The summary doesn't match the article either, which says "35 for sony, 18 of them in house."
The real thing to think about are titles that _aren't_ going to Wii but _are_ going to PS3/360. The big one that comes to mind right off the bat is GTA 4 (hate it, love it, its going to be a huge title). I'm wondering if the Wii's percieved underperformance will cause devs to shy away and have "next-gen" mean 360/PS3 only.
Also, is this article really a surprise to anyone? Nintendo always has the strongest 1st party titles because they have the strongest lineup of characters and games people love.
It exists in the FPS world too in the form of clans. If you're involved in a clan that wants to move up a ladder, you need to be present for matches in order to help out the team. However, from the FPS standpoint its a lot more manageable. I don't understand why WoW needs 40 players for a 6 hour raid when you could probably get a satisfying experience from 10 people with 1 hour raids. I've never played so I don't really know, but multi-hour events seem to be too long for anything. I get impatient after a 20 minute game of battlefield, guess I'm not cut out for WoW:)
They don't really have a choice considering MS is allowing development with full HW access on the Xbox later this year through its XNA program. Having homebrew done on their terms means even less legitimacy for such things as mod chips, and control over things like copyright protection. 3rd party homebrew systems won't get much support because, hey, they already give it to you right out of the box. I don't see this as an issue though - this is a good thing, and hopefully both programs will be succesful enough that console development will open up even further in the future. Listen up Nintendo!
The Xbox live pricing policies allow for a silver membership (i.e. free to go online, download stuff, etc) to play MMORPGs online for their individual subscription fee. You don't need gold membership to do so.
Some of the fastest cars in the world are electric - mind you they don't have a 500 mpg range:) There's nothing to say that an electric car can't have the performance of a gasoline one.
As for combustion engines, the economies of scale make plant generation much more efficient (and cleaner) than local under-the-hood transformation as far as fuel->raw power. Plus, once you have such a system up and running, its far easier to switch just the plant to something else (wind, solar, hydro, fusion) than to give everyone a mini-clean power source (solar car, Mr. Fusion).
Finally! I know from people who develop on the PS3 that are just sitting around scratching their heads, thinking "You know, what can I do with all these extra processing units? I mean, I guess if I had some physics or graphic routines of a highly parallel nature to run with...huh, guess we'll never know what they're for!"
Facts don't need bias. Whether something happened or not when evidence is available and verifiable makes the facts of the event immune from bias. The interpretation of those events "Bush won fair and square because of x" "Bush stole the election because of Y" is where the bias in this case comes in. You shouldn't dismiss something (well, something possible or probable) outright because you don't like the messenger or the possible implications.
As someone who's experienced many of the joys of doing UI on a console, I can say that if its a problem with the font being too small then the issue is probably a big one. If they were smart and had nice UI widgets which wrapped text, put up scrolls and stuff then it would just be a matter of swapping out font files and checking to make sure you didn't crash. If they weren't, well, then you have a problem. Anywhere text is printed you have to go in and recheck in every single language (for a AAA title this could be 11-12 languages). Now, QA time is relatively cheap, but then you have to pay someone to go in and fix these things.
My guess is they have a bad, kludgy UI system that makes tweaking things difficult. You'd be surprised what UI code looks like in a console game. The pain to fix would take a signifigant amount of manpower vs. what they'd expect to gain. Surprising given the buzz I've heard about it and the fact that such a crippling bug would make a lot of people think twice about picking it up, but then programmers are used to these things. Trust this: somewhere there's a frustrated young UI programmer reading this slashdot story and pulling his hair out going "I told them! I told them!" He's probably responded AC with the "real story" from home so as not to get in trouble:)
When you say "worth a shit" do you mean "enjoyable" or "money-makers" because I know some publishers do quite well pumping out sequels. From a money making point of view, that is, value of investment vs. return, I think its definately moving to niche status given that the major titles that come out give PC the "oh and also" treatment. There are blockbusters of course on PC also, but I think you'll see less and less of that in the future.
And note that there's _nothing_ wrong with niche. Apple users always seem quite happy. I generally prefer smaller indy films over the latest Snakes on a _____ crapfest. Niche titles are smaller, can take more risks, and generally a more creative enterprise than a mega-budget title that HAS to sell titles by shipping to the lowest common denominator. Its when publishers feel they HAVE to shoot for the stars and make every title a blockbuster is when you see creativity and new fun experiences stomped. Having a viable niche market for more cerebral or creative titles is a GOOD thing.
So you're saying its a different, smaller market that you can't make as many sales to and you need customize how you make your product because the gamers have different tastes and attitudes....
I would have tended to agree with you, and then I happened to see the final of a battlefield 2(xbox, ps2) tournement. The prize money was split $200,000 / $50,000, so there was a lot of cash on the table. Saying that having "nothing on the line" is not true. Sure, filming a bunch of guys playing poker in their kitchen isn't really interesting, but filming the best poker players in the world playing for $2 million (so you know they're giving it their all out best) is exciting and can produce moments of tension, suspense, and that sort of proxy thrill you get from any sporting event where the team/player you're rooting for wins.
This was really no different. I've been an avid player of the game, so I knew a lot about the strategy, tactics, and skill that it takes to play the game. I was incredibly impressed with how these guys pulled together, had everything coordinated, pulled off some awesome kills and had so much invested in the game.
The main difference is how people relate to the sport being played. If I don't know anything about a game, then I really don't get whats going on. For the uninformed, poker championships look like random luck, and race car drivers are just dudes going around in a circle really fast. Generally the presentation of these sports don't give the viewer a sense of the skill and dedication the players have put into traning for the event. Physical sports offer more of a common ground for viewers (man that guy can run fast!), so until you've gotten cleaned out by a good poker player or trounced in chess before you knew what was happening, you don't have have an appreciation for the game.
All thats really needed for something like this is a true appreciation for what it takes to play the game, and an audience large enough to watch it. I doubt that really exists in this country today, but its worked in other places (see Starcraft and Korea), so there's no reason to think it can't happen here.
You know, all I see on/. is people trashing Nintendo, and I'm sick and tired of it. All you ever see around here are people touting prettier graphics of the "Big 2" systems. Its the games people! I'm glad I'm not the only one to think like this!
And I agree, its about time we make games "user oriented" so people can play them instead of "computer oriented." I'm tired of losing to the computer opponent. It turns out, its all been an input problem as to why I could never beat Mike Tyson in punchout. Now with the Wii, I'll be able to dodge those blows no problem!
Its so bad.
Maybe they'll make The Wizard II, where Fred Savage trains a new generation of Nintendo players to play Nintendo products and live the Nintendo way of life.
Wait, that movie wasn't just a big commercial for Nintendo, was it?
You said "standard computer". Sorry to nitpick, but to me most people's definition of a "standard computer" is some sort of x86 runing windows/linux or a mac, not a Cray or clustered machine. (If that is your definition then I envy your job:) Compare that to the Cell architecture and its quite difference from a CPU standpoint. Also, the memory architecture is very different from a PC, given that on some consoles your CPU(s) & GPU share the same memory, where on a PC they're spread over a bus. Also, a lot of console hardware will have dedicated hardware for doing specific vector calculations for generating 3d geometry. (The PS2 comes to mind). These are specialized co-processor chips with specific duties needed for 3d games.
I will admit that the "standard pc" and console have grown closer together from previous generations, where there used to be hardware for doing 2d things like sprites and scrolling and many PCs did not have special audio cards. But I'd hardly call them "scaled down computers". The Cell processor will likely have more raw processing speed than many people's desktop. With your definition, everything is a computer, from my watch to cell phone, and while its technically true, it doesn't do much for the conversation:)
With the exception of the original Xbox, I'd hardly call the hardware "scaled down computers". Most of them have specialized hardware dedicated to certain tasks faced by the games they play. The architecture of your home PC vs. that of a PS3, Xbox360, or Wii is quite different.
Hopefully as long time EQ players they've tired of grinding then? That's really what keeps me out of the MMO scene, is the grinding. The level treadmills. The bullshit item collection. Back when everything had the freedom of text, the users could come up with their own content, build the world, grow their character in a very literal sense. Spending hours stalking spawn points or mining ore or doing the same thing over and over again to obtain some item everyone has isn't role playing. Its just not. Not that I'm coming up with any answers, just bitching. Maybe something like second life but with a bit of structure? It seems like these guys are bringing a lot of imagination to the table, and they know whats out there, so we might see something good come of this.
I think at some point there's a reasonable limit to what you can claim as "viable" airspace. As for the general airspace, those are already being regulated with "spaceports" already designated in the US. (And a lot others on pacific atolls, etc). Generally they're in areas devoid of commercial air travel and population density.
I don't believe that at > 100 miles anyone can still claim dominance over that particular airspace. It just isn't practicle. If a country wants to monitor launches, etc. that needs to happen on its own. (Although, you'd see some coordination as you do today with national agencies - Russia launches a "weather sattelite" it tells us so we dont' assume its an ICBM.) But once something is in orbit? Doubtful. That's why I said international law applies as to the parent posts question about debris, environmental impact, etc. Just as though an oil slick can spead over internaltional waters to other countries, debris could break up and land across several borders.
Now, as for your other point, I think tourism for the sake of tourism is worth it. Sure, its slow, small, underpowered, now, but so was airflight 100 years ago. It took 20 years or so after the first flight for stuff to really get going. Granted, we've been shooting shit into space for a while now, but never with a strong commercial sense of things. If you're in it to make money, you're going to try and lower costs. That means reusable vehicles, cheaper methods of propolsion, the works. Once the commercial companies have figured out how do do it a little more cheaply, you might eventually see some commercial applications in travel. Imagine if virgin can fly New York - Tokyo for $20000 a person in 2 hours. That's a viable enterprise. Cheaper lift technology might eventually lead to being able to economically research orbital power stations, orbital manufactuering, etc. All which could lead to viable economic enterprises in the future.
Don't poo-poo a fantastic and exciting development in space travel and exploration (one that's stagnated in the past 25 years with Nasa and the space shuttle) just because it has humble beginnings. The Wright brothers flew for 12 seconds their first try. Pretty small potatoes, but a hell of a long way compared to everyone before them.
There's a whole existing body of law around this - Oceanic law, naval law, whatever you call it. No one owns the ocean, and yet ships are represented by their respective countries, do business, have environmental impacts (oil spills come to mind) etc. Whats to stop private cruise ship companies from gouging the consumer? Fair market I guess, plus whatever regulating body the terrestrial company is owned by.
And this thing will really get off the ground once Virgin, Amidillo, etc start getting craft into orbit. It will be a while, but once we get people into orbit using commercial vehicles then the government (and taxpayers) don't have to foot the bill.
Hey, come on, they've given you THREE platforms buddy! Xbox, XP, Vista. Don't get greedy!
But seriously, I played around with the samples and whatnot, and it seems pretty interesting. I'll be interested in the final version and to see what comes out, along with the professional version (which will supposedly be supported along side VC++ as a standard Xenon development platform.) What I'm wondering is whether or not MS supports a Mono build of this stuff. You have to wonder what's more valuable in the long run - short term OS lock in, or becoming THE de facto development platform for games? Owning the OS is what allows them to do this, but ask anyone who's developed xbox/360 vs. ps2/ps3 and for the most part MS makes a better development platform.
Wow! For being out of the console game for so long, your sure pick up the role of "your system sux!" trolling fanboi pretty well!
Sorry, knee jerk reaction for when I see "I haven't played games in 20000 years since I was frozen by the glacier - back when I was young it was Hoop n' Stick or Ball-in-a-Cup - But I plan on buying a Wii --- therefore the Wii will be the #1 selling system on Earth, as I, ancient unfrozen caveman gamer and slashdot reader am the average consumer so I have a say in this. Also I asked my friend Throrac who was also in the glacier (he has a negative/. id) and he's getting it too, so I guess that seals it."
Anyways, back to the actual article - where do online gamers work in that crowd? Social? Casual? The Wii won't be launching with any online, so take them out.
And you glossed over hardcore, even though that's what drives system sales at launch time. Are they not important?
I'm not sure why people equate "nintendo" + "new input device"="casual gamers". A casual game is a SIMPLE game that people KNOW - input doesn't really factor into it. The current term in the industry I've heard batted about is "commodity" - i.e., anyone can make a checkers or Majong clone. It doesn't mean that they aren't fun or lots of people won't play them - I've enjoyed online Risk for hours because getting a real life game together when you're not 12 is a little harder. But I don't see why Wii == casual just because of the pointer. Is it because it costs less? If I have a computer, will I go get a Wii, or play online like I usually do? That's $200 cheaper than buying a Wii. Also, with XBL Arcade and Sony's online service they can import small, simple, cheap casual games just as easily as Nintendo. I really don't see the Wii having an automatic win there.
Slashdot Mirror
Macs have service packs too, they just give it a cute animal name and charge $100 for it. :) GO AHEAD MODS, DO YOUR WORST!!!!
So 10 minutes == $100-$120 saved? Guess you better start playing demos.
The summary doesn't match the article either, which says "35 for sony, 18 of them in house."
The real thing to think about are titles that _aren't_ going to Wii but _are_ going to PS3/360. The big one that comes to mind right off the bat is GTA 4 (hate it, love it, its going to be a huge title). I'm wondering if the Wii's percieved underperformance will cause devs to shy away and have "next-gen" mean 360/PS3 only.
Also, is this article really a surprise to anyone? Nintendo always has the strongest 1st party titles because they have the strongest lineup of characters and games people love.
It exists in the FPS world too in the form of clans. If you're involved in a clan that wants to move up a ladder, you need to be present for matches in order to help out the team. However, from the FPS standpoint its a lot more manageable. I don't understand why WoW needs 40 players for a 6 hour raid when you could probably get a satisfying experience from 10 people with 1 hour raids. I've never played so I don't really know, but multi-hour events seem to be too long for anything. I get impatient after a 20 minute game of battlefield, guess I'm not cut out for WoW :)
They don't really have a choice considering MS is allowing development with full HW access on the Xbox later this year through its XNA program. Having homebrew done on their terms means even less legitimacy for such things as mod chips, and control over things like copyright protection. 3rd party homebrew systems won't get much support because, hey, they already give it to you right out of the box. I don't see this as an issue though - this is a good thing, and hopefully both programs will be succesful enough that console development will open up even further in the future. Listen up Nintendo!
The Xbox live pricing policies allow for a silver membership (i.e. free to go online, download stuff, etc) to play MMORPGs online for their individual subscription fee. You don't need gold membership to do so.
Some of the fastest cars in the world are electric - mind you they don't have a 500 mpg range :) There's nothing to say that an electric car can't have the performance of a gasoline one.
As for combustion engines, the economies of scale make plant generation much more efficient (and cleaner) than local under-the-hood transformation as far as fuel->raw power. Plus, once you have such a system up and running, its far easier to switch just the plant to something else (wind, solar, hydro, fusion) than to give everyone a mini-clean power source (solar car, Mr. Fusion).
Finally! I know from people who develop on the PS3 that are just sitting around scratching their heads, thinking "You know, what can I do with all these extra processing units? I mean, I guess if I had some physics or graphic routines of a highly parallel nature to run with...huh, guess we'll never know what they're for!"
Facts don't need bias. Whether something happened or not when evidence is available and verifiable makes the facts of the event immune from bias. The interpretation of those events "Bush won fair and square because of x" "Bush stole the election because of Y" is where the bias in this case comes in. You shouldn't dismiss something (well, something possible or probable) outright because you don't like the messenger or the possible implications.
I'll take that bet! (Note: I'm posting FROM THE LAND OF TOMMOROW!)
As someone who's experienced many of the joys of doing UI on a console, I can say that if its a problem with the font being too small then the issue is probably a big one. If they were smart and had nice UI widgets which wrapped text, put up scrolls and stuff then it would just be a matter of swapping out font files and checking to make sure you didn't crash. If they weren't, well, then you have a problem. Anywhere text is printed you have to go in and recheck in every single language (for a AAA title this could be 11-12 languages). Now, QA time is relatively cheap, but then you have to pay someone to go in and fix these things.
:)
My guess is they have a bad, kludgy UI system that makes tweaking things difficult. You'd be surprised what UI code looks like in a console game. The pain to fix would take a signifigant amount of manpower vs. what they'd expect to gain. Surprising given the buzz I've heard about it and the fact that such a crippling bug would make a lot of people think twice about picking it up, but then programmers are used to these things. Trust this: somewhere there's a frustrated young UI programmer reading this slashdot story and pulling his hair out going "I told them! I told them!" He's probably responded AC with the "real story" from home so as not to get in trouble
When you say "worth a shit" do you mean "enjoyable" or "money-makers" because I know some publishers do quite well pumping out sequels. From a money making point of view, that is, value of investment vs. return, I think its definately moving to niche status given that the major titles that come out give PC the "oh and also" treatment. There are blockbusters of course on PC also, but I think you'll see less and less of that in the future. And note that there's _nothing_ wrong with niche. Apple users always seem quite happy. I generally prefer smaller indy films over the latest Snakes on a _____ crapfest. Niche titles are smaller, can take more risks, and generally a more creative enterprise than a mega-budget title that HAS to sell titles by shipping to the lowest common denominator. Its when publishers feel they HAVE to shoot for the stars and make every title a blockbuster is when you see creativity and new fun experiences stomped. Having a viable niche market for more cerebral or creative titles is a GOOD thing.
So you're saying its a different, smaller market that you can't make as many sales to and you need customize how you make your product because the gamers have different tastes and attitudes. ...
Yep, not a niche!
I would have tended to agree with you, and then I happened to see the final of a battlefield 2(xbox, ps2) tournement. The prize money was split $200,000 / $50,000, so there was a lot of cash on the table. Saying that having "nothing on the line" is not true. Sure, filming a bunch of guys playing poker in their kitchen isn't really interesting, but filming the best poker players in the world playing for $2 million (so you know they're giving it their all out best) is exciting and can produce moments of tension, suspense, and that sort of proxy thrill you get from any sporting event where the team/player you're rooting for wins. This was really no different. I've been an avid player of the game, so I knew a lot about the strategy, tactics, and skill that it takes to play the game. I was incredibly impressed with how these guys pulled together, had everything coordinated, pulled off some awesome kills and had so much invested in the game. The main difference is how people relate to the sport being played. If I don't know anything about a game, then I really don't get whats going on. For the uninformed, poker championships look like random luck, and race car drivers are just dudes going around in a circle really fast. Generally the presentation of these sports don't give the viewer a sense of the skill and dedication the players have put into traning for the event. Physical sports offer more of a common ground for viewers (man that guy can run fast!), so until you've gotten cleaned out by a good poker player or trounced in chess before you knew what was happening, you don't have have an appreciation for the game. All thats really needed for something like this is a true appreciation for what it takes to play the game, and an audience large enough to watch it. I doubt that really exists in this country today, but its worked in other places (see Starcraft and Korea), so there's no reason to think it can't happen here.
Yeah, the first 41 kind of sucked, but this guy is getting it right!
You know, all I see on /. is people trashing Nintendo, and I'm sick and tired of it. All you ever see around here are people touting prettier graphics of the "Big 2" systems. Its the games people! I'm glad I'm not the only one to think like this!
And I agree, its about time we make games "user oriented" so people can play them instead of "computer oriented." I'm tired of losing to the computer opponent. It turns out, its all been an input problem as to why I could never beat Mike Tyson in punchout. Now with the Wii, I'll be able to dodge those blows no problem!
Its so bad. Maybe they'll make The Wizard II, where Fred Savage trains a new generation of Nintendo players to play Nintendo products and live the Nintendo way of life. Wait, that movie wasn't just a big commercial for Nintendo, was it?
You said "standard computer". Sorry to nitpick, but to me most people's definition of a "standard computer" is some sort of x86 runing windows/linux or a mac, not a Cray or clustered machine. (If that is your definition then I envy your job :) Compare that to the Cell architecture and its quite difference from a CPU standpoint. Also, the memory architecture is very different from a PC, given that on some consoles your CPU(s) & GPU share the same memory, where on a PC they're spread over a bus. Also, a lot of console hardware will have dedicated hardware for doing specific vector calculations for generating 3d geometry. (The PS2 comes to mind). These are specialized co-processor chips with specific duties needed for 3d games.
:)
I will admit that the "standard pc" and console have grown closer together from previous generations, where there used to be hardware for doing 2d things like sprites and scrolling and many PCs did not have special audio cards. But I'd hardly call them "scaled down computers". The Cell processor will likely have more raw processing speed than many people's desktop. With your definition, everything is a computer, from my watch to cell phone, and while its technically true, it doesn't do much for the conversation
With the exception of the original Xbox, I'd hardly call the hardware "scaled down computers". Most of them have specialized hardware dedicated to certain tasks faced by the games they play. The architecture of your home PC vs. that of a PS3, Xbox360, or Wii is quite different.
Hopefully as long time EQ players they've tired of grinding then? That's really what keeps me out of the MMO scene, is the grinding. The level treadmills. The bullshit item collection. Back when everything had the freedom of text, the users could come up with their own content, build the world, grow their character in a very literal sense. Spending hours stalking spawn points or mining ore or doing the same thing over and over again to obtain some item everyone has isn't role playing. Its just not. Not that I'm coming up with any answers, just bitching. Maybe something like second life but with a bit of structure? It seems like these guys are bringing a lot of imagination to the table, and they know whats out there, so we might see something good come of this.
I think at some point there's a reasonable limit to what you can claim as "viable" airspace. As for the general airspace, those are already being regulated with "spaceports" already designated in the US. (And a lot others on pacific atolls, etc). Generally they're in areas devoid of commercial air travel and population density. I don't believe that at > 100 miles anyone can still claim dominance over that particular airspace. It just isn't practicle. If a country wants to monitor launches, etc. that needs to happen on its own. (Although, you'd see some coordination as you do today with national agencies - Russia launches a "weather sattelite" it tells us so we dont' assume its an ICBM.) But once something is in orbit? Doubtful. That's why I said international law applies as to the parent posts question about debris, environmental impact, etc. Just as though an oil slick can spead over internaltional waters to other countries, debris could break up and land across several borders. Now, as for your other point, I think tourism for the sake of tourism is worth it. Sure, its slow, small, underpowered, now, but so was airflight 100 years ago. It took 20 years or so after the first flight for stuff to really get going. Granted, we've been shooting shit into space for a while now, but never with a strong commercial sense of things. If you're in it to make money, you're going to try and lower costs. That means reusable vehicles, cheaper methods of propolsion, the works. Once the commercial companies have figured out how do do it a little more cheaply, you might eventually see some commercial applications in travel. Imagine if virgin can fly New York - Tokyo for $20000 a person in 2 hours. That's a viable enterprise. Cheaper lift technology might eventually lead to being able to economically research orbital power stations, orbital manufactuering, etc. All which could lead to viable economic enterprises in the future. Don't poo-poo a fantastic and exciting development in space travel and exploration (one that's stagnated in the past 25 years with Nasa and the space shuttle) just because it has humble beginnings. The Wright brothers flew for 12 seconds their first try. Pretty small potatoes, but a hell of a long way compared to everyone before them.
There's a whole existing body of law around this - Oceanic law, naval law, whatever you call it. No one owns the ocean, and yet ships are represented by their respective countries, do business, have environmental impacts (oil spills come to mind) etc. Whats to stop private cruise ship companies from gouging the consumer? Fair market I guess, plus whatever regulating body the terrestrial company is owned by. And this thing will really get off the ground once Virgin, Amidillo, etc start getting craft into orbit. It will be a while, but once we get people into orbit using commercial vehicles then the government (and taxpayers) don't have to foot the bill.
Hey, come on, they've given you THREE platforms buddy! Xbox, XP, Vista. Don't get greedy! But seriously, I played around with the samples and whatnot, and it seems pretty interesting. I'll be interested in the final version and to see what comes out, along with the professional version (which will supposedly be supported along side VC++ as a standard Xenon development platform.) What I'm wondering is whether or not MS supports a Mono build of this stuff. You have to wonder what's more valuable in the long run - short term OS lock in, or becoming THE de facto development platform for games? Owning the OS is what allows them to do this, but ask anyone who's developed xbox/360 vs. ps2/ps3 and for the most part MS makes a better development platform.
Wow! For being out of the console game for so long, your sure pick up the role of "your system sux!" trolling fanboi pretty well!
/. id) and he's getting it too, so I guess that seals it."
Sorry, knee jerk reaction for when I see "I haven't played games in 20000 years since I was frozen by the glacier - back when I was young it was Hoop n' Stick or Ball-in-a-Cup - But I plan on buying a Wii --- therefore the Wii will be the #1 selling system on Earth, as I, ancient unfrozen caveman gamer and slashdot reader am the average consumer so I have a say in this. Also I asked my friend Throrac who was also in the glacier (he has a negative
Anyways, back to the actual article - where do online gamers work in that crowd? Social? Casual? The Wii won't be launching with any online, so take them out.
And you glossed over hardcore, even though that's what drives system sales at launch time. Are they not important?
I'm not sure why people equate "nintendo" + "new input device"="casual gamers". A casual game is a SIMPLE game that people KNOW - input doesn't really factor into it. The current term in the industry I've heard batted about is "commodity" - i.e., anyone can make a checkers or Majong clone. It doesn't mean that they aren't fun or lots of people won't play them - I've enjoyed online Risk for hours because getting a real life game together when you're not 12 is a little harder. But I don't see why Wii == casual just because of the pointer. Is it because it costs less? If I have a computer, will I go get a Wii, or play online like I usually do? That's $200 cheaper than buying a Wii. Also, with XBL Arcade and Sony's online service they can import small, simple, cheap casual games just as easily as Nintendo. I really don't see the Wii having an automatic win there.
Given that he's on supervised release, I guess he must have a really horrible home life. I guess jail would have been a better option for this guy.