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The Winning Next-Gen Console Is The Most Diverse?
simoniker writes "Gamasutra's latest 'Analyze This' column has game industry analysts commenting on the rise of casual games, asking whether simpler games that take less time to play may be vital to game industry growth. David Cole of DFC Intelligence disagrees that any one genre or game type is vital, suggesting: 'A key for the industry is being able to diversify.... For the N64 and GameCube, Nintendo focused primarily on its big franchises and didn't have the same level of diversity. The platform that did was the Sony PS2. Which platform could work as a karaoke machine, allowed you to put yourself in the game, had all kinds of trivia products? The reason the PSOne and PS2 sold [so well] was diversity.' Is this the key to working out who wins in next-gen?"
duh? Isn't it common knowledge that machines with many choices that appeal to a broader audience will come out on top?
Because they had the best third-party support. End. Of. Story.
The consoles that are most successful GET the most diverse offerings - because if you're going to develop a gimmick/niche product and can't afford to launch it for all platforms then you release it for the one that's got the widest base.
Do you think the GBA was successful because of all the add-on thingees? Or do you think there's 4000 screen protectors because there's 40 million GBAs?
That doesn't mean a first party can't help console sales by creating add-ons (like the eye-toy or some goofy game), but the causation is generally the other way around.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
I work as a diversity consultant for colleges and businesses, and I explain the benefits of having a diverse workforce. Nobody seems to understand that having more diversity will give stakeholders a more enriching experience than having the same old white-bread stuff, if you know what I mean. There's been a significant rollback in the money allocated to diversity education programs. I'm not suprised that people have to be told this applies to consoles.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
If you look at the games that are creating the most buzz for the Nintendo Wii right now, they are all games that make creative use of the new innovative controller (the Wiimote and Nunchuku combination). All or at least most of these games are going to be exclusive to the Nintendo Wii due to the unique control scheme and, from what I've heard, this time around Nintendo has a lot more third party support than with the GC. So it sounds like the Nintendo Wii is going to have a ton of exclusive, innovative titles with a completely new style of gameplay as well as much of the third party support that the Sony and Microsoft have. And lets not forget about the virtual console... I never thought they could bounce back, but I think Nintendo is going to take this one. (The console war, that is)
Because they had the best third-party support. End. Of. Story.
If all those third party developers had been focusing on only one genre or two however, it wouldn't matter how many there were.
Which comes back to the true key being diversity of games on a platform, even if the diversity comes from one maker.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
At least these guys don't make the typical arrogant mistake of "analysts" and try and set something in stone before 2 of the 3 competitors are even released, but I think they also need to realize unanswered questions only work when they are rhetorical.
An article laying out the past in an industry where the past has had precious little to do with the next generation, then asking a bunch of questions is about as useful as extended opinion posts from fanboys on forums.
I was just about to post "Nobody will buy a console to play Bejewelled" but then I remembered Tetris and the Game Boy. But will this work for TV consoles?
I think Nintendo is on the right track with its versatile new controller. But it is only one of several possible features that could make consoles more attractive.
Extra video outs is another. How hard can it be to support that, obviously at some cost of detail or refresh rate? Give me up to three screens, racing and shooter games that use them, and let me salivate at the idea of attaching three projectors.
No-treshold wireless networking is another thing. I want to be able to place four consoles in a room and have them instantly build a network. Nothing fancy, just a low-bandwidth thing to do deathmatches over.
Finally, I want voice input. So simple, so useful, yet never done.
blow your mind already
Now there's no doubt FF7 provided the push PS1 needed, but in the grand scheme of things, no one company accounts for any significant part of a successful system's fanbase.
DS. But people buy consoles because they have one large TV, not three small monitors.
DS. And so will Wii.
DS. But if Brain Age can't recognize "blue" for all speakers, what makes you think the consoles will?
Game diversity tends to be a side effect of a large install base rather than the cause of it.
The Dreamcast had a good set of quality games in a large number of genres, including games that were experimental at the time like Seaman and Samba De Amigo. (Presaging games like Nintendogs and Guitar Hero.) We all remember how the Dreamcast died, in a cloud of PS2 hype.
The PS2 now has the largest diversity of games for the simple reason that there is a large market for them. Of the last gen it's supposed to be the most difficult to program for and it's the least powerful, but those considerations are minor when you have such a huge install base.
I think the game industry is tripping over itself trying to understand casual games. The state of the industry has been relativly stagnant for so long that we struggle to put names to games that don't fit within our genre headings. Because they don't appeal to a self described "Hardcore" audience we've reflexivly named them "Casual".
It's similar to the rise of Alternative music in the 90's. It didn't sound like 80's rock or metal so we had to come up with a new name for it. Then we slowly realized that musical culture was changing and this wasn't just a new genre - the publics notion of the sound of rock was changing. The idea of Alternative became less and less useful as everything was given that label. I think the same thing is happening in games, and the implications make me optimistic about the future.
The next-gen wars really won't start until the end of this year. Right now, there is no "next-gen" war because the 360 is the only "next-gen" console on the market, so we have to wait for the PS3 or Wii (whichever comes first) before we can actually have a war.
In any case, this next round is going to be quite interesting. Whereas the previous generations of hardware have been mainly about graphics and game size, this next one is focusing more on gameplay or graphics, depending on which console you're rooting for.
Nintendo is the obviuos stand out because of their wild divergence from the norm. While they're doing stuff the other guys are doing (wireless remote, internet stuff, DVD playback) they aren't working as much on the graphics, nor are they sticking with the normal controller layout. Hell, the only similariy in their "controller" is that it's called a controller- actually, it's called the Wiimote now, isn't it?
You have Microsoft with what amounts to the XBox 2.0. It does everything the XBox does and better, but doesn't add much else on top of it.
The PS3 is trying out a new storage format, and including an "innovative" tilt sensor in their controller.
Diversity is going to be a big thing for sure, and it is one of the reasons that the PS2 reigns as king, but things are going to change pretty quick now; what console you buy is decided not only by graphics and games, but also by how active you want to be while playing games.
Am I the only one that predicts that the PS2 may very well come out the winner again? PS3 will fail because well, it's way too friggin' expensive considering the fact that it offers what Microsoft and Nintendo do(Xbox live and the motion sensors respectively), only they don't do it as well, and they add in a blue-ray player that nobody wants. Microsoft is doing some interesting things, but I see nothing to suggest they will be as dominant as Sony once was, but I don't see them crashing either. The Wii could very well take the cake, but only time will tell(Nintendo is the #5 holding in my Fidelity Pacific Basin mutual fund, so I do have a vested interest in it but..).
However, the PS2 already has a large install base, and provided Sony keeps on manufacturing them, are only getting cheaper. Plus, save for the hardest of the hardcore, the PS2 is more than capable, and I don't really forsee any of the next-gen consoles knocking it off it's throne as king console till at least the end of '07, but that is just me talking.
Monstar L
You are right that games are going to be developed for the PS2 for some time still.
But eventually, sales of PS3's will overcome PS2 sales - you'll be able to play games that come out later for the PS3.
Also by saying no-one wants the Blu-Ray player you are seriosuly underestimating potential demand for HD video. I don't like subscriptions so I don't get HD cable, but I would like to buy movies and various TV series in HD. A standalone HD-DVD player is too much, but since I'd like a new game console anyway that can also play my older PS2 games... the PS3 is ideal, even if expensive.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Nintendo offers the widest range of game play types. Square-Enix pretty much does RPGs. Digital Polyphony sticks with racing games. Harmonix makes games with a clear focus on sound and music. iD makes and refines first person shooters, as does Free Radical. In constrast, Nintendo has had a direct hand in making racing, platformer, sports, RPG, strategy, adventure, puzzle and space shooter games. They've also gone to lengths to fill percieved holes. For example, metroid was And this ignores their long history in the past of diverse games like duck hunt, excitebike and punch-out!!
This analyst clearly falls into the correlation and causation trap. This is especially obvious when he gives examples for support. The ps2 was successful because of the Eyetoy and Karaoke Revolution? It's quite clear that the PS2 was successful long before either entered the market. The truth is games like Karaoke Revolution and Guitar Heroes went where the success already WAS. If cube had the biggest market share, five years after launch it too would look quite diverse. Same goes for Xbox. It's not like Sony came out of their boardroom one day and decided they needed to get the most diverse set of titles they could for the PS2. You might say their early success was quite the opposite. They made sure that the biggest sellers on PSOne were prepared to launch sequels on PS2: Final Fantasy, Gran Tourismo, Metal Gear. And consumers bought PS2s partly in anticipation of such. I think the large numbers of used copies of Zone of Enders missing their demo copies documents this anticipation, and early consumer disinterest in diversity quite readily.
Truth is, the n64 had several strange items similar to the Eyetoy. Nintendo simply fell into a diversity trap of a different kind. By tying so much of their innovation to brands like Pokemon, and it cost them people who didn't identify with that brand of cutesy presentation, mostly 16 year olds boys. They've had cameras and microphones, rumble feedback, mice, bongos and light guns. The trouble is that they feel a compulsive need to add their characters and brand to everything they do, or invent a new one. It might be inoffensive worldwide, but there's no room in a 16 year old american boy's gestalt for rabbits in space. So whatever innovative and diverse systems they've come up with have been masked by their compulsive habits of pasting Mario to the cover. Still, it's dissapointing to see a supposedly informed analyst mistaking diversity of play for diversity of consumer.
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Open Source Sysadmin
Although fans have been referring to the remote controller as the revmote/wiimote since it was announced, Nintendo has consistantly refused to use that terminology. On their website they use the term "controller" and call the Wii's the "Wii Remote". In interviews that I have read, the Nintendo people always use that term and not "wiimote".
Centralization breaks the internet.
But knowing anything about graphics will tell you that just doesn't work. You will need 3+ times the power, NOT slightly more. A video card for each video out. There is still one way, make it a third as good (3rd the size/texture filtrating/etc)... but in the end, it's a big cost for little use, since the whole video process would need redefined to allow it in any case. One pipe in - one pipe out is quite diferent then 1 pipe in - 3 pipes out.
Great Intellect...