Nintendo Unconcerned By Motion-Control Competitors 150
The Guardian's games blog reports on comments by Nintendo discussing why it's not worried about competition from Microsoft and Sony after their recent motion-control announcements at E3. Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime said, "The only thing I'll say is a rhetorical question. Is it fun? If it's fun, then I tip my hat and say, 'Well done.' But what's happening sounds to me a lot like, 'Who's got the prettiest picture. Who's got high-definition. Who has the best processing power?' It sounds like technology, when the consumer wants to be entertained. Our focus is how do we take active play and make it entertainment. And that's what we're going to continue to focus on."
Re:If this is about what the consumer wants... (Score:4, Informative)
Stop sitting on quality games that have been released in Japan and release them elsewhere! I'm still waiting on fatal frame for the wii, and won't be buying another Nintendo game until I can purchase that! Tecmo hasn't had a problem releasing the other 3, and the sales have not been that bad in the states/Europe. UGH, I guess I'm still jaded that they're holding onto a shiny that I want, and am willing to part with money for.
Anyway, where are the good wii games anyway? I walk through the store and look at the Wii releases, and it feels like I'm in the kids section. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I guess. There is no reason not to offer them if that's what your consumers want, but why Nintendo (not Nintendo in Japan apparently) won't you release your high quality games over here? Will it ruin your family system image that for whatever reason you're doing your best to keep? It still makes no sense, there are already other more violent games out there!
The main issue is that there is an overpresence of kids games on the shelves while others clearly exist.
Okami, Tenchu Shadow Assassins, MadWorld, Godfather Blackhand Edition, Resi4, Metroid, Okami, Sam and Max, Strong Bad, Excite Truck, Excite Bugs, Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, Red Steel, Disaster Day of Crisis, Endless Ocean, No More Heroes and many others I probably can dig up none of them I would call a kids game. The games are there, but if a Barby whatever game sells more all the sovelware gets the space!
Re:If this is about what the consumer wants... (Score:3, Informative)
Hardcore gaming is not their market anymore. Look at the DS and its sales. Then look at the number of sales of games considered high learning curve and games like brain age and nintendogs.
They are competing... on a diferent market. If you are like me and those "casual" type games dont amuse you then Nintendo is no longer for you.
You've got to be kidding ... the DS has like 7 billion games available, covering pretty much every imaginable genre in great depth.
Sure there are vast quantities of "brain age" and "kanji master 10" type games, but there are vast quantities of every type of game on the DS....
Re:Sony's offering rocks (Score:3, Informative)
In reality Nintendo has already launched Wii MotionPlus, they have completed software ready to launch and 3rd parties have already launched games which use Wii MotionPlus. Now Nintendo can focus on making a control scheme for their next software, and they have tons of experience with motion controls.
Sony is just playing catch up for now.
Re:rbarreira is an idiot (Score:5, Informative)
Actually invensense (the company behind the Wii sensors) has stated absolute position and orientation is possible by combining the IR with accelerometers and gyroscopes (i.e. MotionPlus):
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2008/08/wii-motion-sensor.ars [arstechnica.com]
Six axis meaning six degrees of freedom, i.e. absolute positioning and orientation.
There's a lot of information if you combine these three things together... The gyroscopes give you angles, the IR gives you the distance from the TV and the accelerometers can help to improve the accuracy of the previous measurements.
Johnny Lee is working on Natal (Score:4, Informative)
Your post is a bit funny considering that Microsoft has actually contracted Johnny Lee to work on Natal.
Check it out: http://procrastineering.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]
Re:DUH... (Score:4, Informative)
I'm lazy and just reposting an earlier comment, the gist is that Wii has fairly good attach rate, and great software sales when the lower rate is multiplied by the higher install base. Also that even with the game cube Nintendo was one of the largest software publishers world wide, in spite of the low install base. The company kicks the crap out of others in the sense that is makes huge amounts of cash, and that is the job of a corporation. Oh yeah, it starts out as a DS apologist, but does use real numbers too.
I have not played a single DS game where the touch screen is a gimmick, it is almost always unused (e.g. Mario Cart DS), and alternate control method that may or may not be better (e.g. advanced wars), or a fantastic edition (e.g. tap for backup item in NSMB). The Wiimote is a different story though often it is used as a very fun gimmick.
As for attach rates:
http://vgchartz.com/aweekly.php [vgchartz.com] [vgchartz.com]
This is the American charts, it has the attach-rate at about the same as the PS3 and lower than the 360, of course arguments can be made to drop the Nintendo one by 1 or 2, it is still pretty fricken high in raw numbers of sales. If you subtract out 1 from the attach-rate (for Wii Sports) you end up with 150 million to XBOX 360's 170 Million, and PS3s 70 million. This is in the most 360 heavy region (North America).
Where Nintendo really makes their money though is software. Taking out Wii-play and Wii-sports they still sell more than EA on many weeks, and without licensing fees. Nintendo dominates in total money in the industry by such a huge amount that it isn't even funny. As far as the games industry goes Nintendo is a shrewd company, that is miles ahead of the rest.
Even with the Came Cube they were a major publisher by raw numbers, this is competing against companies selling for XBOX, PS2, and Computers.
Re:Sony's offering rocks (Score:3, Informative)
"So you believe that the game features a totally weird perspective that makes no sense when you stand in front of the TV?"
It's not a game, it's a tech demo, it's scripted to look good which from the camera angle they chose to record from such that they can capture the system and the person using it it does actually look good and it works.
"Actor in front of the TV doing motion, everything else is inserted in post production."
Oh including the dynamic water effect which would be pointless anyway because it's more work to make a fiddled version than it is to just use their existing Fable 2 rendering tech with Natal in the first place? Yes I can see that makes a lot of sense.
"I am not even sure why you try to argue that. I never claimed that the technology behind the demo was fake, that might very well be real or at least close to the demo. But the demo video is certainly not authentic and has been tempered with."
But you're trying to claim the whole demo is fake, which is silly really because it's almost certainly more effort to fake it than it is to simply make a scripted scene using Lionhead's existing tech. with Natal to make a scripted character respond to certain prompts.
You're using a conspiracy theory that simply makes no sense because it's just as much work to go through with your conspiracy theory than it is to just do it for real in the first place. Why exactly do you think they'd even need to fake it? When you step back and look at what they've done it's entirely unremarkable in the context of the new technology - which even you are saying you accept is real. I can go upto characters and interact with them just like that in Fable 2 and many other games using classic controllers and menu choices instead, all that they've changed is the input device and made a scripted scene to go with the technology for the demo.
It's not a real game that they're planning to release, it doesn't matter if it doesn't look right to the person using it as long as it looks good for the cameras and again as there's absolutely no logical reason why they'd need to fake it because all the technology is real and most the resources (like the scenery etc.) appear to be straight out of Fable II then why would they?