I think you're example about soccer moms buying Excite Truck is a more than a bit intentionally misleading. Obviously, a stunt truck racing game is not something thats going to attract Wii's desired "others" market. If anything, Excite Truck is for the casual gamers who already play console games. The type of people that think of Nintendo as "kiddie" and would never buy a Wii in the first place because GTA4 isn't coming out on it.
The titles like the symphony game that Miyamoto was playing in the Nintendo press confrence could attract that market though. Simple, pick up and play games that turn a concept that would be terrible games on another console("no no, its X for violins, R2 for percussion, and use the analog stick in to wave your wand") into something intuitive and fun. These types of games could be released at a much lower price point than regular console games, and downloadable (including demos) through the virtual console.
Xbox Arcade offers the same basic idea, and I would assume Sony will have something similar, but they don't offer that simple intuitive and fun gameplay. The Wiimote is not "slightly different". It is a near complete rethinking of console game input. There is a world of difference between being able to shoot a topspin forearm shot in a tennis game by mimicking the action that you would actually do with a tennis racket in your hand and hitting up + b on a gamepad. The same principle applies to almost any type of game. If you can't see that your not looking hard enough.
If someone still hasn't bought a game console but conceivibly would, chances are they probably are turned off by the complicatied controllers, high price, or "hardcore" marketing strategy. Nintendo has the Wiimote. Wii will be cheaper and will have tons of kick ass retro games available for cheap through the Virtual Console. And its pretty obvious that they are not catering to the hardcore with the Wii (its called the Wii for crying out loud). So, whether or not the strategy works, Nintendo is definitely trying hard to go after that market. The Wii is no "ordinary" console.
I think that you're confusing quality with making money, those two are not always equivalent.
Do you really think that valve and id are the most profitable game companies out there? While I love Valve to death, there is no way in hell that making one game every 5 years (or 1-2 games a year for id) makes them as much money as Microsoft gets by publishing dozens (if not hundreds) of titles a year under the Microsoft Game Studios division. If you want proof, check out this story from a week or so ago.
You even admit that the "majority of MP3 players use MS software", do you think they make less money off of any of those sales because iPod is better?
I've always thought that MS Hardware did pretty well for themselves (I personally love their mice). I can't find specific numbers but I think they at least turn a profit (could be wrong on this one though).
Microsoft is many things, but unprofitable, or on the verge of financial collapse they are not.
AFAIK GDS allows you to search through different types of files like web history or im logs (although last time I used it program support was very limited, no GAIM for instance, may be better now), something that Grep, locate, find, etc... do not explicitly do. GDS is more akin to something like Beagle, which is already available for linux and does a very good job (it was included as a standard install in openSUSE).
That's not to say the controller won't eventually be used well, just that launch titles will likely be gimicky.
IIRC, the only announced launch title for the Revolution so far is the new Smash Bros, which will almost certainly be more than a gimmick, given the quality and depth of the Gamecube version. Also hinted at as a launch title is the new Mario. Again, practically guaranteed not to be just a gimmick.
So I think that the gimmick argument won't hold up when we actaully see the games, given that we're at least about a year out away from the launch, and there is already one (if not two) games slated for launch that have every reason to be great. That's not to say there won't be gimmicky games, meaning simple games that use a unique new gameplay mechanic but leave out things like depth and story which you would expect in a more mature title. But at least they'll probably be fun to play (for a short time at least, which is more than can be said for some of the 'gimmicky' (i.e. pretty graphics) games we'll surely be seeing on ps3/xbox360), and some of those gameplay mechanics could be good enough to spawn new genres and become fully developed franchises in their own right. Lost Garden talks more about this development of genres here.
I don't mean to come off a Nintendo fanboy here, I am looking forward to both other next-generation systems (and yes, they are all next-gen Mr. Rein). But, I think that Nintendo is getting a lot of undeserved flack when the only games they've announced for Revolution so far sound like gold.
Steam mentioned this game a couple of days ago
on
Total Conversion HL2 Mod
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· Score: 4, Interesting
Steam's weekly update talked about this and another Source Engine mod done by the students at Guildhall, Samurai Legends (same url, but/samurailegends/, link also dead), a couple of days ago. The samurai game was multiplayer and from the screenshots looked very pretty. I couldn't find the link to the Valve page, but I found the relevant text on a bulletin board:
"Next Saturday, Valve's CEO and founder, Gabe Newell, will be giving the commencement speech at Southern Methodist University's Guildhall, a university program offering course work in game design. Two groups of students enrolled in the program will be releasing the Source MODs they produced during their term."
This announcement makes me wonder if Sony is positioning ps3 as a general purpose pc replacement. If the HDD includes not only the kernel but a windowing environment(KDE, gnome, etc...), I could see more than a few people using ps3 as thier primary web/email/office box. Assuming that it has keyboard/mouse support, the ps3 has more than enough power to handle normal pc usage.
I would not have noticed the difference had I not maxed out the play counter on SSBM with wired controllers before going to Wavebird, as there would be no basis for comparison, and like I said, the difference on the analog is very subtle. But I was contending that Wavebird is not exactly the same as wired controllers, as parent suggested.
- that controller(Wavebird) is as responsive as the wired ones
I was able to happily use a Wavebird for wind waker, metroid, and pretty much any other game. But, I picked up a Wavebird to play Smash Bros with and within a day was back on the wired controllers. The button response if fine, but there is still a slight delay in the analog stick response (the other people who I play SSBM with all agree, no one will use the Wavebird for SSBM). I'll admit that this was only noticable to people who had played the game alot, and it was very slight, but enough to throw off our game. This may be due to subtle differences in the controller rather lag per se, but the Wavebird is not exactly like the wired controllers.
Given that Smash Bros is appearantly the big revolution launch title, I have faith that Nintendo will get the analog (or touch screen, gyroscopic, thought recognition, whatever) response as good as a wired controller's.
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Get this muthafuckin' robotic firehose off my muthafuckin' plane!
all of them except select and start.
I think you're example about soccer moms buying Excite Truck is a more than a bit intentionally misleading. Obviously, a stunt truck racing game is not something thats going to attract Wii's desired "others" market. If anything, Excite Truck is for the casual gamers who already play console games. The type of people that think of Nintendo as "kiddie" and would never buy a Wii in the first place because GTA4 isn't coming out on it.
The titles like the symphony game that Miyamoto was playing in the Nintendo press confrence could attract that market though. Simple, pick up and play games that turn a concept that would be terrible games on another console("no no, its X for violins, R2 for percussion, and use the analog stick in to wave your wand") into something intuitive and fun. These types of games could be released at a much lower price point than regular console games, and downloadable (including demos) through the virtual console. Xbox Arcade offers the same basic idea, and I would assume Sony will have something similar, but they don't offer that simple intuitive and fun gameplay. The Wiimote is not "slightly different". It is a near complete rethinking of console game input. There is a world of difference between being able to shoot a topspin forearm shot in a tennis game by mimicking the action that you would actually do with a tennis racket in your hand and hitting up + b on a gamepad. The same principle applies to almost any type of game. If you can't see that your not looking hard enough.
If someone still hasn't bought a game console but conceivibly would, chances are they probably are turned off by the complicatied controllers, high price, or "hardcore" marketing strategy. Nintendo has the Wiimote. Wii will be cheaper and will have tons of kick ass retro games available for cheap through the Virtual Console. And its pretty obvious that they are not catering to the hardcore with the Wii (its called the Wii for crying out loud). So, whether or not the strategy works, Nintendo is definitely trying hard to go after that market. The Wii is no "ordinary" console.
Starfox Armada on Gamecube was made by Namco.
The Metroid Prime series is developed by Texas-based Retro Studios (Americans!), which is a Nintendo second party.A lot of the Zelda handheld games have been made by Capcom.
They definitely do not own the ANTITIME!
two? try try 6.
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ESPNU
you mean this?
Do you really think that valve and id are the most profitable game companies out there? While I love Valve to death, there is no way in hell that making one game every 5 years (or 1-2 games a year for id) makes them as much money as Microsoft gets by publishing dozens (if not hundreds) of titles a year under the Microsoft Game Studios division. If you want proof, check out this story from a week or so ago.
You even admit that the "majority of MP3 players use MS software", do you think they make less money off of any of those sales because iPod is better?
I've always thought that MS Hardware did pretty well for themselves (I personally love their mice). I can't find specific numbers but I think they at least turn a profit (could be wrong on this one though).
Microsoft is many things, but unprofitable, or on the verge of financial collapse they are not.
AFAIK GDS allows you to search through different types of files like web history or im logs (although last time I used it program support was very limited, no GAIM for instance, may be better now), something that Grep, locate, find, etc... do not explicitly do. GDS is more akin to something like Beagle, which is already available for linux and does a very good job (it was included as a standard install in openSUSE).
IIRC, the only announced launch title for the Revolution so far is the new Smash Bros, which will almost certainly be more than a gimmick, given the quality and depth of the Gamecube version. Also hinted at as a launch title is the new Mario. Again, practically guaranteed not to be just a gimmick.
So I think that the gimmick argument won't hold up when we actaully see the games, given that we're at least about a year out away from the launch, and there is already one (if not two) games slated for launch that have every reason to be great. That's not to say there won't be gimmicky games, meaning simple games that use a unique new gameplay mechanic but leave out things like depth and story which you would expect in a more mature title. But at least they'll probably be fun to play (for a short time at least, which is more than can be said for some of the 'gimmicky' (i.e. pretty graphics) games we'll surely be seeing on ps3/xbox360), and some of those gameplay mechanics could be good enough to spawn new genres and become fully developed franchises in their own right. Lost Garden talks more about this development of genres here.
I don't mean to come off a Nintendo fanboy here, I am looking forward to both other next-generation systems (and yes, they are all next-gen Mr. Rein). But, I think that Nintendo is getting a lot of undeserved flack when the only games they've announced for Revolution so far sound like gold.
Steam's weekly update talked about this and another Source Engine mod done by the students at Guildhall, Samurai Legends (same url, but /samurailegends/, link also dead), a couple of days ago. The samurai game was multiplayer and from the screenshots looked very pretty. I couldn't find the link to the Valve page, but I found the relevant text on a bulletin board:
"Next Saturday, Valve's CEO and founder, Gabe Newell, will be giving the commencement speech at Southern Methodist University's Guildhall, a university program offering course work in game design. Two groups of students enrolled in the program will be releasing the Source MODs they produced during their term."
This announcement makes me wonder if Sony is positioning ps3 as a general purpose pc replacement. If the HDD includes not only the kernel but a windowing environment(KDE, gnome, etc...), I could see more than a few people using ps3 as thier primary web/email/office box. Assuming that it has keyboard/mouse support, the ps3 has more than enough power to handle normal pc usage.
I would not have noticed the difference had I not maxed out the play counter on SSBM with wired controllers before going to Wavebird, as there would be no basis for comparison, and like I said, the difference on the analog is very subtle. But I was contending that Wavebird is not exactly the same as wired controllers, as parent suggested.
- that controller(Wavebird) is as responsive as the wired ones
I was able to happily use a Wavebird for wind waker, metroid, and pretty much any other game. But, I picked up a Wavebird to play Smash Bros with and within a day was back on the wired controllers. The button response if fine, but there is still a slight delay in the analog stick response (the other people who I play SSBM with all agree, no one will use the Wavebird for SSBM). I'll admit that this was only noticable to people who had played the game alot, and it was very slight, but enough to throw off our game. This may be due to subtle differences in the controller rather lag per se, but the Wavebird is not exactly like the wired controllers.
Given that Smash Bros is appearantly the big revolution launch title, I have faith that Nintendo will get the analog (or touch screen, gyroscopic, thought recognition, whatever) response as good as a wired controller's.