NPD March 2008

A lot of misinformation in that article. Like the notion that there are tons of GTA clones. There aren't. Just one example.

 

To put things back on topic:

Nintendo will be successful because they will sell a lot of Wiis and will make a lot of money.
Microsoft will be successful because they will grow their share of the market, and more importantly stay at the forefront of the digital living room with Xbox Live.
Sony will be successful because they will sell a ton of BR movies and players having used the PS3 to establish that format as dominant, and they will also do well with PS3 as the generation moves on and more people want HD gaming.

All three players are achieving their primary objectives.

Nintendo probably wishes they were selling more 3rd party games in addition to the 1st party ones.
MS probably wishes they were selling more into the mass market.
Sony probably wishes they hadn't lost so much NA marketshare to MS.

All of these consoles are doing well right now.

 

It's funny and sad at the same time that despite this the Wii is still destroying both the 360 and the PS3 in sales. Microsoft and Sony are literally cannibalizing each other.

 

I don't for sure as I never tried the system, one of friend owns one so one of these days I'll give it a try
That's also why I used "It looks".

And I read stuff about people complaining about the accuracy, but this is the first iteration.
There is room for improvements or through implementation of differents technologies.

I speak of the design, two parts one for directions, the other acting as a pointer, both being motion sensitive (both are vibrating?).

This design looks here to stay (may be not the wiimote as it is).
My old gun in house of dead was accurate, 10 years later I'm sure one will come with a system accurate enough.

IMHO you can throw away the device, not the concept (there have been terrible pad and D-pad designs both in console and pc place).

 

Read the entire article.

Spoiler

 

In addition, the end users can all find success in their consoles. No-one is stuck with a platform being overlooked. There's no turkey, no purchase that drifts into obscurity. All have their values, their exclusives, their content, and everyone gets a fair choice. You don't have to choose between 'good online but no variety' or 'loads of games but naff all online gaming' or 'great titles, but few of them and none of the cross-platform stuff'. The only negative aspects so far IMO have been poor ports to PS3, something being remedied, and shovelware to Wii, which I think is improving, though I'm not really following that market. Unlike other points in console history though, I don't think there's a machine this gen where kids at school who say 'I've got a GameBox 2' get laughed at.

 

I highly doubt it. Nintendo software sales aren't actually selling at a slow pace. Also, when your software dominates your library and your hardware sales are astronomical despite less than stellar support by third party devs, you basically getting piles and piles of money from both ends.

 

I don't think they are after core gamers only. If it's the core gamers, both will get them over time (as price drops, exclusive games pile up and the platform matures). The larger picture has to include the masses.

I thought 360 Arcade is already cheaper than Wii (in some parts of Europe and Japan) ? It still pale in comparison. Sony is taking its own sweet time figuring out their moves (Lack of 80Gb may have hurt their core gamer appeal, and Blu-ray pickup is slow but hopefully improving steadily). In both cases, they will need to follow up on their mass appeal. It takes time to prepare (That's why I have been harping about Sony usability and related issues).

 

No, actually, the franchise history tells the whole story:

Prime 1: 2.8m
Prime 2: 1.3m
Prime 3: 1.3m

Metroid Prime never, ever, ever had Halo-like popularity or even the potential for it. It was only ever a competitor for Halo in the minds of fanboys and completely delusional video game addicts who think that their personal tastes are predictive of the entire consumer populace. Funny thing is, right from launch, I was predicting that Prime 3 would likely not even break 2m units for the simple reason that the Prime franchise doesn't have mass appeal, and Prime 2 was kind of a dud.

Prime 3 isn't disruptive software and is the follow-up to a title regarded by fans of the series as disappointing. Anyone who expected this title to sell 8m units because of waggle and marginally improved graphics has no clue about markets at all. Just like Halo 3 sold 9m units mainly because of the massive popularity of Halo 1 and 2, not because of fancy new water effects. I mean really, Prime 3 sold 1.3m because the control reticule is jumpy on your setup? Are you joking?

 

Hence the words "in addition to". Please read what I wrote.

 

It IS demographics - people who like FPS aren't buying Wii because the Wiimote doesn't work that well for FPS. The only reason Metroid works at all is because of the lock on system. You could never do head shots with a sniper rifle in a COD4-type game, for instance. The controller is all over the place.

 

Price isn't everything as we all know.

 

Late response but I'll take a stab at explaining this one:

1) R6 is an established franchise on XBox, and not on PS so they've got that going for them
2) 360 is *the* console for FPS gamers. I thought everyone knew that by now...

 

In the same vein the 360 out-selling the PS3 by only 5k units in a month wherein they have *allegedly* resolved their supply issues isn't exactly strong evidence that the 360 is picking up momentum, nor is it evidence that the PS3 is losing any.

Well gee, that sounds familiar

 

I can buy a Wii and complement my PS3, if i buy a 360 i get nothing special compared to my PS3. Just as well as someone that prefers the 360 and doesnt care about HiDef movies would gain Nintendo "magic" with a Wii.

As a sidenote, in Denmark there is a big store called "Bilka" that used to be a major PS2 seller, they always had the best price on them. On the PS3 nothing was done at all, this week for the first time they are out and being agressive. They sell a PS3 bundled with GT5 and finally entered the retail war. Imho they didn´t see a reason to make a big fuss because they didn´t think their were major AAA titles that would sell alot. I think they changed their mind knowing what will come this year.

 

Johnny, your logical jumps are simply Awesome.

So by that reasoning, can we say, for fighting games Wii controller is the best, since Brawl is absolutely destroying any other fighter this gen, even when normalized to user base?

 

That's why they have to do something different to gain more mass appeal.

 

Except for in Medal of Honor Heroes 2.

Honestly, the gamepad vs wiimote thing is just a matter of preference. I like the wiimote because it has insane sensitivity and really quick aim, more akin to the keyboard and mouse setups I'm used to. I don't think the sales of MP3 are a reflection of the control scheme so much as the title itself and the demographics on the Wii. The fps crowd stays away from the Wii because the fps crowd is typically into high-end graphics.

 

I'm surprised people even play fighting games on console in a home environment. There's little to no single player appeal, very little replayability. The only point is multiplayer. On PS3 or 360 or PC this isn't a big deal, but Nintendo's not exactly on the cutting edge of net play

 

Well the X360 is doing better than last year by about 30% and the PS3 is doing better by about 100%. Both are pretty healthy and I'm sure neither feels the need to drop price drastically. MS seems pretty content in the US as long as they are outselling PS3. Eventually once they've moved on to next-gen prep they probably won't even care about that anymore.