NPD November 2008

Those studos can go on to make games on other platforms. Sega is a bad example b ut its not like we aren't seeing Sonic or other sega platforms on these other systems

 

I'm not sure if it's that, or if it's just because the potential casual audience is far larger than the hardcore audience, so it's hard to make a direct price/purchase comparison between the two. For example, everyone I know who has young kids is getting a Wii. I imagine that audience (parents with young kids) must be massive, and they won't be deterred by the $249 price, especially when the young ones are all crying for a Wii come Christmas time. Also, for casuals the 360/Ps3 controllers remain a barrier to entry. We see this time and time again in focus groups, the controllers are just far too intimidating, they won't even pick them up. This also makes it hard to make direct price/purchase comparisons with Wii and 360/PS3 since 360/PS3 are frequently not even on the radar of the casuals, they won't even touch them.

That's why I'm willing to bet money that the next gen consoles will come *standard* in the box with both a 'gamers' controller and a 'casuals' controller, ensuring full support of both.

I hated Motorstorm 1, and didn't like Motorstorm 2 either, it's just boring to me. Hmm, I wonder what that makes me, idiot or hypocrite? Now if you were talking about Grid then hey, I *love* that racing game

 

It's not just the games, though. None of these companies knows how to behave when they have reached dominance. If Nintendo were to become completely dominant, or if Microsoft were to fully claim the 'hardcore' space with Nintendo the casuals (ha!) we probably wouldn't be happy gamers at all, if prior history is anything to go by.

 

I'm usually too wussy to invest the time to learn proper racing lines in simulations like Forza and Gran Turismo.........but Grid strikes the perfect balance between arcade and hardcore imo.

First proper racing game that has captured my attention in years (I come from a background of mario kart, F-zero and wipeout). I pretty much suck at Grid..... I crash ....so many freaking times..... but its just so much fun. In my top ten games of the year imo.

 

I think Sony should have taken a hint from the Wii & produced a cheap knock-off based on their PS2 _last_year_. They could have updated the enclosure enough to differentiate it from a PS2 slim, paint it white & add a wireless wii-mote. And then have slightly updated versions of previous released games. It might not have been able to completely stop the Wii, but it probably would have been profitable and would have helped during the transition from the more expensive PS3. I was hoping MS would of made a wii-mote, but I don't see it happening now.

Tommy McClain

 

It seems they already are.

 

I still think they're working on it.

 

Which one, Sony or Microsoft?

Tommy McClain

 

Everyone. If next-gen third parties are all hitching their cars onto the Wii2's wagon, I'm pretty sure neither MS nor Sony will want to be left out by not having the right toys. But they may even try something earlier. Sony did announce that PS2 camera-using 'toy' that involved swinging a cheesy sword around. You know, for kids!

 

Yeah, good point. My friends who have kids will happily (well, maybe not happily) spend a ton on their kids, or on something that the family could use together. Even if you like playing games and want a console, a 360 or PS3 is much more likely to be a selfish indulgence that's harder to justify.

I can't see any way round it if you want to aggressively go after both types of user. It would free up the "casual controller" to potentially be even more straight forward than the Wiimote, or even more radical.

 

Suggesting Sony to go third party is a comment with a little venom to spice thinks up. I mean, i don't think people proclaiming this are being serious, they probably are serving Sony followers a little bit of their own medicine. Since it was a popular comment back in the previous 2 generations in regards to Nintendo.

Not only is way to early to do that, but even now Sony's internal development studios and offerings aren't mature enough to make dropping from the hardware race something worthwhile. Of course the popular example is Sega, which i think was an stronger developer than Sony at its peak. But we can add to that group other sad examples like Atari and 3DO.

Continuing with sales, too bad the forecasts we made in the October NPD topic regarding EA the new IP's appear to happen as expected. No sign of Mirror's Edge or Dead Space even in the top 20 lists

 

Same feelings; I like Grid a lot but PURE is the household favorite followed by Burnout Revenge.

 

LMAO at the FUD.

There were actually a couple of decent points in the post, but when armchair analysts start making definite predictions for 5 years in the future, I always call BS...

 

I predict the next-gen "casual controller" being a little more than a Wii-mote: it'll have four big buttons for Buzz-style games, it may double as a microphone for karaoke games, and it'll double as a simple media remote. But it'll still be expandable by clipping into a MK-style wheel and other value-added accessories. And like joker, I predict there'll be one in the box.

 

The wii numbers are astounding. I've got all 3 at home and hardly play the wii. The wife and daughter on the other hand love the damn thing specially a lot of these mini game type games. They alone have bought tons of games for it. I can barely get the enthusiasm to turn it on

 

That could have been a interesting possibility sadly Sony hasn't been that reactive lately.
Look at their brand "walkman" how did it comethat when mp3 appeared and especcially the Ipod they didn't push (/rush if needed) a new walkman out of the door?They did but it was to late.
That's a waste I still somtime call my mp3 player "walkman" I'm sure I'm not the only one that brand was strong, they messed it up.

 

Meet you here in 5 years and then we can discuss if it turned out to be BS, okay?

And let me remind you of the PS2's success... Nintendo is pretty much set up to repeat that.

 

Havent Sony patented some glove-type thing that mimics your actual hand movements in-game?

 

It won't matter, the metric will change and the goal posts will move.

 

Yeah but what is humourous/ridiculous is that you have written off PS4, years before it is even likely to be released...much like how people wrote off Nintendo after the GameCube.

I love the whole, 'we'll see in 5 years argument'. You can make all the sweeping statements you like, and simply say 'wait, wait till Christmas 2013!'.