The State of the Gaming Market Explained
- Thread starter Rick James
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The summary of this article is that Microsoft and Sony are gonna get shat on real soon. Nintendo's strategy of bringing in a buttload of new gamers with simple, yet fun games like Wii Sports, then they go on to release some slightly more complex games like Super Mario, and Mario Kart Wii. Nintendo's future games will increase in complexity, and they've also prepared a new Wii-mote attachment to cater to more complex hand movements. Essentially the guy who wrote the article is saying that Nintendo is bringing in a bunch of non-gamers into the market, then making hardcore gamers out of them to directly compete, and rape Microsoft and Sony.
The Wii and most of the games on the system might be "garbage", but then again, the vast majority of the games on any system are garbage.
Nintendo isn't stupid. They're the oldest competitor in the race and they have seen the fall of more than one console line. The gamecube was something of a disaster but the DS and the WII have sold tremendously well. And, the neat part is Nintendo actually makes money off the hardware - something that neither sony nor (especially) microsoft can't claim.
The only real advantages Sony and Microsoft have is the simple fact that they are giant corporations with a great many sources of revenue. They can afford to hemorrhage cash, at least for awhile. But when the best they can do is present consoles at price points people don't really want to play, or hardware with an abhorrent failure rate, it doesn't take much to see that Nintendo is, at the very least, doing far better than anyone expected at this point.
Nintendo isn't stupid. They're the oldest competitor in the race and they have seen the fall of more than one console line. The gamecube was something of a disaster but the DS and the WII have sold tremendously well. And, the neat part is Nintendo actually makes money off the hardware - something that neither sony nor (especially) microsoft can't claim.
The only real advantages Sony and Microsoft have is the simple fact that they are giant corporations with a great many sources of revenue. They can afford to hemorrhage cash, at least for awhile. But when the best they can do is present consoles at price points people don't really want to play, or hardware with an abhorrent failure rate, it doesn't take much to see that Nintendo is, at the very least, doing far better than anyone expected at this point.
Has nothing to do with conformity. Although I fear for Sony's share in the market I don't think Microsoft will turn tail so fast. You remember the Nintendo DS when it first came out? Not many people liked it. They released casual games like Brain Age, and eventually moved up to the more upmarket games like Mario Kart DS and finally Dragon Quest 9.toastybuds said:
If and when Nintendo announces a new console, they will bring in a nuclear bomb to the console market. With Gamecube's relative failure, Nintendo dropped a bomb on the market with their new market strategy. If they continue with this market strategy (and I really think they will), Microsoft and Sony have a lot of worrying to do. The Wii is not some "Casual
gamer fad".
EDIT: I also realized that if the 3rd party developers had understood Nintendo's market strategy more, the Wii would be even more popular. After the Gamecube many Nintendo execs and marketers were canned in favor of those who brought Nintendo's current Disruption strategy.
I do like how she's saying casual gamers are a myth. I've been saying that for awhile. Nobody is amused by dumbed-down games for long. Real games seek to be something more than that... they seek to provide a significant experience; to enthrall.
But then, as a gamer, you probably already knew this, at least deep down. The trouble is convincing marketing, people very much in the business of selling things to people who should never be interested in them.
The equation never really changes:
Art + The Almighty Dollar = Crap.
Perhaps the real trouble is that the gaming industry is too big. It compromises the art in an attempt to support the massive overhead involved in producing a monolithic production and, consequently, spoils the broth. Good games should run cheap but powerful.
But then, as a gamer, you probably already knew this, at least deep down. The trouble is convincing marketing, people very much in the business of selling things to people who should never be interested in them.
The equation never really changes:
Art + The Almighty Dollar = Crap.
Perhaps the real trouble is that the gaming industry is too big. It compromises the art in an attempt to support the massive overhead involved in producing a monolithic production and, consequently, spoils the broth. Good games should run cheap but powerful.
I see what you're sayin. As long as Wiis have been around, no stores can keep them in stock. They literally fly of the shelves right as they come off the truck. The sales operaters at the Best Buy I work at constantly get calls,"Do you have any Wii's?!" It's become a joke. It's scary, I see the end coming first hand.SuperFriendBFG said:
It's not the end. If Sony or Microsoft learn from Nintendo's market strategy, then gaming will get better overall. Games today cost huge amounts of money to make. AAA titles based on a new IP are becoming more and more rare. Sony shat on the faces of all gamers when they released the PS3. Developers would rather teabag a blender then make a game for the PS3 and that's clear. Nintendo provides a cheap platform to develop on. Graphically games on the Wii are nowhere near those of the 360, but that just means developers are putting more effort into the game itself (at least some of the devs are). Companies like Brash entertainment tried to follow in Nintendo's footsteps by making "Casual games" but they failed miserably. They didn't understand what Nintendo was really doing.toastybuds said:
Nintendo isn't making games for casual gamers, they are making games for non-gamers. These games are like gateway drugs. They introduce millions into the gaming industry and then Nintendo eventually provides more complex and more in depth games for these people. With millions of completely new and fresh customers (on top of the loyal Nintendo fans) Nintendo will have a huge financial backing to take Sony and Microsoft head on with their current new to the industry non-gamers. If Nintendo puts that money to good use, they will have a whole new beast on their hands. O_O
I'm prolly not gonna ever get a PS3, but its pretty sad to see it struggling so much from its sheer power and beauty. Its like an elephant dying because of poachers. Except with the PS3, there isn't enough consumption.
The Xbox will hang in there, if nothing else because it is the staple of the All American frag-boys.
The Wii is clever, but having both played it and considered buying it, is a luxury item. Frankly, with the American economy so meh, I'm supprised that Nentendo isn't suffering more from the casual gamer feeling that it is unnessary.
Wait a second, I'm talking about the most hedonistic country in the world. Never mind.
The Xbox will hang in there, if nothing else because it is the staple of the All American frag-boys.
The Wii is clever, but having both played it and considered buying it, is a luxury item. Frankly, with the American economy so meh, I'm supprised that Nentendo isn't suffering more from the casual gamer feeling that it is unnessary.
Wait a second, I'm talking about the most hedonistic country in the world. Never mind.
Sony's advantage is that they know how to do media and hardware. They're generally going to have the edge among media oriented purchasers, and as you noted, they have enough revenue to keep things going for a while, though the price drop in Blu-Ray players is going to necessitate a PS3 price drop this year.Eclectic Dreck said:
Microsoft's advantage is that they own the most popular PC platform, they publish the development environments for both the PC and the 360, and they make the barrier to entry for developers insanely low. This, I feel, will give Microsoft the edge in library titles for a long time to come. Sony may actually start following Microsoft's lead in that regard, but I doubt that Nintendo ever would. As far Microsoft's media offerings go, they do have the Zune, but it's not as tightly leveraged with the 360 as the PSP is with the PS3.
Edit: posted before I read this:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090108-open-source-mono-framework-brings-c-to-iphone-and-wii.html
In short, games developed with Microsoft's .Net framework will be easier to port, well, anywhere you can run Mono, which so far means iPhone, Wii, and, unsurprisingly, Android.
Nintendo's advantage is that they're playing a different game entirely. The Wii has some media center functionality, but it's quite limited by comparison to the 360 and PS3. There's streaming video, but that's tightly controlled by Nintendo, and there's photo display, as well as stored video playback, though SD card support is limited to 2Gb. Insufficient for power users, but probably good enough for mom.
However, they're taking solid aim at the home fitness video market. While DVDs are dirt cheap, the Wii provides interactivity both with the Wiimote and data storage and tracking. It remains to be seen how well this is going to play out, but hopefully we'll see ports of ANT based fitness peripherals to Wii fitness titles. But then, You!Fit and Kinetic didn't exactly make bestseller lists, but on the gripping hand, the Wii is selling to demographics that lie fairly outside the PS2 and Xbox.
The third target Nintendo is aiming at is WebTV. While the web browser costs extra, news, weather, and email are free. However, it's not a priority. The email client is still very much a v0.9 release, and navigation is awkward. But if Nintendo releases a Wii keyboard, that'll be the sign that the Wii has started to penetrate the grandparents' demographic. Expect it to be white, with slightly oversized keys, and high contrast blue labels on the keys.
And the aforementioned Wiimotion upgrade is intended to appeal to more demanding gamers, and hopefully developers.
As far as complex games on the Wii go, some of the regulars are already making an appearance.
Fire Emblem? Anyone? Anyone?
So I can see how that strategy might work.
Fire Emblem? Anyone? Anyone?
So I can see how that strategy might work.
This year I've bought a Wii and a 360. Both are great, but in different ways.. Surprisingly I've found that the games I've purchased for the Wii have been so original and great (De Blob, No More Heroes).
I hope this just pushes designers to have amazing, new and exciting ideas.
I hope this just pushes designers to have amazing, new and exciting ideas.