Xbox 360 Motion Controller: Too late?

It is at the store waiting to be bought. MS knows how to make money.

 

The four LEDs suggests it's an optical recognition system, requiring a camera. A 'simple sensor' would be a bit of a waste if it's going to be a webcam. May as well go with a full webcam product and add the functionality.

 

Too late... too old
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=36776

Though, isn't it one LED with four colours, instead of four different coloured LED's.

 

You're right. In which case motion tracking is 'brain dead'! A single led only gives a 2D position on a camera. You can't determine Z axis movement or rotations. You can get something from motion sensing, but if you're going for a camera-based solution, you may as well have an array of light sources for accuracy. How on earth can they implement accurate pointing with this thing?

 

If MS is about to launch the one hand stuffs described earlier... Me think they should better stick with OS than with entertainment business.
I mean copying Nintendo won't set them apart from Nintendo but it will have an impact on Sony.
Try to push a new standard now that the wiimote // nunchuck concept has been proved successful sounds like a stupid waste of money to me.

Sony has set itself apart from competitors through BRD integration, and has provide a potent multimedia system, on top of the most powerful entertainment system ever.

Nintendo has done nothing less to invent a new kind of pad!

Ms has nothing that strong to differentiate itself from its competitors, but they have a cheap/powerful/hd compliant system (arcade pack) and on the software side they have some strong exclusives (except Halo nothing is as strong as Sony or Nintendo offer) and a really good editors support.
They are in middle they can try to tackle some market share from Nintendo (if they provide the proper input to people who think the Wii is cool but lacks standard games and good graphic capability) and from Sony (price and a better input device?).

By the way, given the choice would play GeoW, COD and the likes with a pad if they could use a nunchuck?

There might be patent issue, but otherwise the proper choice should be clear for MS.

 

An other question, why MS should take risks?
They want to compete with the Wii?
The arcade pack is there and cheaper than the Wii?
Why do a gamble now?
How long it took to Nintendo competitor to go with a pad?

 

They don't have to compete head-on with Nintendo. They may target the HD crowd, which Nintendo does not serve directly. As you mentioned, their price is lower too. If MS position the controller as an upscaling DVD player remote and a hit game controller... it may be different enough to attract a segment of users (beyond existing Xbox 360 owners).

In some sense, instead of competing against Nintendo, they are borrowing Ninty's momentum to push their own variant. But you're right, the potential has to be big enough before MS persue this direction. Then again, they need to move out of the hardcore gamers crowd.

 

I'd guess we won't see a motion controller for xbox until the next xbox.
MS should already have a pretty good idea what the controlling method for next console will be.

 

They should be (well, already are being) wracked on the head by Nintendo for not conquering casual market with games like ExercEye(TM), Eye Boxing, Eye Put, etc

I mean, they are still demoing head tracking shit using a camera that even comes with directional microphone. Seriously ...

 

The point is not against nintendo but mainly against Sony, that would set Sony aside for some time.
And it would help with casual gamers if rare put out some good party game.

But again I don't think Ms has more to do than leverage an existing market which embraced the wiimote /nunchuck.
It makes sense for editors too (ie MS shouldn't have to really only on Rare).

If they don't copy/paste what nintendo offers (patent issues aside) the product will mostly bomb and they will lose a great opportunity against Sony.

 

The more it sells the better regardless of which 360 SKU it comes with. However, it's likely that the Arcade SKU needs it more than the Pro in MS's plan.

A game console is designed with its total projected sales in its life cycle. Then they adjust plans on-the-fly, Sony sold the 65nm lines and killed BC in the 40GB SKU, and Nintendo is adding more sources to cater to the demand.

In Microsoft's case, it's clear that they tried to maximize the install base at the earlier stage than others. The HDD-less design of the Arcade/Core was due to the cost requirement to make the cheap SKU viable no matter what the lack of HDD means for games and online strategies. Most of the design failures that caused RRoD were not intentional, but the Core represents the intent of Microsoft. The absolute price was thought to be the key to gain the market. They must have estimated the break-even point of the Core SKU and decided its price to be consistent with its estimated unit sales. I guess the Core SKU is not selling as much as they originally projected. Instead, the price-sensitive audience which Microsoft counted on as the main consumer of the Core SKU are flocking to Wii. Microsoft, like most analysts, couldn't expect Wii's rise when they fixed the 360 strategy in 2005. They have to make the Core SKU more appealing to the audience they originally expected, otherwise the raison d'être of the HDD-less Core SKU design, which might not be profitable even without HDD, is lost.

On the other hand, the Pro SKU is in the competition with PS3. Now that the Blu-ray value has been established, the main advantage of 360 is price. Adding a remote is a good selling point, but it adds the cost. Unless Microsoft bet on it by subsidization, it's less pressing than the case of Core.

Anyway, if they are really confident they'll bundle it with all SKUs immediately. But I think they'll test it by selling it as a peripheral bundled with a game before going all-out. Guitar Hero and likes are decent sellers, if it's as much fun as popular Wii games it can sell a lot, especially with better graphics.

 

Yes, apparently, they need one more.

 

One little question , Can a french speaking member translate this word "clusterf---" (I guess clusterfuck???) from this article
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=130913

In advance thanks

 

I'm not sure it's a matter of competing directly with the Wii so much as copying the perceived market leader. It's a matter of copying what's working.

 

Its not too late. A peripheral's success in terms of attracting developers is determined by its penetration in the market. The question becomes is "in what way can MS accomplish mass adoption?". If the controller is bundled with some compelling software (360 bundle ~ Wii Play + Wii Sports) while staying near the price of regular software and is a massive success, motion control may become prevalent in 360 software development. They can go further by including the controller and motion control based game into every sku and not just the Arcade, which itself has market penetration problems.

 

Please let this be true, because if it is...

Spoiler

Microsoft is the black king, the white king is Nintendo and the white queen is Nintendo's strategy.

 

This is the most hilarious question ever asked on any message board in the history of the Internet.

Clusterf---: It's what happens when 15 people all try to have sex with each other at the same time. Blind folded. During an earthquake. I doubt there's a direct translation.

 

That's what that's called? <Goes to edit autobiography>

@ liolio

If there is a word or phrase in French that describes a situation that has seen a series of mistakes and problems that in the course of being solved led to even more mistakes and problems and so on over and over again, you'd have something like a "clusterf---".

This particular usage hints that the MS "Wiimote" project has been designed and managed very poorly so far and that has casued the development process to take much longer and show poor results as of now. You might not want to get your hopes up for a high-quality product to come out in the end.

 

They're talking about an end of year product when Wii is at 30+ million? And there's already 20+ million XB360s out there without the XBmote. EyeToy + Play shows a successful peripheral in terms of market penetration, and it was still <10% uptake. It was something new and good value. I can't see a Vii-clone working any more effectively at wooing market share than an iPod clone. Especially when the design shown looks to be at a serious disadvantage to control versus the Wiimote. It likely won't work well with tennis or boxing or baseball - things with back-swings. And as a pointer it's gimped as I mentioned earlier.

 

This is what I respect about Sony. People always criticize them for copying Nintendo, but upon close inspection they never copied Nintendo's strategy. Note, that Nintendo never copied Sony's strategy either (That's why there was never and will never be any DVD or Blu-ray player in a Nintendo console). Sony's problem is that their strategy (which revolves around Blu-ray) isn't working, while Nintendo's (which revolves a Blue-ocean/Low end/new interface strategy) is working. the worst thing you can do as a business (especially in entertainment and fashion) is to copy the market leader. As you can see by the chess game above the black king has no where left to go but to copy his conqueror. That will always have him at a disadvantage. At least Sony is smart enough to follow their strategy and wait it out instead of being checkmated.