Slashdot Mirror
Game Industry Folks Siding With the Wii
Gamasutra's semi-regular feature taking the pulse of folks in the game industry turns its attention this week to the PS3 and Wii launches. From the comments submitted to the site, it seems that many industry vets are generally more excited about the Wii than with Sony's offering. From the article: "'Definitely a Wii (already pwii-ordered). The price point of the PS3 and the lack of enticing launch titles makes me as interested in a PS3 as I am interested in getting a root canal.' — Ryan Conlon, Gearbox Software. 'I am buying a Wii because Sony is too arrogant, from their dev tools to the price point.' — Ed O'Tey, Electronic Arts. 'Wii — pre-ordered. I applaud the attempt to expand and explore game interaction with the Wii. I will not be purchasing a PS3.' — Jim Perkins, EA Canada"
From the perspective of an atypical slashdot-college student (very very casual gamer). The only system I ever really hear talked about on campus was Playstation 2 and now Playstation 3. I know you all hate Sony and are convinced that Wii will be a better system (and I have no idea, it'll probably be a long while before I ever play it). You'd be amazed at how many people use PS2 only in order to play Madden. These kids don't want innovative new controls, they like to challenge each other where they don't have a learning curve. They want to have the cool system, and that's been Playstation. Nintendo has a stigma I'd say as being nerdy and childish. No one even cares really about xBox or Wii around here, they just accept that "playing videogames" probably means sports games Playstation. You guys may focus on the casual gamers, but the real focus should be on the ultra-casual gamer, the Madden/Jock crowd of college students and young graduates. Most of these people just buy the next PS and don't even question it. Little kids will ask for PS3 because their older pbrothers say they should. In short, you guys vastly underestimate Sony's branding I think. That's really the most important aspect of a consoles success. People griped about PS2 being difficult to devolop for in the begining, and look how it did- it just rode PS1's coatails. Look at Corona, the beer sucks...but people buy it because of the branding and how it is marketed as exotic. It's gained a reputation for being good and now people treat it like it is good.