It was bad enough when they started making Sonic about exploration, even though everyone who played Sonic to begin with liked it because it was about racing through pretty scenery and neat little set pieces as quickly as possible. Now they're making a Sonic game in the genre which is the complete antithesis of this style of game? Come on, Sega, you're killing me here.
On the bright side, if you're going to make a Sonic RPG, you might as well have BioWare do it.
The DMCA has nothing to do with why there were plenty of unlicensed games on the NES but only one on the SNES. This is the answer that the GP is looking for. Lock-out chips basically have gotten a lot better since the 10NES; now-a-days the big reason why no one will commercially release an unlicensed game for an active console is because the methods required to get around the DRM (usually involving a modchip) aren't practical for most consumers. Obviously the DMCA makes circumventing a lock-out illegal to begin with, but that's not even necessary to keep unlicensed games off of the shelves anymore.
Of the console design and control system, of course.
How can you possibly separate discussion of the console from the discussion of its games? A console without games is nothing more than a paperweight.
I already addressed the fact that games have been somewhat lackluster (though, relative to the PS3 lineup, the Wii is doing stellar).
The PS3 has several more high-rated games than the Wii does, not to mention better third-party support. Not that that's relevant, since we're talking about the performance of the Wii in general in this case, not just in relation to the PS3.
But the system has demonstrated it's potential
If the games for it are lackluster, then how has it demonstrated its potential?
Maybe you should, as you apparently don't understand what he said.
I understand exactly what he said; that there's nothing about the Wii that makes it inherently "more fun" than the PS3. You might have more fun with it if you like party games with gratuitous waggle to the exclusion of everything else, but there are a lot of people who don't.
The thing is, that's not an answer to the question "Is the Wii more fun", unless you equate "fun" with "neato graphics" (which, apparently, Sony does).
Because of course, increased processing power and media capacity can only be used to improve graphics.
Does he address the issue of control systems? No.
Because it's not an issue. There's still been nothing on the Wii that's justified the hype over the Wiimote. Not to mention the damage that the different control scheme does to third-party support. Hell, there's even the fact that the Sixaxis has had some decent games designed for it, such as flOw and Super Rub-a-Dub, without compromising playability for games with traditional controls.
Does he address the issue of lackluster, same-same game lineup? No
Because the Wii has the same problem.
Translation: Even we, the guys who invented the damn thing, can't create a game for the PS3 that fully utilizes the hardware onboard.
You think that any first-party developers fulfill the potential of their systems in the first generation? Seriously? Even the Wii hasn't been stretched to its limits despite being underpowered.
Positive reviews of what? Only one Wii game has a score of over 90% on Game Rankings, and it's not an exclusive. Only four others (one not exclusive) have a score of over 80%. Only two games have had enduring popularity among Wii owners, and one of them is the tech demo that came with the system. And in my experience, plenty of those owners have talked about how their Wiis have been gathering dust since they got bored with playing said tech demo. It's just anecdotal evidence, but the sheer number of people saying basically the same thing, as well as the fact that software sales haven't really been keeping pace with hardware sales, suggests a trend.
All he said was "no no no". That's not an argument, that's an opinion.
There are a bunch of sentences after "no no no." Perhaps you should read them.
Certainly Sony knows that the Wii is currently selling because of a combination of price and hype. Hype wasn't mentioned because the question Stringer was asked was about the PS3's price. You'll notice that Sony is trying to combat the hype problem elsewhere, like in their new blog.
BTW, here is a transcript of the interview in question. You'll also notice that Stringer did counterargue the idea that the Wii is selling better because it's more fun.
As you can tell by the language, they still need to work on the site's tone.
Why? It looks like any other piece of official PR to me. The only reason you don't see this stuff on Major Nelson is because posts on there are only a couple of sentences long, and even then you see buzzwords like "groundbreaking" and "blockbuster."
More accurately, it's gotten better in the last ten years, which "coincidentally" happens to coincide with when it went from 600-pound-gorilla to has-been in the console market. Expect Nintendo to do a lot of the things it used to do (or at least things that are just as objectionable) if it somehow manages to get back to that level of dominance.
I don't think anyone's seen the third one yet outside of some critics and a few lucky participants of private screenings, buddy. As for the second one, I quite enjoyed it, and it was a hell of a lot better than either of the Matrix sequels.
Exclusive to Blu-ray are the first two 'Pirates of the Caribbean' flicks, while exclusive to HD DVD are two different configurations of the 'Matrix' Trilogy. So which format wins this battle? According to High-Def Digest, this one's a draw.
I guess they didn't watch the second and third Matrix movies.
I know what I'm talking about, and I'm talking about FF: TSW. Aside from the whole "hunt the eight wumpuses" thing (which came from FF4) and different characters, the basic plot was identical to FF7's; aliens originating from a giant crater threaten to kill everyone, heavyhanded superpower (representing science) tries to save everyone and fails, the lifeforce of the planet (representing nature) with the help of a few self-sacrificing heroes comes in and saves everyone.
Besides, what the hell does the name "Final Fantasy" signify, anyway? Until FFX-2, none of the FF games were in the same universe or even connected in any meaningful way outside of the broadest themes, themes which FF: TSW did no worse at interpreting than any of the games.
I think you missed the point of Something Awful (perhaps because you're part of one of those "oppressed groups" that is regularly made fun of there?). Though I do agree that there is getting to be more of a fratboy atmosphere around the place now that it's gotten more popular and more people who don't get the joke (like yourself, but with the opposite attitudes towards elitism) have joined the forums. I also don't see where you got the idea that Lowtax was seriously trying to fight. Everyone including him thought that the whole thing was a joke; the only person that didn't was, apparently, Uwe Boll.
Anyway, I don't see why a hack like Uwe Boll deserves sympathy. He unapologetically creates terrible movies that shit all over their source material, and he gets quite a bit of money to do it.
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was basically a rehash of FF7, but that didn't make it better than your average Hollywood movie. (Which actually made it better than most video-game movies, depressingly enough.)
I signed him up, then found out that the client can't run in the background, which is a really silly flaw for a distributed computing app. Since my brother didn't want his PS3 running constantly for no good reason, I went ahead and uninstalled the client.
Sony or whoever's responsible really needs to find a way to get that app running while playing games or at least watching movies; I don't think most people will get any use out of it otherwise.
Since Sony has already let on that S-E is seriously considering pulling its exclusivity.
Sony hasn't let on anything; that's just wishful interpretation by the anti-Sony zealots. All Sony said is that it hadn't secured exclusivity yet, which doesn't mean anything in and of itself. If there were any real fire in this, you'd expect Square to say something.
FF12 was just released on the PS2, a system with about 1/5 of the graphical power of the Wii, and it did really well.
FF12's situation has nothing to do with FF13. The only reason FF12 was released for the PS2 is because it was too early to start next-gen development when Square began the project. That's not true for FF13.
FF7 had terrible graphics for its time
I was actually around when FF7 came out, and I can tell you that you're full of shit. FF7's graphics were quite amazing at that point in time, especially in regards to RPGs.
FF12 had terrible graphics for its time
Again, full of shit. FF12 has the best graphics on the system aside from a few arguable outliers like God of War, and some of the best graphics of that generation overall. Even against many of the XBox 360 games released at the time, it holds up well enough. Any serious critic will agree with me on this point.
The series is popular because of the quality of the whole, not because of the graphics. RPG fans have much less interest in graphics than you give us credit for.
That's true, but that's not the same thing as saying that graphics aren't a hallmark of the late part of the series. I should also point out that there are a lot of people who have little interest in RPGs aside from FF, and graphics go a long way in that demographic.
Hell, if FF12 had been ported to the GameCube/Wii, it would have looked 3x as good
It probably would've looked a bit better on the Gamecube, but nowhere near enough to call FF12's actual graphical quality "terrible." Unlike, I might add, what the difference would be between the graphical quality on the Wii and the graphical quality on the PS3.
Anyone who seriously thinks that FF13 will be ported to the Wii is high. Since FF7, top-shelf graphical quality has been a hallmark of the series, and the Wii simply can't handle that. I'm pretty sure Square is releasing a spinoff on the Wii, but that's all that system's going to get.
As for the XBox 360, that's a bit more likely, but still doubtful because of that system's horrendous performance in Japan. Simply porting FF13 to the 360 would not be that beneficial to Square in the West either, since most FF fans have already resigned themselves to the idea of buying a PS3 when the game comes out. MS would benefit greatly from a 360 port, but Square has little incentive (especially against the massive amounts of money that Sony will surely be paying them for exclusivity), and would end up just cannibalizing its sales of the PS3 version.
No, that's the worst possible course of events. Dual-format players cost more than single-format ones. They're probably also more technically complex, and therefore more likely to malfunction. You should definitely be rooting for someone to win this one, or at least to come to an agreement like what happened in the 56k modem war.
You could mention the DVD±R war here, I suppose, but I would argue that the differences between those two formats aren't as great as those between BR and HD-DVD. Besides, DVD technology was pretty cheap by the time that war happened, so the costs weren't nearly as important.
Slashdot Mirror
It was bad enough when they started making Sonic about exploration, even though everyone who played Sonic to begin with liked it because it was about racing through pretty scenery and neat little set pieces as quickly as possible. Now they're making a Sonic game in the genre which is the complete antithesis of this style of game? Come on, Sega, you're killing me here.
On the bright side, if you're going to make a Sonic RPG, you might as well have BioWare do it.
Rob
The DMCA has nothing to do with why there were plenty of unlicensed games on the NES but only one on the SNES. This is the answer that the GP is looking for. Lock-out chips basically have gotten a lot better since the 10NES; now-a-days the big reason why no one will commercially release an unlicensed game for an active console is because the methods required to get around the DRM (usually involving a modchip) aren't practical for most consumers. Obviously the DMCA makes circumventing a lock-out illegal to begin with, but that's not even necessary to keep unlicensed games off of the shelves anymore.
Rob
"You're doing a heckuva job, Griffy!"
Just before the next hurricane wipes out Miami, probably.
Rob
Of the console design and control system, of course.
How can you possibly separate discussion of the console from the discussion of its games? A console without games is nothing more than a paperweight.
I already addressed the fact that games have been somewhat lackluster (though, relative to the PS3 lineup, the Wii is doing stellar).
The PS3 has several more high-rated games than the Wii does, not to mention better third-party support. Not that that's relevant, since we're talking about the performance of the Wii in general in this case, not just in relation to the PS3.
But the system has demonstrated it's potential
If the games for it are lackluster, then how has it demonstrated its potential?
Maybe you should, as you apparently don't understand what he said.
I understand exactly what he said; that there's nothing about the Wii that makes it inherently "more fun" than the PS3. You might have more fun with it if you like party games with gratuitous waggle to the exclusion of everything else, but there are a lot of people who don't.
The thing is, that's not an answer to the question "Is the Wii more fun", unless you equate "fun" with "neato graphics" (which, apparently, Sony does).
Because of course, increased processing power and media capacity can only be used to improve graphics.
Does he address the issue of control systems? No.
Because it's not an issue. There's still been nothing on the Wii that's justified the hype over the Wiimote. Not to mention the damage that the different control scheme does to third-party support. Hell, there's even the fact that the Sixaxis has had some decent games designed for it, such as flOw and Super Rub-a-Dub, without compromising playability for games with traditional controls.
Does he address the issue of lackluster, same-same game lineup? No
Because the Wii has the same problem.
Translation: Even we, the guys who invented the damn thing, can't create a game for the PS3 that fully utilizes the hardware onboard.
You think that any first-party developers fulfill the potential of their systems in the first generation? Seriously? Even the Wii hasn't been stretched to its limits despite being underpowered.
Rob
I don't give a wet hamster fart if the Wii was LITERALLY two Gamecubes duct-taped together like the wannabe web-comedians claim.
You will in a couple of years.
Rob
What you call hype, I call positive reviews
Positive reviews of what? Only one Wii game has a score of over 90% on Game Rankings, and it's not an exclusive. Only four others (one not exclusive) have a score of over 80%. Only two games have had enduring popularity among Wii owners, and one of them is the tech demo that came with the system. And in my experience, plenty of those owners have talked about how their Wiis have been gathering dust since they got bored with playing said tech demo. It's just anecdotal evidence, but the sheer number of people saying basically the same thing, as well as the fact that software sales haven't really been keeping pace with hardware sales, suggests a trend.
All he said was "no no no". That's not an argument, that's an opinion.
There are a bunch of sentences after "no no no." Perhaps you should read them.
Rob
Certainly Sony knows that the Wii is currently selling because of a combination of price and hype. Hype wasn't mentioned because the question Stringer was asked was about the PS3's price. You'll notice that Sony is trying to combat the hype problem elsewhere, like in their new blog.
BTW, here is a transcript of the interview in question. You'll also notice that Stringer did counterargue the idea that the Wii is selling better because it's more fun.
Rob
As you can tell by the language, they still need to work on the site's tone.
Why? It looks like any other piece of official PR to me. The only reason you don't see this stuff on Major Nelson is because posts on there are only a couple of sentences long, and even then you see buzzwords like "groundbreaking" and "blockbuster."
Rob
I don't know what the fuss is about with PS2 upscaling. Any modern TV set should be able to upscale for itself.
The PS3 upscaler is better than the upscaler on many TVs. Same thing with the DVD upscaler.
Rob
You're obviously not familiar with 4chan.
Rob
More accurately, it's gotten better in the last ten years, which "coincidentally" happens to coincide with when it went from 600-pound-gorilla to has-been in the console market. Expect Nintendo to do a lot of the things it used to do (or at least things that are just as objectionable) if it somehow manages to get back to that level of dominance.
Rob
So was the second Matrix movie. The difference is that the second Pirates movie was actually a pretty good trailer.
Rob
I don't think anyone's seen the third one yet outside of some critics and a few lucky participants of private screenings, buddy. As for the second one, I quite enjoyed it, and it was a hell of a lot better than either of the Matrix sequels.
Rob
Exclusive to Blu-ray are the first two 'Pirates of the Caribbean' flicks, while exclusive to HD DVD are two different configurations of the 'Matrix' Trilogy. So which format wins this battle? According to High-Def Digest, this one's a draw.
I guess they didn't watch the second and third Matrix movies.
Rob
My thoughts exactly. It's not really news if a major wireless carrier is heavily advertising a package that would specifically combat this problem.
Rob
I know what I'm talking about, and I'm talking about FF: TSW. Aside from the whole "hunt the eight wumpuses" thing (which came from FF4) and different characters, the basic plot was identical to FF7's; aliens originating from a giant crater threaten to kill everyone, heavyhanded superpower (representing science) tries to save everyone and fails, the lifeforce of the planet (representing nature) with the help of a few self-sacrificing heroes comes in and saves everyone.
Besides, what the hell does the name "Final Fantasy" signify, anyway? Until FFX-2, none of the FF games were in the same universe or even connected in any meaningful way outside of the broadest themes, themes which FF: TSW did no worse at interpreting than any of the games.
Rob
I think you missed the point of Something Awful (perhaps because you're part of one of those "oppressed groups" that is regularly made fun of there?). Though I do agree that there is getting to be more of a fratboy atmosphere around the place now that it's gotten more popular and more people who don't get the joke (like yourself, but with the opposite attitudes towards elitism) have joined the forums. I also don't see where you got the idea that Lowtax was seriously trying to fight. Everyone including him thought that the whole thing was a joke; the only person that didn't was, apparently, Uwe Boll.
Anyway, I don't see why a hack like Uwe Boll deserves sympathy. He unapologetically creates terrible movies that shit all over their source material, and he gets quite a bit of money to do it.
Rob
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was basically a rehash of FF7, but that didn't make it better than your average Hollywood movie. (Which actually made it better than most video-game movies, depressingly enough.)
Rob
Does anything more need to be said?
Rob
I signed him up, then found out that the client can't run in the background, which is a really silly flaw for a distributed computing app. Since my brother didn't want his PS3 running constantly for no good reason, I went ahead and uninstalled the client.
Sony or whoever's responsible really needs to find a way to get that app running while playing games or at least watching movies; I don't think most people will get any use out of it otherwise.
Rob
Since Sony has already let on that S-E is seriously considering pulling its exclusivity.
Sony hasn't let on anything; that's just wishful interpretation by the anti-Sony zealots. All Sony said is that it hadn't secured exclusivity yet, which doesn't mean anything in and of itself. If there were any real fire in this, you'd expect Square to say something.
FF12 was just released on the PS2, a system with about 1/5 of the graphical power of the Wii, and it did really well.
FF12's situation has nothing to do with FF13. The only reason FF12 was released for the PS2 is because it was too early to start next-gen development when Square began the project. That's not true for FF13.
FF7 had terrible graphics for its time
I was actually around when FF7 came out, and I can tell you that you're full of shit. FF7's graphics were quite amazing at that point in time, especially in regards to RPGs.
FF12 had terrible graphics for its time
Again, full of shit. FF12 has the best graphics on the system aside from a few arguable outliers like God of War, and some of the best graphics of that generation overall. Even against many of the XBox 360 games released at the time, it holds up well enough. Any serious critic will agree with me on this point.
The series is popular because of the quality of the whole, not because of the graphics. RPG fans have much less interest in graphics than you give us credit for.
That's true, but that's not the same thing as saying that graphics aren't a hallmark of the late part of the series. I should also point out that there are a lot of people who have little interest in RPGs aside from FF, and graphics go a long way in that demographic.
Hell, if FF12 had been ported to the GameCube/Wii, it would have looked 3x as good
It probably would've looked a bit better on the Gamecube, but nowhere near enough to call FF12's actual graphical quality "terrible." Unlike, I might add, what the difference would be between the graphical quality on the Wii and the graphical quality on the PS3.
Rob
That actually sounds less boring than your average MMOG.
Rob
Anyone who seriously thinks that FF13 will be ported to the Wii is high. Since FF7, top-shelf graphical quality has been a hallmark of the series, and the Wii simply can't handle that. I'm pretty sure Square is releasing a spinoff on the Wii, but that's all that system's going to get.
As for the XBox 360, that's a bit more likely, but still doubtful because of that system's horrendous performance in Japan. Simply porting FF13 to the 360 would not be that beneficial to Square in the West either, since most FF fans have already resigned themselves to the idea of buying a PS3 when the game comes out. MS would benefit greatly from a 360 port, but Square has little incentive (especially against the massive amounts of money that Sony will surely be paying them for exclusivity), and would end up just cannibalizing its sales of the PS3 version.
Rob
Of course.
But forget that; didn't Namco say that We Love Katamari was going to be the last game in the series?
Rob
No, that's the worst possible course of events. Dual-format players cost more than single-format ones. They're probably also more technically complex, and therefore more likely to malfunction. You should definitely be rooting for someone to win this one, or at least to come to an agreement like what happened in the 56k modem war.
You could mention the DVD±R war here, I suppose, but I would argue that the differences between those two formats aren't as great as those between BR and HD-DVD. Besides, DVD technology was pretty cheap by the time that war happened, so the costs weren't nearly as important.
Rob