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Insomniac exec defends PS3 plus an attack on the Wii.

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I can smell his fear, that's what I think.
 
that's what it reads like. I also can understand how it's frustrating... but he probably knows that it isn't easy to overturn an idea that is established in the game market. Its also ironic because a lot of the stuff he's complaining about are comments that were made about microsoft last gen.
 
Brian Hastings actually has a pretty good point about the Wii's long term survivability among nongamers. Nintendo has been pushing strongly to get our parents and grandparents to play the Wii. Sure this mantra has given Nintendo phenomenal sales in terms of hardware, but how sustainable is this growth in terms of software? What percentage of Wii owners will go out to buy new software compared to the percentage of PS3 and X360 owners, those whom are arguably more salient and more dedicated to the hobby? Exactly how much effort are our parents, grandparents, and girlfriends/boyfriends going to put into extending their Wii software library beyond than just Wii Sports?
 
Swifty said:
Brian Hastings actually has a pretty good point about the Wii's long term survivability among nongamers. Nintendo has been pushing strongly to get our parents and grandparents to play the Wii. Sure this mantra has given Nintendo phenomenal sales in terms of hardware, but how sustainable is this growth in terms of software? What percentage of Wii owners will go out to buy new software compared to the percentage of PS3 and X360 owners, those whom are arguably more salient and more dedicated to the hobby? Exactly how much effort are our parents, grandparents, and girlfriends/boyfriends going to put into extending their Wii software library beyond than just Wii Sports?
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Ask the DS as it goes into it's second full year in the same position.

It is a fair point, but the Wii and DS have been entered into the public conciousness as a revitalisation of videogames. The same way that the original Playstation was, in fact. Again, we have people that wouldn't play videogames before playing them because they were broken out of their niche audience and exposed to a mainstream crowd.

4 years ago, Nintendo was still emblazoned in the general public's minds as their childhood toy/their child's childhood toy with Mario running around on the SNES. Now, Nintendo's name is synonymous with games once again - games that have an audience with the people that had Nintendo pegged as they did 4 years ago and games that are actually reaching that audience thanks to the smart marketing of Nintendo paying off and the media attention surrounding it.

Really, the DS and Wii are the best thing to have happened to Nintendo since the NES, and many will argue that they're the best thing to have happened to gaming since the Playstation. And they've been rolling along on this and only getting stronger and stronger - just like the Playstation did.

In 1995, everyone thought Sony would flop - no-one could knock Nintendo from the top spot, not even Sega (who were already languishing at this point, the 32x already flopping massively, and the Saturn about to do the same). Then Sony sold the system in a new and different way (something you can only really do when in the position of being a new boy/having something genuinely new and different to sell), adults started buying the thing, franchises were born out of older audiences and videogames became a mainstream entertainment form for the first time. Sony became the kings of the Console Wars and hasn't budged since.

Nintendo's done exactly the same thing that Sony did when the Playstation broke in 1995, it may seem inconceivable that Nintendo can crawl back to the top spot after 12 years in second and third place, and with a much lower-spec system than it's rivals, but Sony defied the odds once before with a similarly groundbreaking system, and really, all Nintendo has to do is keep the pace up with the Wii to do much the same.
 
The Nintendo DS's success isn't completely analogous to a future Wii success. In terms of how much strength and mindshare in the mainstream the two systems have, the Nintendo Wii wins hands down; the DS hasn't been pushed out into the mainstream as much as the Nintendo Wii has been over the 2006 holiday season. Arguably, Brain Age and Nintendogs did much to bring the DS into the mainstream, but I'd argue that the DS's success wasn't constructed nor originally intended to be constructed around the casual gamer core demographic. Yes, the DS has been an incredible success, but I doubt this success has been because of the droves of casual gamers that have bought the Nintendo DS. It's more likely that the DS's library of great games has contributed to its success, indiscriminant of whether these games were developed for the casual audience or not.

That said, I don't think the DS is an accurate paradigm of the Wii's potential success if one is basing Wii's future success based on the casual gaming market. This is where people sorta get it wrong. The DS was a success not because it had a library of casual games that were made accessible with a innovative new control method. The DS was a success because it simply had a library of great games which were fostered by an innovative new control method.

To mangle an old Clinton/Gore slogan from 1992: "It's the games stupid!" I think Nintendo will have positive fortunes with the Wii, with or without the casual gaming audience. Either way, the company was going to foster development of great games, just like what the Nintendo DS fostered with the touchscreen/stylus. I just doubt if said audience is willing to buy the future groundbreaking games that will make the Wii truly shine, considering them too overbearing or non-accessible for its tastes. Any future success with Wii software sales will lie in the enthusiast gamer who sought out the Wii to be challenged and stimulated with new ideas. It's not going to be the casual gamer who bought the Wii just because it's nifty.

Don't get me wrong. Nintendo is still better off selling as much hardware it can which is why targetting parents, grandparents, and other non-gamers is a good idea, even if a large percentage of them may forget/not want to buy future accompanying software with their Wii purchase. I'm just worried whether Nintendo's pursuit of casual gamers will create a chilling effect on software publishers. I just hope that that developers won't erroneously pursue the casual gamers, the ones passively looking for new software at best, while snubbing the enthusiasts, the ones actively on watch for new software; developers shouldn't be too surprised at tepid sales if they end up doing this ultimately.
 
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This is silly. The Wii will continue to do well, to the point of being a close #2 to the 360. PS3 had a screwed up launch, and every day it becomes more apparent that Sony is no longer dominating the Console Wars.
 
I think it is true that you can't judge the Wii's potential as market leader with the DS's. The DS started as market leader, the Wii did not.

To be fair, it is going to be hard to say if even the DS has the impact it does on the casual market. In all honesty, I think the DS really only opened the female market over both that and the older market, but that is only because I haven't seen many (people over 40) willing to buy out the DS and get into games. I'm sure Nintendo may have polled people somehow, but generally I don't see that as an accomplishment, and I think its that female market, and the amount of great games that pushed DS forwards.

However, what also caused the good games to come over the gameboy, and then over the gameboy advanced? I don't believe it was the power or the touch screen features but maybe the sales and image, partly even due to Sony taking interest in the market.

I think this is what the Wii is going to use to its advantage, it needs to keep its image up in the causal market, but also needs to be present in the hardcore market. Many Hardcore and causal gamers see Wii as a passing fun time, while the non-gamers and other causals eat up everything. In actuality the Wii's software has been selling really well (3rd parties as well) and I think it is actually something that draws in more people (young and old) with Nintendo finally reaching their goal, I just hope this does make developers think they should take serious interest in the Wii.

Being dead tired, I don't know how coherent this is sounding.. but basically, I think the Wii still has more to prove, but still has to potential to do great things.
 
As a proud Wii owner...I´m dissapointed about the Wii´s software line-up so far...

I was right when I expected that Nintendo would release their E3-bombs not at the start of 2007 but release them over the whole year, most of them near the end...

Where are the playable Wii-games that are no mini-game compilation? Besides Zelda? Not much for me...

I hope the Wii will go the DS-way and will have lots of different and fun games within ´08..

the wii is a lot better than the aweful gamecube which lost nearly all its exclusive third party games and has a lot of potential, but I´m not sure if the potential willbe used by the producers...


the console wars are sickening me anyway...If´I´d had enough money I´d buy a 360 as well which would, together with the wii, be the perfect combination for my interests.

I miss the SNES times, when everything was much easier ^^
 
TeddiUrsa said:
As a proud Wii owner...I´m dissapointed about the Wii´s software line-up so far...

I was right when I expected that Nintendo would release their E3-bombs not at the start of 2007 but release them over the whole year, most of them near the end...

Where are the playable Wii-games that are no mini-game compilation? Besides Zelda? Not much for me...

I hope the Wii will go the DS-way and will have lots of different and fun games within ´08..

the wii is a lot better than the aweful gamecube which lost nearly all its exclusive third party games and has a lot of potential, but I´m not sure if the potential willbe used by the producers...


the console wars are sickening me anyway...If´I´d had enough money I´d buy a 360 as well which would, together with the wii, be the perfect combination for my interests.

I miss the SNES times, when everything was much easier ^^
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For a system that's only been on the market for 4 months, it's hardly a "poor" library. In fact, it's pretty much one of the strongest available for a console at this period of time ever. At this stage in the 360's life last year, the biggest game on it was pretty much Oblivion. Right now, the Wii's got Zelda, Red Steel, Wario Ware and Sonic and the Secret Rings. And following the initial 6 or so months after the 360's launch, there were pretty much no titles at all for about another 3 months. During that time, Pokemon will be out, Super Paper Mario should be out - and if it doesn't get delayed again, SSBB will be out.

I think some people are just unhappy because they rushed to get the Wii early on hype and have probably never experienced the common drought that follows a console launch before.

Really, compared to previous launches, including the DS, the Wii is flying high on the software side. Not as much as it will be this time next year when everything is in full swing, but for just 4 months, it's fairly impressive.
 
Compare this to Pokemon. That was also considered a fad, and while the initial hype has died down, the games still continue to sell like crazy. A fad only dies out if it keeps bringing the same thing over and over. There wasn't alot you could do with Furbies or virtual pets, but new pokemon games continue to add new features making the experience fresh each generation.

Yes the Wii's popularity has been mostly hype, but at least that hype was able to get consoles into people's houses, and now that people have the consoles, they will buy the games. And Nintendo does have some pretty big games lined up for this year: Mario, Metroid, and Smash Bros. to name a few. As the new games are released, all the people complaining about their Wiis gathering dust won't have much to complain about, Nintendo just needs to keep the hits coming, and keep the experience fresh.

It also seems alot of people that are planning on buying PS3 are waiting until after the price drops. If Sony holds out too long that's obviously going to hurt them, and the longer they hold out, the more gamers are going to get impatient and turn to other systems instead.
 
Jeff said:
Compare this to Pokemon. That was also considered a fad, and while the initial hype has died down, the games still continue to sell like crazy. A fad only dies out if it keeps bringing the same thing over and over. There wasn't alot you could do with Furbies or virtual pets, but new pokemon games continue to add new features making the experience fresh each generation.
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Unless you add Bluetooth and WiFi capabilities.

Tamagotchis are still very much alive and well. Which just proves your point.
 
Now, this is very shallow, but I think it demonstrates my point well enough.

The consoles you could win on chocolate bar wrappers, ice creams and soft drinks were
2001: PS2
2002: PS2
2003: PS2
2004: PS2
2005: PS2
2006: XBox 360
2007: Wii
 
I'm sorry but anyone who would defend something that costs almost $1,000 just to play a game like I would on much cheaper systems is on crack.

Honestly, I've had it with the "graphics sell bitch" arguement. I don't play games for the graphics. I play games to play games and have fun. The Wii is the best in that category. It brings a new way to play games at the cheapest price. And I believe Nintendo's advertising to gamers and non-gamers will work to their advantage as it could lead an to excellent library that appeals to a wide base.
 
I dislike blanket statements saying that gameplay is exclusive from graphics and accompanying statements that suggest that hardware manufacturers should no longer produce more powerful CPUs, GPUs, and increase the resource pool of these machines.

Increased computational power isn't limited to the improvement of graphics in a game. The statement that graphics don't contribute to gameplay is also false as well. Sometimes games have incredible gameplay innovations that require a powerful general CPU or a GPU in order to produce good results. Sure, you could probably recreate the gameplay of Halo on a engine as old as Quake II's. However, not all evolutions of gameplay dynamics and concepts could achieve the same effect when relegated to weaker engines.

You can't have very compelling physics calculations unless you have a powerful CPU. You can't have intelligent AI unless you have a powerful CPU. You can't have accurate collision detection unless you have both a good graphics processor and a good CPU. What about being able to handle more instances of NPCs? Or even being able to merely handle more players in a multiplayer game? (the game has to still handle all those inputs even though the "instance" of a character has been moved to a human player) What about being able to handle visual elements that effect gameplay that do in fact depend on graphics like volumetric smoke, physics, collision detection, hit-scanning, lighting?
 
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The problem is Sony is now all about the graphics which is what is driving up the cost of their system. What I'm saying is that I don't need the best graphics to play a game. As long as it plays well I'm happy.

And the Wii doesn't exactly have crappy graphics either and I'D say the CPU has to be quite powerful to handle Wi-Fi and the fact you're using the Wii-mote. It's they don't take it to the nth degree like Sony favoring towards gameplay innovation.
 
The Big Al said:
The problem is Sony is now all about the graphics which is what is driving up the cost of their system. What I'm saying is that I don't need the best graphics to play a game. As long as it plays well I'm happy.
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Aren't some of the developers starting to gravitate towards Wii as opposed to PS3 because the dev kits are a bit steep on PS3 because of the graphics, anyway?

Good graphics are great, but Sony is getting a smidge ahead of itself here. When it gets cheaper to produce the graphics chips, that would be a reasonable time.
 
We're reaching a graphics plateau anyways. In two more generations, we'll have completely photo-realistic graphics and no room for improvement, and then everyone relying soley on them to sell games will be royally screwed. Not only that, but because more realistic graphics require more artists and time, costs for a photo-realistic game will be so insanely expensive that few people will even actually produce one.
 
Aren't some of the developers starting to gravitate towards Wii as opposed to PS3 because the dev kits are a bit steep on PS3 because of the graphics, anyway?
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Eh, not really. First off, I don't think any developers have gravitated away from the PS3 in favor for the Wii. If anything, developers have been gravitating themselves from the PS3 in favor for the 360 considering how similar the two platforms are. It's actually happening now with PS3 titles either also going to the Xbox 360 (GTAIV and DMC4) or even 360 exclusive (Ace Combat VI).

It has everything to do with install base with a combination of high development costs. Considering how small the PS3's current install base is, it won't serve a third party publisher's best interests to release a game as a PS3 exclusive especially if the development costs for such a game are high. A publisher would rather release it multiplatform to reach a larger market rather than consciously restricting themselves to the comparatively small PS3 install base.

That said, I doubt we'll be seeing many third party exclusives for the PS3 and maybe even the X360. I don't see the PS3 doing so terribly that no one will ever bother developing for it. Nor do I see the X360 doing so phenomenally well (Read, PS2/PS1-levels) that developers could afford to ignore a PS3 install base, large or small.

Wii doesn't exactly have crappy graphics either and I'D say the CPU has to be quite powerful to handle Wi-Fi and the fact you're using the Wii-mote.
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I'd argue that the Wii has rather comparatively crappy graphics compared to the current technology. On the original Xbox, we had bump mapping and pixel shading. I have yet to see a Wii game do those two things and we probably won't considering that the Wii's GPU lacks any shaders.

A processor that can handle 802.11b/g doesn't require much computational power, evidenced by really old computers capable of having a wireless card installed. Nor does accepting inputs from the Wiimote. It's just a bunch of numbers that are coming out of that Wii remote just like any other input device (It's a Bluetooth device). The Wii being capable of WiFi and accepting Wii remote inputs doesn't really mean anything power-wise
 
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