It's the same reason a Honda Accord outsells a Porsche 911. It's good, proven technology, that, while not the most powerful or cutting edge, fits the budget of the largest segment of the car buying populace. The PS3 is awesome technology, I think very few people will argue that point. The Wii is using older technologies in new ways, and it's got alot of people intrigued.
Not only does the Accord fit most people's "budget" it also fills their "needs" for a car. Also of note, the Accord may fullfill their needs better than a Porsche making pricing less relevant.
An x360 without a harddrive is a big mistake. Your forgetting, as Penny-arcade said, "the core system does not exist " Wii + x360 is $50 more than a PS3.. but having ample experience with all three systems, I can say that extra $50 is well worth it for two great systems compared to a ps3.
Actually, I suspect he meant the Premium since he said "Costs less than a PS3 and a game". Which is actually a more fair comparison as the Wii comes with a game already.
In US Dollars a Wii = $250 + a $400 premium is less than a $600 (only price available) PS3 + a $60 game.
This also discounts the fact that you can typically find a 360 premium with either a second (wireless) controller or a free game, depending on the week / store you go to.
There is plenty in the Van Halen catalog that could have used, but they went with a cover? Weak.
True, the could have gone with "Pretty Women."
Nice. If you're gonna flame, it was "Pretty Woman. " Apparently Roy Orbison wasn't Mormon.
I'm just saying that if you are making a list of Bands to create tributes for Rush would be above GnR, Genesis and Cream, and only a little below bands like VH, the Stones, Aerosmith and Kiss (regardless of my preference). And I have based this off of sales, longevity, and anecdotal evidence, such as the number of successful tribute bands.
And if you put Black Sabbath at the bottom of that pile (below Rush, GnR, Genesis, Cream) Then we are in agreement.
I couldn't imagine a more well rounded band with a wider range of easy to extremely difficult songs than Rush, with the possible exception of Led Zeppelin,
Again, no disrespect to Rush (I'd play it), but Zeppelin would be amazing...
when you are talking about an entire Band (VH is better suited for Guitar Hero than Rock Band, in my opinion).
I see where you're coming from and, on a whole... yes. The band has focused on Eddie for the most part but Alex Van Halen is amazing at what he does, and for the songs where he does shine I would like play those parts as well.
Oh and as long as I am learning something new, like a bands record sales or other statistics, I could keep this up forever.
Right. It's a shame I can't. Sorry Mate, its' been fun.
Sure, but at this point we are mearly pissing in the wind over a matter of opinion. Since you asked however...
The one VH song to make it onto GH so far was actually a Kinks song (and yes I think the Kinks did it better).
Agreed. At least it should have notes "As made famous by the Kinks." There is plenty in the Van Halen catalog that could have used, but they went with a cover? Weak.
And as much as VH may sell more in the US I would bet that Black Sabbath does much better world wide. Not to mention the fact that Ozzy, a founding member of Sabbath, is a house hold name.
If they did such a tribute Album they would be better off Calling it an "Ozzy Osbourne Tribute" and include Sabbath songs as well instead of the other way around. Even if it was the exact same game, the Ozzy branded one would sell more.
Plus Ozzy/Iommy are more likely to license their work than than Eddy/Dave. But again this is speculation and we will never know.
I think that's unwarranted speculation based on the fact they both have licensed music in Guitar Hero. They seem to not have minded putting in "Bark at the Moon", "Iron Man", "War Pigs" or the afore mentioned Kink's cover, with a VH slant.
The Beatles would be on the list if it were not for the issues that they were not on any other GH (as compared to the other bands listed) and that it would be boring.
I Disagree it would be boring, but that's a personal taste issue. It also wasn't the list I was refering to. You stated "Sabbath was listed as the 85th most influential artists of all times in Rolling Stone, while GnR was 92nd and VH wasn't even on the list." My question is where did the Beatles fall on THAT list?
Collins and Genesis are out because the games, even Rock Band, are about guitar.
Doesn't have to be. Rock Band can focus more on drums, especially if they are focusing on a specific band.
Cream (correct spelling)
Thank you. Brain fart on my part.
Rush on the other hand has 23 gold records and 14 platinum (3 multi-platinum) records placing them fifth, behind The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, KISS and Aerosmith, for the most consecutive gold and platinum albums by a rock band...
I DO believe you but could you please provide a link?
and ranked 78th in U.S. album sales according to the RIAA with sales of 24.5 million units.
24.5 Million units across their entire catalog? Appitite for Destruction sold 15 million units by itself. Add in both the Use your illusion albums, and you have 29 million units sold and 42 songs.
I think I found your source for the RIAA sales, and if you follow the link you'll notice
Guns 'N Roses with 38.5 million sold to date, and farther up (towards the top) Van Halen is sitting Above U2 and just below Metallica at 56.5 million units sold. Which leads me to believe that a game based on those bands would be more successfull than one based on Black Sabbath (at 15 million), and since you drug them into it Rush (with 24.5 million sales) as well. Do we need to keep debating our opinions on the matter? or can we Agree to disagree on this one?
Seen since the subject line was never really brought into line with the thread and you responded to my response to someone else's response I lost track of who said what. But just for the record I was the one that said Sabbath belongs on the list of bands deserving a tribute as much as VH and more so than GnR, and I stand by it, if for no other reason than their influence on the direction of music from the 60s onward.
Gauging on influence? I'm gauging on potential retail sales, and I'm just saying a Black Sabbath wouldn't bring in "the masses" the way a Van-Halen game would.
After all Sabbath was listed as the 85th most influential artists of all times in Rolling Stone, while GnR was 92nd and VH wasn't even on the list. But I guess that's all just a mater of opinion (and since I'm right I'll just leave it at that)
Ok, Since we are debating opinion as if it were fact see my previous post. Where are The Beatles on that list?
But if we are seriously discussing possible Rock Band Tribute versions that Rush would have to be the best choice. There talented musicians, including two that are consistently listed in top tens (Peart and Lee) and one that just happens to be highly underrated though people are starting to come around (lifeson). All three play lead roles, so no one sits around playing simple rhythms while the rest of the players rock out. Not to mention the difficult of have to play through what amounts to 3 concurrent (Guitar, Drum and Base) 2 minute solos after getting through the first 18 minutes of 2112, or Having to endure the 6 minute concurent solo that is "La Villa Strangiato."
I never said Rush would be a bad choice, I said Sabbath would. From a purely technical stand point Rush would be a good choice. I don't think they would grab the sales volume of a Beatles, or VH (or even Phil Collins/ Genesis or Clapton/Creme) version. That doesn't mean the songs are bad, just that "by the masses" Rush isn't as popular.
Honestly I would LOVE 2112 as a downloadable song for GHII, you could likely get the "Millionaire Pair" Achievement on Easy/Medium simply because it's so fucking long...
(And VH was a good pick, but I think you just got lucky on that one some how)
Those bands were actually the parent's picks and I essentially disagreed with Sabbath being among them. Of all the bands listed I would prefer VH over all, but for Rock Band rather than Guitar Hero. I would be just as interested playing the Drums in say... "Hot for Teacher" than Guitar. Also Eddie and Alex have a good enough catalog to pick from where you can really cycle through their work and highlight the Guitar 1 song and the Drums the next.
If I were personally pick a band to do a full "Tribute Game" I would do a "Rock Band" style game on VH (or The Beatles) and a Guitar Hero style game on Clapton/Creme.
Oh, and way to miss the numerous examples of other well known Sabbath songs.
Oh, I didn't miss them as much as dismiss them. My issue is with the examples being "well known Sabbath songs". Did you know Devo has been putting out albums for over 30 years? Could you name one song they did besides "Whip it" ?
It boils down to this, if you ask someone to name 5 Black Sabbath songs, most people would either be stumped, or include songs from Ozzy's solo career to get to that 5. If you ask them to name 5 Van Halen, Bon Jovi, or GNR songs they likely could.
This is why a Full Guitar Hero game built around Black Sabbath wouldn't work.
Oh, and "Iron Man" was on GH 1 and is available for Download for the 360 version of GH2.
You're right! I forgot it was on GH1. Which means that GHIII should have "Paranoid" and then they pretty much ran the gauntlet. Did "Iron Man" recently get added as DLC for the X-box? I haven't seen anything besides the initial 3 packs the posted in April, and of that there was Bark at the Moon (from Ozzy's solo career) but not "Iron Man".
Both of these bands could have entire Guitar Hero games based on their respective bodies of work.
I think they would have to get inline behind, Rush, the Stones, Kiss, Queen, Sabbath, Ozzy, Megadeth, and who knows how many other Bands previously featured in Guitar Hero.
Sabbath? If they are smart they will stretch it out, so that the remaining 2 hits of theirs will not be on the same version. I mean Seriously... they got "War Pigs" already. Aside from "Iron Man" and "Paranoid" they have...
Oddly, something else that caught my attention was the only able to play on internal Wii memory... I don't get that... that is indeed odd... *shrug*
That is currently the case. The Wii has 512 megs of internal storage and that's where all the Channels load from (including the VC games). The files sizes however are still quite small so you can have a lot of games on it. The SD card reader is available to backup games (I have a 2 gig SD card and it works fine.) but they cannot be played directly from the SD card at this time. If you delete the VC games you can always restore them from the SD card, or re-download them free of charge.
Currently I don't have any issue with the system as it's fine for the VC games (as they are smaller), I only hope full fledge Wii games start using the SD card for storage when they start adding DLC like map packs and stuff.
Great. If it works for you, that's fine. For the record, I didn't mention the 360's live arcade, but that doesn't mean I endorse it over the Wii's. (I own the live arcade game disk they came out with a while back... that's it. I refuse to "rent" games...)
You own them, not rent them. Unless of course you're of the mindset where you "rent beer" and don't own it either, then I understand. You pay a nominal fee for a restricted copy of a game, and it's yours to play (or anyone in your household) until such time that your Wii parts from this earth. (Assuming it does after nintendo stops supporting the hardware, which they do for several years after they stop making software for it).
The least restrictive I've seen so far is Sony's... it's tied to your account more than the machine, and you can redownload it no problem... (that is IMPOSSIBLE without a lot of ass-chewing on MS side... don't know about Nintendo... but it sounds just as stupid.)
Though I can't speak about the PS3's online service (you'll have to clarify for me as I don't own one) I'm confused about your stance with the 360. It is not impossible to redownload content you paid for on the 360, in fact it's quite easy. If you delete it you can go back and pull it down from the store free of charge. Nintendo's VC works the same way, and it couldn't be simpler.
Where the 360 differs, is in addition to licencing the content to you the specific machine it licences it to your gamertag. Meaning the original purchaser doesn't have to be logged into that xbox to access content purchased by that person. The whole household gets it. In addition, if that person were to log onto another person's Xbox they would have access to all content they bought while they were logged in. This is why you can move your gamertag profile to a memory card, and not copy it (to discourage mass sharing).
It should also be noted that any downloadable game (from Sony, MS, Nintendo) have no resale value, nor can you return them for a refund. That is uniform across the board.
Can you clarify what Sony does? Does it lock it to the PS3, a user profile, or both? How does it handle the PSP connectivity? Do you have to register each PSP to the PS3 for licensing?
Until they lay off the bloody DRM... they can have their VC.
Out of curosity, what level of DRM would you support? You stated Sony's as best so far, but what you described is alot like what MS is doing, and you don't support that so... What would you support?
The more I wait for one, the less I want one... the less compelling reasons I have for getting one, that is... the VC is nice, but not _that_ nice yet... and they're pretty draconian about what console they are tied to and where you can copy them, etc.
At least that's what I've read...
Yeah the DRM is even less restrictive than the 360's which was already pretty tight. The thing is you can copy the files to an SD card and put where ever, but you can only play the games off of the internal memory of the Wii, and only on the system you bought the games on.
There is a download history stored (on the server) so you can always re-download something you purchased, and in the cases of Wii's getting Warranty work, Nintendo has been able to transfer your purchase history to the new Wii, but currently that is it.
So with the cost / value proposition stated above you have to ask is each VC game worth the cost to play given the above factors? 4.7 million downloads so far... and about 10 are mine...
It's not impressive at all when you consider that the PS3 is widely available...so widely available that stores are cutting prices to make it move. The Wii, on the other hand, generally still requires giving up your firstborn and your soul to find.
Things are improving though. Now getting a Wii only requires giving up your firstborn or your soul.
It's not like Kanomi (for example) has an alternative platfrom on which to re-release Contra,
I own this on Xbox Live Arcade currently. Contra is also in a newly released compilation pack on the DS. Then again there is Thier PC compilation. There isn't anything from preventing them from publishing it where / however they want. Actually I wouldn't be surprised to see one of these classic compilations in an arcade at some point.
Though I'm not sure what arrangement was made for XBLA to get the Turtles Arcade game on it for $5, but I suspect that the costs were such on the VC that they charged a premium to the customer to pay Ubisoft (Who currently hold the license to the Turtles property). Both games were Konami games, but Ubisoft has the exclusive Turtles license currently, so without an agreement between both neither game could have been published. Perhaps Nintendo charges rates as 'publisher' on the VC than MS does for XBLA... I dunno.
Whatever it was I'm sure it's because Konami no longer has the Turtles license and there were more cooks in the kitchen that needed to get paid.
As an "old guy", I really like the news channel. I find it very relaxing, much more so than surfing for news on a PC. I appreciate the simple and fast access to the text, with no extra crap.
My buddy comes over with beer a few nights a week to bowl on the Wii. Millions will purchase and use the Wii on a regular bases because of this game alone.
None of the other consoles or games I own have this great of cross-over appeal. I don't think the analyst's have quite caught on to the tremendous success that Nintendo has made in expanding their market beyond traditional gamers.
I concur. My sister was in town recently and after a game of WiiSports Tennis I started showing her the other functions like Photo channel, news, weather, Opera etc... She was surprised at all the additional functionality. I personally use the Wii as part of my daily routine. I check the weather and headlines as I have my coffee in the morning. Even if I don't play any games the Wii gets lots of use.
Can you buy Nintendo stock? Over a year ago I wanted to buy shares in Nintendo, but couldn't figure out where they were traded and how to buy them. They weren't at Nasdaq, and if they are publicly traded in Japan, my bank apparently doesn't trade there or doesn't allow me to do so. It would have been a nice couple of thousand dollars profit, I think.
NTDOY is what you want. Nintendo is traded on the Tokyo Exchange so to buy it in America you buy it as an ADR. I bought some pre-E3 last year, and it has more than doubled. My only regret is not buying more...
Microsoft and Sony showed lip service to casual games prior to launch. Assuming they started development of oodles of casual games 3 months post-Wii, we're still a good year or two away from seeing the fruits of that labor.
Ironically no. XBLA has a MUCH better selection of games for casual gamers than Nintendo's VC, or main library. This is despite the VC already having more titles available. Nintendo needs more casual titles in the mix, and they simply aren't there yet, despite the console being MUCH more casual friendly than the PS3 or 360.
The people whom these games are aimed at already know "Wii". These are the same people who, given a management position in charge of a database, will stick to the same obsolete technology because that's what they're familiar with. They aren't going to be dropping their Wiimotes for PS3 or Xbox controllers (even if they can tell you what an xbox is). There isn't mental room for more than one system at a time for many of these people, and right now they and everyone they know have "Wii" sitting there.
To say there isn't 'mental room' for more than 1 console, is rather demeaning, but I do agree that people tend to stick with what is 'familiar'. This is the Wii's #1 issue with the gaming press, Nintendo is challenging what they are confortable with. If the Wii becomes the dominant player in the market (like the PS2 did) then the market will shift in ways they don't like.
To summarize this point, there aren't any games my uncle or aunt would want to play on a 360 or PS3, but my uncle did bruise his finger sinking a ball in WiiPlay because he exuberantly thrust his hand upwards into the ceiling fan.
This I doubt. XBLA has Solitare, Bejeweled, Online Poker, Online Uno, Online Hearts... The issue isn't that they don't exist it's that it does not exist to them. It's like having the food they enjoy served at the wrong resteraunt where (for whatever reason) they simply won't go to eat.
To summarize my point, it doesn't matter if the PS360 adds a ton of casual games, and marginalizes the price difference AND even bolts on their own Wiimote like controller... These systems will not gain the Mindshare back from Nintendo. Nintendo is bringing people in with a fun, intuitive system that they are confortable to use. Once that mindset gets established brand loyalty strengthens and the other systems effectively don't exist.
People shop for a Wii, not a 'Video game system' much in the same way people shop for an iPod and not an 'MP3 player'.
So far all the big third party titles never go to the Wii, but always elsewhere...
Yeah that's a shame. I was hoping to play Madden, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, DDR, Final Fantasy CC, the Sims, or Even Manhunt 2 (just out of morbid curiosity...) on the Wii. Unfortunately that will never happen...
Developers might still support the Wii, but they might continue to do so with simple games and PS2 ports. Things will get interesting when the PS2 dies out and all developers move to the next generation.
The Irony is that the presence of the Wii might keep PS2 development around longer. Why target the 15 million ish PS360's out there, when they can make a game for less money and have more exposure? They can use largely the same assets (only downscaled so the PS2 could run them... like RE4) and I'm sure the porting tools (both ways) will be get quite mature.
Why not? The Wii is the hottest selling platform and there are how many PS2's out there? 100+ million?
"Nintendo comes out and says they kick puppies, love Nazis, and wipe their ass with every nations flag in the world they are not likely to drop the ball. "
Is that a preview of the next Nintendogs game? Sounds like things have gotten much more exciting.
The new version of Nintendogs will include pitbulls and have Michael Vick as a trainer.
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Not only does the Accord fit most people's "budget" it also fills their "needs" for a car. Also of note, the Accord may fullfill their needs better than a Porsche making pricing less relevant.
Actually, I suspect he meant the Premium since he said "Costs less than a PS3 and a game". Which is actually a more fair comparison as the Wii comes with a game already.
In US Dollars a Wii = $250 + a $400 premium is less than a $600 (only price available) PS3 + a $60 game.
This also discounts the fact that you can typically find a 360 premium with either a second (wireless) controller or a free game, depending on the week / store you go to.
Nice. If you're gonna flame, it was "Pretty Woman. " Apparently Roy Orbison wasn't Mormon.
And if you put Black Sabbath at the bottom of that pile (below Rush, GnR, Genesis, Cream) Then we are in agreement.
Again, no disrespect to Rush (I'd play it), but Zeppelin would be amazing...
I see where you're coming from and, on a whole... yes. The band has focused on Eddie for the most part but Alex Van Halen is amazing at what he does, and for the songs where he does shine I would like play those parts as well.
Right. It's a shame I can't. Sorry Mate, its' been fun.
Sure, but at this point we are mearly pissing in the wind over a matter of opinion. Since you asked however...
Agreed. At least it should have notes "As made famous by the Kinks." There is plenty in the Van Halen catalog that could have used, but they went with a cover? Weak.
If they did such a tribute Album they would be better off Calling it an "Ozzy Osbourne Tribute" and include Sabbath songs as well instead of the other way around. Even if it was the exact same game, the Ozzy branded one would sell more.
I think that's unwarranted speculation based on the fact they both have licensed music in Guitar Hero. They seem to not have minded putting in "Bark at the Moon", "Iron Man", "War Pigs" or the afore mentioned Kink's cover, with a VH slant.
I Disagree it would be boring, but that's a personal taste issue. It also wasn't the list I was refering to. You stated "Sabbath was listed as the 85th most influential artists of all times in Rolling Stone, while GnR was 92nd and VH wasn't even on the list." My question is where did the Beatles fall on THAT list?
Doesn't have to be. Rock Band can focus more on drums, especially if they are focusing on a specific band.
Thank you. Brain fart on my part.
I DO believe you but could you please provide a link?
24.5 Million units across their entire catalog? Appitite for Destruction sold 15 million units by itself. Add in both the Use your illusion albums, and you have 29 million units sold and 42 songs.
I think I found your source for the RIAA sales, and if you follow the link you'll notice Guns 'N Roses with 38.5 million sold to date, and farther up (towards the top) Van Halen is sitting Above U2 and just below Metallica at 56.5 million units sold. Which leads me to believe that a game based on those bands would be more successfull than one based on Black Sabbath (at 15 million), and since you drug them into it Rush (with 24.5 million sales) as well. Do we need to keep debating our opinions on the matter? or can we Agree to disagree on this one?
Gauging on influence? I'm gauging on potential retail sales, and I'm just saying a Black Sabbath wouldn't bring in "the masses" the way a Van-Halen game would.
Ok, Since we are debating opinion as if it were fact see my previous post. Where are The Beatles on that list?
I never said Rush would be a bad choice, I said Sabbath would. From a purely technical stand point Rush would be a good choice. I don't think they would grab the sales volume of a Beatles, or VH (or even Phil Collins/ Genesis or Clapton/Creme) version. That doesn't mean the songs are bad, just that "by the masses" Rush isn't as popular.
Honestly I would LOVE 2112 as a downloadable song for GHII, you could likely get the "Millionaire Pair" Achievement on Easy/Medium simply because it's so fucking long...
Those bands were actually the parent's picks and I essentially disagreed with Sabbath being among them. Of all the bands listed I would prefer VH over all, but for Rock Band rather than Guitar Hero. I would be just as interested playing the Drums in say... "Hot for Teacher" than Guitar. Also Eddie and Alex have a good enough catalog to pick from where you can really cycle through their work and highlight the Guitar 1 song and the Drums the next.
If I were personally pick a band to do a full "Tribute Game" I would do a "Rock Band" style game on VH (or The Beatles) and a Guitar Hero style game on Clapton/Creme.
Oh, I didn't miss them as much as dismiss them. My issue is with the examples being "well known Sabbath songs". Did you know Devo has been putting out albums for over 30 years? Could you name one song they did besides "Whip it" ?
It boils down to this, if you ask someone to name 5 Black Sabbath songs, most people would either be stumped, or include songs from Ozzy's solo career to get to that 5. If you ask them to name 5 Van Halen, Bon Jovi, or GNR songs they likely could.
This is why a Full Guitar Hero game built around Black Sabbath wouldn't work.
You could have Weird Al's "Eat it" over Michael Jackson's "Beat it", or Genesis' "Land of Confusion" with the Disturbed version as an unloackable.
You're right! I forgot it was on GH1. Which means that GHIII should have "Paranoid" and then they pretty much ran the gauntlet. Did "Iron Man" recently get added as DLC for the X-box? I haven't seen anything besides the initial 3 packs the posted in April, and of that there was Bark at the Moon (from Ozzy's solo career) but not "Iron Man".
Awesome song. It kicked my ass a few times, even on medium... it was however an Ozzy Osbourne Song/Album after he left Black Sabbath and went Solo.
Sabbath? If they are smart they will stretch it out, so that the remaining 2 hits of theirs will not be on the same version. I mean Seriously... they got "War Pigs" already. Aside from "Iron Man" and "Paranoid" they have ...
That is currently the case. The Wii has 512 megs of internal storage and that's where all the Channels load from (including the VC games). The files sizes however are still quite small so you can have a lot of games on it. The SD card reader is available to backup games (I have a 2 gig SD card and it works fine.) but they cannot be played directly from the SD card at this time. If you delete the VC games you can always restore them from the SD card, or re-download them free of charge.
Currently I don't have any issue with the system as it's fine for the VC games (as they are smaller), I only hope full fledge Wii games start using the SD card for storage when they start adding DLC like map packs and stuff.
You own them, not rent them. Unless of course you're of the mindset where you "rent beer" and don't own it either, then I understand. You pay a nominal fee for a restricted copy of a game, and it's yours to play (or anyone in your household) until such time that your Wii parts from this earth. (Assuming it does after nintendo stops supporting the hardware, which they do for several years after they stop making software for it).
Though I can't speak about the PS3's online service (you'll have to clarify for me as I don't own one) I'm confused about your stance with the 360. It is not impossible to redownload content you paid for on the 360, in fact it's quite easy. If you delete it you can go back and pull it down from the store free of charge. Nintendo's VC works the same way, and it couldn't be simpler.Where the 360 differs, is in addition to licencing the content to you the specific machine it licences it to your gamertag. Meaning the original purchaser doesn't have to be logged into that xbox to access content purchased by that person. The whole household gets it. In addition, if that person were to log onto another person's Xbox they would have access to all content they bought while they were logged in. This is why you can move your gamertag profile to a memory card, and not copy it (to discourage mass sharing). It should also be noted that any downloadable game (from Sony, MS, Nintendo) have no resale value, nor can you return them for a refund. That is uniform across the board.
Can you clarify what Sony does? Does it lock it to the PS3, a user profile, or both? How does it handle the PSP connectivity? Do you have to register each PSP to the PS3 for licensing?
Out of curosity, what level of DRM would you support? You stated Sony's as best so far, but what you described is alot like what MS is doing, and you don't support that so... What would you support?
Yeah the DRM is even less restrictive than the 360's which was already pretty tight. The thing is you can copy the files to an SD card and put where ever, but you can only play the games off of the internal memory of the Wii, and only on the system you bought the games on.
There is a download history stored (on the server) so you can always re-download something you purchased, and in the cases of Wii's getting Warranty work, Nintendo has been able to transfer your purchase history to the new Wii, but currently that is it.
So with the cost / value proposition stated above you have to ask is each VC game worth the cost to play given the above factors? 4.7 million downloads so far... and about 10 are mine...
Correct me if I'm wrong. Are we still talking about Final Fantasy XIII? Isn't it still a single player game?
Things are improving though. Now getting a Wii only requires giving up your firstborn or your soul.
I'd buy that game...
I own this on Xbox Live Arcade currently. Contra is also in a newly released compilation pack on the DS. Then again there is Thier PC compilation. There isn't anything from preventing them from publishing it where / however they want. Actually I wouldn't be surprised to see one of these classic compilations in an arcade at some point.
Though I'm not sure what arrangement was made for XBLA to get the Turtles Arcade game on it for $5, but I suspect that the costs were such on the VC that they charged a premium to the customer to pay Ubisoft (Who currently hold the license to the Turtles property). Both games were Konami games, but Ubisoft has the exclusive Turtles license currently, so without an agreement between both neither game could have been published. Perhaps Nintendo charges rates as 'publisher' on the VC than MS does for XBLA... I dunno.
Whatever it was I'm sure it's because Konami no longer has the Turtles license and there were more cooks in the kitchen that needed to get paid.
I concur. My sister was in town recently and after a game of WiiSports Tennis I started showing her the other functions like Photo channel, news, weather, Opera etc... She was surprised at all the additional functionality. I personally use the Wii as part of my daily routine. I check the weather and headlines as I have my coffee in the morning. Even if I don't play any games the Wii gets lots of use.
NTDOY is what you want. Nintendo is traded on the Tokyo Exchange so to buy it in America you buy it as an ADR. I bought some pre-E3 last year, and it has more than doubled. My only regret is not buying more...
Ironically no. XBLA has a MUCH better selection of games for casual gamers than Nintendo's VC, or main library. This is despite the VC already having more titles available. Nintendo needs more casual titles in the mix, and they simply aren't there yet, despite the console being MUCH more casual friendly than the PS3 or 360.
To say there isn't 'mental room' for more than 1 console, is rather demeaning, but I do agree that people tend to stick with what is 'familiar'. This is the Wii's #1 issue with the gaming press, Nintendo is challenging what they are confortable with. If the Wii becomes the dominant player in the market (like the PS2 did) then the market will shift in ways they don't like.
This I doubt. XBLA has Solitare, Bejeweled, Online Poker, Online Uno, Online Hearts... The issue isn't that they don't exist it's that it does not exist to them. It's like having the food they enjoy served at the wrong resteraunt where (for whatever reason) they simply won't go to eat.
To summarize my point, it doesn't matter if the PS360 adds a ton of casual games, and marginalizes the price difference AND even bolts on their own Wiimote like controller... These systems will not gain the Mindshare back from Nintendo. Nintendo is bringing people in with a fun, intuitive system that they are confortable to use. Once that mindset gets established brand loyalty strengthens and the other systems effectively don't exist.
People shop for a Wii, not a 'Video game system' much in the same way people shop for an iPod and not an 'MP3 player'.
Yeah that's a shame. I was hoping to play Madden, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, DDR, Final Fantasy CC, the Sims, or Even Manhunt 2 (just out of morbid curiosity...) on the Wii. Unfortunately that will never happen...
The Irony is that the presence of the Wii might keep PS2 development around longer. Why target the 15 million ish PS360's out there, when they can make a game for less money and have more exposure? They can use largely the same assets (only downscaled so the PS2 could run them... like RE4) and I'm sure the porting tools (both ways) will be get quite mature.
Why not? The Wii is the hottest selling platform and there are how many PS2's out there? 100+ million?
The new version of Nintendogs will include pitbulls and have Michael Vick as a trainer.