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How Sony and Microsoft Hope To Crack the Motion Control Market
An editorial at Eurogamer delves into what Sony and Microsoft hope to achieve with their upcoming console motion control systems, despite entering the market several years after Nintendo set the standard. "The cards Sony has placed on the table this week suggest one answer to that question. It sees PlayStation Move as being an upgrade path for Wii owners — an invitation to the tens of millions of consumers who have invested in Nintendo's platform to swim upstream to the more powerful, HD-enabled system. Yet even Sony's most optimistic view of the market will be tempered by a dose of realism here. ... What's more likely — and what Sony are probably quietly hoping to achieve a significant proportion of the Move's success through — is that the technology will expand the appeal of the PS3 in the family setting." The Digital Foundry blog has an in-depth look at the PlayStation Move from Sony's event at the Game Developers Conference, saying, "... if there was one positive you could take away from the event, it was that Move is clearly a far more precise implementation than the Wiimote. Some of the games felt clearly more 'tactile' than the Wii equivalents."
In order to get that market, they will have to provide something Nintendo has for years... Games for everybody. Fun games for all ages.
I'm talking about Raving Rabbids, Wii Sports, and such.
My parents *NEVER* had any kind of console in the house, even when we were kids. They never even liked video games. Until they tried some on my sister's Wii. Now they bought one with many games. They're in their 60s. So unless SONY can target that kind of audience, it won't work.
The Wii has the games, and also the price. It's the least expensive of all three.
I've got better things to do tonight than die.
Gamepads are fine, for certain games. Mortal Kombat-type fighters and platformers come to mind. Contrast to Wii Tennis with a Wiimote or an FPS with a mouse and keyboard. You have to pick the right tool for the job: if the challenge of a game is the disconnect between the player and the character being controlled the game will be frustrating rather than fun.
We tend to forget as gamers how unnatural using the gamepad for playing games was at first for many people, you know when our parents tried to pick up the controller and they could barely control the character? The great thing about the Wiimote and other motion is to try to come up with a control scheme that is more natural and integrates into what they already know unconsciously as human being.
Exactly. When the PS3 launched here in the UK, it was £425 ($827 at the time), and the Wii was ~£130. Okay, you can get a PS3 now for £250, but the original PS3 even out-priced many serious gamers, you could forget the PS3 being a Christmas gift for most kids too.
New release games are also expensive on the PS3, £39 to £49, compared to Wii's £25 to £35 price ranges.
Exactly!
I played mario kart on the wii using the wheel and that was really fun. Not more fun or less fun than using a 'classical' gamepad. Just differently fun.
Wiimote can not be the optimal controller to do the job well. But I am not trying to optimize my karting play. I am trying to have fun!
DDR players can hit more steps per second on a keyboard than on a dance pad (compare Tedo typing 0x1311 [youtube.com] to Iamchris4life tap-dancing A [youtube.com]), yet players still use a dance pad for some reason.
As a part time achievement whore on the 360 I recently came across the webcam accessory with the game "You're In The Movies". I figured a 20 dollar webcam would be nice to replace my ancient pre-Creative Webcam III cam and the game would offer a few points.
I ended up completing all the standard missions of the game even going so far as to improvise my own green screen to improve detection quality.
My reason?
It was fun.
On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days