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Sony And Nintendo Have Next-Gen Consoles Too
GameDailyBiz has some coverage of the PS3 and Revolution, to contrast with the avalanche of 360 information in advance of the console's launch in November. First up is a look at how making fun of the King of Kings may have been a bad decision. From the article: "Moving from the theological to the practical implications of Sony's snafu, the company couldn't have picked a worse time to offend its customers ... Sony has already conceded a six-month head start to competitor Microsoft in the upcoming market-share battle for the next generation of game consoles. Microsoft's Xbox 360 is expected to debut this fall; Sony's PlayStation 3 will not arrive until the spring of 2006." Meanwhile, Jim Merrick of Nintendo Europe has thoughts on marketing, online play, and the Revolution's potential. From the article: "If we follow what Iwata-san calls 'the past success formula', if we keep refining the existing model - more power, more pixels, more polygons, more levels, more enemies, better AI - we're actually making the games for a narrower audience playing those kind of intense games. We need to take a step back and refocus on a broad audience where we reach to everybody otherwise we're going to see the market start shrinking - as we're already seeing in Japan." Finally, Joystiq interviews Miyamoto, and he says wacky stuff. Who would have guessed?
"If this had concerned Islam there would have been a really strong reaction." said Antonio Sciortino, editor of the Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana (Christian Family), a mass-circulation Catholic weekly, according to Reuters.
I can't believe he said that! That's got to be at least as offensive as the original ad that article #1 is referencing....isn't it?
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3143782
I think that this idea is amazing. I Realy want to try it out for myself. I can't wait for this system and the next metroid game. I would hope that with being the only really differnt option this time, maybe Nintendo will be able to return to its previouse glory in the console market?
-EL
Okay, this one is in reference to the first article and my attempt as making sense of it:
Sony ran this ad in Italy, and Catholics were infuriated. I really can't blame them because I feel that Sony actually made a really dumb ad. Their use of the word 'passion' doesn't line up with the religious symbolisim in it at all. I really am trying to understand the ad better so can someone answer this: Does '10 years of passion' mean that we've been crucified for Sony for a decade? If so, I just think the ad is plain stupid. Missing the point. Go figure.
However, I don't think that Sony is going to suffer a fiery fate by the hands of the horned one for this ad. While it mentions that Catholics in Italy were offended, I don't recall any mention to religious gamers and their actual reactions to this. Besides, 1 billion baptised Catholics != 1 billion practicing Catholics. I'm not knocking any religion, but people don't always follow the faith they were raised with. Screwing with statistics. Go figure some more.
Finally, I'm not really sure if this could even be conceived of as any major detriment to Sony's PS3 sales in the US (the article even lists that there are about 66 million Catholics in the US, which is why I bring this up.) given that this ad was run in Italy and I'd never even seen it before reading this article. Secondly, I don't play video games for their religious conviction, nor do I make purchasing decisions based on a company's devotion. I know some people that do, but it usually doesn't relate to gaming (While I'm at it, Microsoft has done PLENTY of things that deeply offend me, but I still may buy the 360 ^_^). It's not as if this bad use of symbolism is being used in the game, it was just a poor ad. Missing the target audience. I'm still figuring, and it could take all night.
(I am not claiming that my opinion is everyone else's, but I want to clarify that I think most gamers (whom I've had experience with) that are also religious, usually don't mix faith with game. It's just like religious scientists and evolution vs. creationism; most of them don't mix faith with science.)
Perfecting Discordia
www.stevenvansickle.com
Sorry - my english to 1337 autofilter was hosed - that should have been "B!a5t1n 4 {j3535}"
No, I don't trust in god. He'll have to pay up front, like everybody else.
I was hoping for a smiting after that grand injustice.
I'm not scared of anonymous cowards.
"Okay, picture this: a guy sitting in front of some giant ovens where people are being forced into, with the blurb "Playstation: Too hot to handle!"
I think that has a nice ring to it.
I'm not scared of anonymous cowards.
From the article:
>The Vatican and Catholics in Italy were outraged by this marketing stunt and Sony has since ceased the ad campaign. (...) in Italy has generated quite a stir for its use of religious imagery/symbolism.
Actually, the ad had zero to none resonance here in Italy. Granted, I'm an Atheist, but apart from what we call the "Bigot's Monthly", the Catholic Magazine "Famiglia Cristiana", everybody else didn't give a flying fuck about Sony's marketing stunt, and we'd like to keep it that way.
The national media's coverage of the whole affair is insignificant and will be long forgotten when the PS3 finally becomes available here. Then, what will really matter will be the quality of the games available.
Hack your mind out of its sandbox.
"And if you've never been to Italy, let me tell you something - Jesus Christ is big there. Everywhere you look, there's Jesus. He's like the Coca-Cola of Italy. They have photographs! PHOTOGRAPHS!"
I'm not scared of anonymous cowards.
But honestly I cant see this having any effect of the PS3, none at all, by the time it even reaches Europe the ad would be a none issue.
Just feel its another case of religious nutjobs going crazy over something all in the hopes it rallys people against "the devil"
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
..and here's the original Motley Fool article that the GameDaily article quotes from (since neither it or the /. post link to it):
http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2005/mft05100306.htm
(And FYI, in Motley Fool speak, when they refer to "Fools", they are refering to themselves and their target audience as investors - it's a gentle self-deprecating reminder that investing is risky.)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050930/tc_nm/italy_ad vert_jesus_dc has an image of the ad, although it is not a perfect scan, it captures the most important part.
Nintendo is a company that isn't just about wireless, we're a company that's focused very heavily on linking players and bringing them together.
Absolutely. It took me until the release of Pokémon to realise that this is what Nintendo is focusing on. The game was really designed from the ground up to encourage players to not only trade Pokémon and items but to talk about the game in-person. It was a game where you would go out of your way to meet with someone for a trade, but just as easily challenge a stranger to a battle.
I'm sure that this will continue with DS releases. Nintendogs has Bark mode. Maybe Animal Crossing will have Doorbell mode?
The US Army: promoting democracy through unquestioned obedience
In the Joystiq interview, Miyamoto mentioned something related to the Revolution controller that has to be the coolest idea I have heard in a video game... using that controller as NUNCHUCKS hehhehhhe...
Does anyone have a link to the full ad? I'm curious.