mckmas8808 said:
Yeah I know blak but its still interesting to hear J. Allard and K.K. in interviews talking about their systems. Its clear to me and it should to everybody here that these two guys want to head in complete different directions. Everyone tends to say that the X360 and the PS3 are basically alike and that they will be fighting over each other while Nintendo goes after a complete different market. I don’t think this is the case. I think the two consoles will have a lot of differences in gamer’s video game experience.
Hey mc--- the market for all three is the same the approaches to that market are markedly different and for different reasons.
Nintendo - Games are Nintendo's raison d'etre... if they dont make games what else would they do? Unfortunately for N, both MS and Sony are interlopers in their space, with their own rationales, ambitions and massive bank accounts. Nintendo never wanted to either become a consumer appliance company like Sony or a full bore software services company liek MS but it is forced to compete in those spheres unwillingly.
Sony - Sony is a massive consumer appliance company whos fulfillment is not in making great games per se but in creating a Sony world where all of their hardware and software (movies, games and other entertainment) encompass the user all the time. Nintendo in many ways "seasoned" the market for Sony.
At some point all those little kids that played on the NES and SNES became adults and wanted more than just games from their entertainment device. Sony was always in a unique position to supply that to those consumers who grew up, demanded more adult experiences along with convergence and could afford to pay the premium that it would cost Sony to provide for them (ala the 5billion dollars Spny spent on Cell development alone).
The consumer appliance part of the strategy is one of appliance homogeneity... a PS3 might beget a Sony TV, a Sony TV begets a Sony Sound system and so on and so on... great strategy by a company in a unique position to deliver. Connectivity was never really an issue until now for them because in their consumer appliance world, each person was an atomized consumer - much like MS in the early to mid nineties...
MS - comes from a completely different but also unique perspective and one that has been littered with having to mature very quickly in order to stay alive in the space (Office versus Wordperfect? Windows versus Novell?) Anyway, MS first approached the VG scene as another vendor of hardware to consumers.. however MS doesn't know the hardware space as well as Sony, so that didnt work.
They know software but they never were really invested in creating a non-connected experience, so Nintendos experience made them look fairly immature in comparison.
But what they did know, is that people who play certain kinds of games, like to "play together" and that people like to have as much power as power at their fingertips; of course this perception is an offshoot of their PC experience where tons of theoretical power must exist to give you incrementally better experiences each iteration, but now they'v elearned that a higly efficient, closed box can serve your purposes just as well.
They have been working on creating a soup-to-nuts online experience in the PC area for years and now with a console that sits in the living room, they just get to extend themselves. A pc in an "un-pc" like box has always and will always be their goal. Because the console market is unsaturated, it was the natural and easy evolution of their technology base and closeness to the consumer.
The whole xbox and x360 experience though expensive, is one well worth it for MS. They can get to know the desire of their next and biggest market - the casual consumer. The CC doesnt mind occasionally sitting in front of a computer and thinking, but would much rather sit back with a beer and some friends in front of a big screen screen and play games and watch movies. AND if they so felt like it, they can get on the internet and find something out without leaving their chair, or fiddling with firewalls and antivirus software....
Ok my fingers hurt... anyway REALLY different motivations which lead directly to the choices that were made in hardware, software and alliances in this generation.
