Well, for all the Wii fans out there...

If you thought the Wii was going to be a rare to get console forever, have a look at this: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070427/ap_on_hi_te/japan_nintendo;_ylt=ApRSI16ugI6c0gpeinhdRJgjtBAF

Seems like this news may make the Wii a heck of a lot easier to grab than you think, hopefully this holds true. Just glad I got mine when I did, I tell ya.

that has to be the most shallow look into video games ever.. This reporter should be shot.

Well, from the results of my siggy, seems like Nintendo needs to sell at least 4 million more units to meet, or exceed Microsoft's unit number of overall consoles. They still got some work to do, and that seems like knowing how the Wii was selling like hotcakes, that may happen fairly shortly.

Mark my words, in a couple of years, from top to bottom your signature will read: PS3, XBOX360, and last of all Wii.

And the Wii's sales figures will look wretched compared to the other two.

Bah, don't think Nintendo would wind up like Sega. Nintendo took ten years at least to get to be as good as they are now. I have an X360 too, but even tho I love that, the Wii just seems like they know how to bring great gaming at half the price of a PS3, and $50 less than the cheapest X360 package. So, you don't think price point alone will put Nintendo over the top?

> So, you don't think price point alone will put Nintendo over the top?

It didn't with the GC.

Yeah, well, the GC didn't seem to have the same bells and whistles, either. This is Nintendo's first time with this type of console.

I mean, the ability to have a fully-integrated Wi-Fi zone, and access to more than just games on those optical discs may change Nintendo forever. The motion sensing controllers will probably change that. It's less "lazy" than Sony's Sixaxis. Right now, the PS3's controller plays more like an X360s.

I'm not turning this into a fan thread by any stretch, I own a console from all three companies, a PS2, X360 Prem, and a Wii, and think that they are equally as impressive.

yah. But by all accounts the GC sucked. Lame controler, an overall lack of quality games, no RPG love, and maybe 4 M rated games.. Almost all of which were REs... (not counting terrible movie license games, I'm sure some of them were M rated)

Not that M rated games make a console, it is just that the GC had this very kid-related reputation. Everyone is playing, and enjoying the Wii.

They just need to stop screwing the 3rd party people with no Mii ability and other things... That is the only way they will lose, by not having good 3rd party devs working on it. Especially western ones.

One thing I've really noticed about a lot of the 360 and Ps3 games is that they don't work on a standard TV.. I mean.. they play, but everything is too small to be seen... Like text. I have serious trouble reading anything in the promos I see in either commercials or on shows like Xplay. That, and it doesn't look all that good to me. Lots of geometry, but all of it looks glassy and bad... Granted, that was true of most of the games on the Xbox too.. I remember looking at morrowind and thinking "Is the whole place covered in glass?" and I felt the same way with Oblivion in a lot of places.. So I turned what was doing it off and it looked SO much better.

I think the games on the Wii look better. These other games seem to have ditched a lot of the rules of good design with their players being invisible due to lighting, or with other 'realism' touches that make the game harder to play... I find that to be bullshit. Hell.. Some 360 games have this strange dust storm effect that obfuscates the player's view... and not just in places where there is down time.. Right in the middle of a battle...

Nintendo has been here since 1889 or something like that.

yay for sony fanboys.

Good... Now, how about they boost production of actual software for the Wii?

Software sales will determine which system comes out on top, and so far none of the systems has that great a catalogue. 360 has the better, but thats to be expected with a years head start and more games that were originaly developed with the 360 hardware in mind.

We will have to wait till next year to see decent PS3 games that use the hardware properly. Not sure about Wii, they need to make better use of their controller in more mainstream games to get me interested.

Pfft. Very far from 'all accounts', whatever that's supposed to mean. You may not have liked the GC personally, but it most certainly didn't 'suck'.

I found the GC games looked better then the PS2 Counterparts myself. If a game came out for PS2 and GC I would buy the GC one.

I won't lay bets on which console will win the current round - I'm jinxed that way.

The PS3 will eventually come out on top due to receiving strong support from both Western and Japanese developers.

The Wii will suffer from a lack of third party titles (and ultimately the console will fail once the gimmicky controller loses its appeal and all the usual first-party sequels (mario, zelda, etc) have been released).

The Xbox360 will do pretty well on the strength of popular western brands, but it will ultimately suffer in comparison to the PS3 due to a lack of Japanese RPGs and other similar Japanese-centric games.

Just like last generation then.

It's not about the hardware, because that's much of a muchness (although I suspect that the Wii will look long in the tooth rather quickly), it's all about the software, and this is where Sony have a huge advantage.

Look, I'm not exactly an insightful game guru - this is obvious stuff, people!

It seems to me that many gamers try to deny the obvious in order to make reality conform to their their idealistic and/or biased preferences. I like Nintendo = Nintendo will succeed. I hate Microsoft = the Xbox360 will fail. I like the Xbox360 = the PS3 will bomb.

Whilst technology changes and gimmicks come and go, gamers pretty much remain consistent in what they want and look for when considering the purchase of a console. This time around, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are following the same strategies that they pursued last time around, hence nothing will change in respect to the relative popularity of the three brands - they appeal (or don't appeal) to almost the same demographics who bought consoles last time around.

Gamecubes are still selling pretty well. They have a great library of games, they have some nice new ones too. (Twilight Princess).

for $99.00 + a few bucks for pre-owned games (even cheaper if you get a used console) you get a great system for younger kids.

then, when you get a Wii, you can still play your GC games on it.

...and use the controllers on the Wii, I believe. Despite DampeS8N calling them 'lame', I always liked the GC controllers - especially the WaveBird ones. Well, apart from the position of the Z button - that must have been placed on a Friday afternoon. :/

The ps3 is pricing itself out of the market in Europe.

Only in the short term.

it isn't so much that the GC controlers were terrible, it is just after the N64, and now the Wii.. the GC controler just feels.. wrong.

I don't think the wii-mote is gimmicky. I find it very natural to use. In some GAMES it is used in a gimmicky way. But in others, it is used wonderfully. Super Paper Mario is a great example. The motion features are used for some minigames and to see some objects, and also to put some flair into your attacks. It is really well balanced.

Other games, like Wario Ware, are gimmicky, but the games were gimmicky on whatever system it was on anyway.

The big gimmicks are like the minigames in something like call of duty.. Where they were like.. Man, it would suck to not make use of that function.. Lets have you push some guy around and do a half assed job of it too.

Monkey Ball didn't use it to good effect really either... And it was buggy and hard to control... I mean... why no loops? Upside down bits?

Once every game stops tacking on shite minigames for no eason, it'll even out. There will be games designed to be casual, and there will be games like Twilight Princess...

I can see this controler being great for a lot of puzzle games in many different styles. And, gladly, my fears of it being unresponsive as some people have said are cleared... It is very responsive...

I still don't know how people liked the GC controller. Then again, I never owned a GameCube myself; perhaps it takes some getting used to.
I've always been baffled by Nintendo's octagonal sockets for analogue sticks. They offer freedom of movement - that's the whole point - and yet Nintendo designs their own in such a way that there are essentially 8 key directions in which you are forced to point.
They've done this since the N64 and everyone else does it right. (A round socket, offering a much better, more fluid feel without strange clicks).

It makes locking on to the cardinal directions easier. I've never had any probs with this, TBH.

I quite like the ocatgonal sockets as well, whenever I use my PS2's dual-shock my left thumb always has a tendency to shift the stick a bit more left than it should, making me have to keep re-adjusting my thumb if I ever wanted to move my guy straight back, or straight forward, the Nintendo-style analogs solve that issue for me.

Actually, it probably helps the nunchuk attachment overall, since you only got the one hand holding onto the thing, and free-form movement would be less precise that way.

Ironic that you should talk about accounts seeing as the GC was the only home console of that generation not consistently sold at a loss to its parent company. Nintendo knows how to make money which, at the end of the day, is what business is all about.

Yes the PS3's price might plummet and gain the platform an amount of popularity. But will the income from software licensing offset the hardware losses? It's anyone's guess but, unlike with the PS2, certainly not a sure thing.

ps2 sold so many cos people have to replace them every year or so. My GC still works as well as it did the day i got it.

Heh, Smiler, you're probably not wrong. Our ps2 we bought last year doesn't play half the games anymore...

as for the GC, it was more powerful than the PS2 and if you ask me never got its full potential realised.

As for the octaonal sockets, i found it was very useful for very precise movements- if i wanted him to go NE then he could go exactly NE, but if i wanted a less precise direction i could also do it, but i'd have to be precise about it. Gave you MORE control :)

Yep :)

Which further proves what JustLuke has been saying all along.

I disagree.

I thought the GC controller was by far the best pad of last gen.

Only the 360 controller beats it as a traditional pad.

And Luke, for the PS3 to close the gap it has to be selling more units than the others. It isn't, by a long chalk. The gap is widening. The Wii is on course to overtake the 360. The 360 is widening its lead over the PS3 every day. If this situation were to reverse we'd know about it many months ahead of time but things seem to be heading in the opposite direction.

Right, the GameCube was no Virtual Boy, and I don't see the Wii in this category anytime soon, either.

I agree with dynaman.

I had a PS2 for many years and played many great games, but then bought a GC and it's basically better. Faster loading, faster memory card access and slightly better graphics. Also they brought out the Wavebird (official wireless controller) first. Given a choice I now but GC games instead of PS2 games. It IS the better console but I accept that it's game library is smaller. As for controllers, I've used both extensively and both are fine but somehow I prefer the GC, it's also easier to use the analogue sticks for some reason.

Hehe, right. Now, the Wiimote is different yet again, even tho the nunchuk DOES use an analogue stick, Nintendo prefers you use the motion sensor as your method of movement, and it seems to be somewhat accurate once you learn how to use infrared/bluetooth movement. It's rather weird at first, but once you callibrate it onto the screen, it's even easier than using a laptop touchpad, if you can believe that.

Its sad, but I see Ps3 at the top in 2 years. I don't *want* to, but it will.

I saw a few games on Ps3 yesterday that literally awed me. the X360 has never awed me to date, and i've even sold my 360. Now, providing the Ps3 actually comes up with some cracking games, when the price drops to £300 (which by the way, it's going to..) I might consider going for one.

The reason i've changed my view of the Ps3 (I *hate* Sony at present so this is a biggie for me...) is partialy because my TV is playing up and i'll want to get a nice hi-def replacement when it goes. That makes for a reason to have Hi-Def media, and though I'd rather see blu-ray flop, it almost certainly won't considering there are now at least 3m blu-ray players in homes around the world already.

Sony are clever, i'll give them that. Mostly. I can't forgive them for treating us Europeans as if we were stupid though and that may very well stop me from actually making the purchase when I get to the store.


The Wii is great excersize. I've toned up nicely and lost over a stone since xmas using it. Woo :) It's a cool system that will continue to have its market and keep Ninty floating. Ninendo have a bit of a surprise planned, as always... :)

John Pickford wrote:

I've a lot of respect for your industry experience, so all I'll say to that is: "Perhaps you're right. We'll see."

Yeah I thik it's great that the Wii controller makes you exercise.

Luke, It's just maths. For the gap to close the PS3 has to start be selling more than the 360 and Wii for many months. But the gap is widening.

What I don't understand is people insisting the PS3 will recover when there's no evidence to support that; nor is there any historical precedent. It's lost most of its exclusives, it's lost a ton of goodwill. Ken has been fired (an admission by Sony that it's all gone pear-shaped).

Wallmart are reportedly about to start selling a VERY cheap HD-DVD player. That factor alone could pretty much kill BLU-RAY as a format. Wallmart want cheap (loss leader even) disks in their stores. HD-DVD is the cheapest way to do that.

The PS3 *may* recover but I don't see anyone explaining how it could happen. Every day the gap is wider.

Games...

If Sony can come up with titles like LBP than that's the reason for a PS3. The only reason for a Wii is actually Wii Sports and to be more precisely it's the tennis game...

http://www.gamesradar.com/gb/ps3/game/news/article.jsp?articleId=20070425111730629099&releaseId=20060314132311609002&sectionId=1006

Wow. I reckon Nintendo should do a Wii Workout game - they'd probably get some good, free publicity if they did, too. :)

I think the novelty of the swinging about controller will soon wear off.

Sure the Wii controller is great for swinging aroundy games but terrible for any other type due to the lack of buttons. Now I like your crazy novelty games as much as the next Wii fanatic, but you can't just think you're gonna spend the next 4 hours playing these games. You get tired and you want to sit down and just play a normal game. Not everyday you're gonna have a party with your friends and want to play these games. This is exactly what happened to the Eyetoy, Fantastic idea, but not a replacement to the original style of games, where is the Eyetoy now?

I still think the PS3 controller has benefited by taking all the best elements of the Wii controller and none of its bad points. It has a motion sensor which is more accurate by the fact you don't need to point at your TV, nd you don't need to hold the controller in a new way, and with a strap etc. Which means you don't get tired because you're holding the controller normally, after 20 mins of holding up a Wii controller like a light gun. I can't be bothered to do that anymore. The PS3 controller is great in that it can be wireless or not by simply unplugging the USB connector and then a button in the center for it to switch between the 4 available ports. PS3 controller doesn't need batteries, that's unforgivable to not have a charger like the DS.

As JukeLuke says well, the Wii will most likely die eventually when that controller novelty wears off, just like N64 and Gamecube by having a small release of games and not too much support from developers, for sure the gap has closed this time somewhat.

The PS3, sure it's not got too many games. But PS2 had like Tekken Tag Tournament and Ridge Racer 5 for like a year, and you couldn't even buy a console for 4 months. The PS2 release was pretty disasterous in compared to PS3. I'd probably have bought a PS3 already if it wasn't so expensive.

As for the Wii, sure it's cheap, but I myself personally don't think I could ever bring myself to buy a console with such a little name. I have enough crazy controllers for my PS2 without needing to buy a whole new console just for a light sabre feature.

I think it's funny how everybody says "the controller is just a gimmick" or "the novelty will wear off". They're missing three important points: 1) As opposed to the other platforms, at least it has novelty. 2) Even if the novelty controller does wear off, it's not going to effect sales, because the people for whom the novelty has worn off, already have a Wii. 3) You said the same when hating on the DS, and you where wrong then as well.

There are three easily accessible buttons on the Wiimote and another two on the nunchuk. That's 5 times more buttons than the Amiga and C64 and two and a half times more than the NES and Sega Master System. I realize that PS fanboys need to use 13 buttons to enjoy a game fully, but most normal people don't think RSI makes for a better game.

Why can't you sit down and play a normal game on the Wii? I'm having a blast playing R-Type on Virtual Console. I think before you start criticizing the Wii you need to play it for a bit. Not a single of the statements you made in your post above is an even remotely accurate description of the Wii controller.

I consider that part of the benefit. 4 hours playing a game?! After that, the thought of "this game sucks, I want to play a normal game" may cross my mind, but hopefully I will have time to look at a clock and use common sense!

FlameDuck, I'm surprised you haven't noticed: Anything too different from "the norm" is a gimmick, unless everything else follows.

This isn't true. The two controllers share similar tilt\accelleration sensors but the Wii also has a completely separate pointer function. The pointer is excellent for mouse style control but isn't much used in games. It is a completely separate element to the tilt\accelleration sensor.




Eh? You generally hold the wiimote like a TV remote. How is that a problem?

This 'new way' is really the only sensible way for something like tennis or the mythical light sabre game. Sony's tilt stuff is limited by a controller you have to hold the 'old way'. Can you imagine Wii Tennis on using the PS3 controller?


I haven't come across a game that expects me to hold the wiimote like a light gun.

As a game designer, the Wii is by far the most exciting console as it allows me to try new things. The PS3 and 360 are very impressive machines but they don't really make anything new possible - they just make old stuff shinier.

The Wiimote is certainly not a gimmick. Even the combination of Wiimote & Nunckuck beats the PS3 simply by having two independant motion controlled devices at once. The possibilities for simple, intuitive play control are pretty much endless.

Speak for yourself. I think I know what "gimmick" means and I'm sure that others do too.

Meh - just buy whichever console takes your fancy. I really don't care who 'wins' the next gen battle. I don't have shares in any of the companies.

>Speak for yourself. I think I know what "gimmick" means and I'm sure that others do too.

Of course I'm speaking for myself. I'm expressing an opinion.

The 'gimmick' argument doesn't stand up because the controller is fully capable of providing all the input you get from a normal controller plus a lot more. And when that new stuff is used well you actually get new possibilities.

@big10p. I agree. I'm paid to design games for both consoles so I don't have an axe to grind. I'd hate to see Sony dominate though. I'd hate to see Nintendo or MS dominate too.

I just think a lot of the negative stuff about Wii is spurious at best. And a lot of the "PS3 will dominate" arguments are totally baseless. They may also be true but nobody seems to have any logical explanation and for the PS3 to overtake the 360 would take a massive turnaround.

Well actually, the definition of a gimmick is:It's pretty obvious that Gimmick means a lot of things, though it is only bad if there are way too many of them (eg: Poser's user interface), or if they exist simply in order to sell products.
The Wii controller does almost exactly what Nintendo said it would do (minus the games, which the system is being sadly deprived of), and every feature it has is a necessary feature that works out as an important part of innovative gameplay. The whole system is built around that controller, so it would be absurd to say it is unnecessary, and it would also be absurd to rate its usefulness relative to the real world since really everything we do is irrelevent - especially video games.
Certainly has increased appeal, though, judging by the sales and the interest that is undoubtedly caused by it being a new idea. (Lots of the disinterest in video games is caused by them being the same idea: Mashing buttons).


Back to consoles dominating: It does not happen.
-The GP2X is a fantastic device. How many sales has it made?
-Macs are pretty well designed computers... What was Apple's PC market share again?
-Linux is also a darn good kernel and it's somehow less known than Mac OS. It is still working, there are more developers than ever, desktop Linux is getting better by the day and one could go so far as saying that it is smarter than Windows. (Eg: Seamlessly Running programs from RAM even though they were uninstalled 10 minutes ago).
-The Playstation 2 vs the N64. Remember that one?
-The XBox ended with quite an upper hand in terms of popularity in North America, even though PS2 was previously "dominating". Both it and the "dominated" GameCube continued onwards.
-My computer has hardware from two competing corporations.

Sure, one can dominate (*movie trailer voice*), but that doesn't make it superior or more desirable. It doesn't even make it the winner of some phantom competition: It just makes it the more mainstream. (And the Wii is and always will be the more mainstream because that was and always will be its intent).


Speaking of speaking for oneself: I think we are all pleased with our own contributions to this thread, but can all agree that they aren't going anywhere. Good day.

Yep - when I said I don't care, that's not strictly true. I just don't like to see one platform be massively dominant over the others. I don't like monopolies. Variety is the spice of life, etc...

That was really my point actually. It doesn't really differ that much from "the norm" as the Wiimote uses a different metaphor than the PS3 / XBox360. It uses the TV's remote control (much like the CD-I and CDTV did) as it's metaphor instead, with the nunchuck using the more traditional "joystick" metaphor. Motion sensing isn't that much of a novel idea either. I had a motion sensing "baseless" joystick for my C64. It sucked, but it existed.

Unfortunately success in the video game game market is most often dictated by popularity in Japan, not the US or Europe (which is why Sony execs can treat the European market like they do, and get away with it).

Well that's certainly true, however...

What will determine the winner of the new gen is units sold and third party support. Third party support is mostly determined by publishers and their marketing team.

If you want more cool games on your system, you have to sell more systems.

I remember when I was making a console game in 2002, the best deal we found with publishers and a cross platform game was PS2 and Xbox with PS2 having 75% priority and Xbox having 25% of the time.

Now were in the situation where the Xbox360 is far ahead of PS3, and the Wii is not all that far behind. If Nintendo encourage 3rd party support they will probably get it.

Sony are a bit stuck, but their brand is the strongest.

360 has a big headstart and is selling very well, especialy in the states, and has already been making a profit on their systems overall.

Sony is starting to make blueray drives at a lower price, so we may see price cuts for both 360 and PS3 towards the end of the year.

Well, Sony would have done better if Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Peter Moore didn't have such deep pockets to pull the "once-would-be" exclusives left and right from underneath Kaz Hirai and Phil Harrison like they did.

It doesn't matter. "Exclusives" in themselves don't make or break a console. Even must have games and secondary features aren't as important at this price - what is important is quantity and diversity of available titles.

You can justify buying a $250 USD console to play just 5 or 6 games. For a $400 USD console you're going to need at least ten, and the XBox360 selection as it is now, looks to be good for people who want to play sports games or first person shooters on consoles, and not so good for anyone else.

Besides Japanese developers are going to get behind the one that does well in Japan. With Japan taking up an unimpressive 4% of total XBox360 sales, anyone who wants to play a Japanese game (or indeed any games that falls outside the niche market the XBox360 seems to appeal to) is going to have to look elsewhere.

I mean without games like Ikaruga, Ico, Rez, Viewtiful Joe, Katamari Damacy, Metal Gear Stupid 2, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy X and of course the odd man out, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - would the PS2 have been such a success? Does anyone have a PS2 that doesn't have one of those games?

You can't buy success. Microsoft is a publicly traded company - sooner or later they're going to have to explain to their shareholders why they didn't cut their loses after the first XBox flopped.

I just don't see how the market is gonna change that quickly because almost all the things that were there before are still there basically.

Naturally X-Box 360 is gonna be big in America. It's from America, Microsoft own America they have so much influence.
But each time I go to Japan, the X-Box selection is embarrassingly small and hidden away at the back of most shops and as Flameduck says you aren't gonna be able to sell a good console without the support of Japan. If you don't like Sports games and First Person Shooters which all Americans like to play. You don't really have a lot of games to play.

For Nintendo they have the most innovative games, but they just don't come out quick enough, lack of third party support and Nintendo's image of making 'kiddy' games only. I think that's a poor reason not to have a Nintendo console.

And then Sony don't really have anything special, except a lot of developers making games on their systems.
Does anyone remember for like 2 years after the PS2 was released the original PS1 was still fighting strong? The PS2 is still pretty popular now and PS3 isn't doing a whole lot.
Maybe it's a sign of what's gonna happen next?

I think it's too early to tell who will win, I really don't care either way to be honest, as I still have a whole ton of PS2 games that I haven't got around to playing. :)

20 people on a forum does not account for the rest of the world's buying habits.

Well, back during E3 2006, Peter Moore himself said that for the price of a PS3, you should own an X360 and a Wii. So far, a lot of people seem to be catching on to that... I, for one, did, and couldn't be happier. I pass by the PS3 demo booths at the stores I go by, and give a big ho-hum, because most of that stuff seems to grow old. I mean, nothing against Sony, but on a 720p HDTV, you really can't tell the difference between X360 or PS3, let's face it. As for the Wii, it's more of an EDTV console, if even that, but it's more accurate with motion control and reading text, and such on an LCD television.

Growing so tired of the PS3/Sony fanboys arguing their dead end point of how the PS3 will overcome it all... It wont!!!

I forget the link off hand, and this constant argument isn't worth trying to dig it up, but there was a compilation of all the bad press Sony got over the many fumbles of the PS3.. It will not end, they will continually suffer, and because of that, they will not dump money into more areas of the PS3 if they the existing areas of the PS3 aren't selling as is....

Bottom line is that Sony's days are numbered (as you can see the father of the playstation left the building). Get over it... Move on and try something new!

Granted, I am still waiting for the Wii to get back into stores to get one, but I have played one, and really enjoyed it. I agree, if Nintendo doesn't get some software out there, they will never successfully release another product to me (won't be taken like I was for the GC). I did enjoy 3 or 4 games on the GC though.

..time will tell...far as I know PS3 offering much more features rich system than rest of the consoles...for future, thats a good point, and I am quite sure PS3 image will be very different than one you talking about now...

Dark Half wrote:


Perhaps you should calm down.

One definition of "fanboy" (taken from the Urban Dictionary) is: "An arrogant person who goes into an outburst every time something he likes is questioned. Fanboys usually acuse others of being fanboys."

Sound familiar?

LMAO, how many responses have you made in this thread each time the PS3 image is questioned?

I think you just proved yourself a fanboy by responding to me directly when I said "PS3/Sony fanboys" (was I targeting that at you? I don't recall saying your name in there).

Lastly, your implying me being a fanboy when I own neither PS3, Wii, or Xbox360! So when you say "Sound Familiar?" perhaps you mean you calling me a fanboy... not quite sure, but either way, your opinion to this point has been (as it usually is) bias and unsupported.

I do however own a GC, PS2 and Xbox! Does that constitute as a "fanboy"?

I used to think the ps3 would fail entirely.. I now think differently. If they can hang on long enough, which they should be able to if the rest of sony doesn't continue their strings of bad choices. AND Home ends up being at least half of what they claim, they may just not fail.

I don't think they will be on top... unless home is twice or more than what they are claiming it is...

Enough people should ultimately want a ps3, and will pay for it should the price come down enough, that it won't totally fail...

Still.. The Wii is poised to create their own home-like thing... which would be completely and totally free, and let grammy play chess with her grandson over the internet... Which would EXPLODE!

I dont know.... It's more of a cost thing I think...

I mean when my kids are asking for a game, the question is what console is that for, and how much is that console costing me..

A $600 console isn't ever going to be worth 2-3 games, it better have 20 good titles that will give me the most time, and the biggest bang for the buck. A $400 console of course comes in second as for a waste of money as it goes along the same lines as a 600 or 800 dollar console (I can buy a decent pc for that price).

no matter how far down the price comes it has to stay in relative competition to its compeditors. Most game developers choose the system based on how exposed the systems is to the general market. I wouldn't want to develop a game for the Saturn these days and still maintain the expectation of getting rich on the game (put 2 and 2 together there), same holds true for expensive and elaborite consoles.. Just because it has hardware that exceeds the 360, doesn't make it the better choice, as pc's will always beat a console in that race..

If it costs too much to develop on, with to little of a potential market, it won't be the developmental choice. Sure you might see a title or two as sony will push certain companies to develop on it. When you see other companies hold press conferences stating the wont develop for the ps3 specifically because of the cost and available market, that says something. These same companies are then asked "what about this system or that system" where they promptly say "we are in process of ....".

This is the only playing card the PS3 has. It's only good move is to get itself into every house-hold for then developers would choose them as the best marketed system. Without that, they have nothing but an overly priced box that just happens to play Blue-Ray (whoooopie).

Lastly, an over complicated piece of hardware means it is going to cost more just in R&D to develop on. No more pulling from code archives, no more copy and paste... Now it's "how do we do this?" "Call sony and ask them" "ok, they called back saying they have to ask their engineers"..

DARK Half wrote:

*shrug* The PS3 might be a piece of cr*ap for all I know. The only point I've argued is that I suspect that the PS3 will eventually become the most popular console out of the current lot. This has nothing to do with the PS3 itself or even Sony - it is to do with the broad support that the console will receive from Western and Japanese developers.

This obviously makes you very angry. You seem to take it personally, as if you consider even the suggestion that the PS3 might be successful to be a personal insult.

Interesting.

At first I thought "why not just drop it, drop your argument as I really dont care", but then thought that perhaps your right. Perhaps it does insult me a bit just because a company like Sony can continually push this crap down our throat and think we should "learn to like it". Follows the M$ mentality to me.

Although, I doubt Japanese developers will embrace it much as the Japanese market tends to lean towards the cutesy fast paced competitive games like DDR and what not...

Things could be different, my views might be different if it weren't for the whole Blue Ray price hike crap and the events that followed... However the whole "Father of Playstation steps down" kinda says it all..

All in all, I guess it's a matter of risk vs reward with developers. In this case, developing on the PS3 (in my eyes, and the eyes of companies like Valve and Lucas Arts) is just too expensive, and will only get worse.. The only decision that is smart at that point is the logical in which case doesn't lean towards the PS3.

As for Sony itself, I own a 36" Sony TV, I own a Sony Stereo system, I have many Sony products.. So saying that the PS3 was the worst thing sony could have done says alot from someone who chooses Sony in home theatre products over other brands...

I just love the fact the reported states

"The Wii's motion-sensitive remote control wand has made it hit even with people unaccustomed to playing video games. It faced some minor problems early on with its wand, which flew out of the hands of some zealous players, snapping the strap and at times crashing into TVs. "

HE really needs to learn it's retarted players and not some magical flying controller that braking all those TV's.

Will the PS3 fail or not, that's the future and contrary to some people here I am not nostradamus. For the Wii ... well it is allready a success, it is obviously getting much more exposure than nintendo planned, except if you think they organised the shortage on purpose (which I believe is bs).

I have a wii, it's good enough for a casual player like me, however some of the games I have for the wii are real crap. Remember the games are the key to success, the war in between the big 3 is surelly happening on the software level. 2 things I don't like about the wii is that nintendo hasn't announced any real plan for online gaming and that it doesn't play video dvds.

PS
Sony is sometimes evil (like any company I guess), remember the rootkit?

Yeah but on the contrary their portable MP3 players are excellent. Then you go another step and say that Sonicstage is awful software. There's downsides and upsides to every company.

When GTA4 is released I'd rather play it on PS3 than any other console, and I know this is true for a lot of my tech-savvy friends. We're not Sony fanboys, we just know what's good and what's ok.

Yeah, well, expect the X360 Elite to take off when GTA IV hits, because I'm quite sure that savefiles from that may be too steep for the Premium HDD. I also don't expect Nintendo to allow such games from some company called Rockstar, either. Doesn't fit Nintendo's model, obviously.

You'd be surprised.

Hmm, okay, guess that seems to turn the tables. Then again, they were dumb enough to let GTA go through on the GBA some time ago, even tho it's in its 2D roots instead of the all new 3D GTA games.

isn't manhunt made by rockstar? I expect something GTA on the wii... tho manhunt will likely do much the same... Using the wire of the nunchuck and wiimote as piano wire.. batting someone head.. axes.. Should be a nice gore-fest... I can see a WiiGTA being a more fleshed out version of that same concept...