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People Swapping PS3s for Wiis?
An anonymous reader writes "To add to Sony's problems with the PS3 launch, it now appears that some Playstation 3 owners are trying to trade their PS3s for Wiis. The author writes: 'There's also speculation that people want the Wii because the PS3s best game is Resistance: Fall of Man. This, of course, forget that there are plenty of cool PS3 games on the way, and the PS3 has its own motion sensing technology, which, while not as good as the Wii, is still pretty cool and opens up Sony to emulate some of the Wii's successes.'"
I tell you what...for all the hype around these things just a few weeks ago, I've had three chances to buy one (a PS3) in the last few days. One was a friend who bought two of them for Ebay and couldn't sell them at all. The other two times were regular retail stores while I was Christmas shopping. I passed all three times. Not sure why but the price of those things sure made me think twice.
I can certainly see buyer's remorse sneaking in after people play it for a few days and realize that maybe it isn't $500 cooler than their old PS2.
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To be honest, the reason I believe that Nintendo has been so successful (so far) with the Wii is that they recognized a need in the market and they built a system to fill that need. Essentially, Nintendo thought that there was a need for an inexpensive, easy to develop for, arcade-like system that could provide a new game play experience; and that is what they delivered.
... only better" whereas the Wii is designed to be "Something different". In my opinion the Wii is successful because of how unique it is.
Not to be too negative about the PS3, but the PS3 is designed to be "Exactly like every other system in history
To expand on this, I've tried putting a PS2 dual-shock into the hands of new players, like my girlfriend and my mother. "What's this?" they inevitably ask. It's an intimidatingly big mass of buttons, switches, diodes, etc. Add a "Wii-like" tilt sensor, and you just make something even LESS accessible.
Compare that to the Wii. It's a remote control that points. Everyone can play wii bowling. Everyone can navigate the metagame without wondering if they should use the d-pad or the left or right analog sticks. It's intuitive. You don't have to think as much about it. You can just get on with the business of playing games.
In addition to inexpensive, easy to develop for, unique, and short-time period experiences, the Wii also provides the instant accessibility that is sorely lacking in today's systems. Learning to play Rockstar's Table Tennis on the 360 takes about 1/2 hour. Learning to play Tennis on the Wii takes about 10 seconds. That's a huge difference if you're just trying to relax for a moment between sending the kids off to school and leaving for work yourself.
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