be free of charge! Microsoft would eat the cost of the network and make up the money selling movies and micro transactions.

Nintendo would be charged with Wii Mote integration and delivering of their great first party library.

- The Games!

Imagine this, you go to your local Game Stop or Best Buy to pick up your Pipedream System. When you walk in the store you are shocked to see the greatest launch lineup in video game history. You are so flabbergasted by what you see, that tears come out of your wide eyes. What will you see on the shelf? Final Fantasy XIV, Metal Gear Solid 5: Snake Hunter, Virtua Fighter 6, Soul Caliber 5, Dragon Quest, Mario Brothers Adventures, Sonic The Hedgehog, Street Fighter 4, Gears Of War 2, God Of War 4, Heavenly Sword 2, Gran Turismo 6, Forza Motorsports 3, Super Smash Brothers Rumble, Starfox X, Metroid, Half Life 3, NBA 2K9, NFL 2K9, Madden 09, Pokemon Monsters Forever, GRAW 3, Lost Planet 3, Resident Evil 6 and must I go on? My point here is that every company would be making games for ONE FUCKING SYSTEM! Wouldn’t it be nice to not have to buy two or three systems to play all the games you like? That’s what Pipedream is all about and sadly, it’s just a pipedream.