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After scanning this article, I'm kind of worried. Everyone's jumping into 3D immersive technology and that's great. Heck, I own a Wii myself ... but one thing I don't like about it is my inability to become really good at a game that relies on WiiMote motion. I don't know what the deal is but the learning curve seems really easy yet once you get there there is no way to differentiate between the 98 percentile player and the 99 percentile player. Now, I haven't gotten addicted to the WiiMote intensive games and I'm grateful that games like Super Smash Bros. don't rely on 3D motion of the WiiMote. It's just too complex and inaccurate. That said, this screenshot really worried me. No controller required or controller optional?

I welcome this new technology but as an avid gamer I'm more than a little bit afraid that with this new technology everyone is going to be expected to take advantage of it on the XBox360. We might be jumping into a new dimension too fast for software and hardware to support it. I know a lot of people would argue with that statement but Wii games feel 'soft' when they are WiiMote intensive and I wonder if Project Natal will feel the same way. Don't get me wrong, they are great games for four people to play while getting loaded.

I guess Nintendo pioneered what is the next step in video games much like Sony pioneering the transition from directional pad to miniature joystick. My question now is really whether or not the PS3 will follow suit. They have to in order to attract these motion titles, don't they?

http://games.kikizo.com/features/50-hottest-things-in-2009-gaming-p1.asp
The 50 Hottest Things in Gaming in 2009

Here's another list, much more expanded, in case you don't like the watered down version IGN is offering.

Gabe Newell of Valve Software (Makers of the Half-Life series, Portal, Counter-Strike, etc.) has said in an interview that they have spoken to Apple several times about getting their games on the Mac platform. Apparently, each time they're approached by Apple, Valve tells Apple what they'd like Apple to do, and each time Apple doesn't do it. Apple wouldn't say no to having games developed for the Mac or iPhone, but I just can't see them trying to cater to game developers. They've never done it before, despite ample opportunity.

This is pretty surprising, as a game developer; it's not surprising that heads are rolling due to the billion-dollar design mistake, but I'm surpried that M$ axed their most recognizable spokesman for the system.

But I would be far, far more surprised to see Microsoft axe the XBox 360. The fact is, they're just now effectively killing their primary competition, the Playstation 3. Granted, they're not doing so in Japan very effectively, but in America (which is where the lion's share of the money is to be had), they're far ahead of the PS3: they had a year's head-start and the larger stable of games that comes with that; they're already ahead of the PS3 by almost every measurement, and this is just BEFORE they release Halo 3, which will be not only their system-defining game, but will be a frickin' cultural event in America.

The other ace up their sleeve is development, as someone else pointed out. Many people are pointing out that, even though the PS3 is more powerful, most games look better on the XBox 360 than on the PS3. The reason is that a great majority of games are being made for both systems (Sony's loss of exclusives is another nail in their coffin for this generation); and the XBox 360 is easier to develop for (partly because their development kits, like their system, was ready a year before Sony's, but also because their development pipeline is just much, MUCH better). So effectively, every game is made for the 360 first, and then a PS3 port is made as quickly as possible... the PS3's greater power is not being utilized, because it's not a cost-effective way to develop the games.

Finally, they're making great inroads into Japan by working with companies like Capcom - a smart investment, which may lead to the NEXT generation of the XBox finally becoming successful over there; and which, more importantly, will lead to the excellent Japanese developers making more games for the 360, and making more Sony exclusives become present on both platforms (even the Metal Gear Solid 4 developers considered this).

I'm not a Microsoft fanboy, I'm just pointing out the many things that are going well for them, the fact that Sony is quickly falling distantly behind them, and that they would be stupid to quit just when they're about to control a great portion of the hardcore AND mainstream gaming market.

Here's an informative chart on system sales in North America, aligning the launches of the 3 current consoles and graphing their relative sales over a period of weeks. (Note that since I AM a Nintendo fanboy, I'm gratified to see that the Wii is, even in America, flying off the shelves at a greater pace than either of the other consoles.)

http://games.kikizo.com/news/200706/004.asp

Even if Sony hopes Blue-Ray will become a big factor, there are 23 Sony Blue-Ray DVDs out and not alot of those titles are going to appeal to everyone (little man? Stealth? The list goes on,) games (and to a much lesser extent accessories) are going to play the big role in Sony's success with the PS3 (especially short term.)Numbers from EnterBrain show 88,400 consoles sold (100,000 is an shipment estimate, EnterBrain expects the missing 12,600 are simply ones that were unable to be produced, not unsold.) 62% were high end which falls below the expected 80/20 distribution of PS3 models which, as unlike Nintendo, Sony loses money on every PS3 machine, we can conclude is actually worse as the profit-negating feature of the PS3 is likely to lie with the Blue-ray drive (and possibly to some extend the Cell; it sure isn't helping) which was present in the same cost in the lower model. We can assume that the features left off from the low end machine do not present a significant enough cost to be off set by the $100 short of the low end model (atleast not to make up the loss elsewhere, if not even making up the $100 itself.) Worse yet, despite analysis that all would likly have sold anyways, the Japanese PS3 versions were actually cheaper than what the US will recieve, most probably creating all the larger hill for Sony to surmount in the quest for profit.

But the more important factor is the game sales. Top two games sales were Ridge Racer 7 and Gundum at 30,000 each. Togther, that's only 60,000 games sold! Not even 1 game per system sold (lousy ebayers?) Of course, we don't have difinitive numbers on what the other 3 games available at Japan's launch are (only that they didn't reach 30,000) but we can only guess they might have made up atleast 22,000 if that (Doubt Genji sold well; check out the reviews, critics delt massive damage to that Giant Crab turd of a game.) Still, even assuming a difference made up towards one game sold per system sold, it is not hard to believe that that ratio will not make up the difference of system production costs.

Though it sold out, we're still in for quite a rollercoaster ride as the Wii (a 'strong' competitor with a better quick returns setup) steps in and the production of both console start to kick in to high gear for the USA Mega-holidays Spend-O-Rifica period. Rumors and unverified reports put PS3 second salvos in the US stores ready by the 20th (launch +3 days) and Wii at about the same time (launch +1, though these are rumors) and we can only guess they're going to be out in their bests ready for Post-Turkey day Shopping Madness.

Considering numerous games on the PS3 list are non-exclusive and exclusives like Genji have often been review, criticied and praised by Japan-launch capable news orgs, US shoppers have a lot of choice and information on the games to choose. Even if the PS3 sells out in the US, the different environment games are presented in here in the US (PCs and Xbox 360s being bigger here for things like CoD 3) could greatly impact Sony's success (in terms of profit and market share.)

Timeline of Doom

Red Steel has implemented full "real" sword fighting on the latest builds and managing the screen has been greatly improved; you can not judge an early build of a game on the polish of the control mechanism because they will continue to improve in any good game, this is something that bloggers (and fanboys) don't seem to get.

Red Steel was the first official Wii titel that we got to see, so I would have expected that they've shown us the best they have, if however *that* was the best they have, poor Nintendo. Now of course they can polish and improve the titel and maybe they will end up with something good, but so far I prefer to judge the games but what they are, not by what they might have been and so far Wii just couldn't deliever much of the initial hype.

Can I get a link to at least 10 articles (you did say most didn't you?) complaining about the Wii controller?

You can basically pick whatever hands on review you want, most of them have quite some negatives in it, some examples Heise, 1up and Kikizo. Some quotes "Using the controller with the bow & arrow for example doesn't make things much easier than using a standard controller,", "For a system whose agenda is to be more accessible, Wii sure makes Zelda complicated.". Now of course that doesn't mean that Wii will flop, but it means that programming for the Wiimote is hard if even Nintendo can't get it right for its most prominent launch title, for third party titles that could mean that the results are devestating.

No, the main thing that Nintendo has going with the Wii is that it is a unique product in a market full of generic products;

Uniqueness doesn't sell consoles, good games do. If Wiimote helps Nintendo to create better games, so be it, but there is still huge risk that plenty of games on Wii will turn out to look much worse and control much worse then on PS3 or XBox360, since they are just so many ways to use the Wiimote in a shitty way (see Tony Hawk...).

The DS even seems to be winning in the UK (source), where Nintendo has never done as well as on mainland Europe. It's been interesting watching the size of the DS section in shops grow, mostly at the expense of UMDs.

Hehe, I can safely say that's the first time I've been accused of being a Microsoft fanboy... I'm much more of a PC gamer than consoles and have never owned Xbox or 360.

I tried to verify your developer's comment however, but I was unable to find any news, interviews, ect. stating that their first games are going over 20gb. All I found was http://games.kikizo.com/news/200602/065_p1.asp a hands on the PS3 which had the comment "Our stuff runs off a Hard Disc at the moment and won't exceed DVD capabilities..." But since its from feburary, I'll let it go under the "too old" pile. Are you sure your not confused with http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2006/06/catching_ up_wit.html Kaz Hirai's interview talking about "If you look at the lack of Blu-ray on Microsoft, what do you do if the game requires 40 to 50 gigabytes? Put it on three disks? Let's look under the hood and see total value we are delivering to consumers. At five to 10 years, you see the lasting power of the PS2. If you go out there now, there is a lot of PS2 software out there. From a consumer's view, who got the better value? If you look at which console is giving the publishers more time to amortize their development costs, the answer is pretty obvious." It seems unlikely that you would confuse potential developments with developer's statements, especially since the number is wrong. I really wish you would tell us where your information comes from.

As a final note, I prefer not to refer to it as a "conspiracy," but rather as "marketing" and I suspect all companies are in on it... *shifts eyes side to side*

Once they announce their price point for a non-crippled P3 is $499 USD/EU, that DRM has been removed, and they realize that they won't have 80 percent of market share like they did with the PS2.

Except for the fact that Tomonobu Itagaki makes good games and knows what he's talking about.

...I don't think Harrison looks as good in sunglass and a leather jacket either.

Interesting that so many people are saying the 360 isn't selling well. The information that is published appears to indicate... "The system looks likely sell 6 million units by the end of June 2006, and from 10 to 12 million by the end of the year." This information came from "Research analyst P.J. McNealy, as reported by Next Generation." URL: http://games.kikizo.com/news/200603/002.asp

Now, that's ignoring the Japanese market where the 360 has positively -bombed-: "The Xbox 360 managed to sell only 1,203 units from Feb. 20 - 26 in a report from Media Create." Source: http://news.punchjump.com/article.php?id=2101

Sony considers Nintendo irrelevant.

a) I meant the debug box

b) Here is a picture of the two. And here the article the picture's from

a) I meant the debug box

b) Here is a picture of the two. And here the article the picture's from

Actually MS announced earlier this year that the Xbox 1 would be supported with new titles through 2007.

http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000770039609/
http://games.kikizo.com/news/200504/038.asp

Somebody had better check their facts on this one...

As far as Shenmue III is concerned, look no further.

It's complete and ready for a system.

those PSones can still play Rage Racer I'll be happy. Mmmm, Reiko...(makes Homer Simpson gargling noise)

Sigh, just because they bought the name, doesn't mean the have to whore it about the internet.

Oh no, it does doesn't it..

But you can still use the new Photo Mode, since "according to the developers, they expect some gamers to purchase the game for this new mode alone."

Looks like Forza Motorsports won't have much in the way of competition, now.