Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Praises Revolution Controller
JoaoPinheiro writes "In an unexpected change from the big three companies slagging each other off, Microsoft's Peter Moore gives kudos to Nintendo's new controller! Xbox VP Peter Moore has said he wanted 'to give kudos [to] Nintendo for its attempt at innovation with the new controller.' Whether the word attempt is meant to hint at some slight sarcasm is debatable, though the overall message was positive. Moore commented the new device would 'bring people in that, as Iwata-san said, are either lapsed gamers or gamers that are intimidated by the complexity of the controller.' He referenced Microsoft's E3 speech, where it was said the company wanted a billion consumers touched by the gaming industry next generation. 'That was an industry message. Certainly, we can see Nintendo rallying to that cry and reiterating what Robbie said on May 16th; I heard the same words come from Iwata-san of Nintendo yesterday.'"
Frankie of Bungie.net fame praised the controller in his Weekly Update last week, which covered his visit to the Tokyo Game Show.
"Oh. And I know what the Revolution controller is. You will too soon enough. I am not going to enrage our friends at Nintendo by revealing that here. But it is gonna be a big talking point." Again, this is from Frankie, of Bungie, owned by Microsoft, who admits earlier in the story that he'll be pushing the MS stuff.
Offtopic: For all the defense of Microsoft that Slashdot does whenever someone attacks them without reason (e.g., here), we sure do a lot of attacking them without reason....
http://research.microsoft.com/~awilson/wand/defaul t.htm
The potential's there, Nintendo's just a step ahead. Or fifty...
"This is considered plagiarism."
Whether or not the XBox (and Nintendo) fans will admit to it or not, Nintendo selling their share in Rare was the right thing to do. People often forget that Rare is a very large developer, with several teams each of which is made up of dozens (in the N64 days, it could be in the hundreds now) of dedicated employees. At the same time they have gotten to the point where it takes them twice as long to release a game as most other companies (at the same approximate quality). What this all means is that you have a company that is producing games at an massive expense without the massive increase in quality. Now, if you're going to spend 20-40 Million dollars producing a game like Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie, Kameo, Conker or Killer Instinct you need to sell at least 2-5 Million copies worldwide to justify the expense. To put these sales in perspective, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, Halo 1 & 2, an Project Gothem Racing were the only XBox games to make this level of sales worldwide; unlike Microsoft, Nintendo isn't in this buisness to loose money so it makes no sence to buy a company which will only loose money.