I’ve thought long and hard about this and have decided to write my ideas down in a series of blog entries, the first 3 parts are going to give the reasons why and why not for each console (Wii,Xbox 360 and PS3), three for each for each console, I may have my own personal bias, but I’m trying to be fair here so each console will get 3 points in each and I wont hold back where I think something was wrong (as you’ll see in this one).
Note: Out of the three consoles presented here I only own 1 of them, the Xbox 360, one isn’t out in my country yet (PS3) and I haven’t got the cash or even found a Wii. I do however own all 4 of last generations (I’m counting the Dreamcast in the last Gen, though it was too early to really be concidered) and envision owning all 3 of this generations consoles.
We start with the Nintendo Wii.
Why it might Win
- Nintendo
- Price
- Waggle
Why it might lose
- Novelty
- No HD
- 3rd Party
Read the rest for more explanation.
Why the Wii Might Win
1. Nintendo
Nintendo produce some of the best games in the World, their franchises are known and loved by millions, Mario, Smash Bros, Metroid, Pokemon, etc. For all that Nintendo has failed in the previous two generations, Nintendo consoles are the only place to play these games and people will buy the console for those alone. Also the DS has been a major success, trouncing the technologically superior PSP, in Japan it’s just passed the GBA in sales (the GBA is still available and on sale) and is likely to outsell the PS2 before the end of the year, it may even surpass the mighty Gameboy itself.
2. Price
Say what you like about the Wii being a souped up Gamecube, the fact is the Wii is conciderably more powerful than the GC and has lots of extras like WiFi, Flash memory, not to mention the camera in the Wii Remote. The end result is a console that is cheaper than the other two and which actually makes a profit for Nintendo on each unit sold. At £179 or $250 it represents good value, and while it’s not quite impulse buy level, it can make a good case with waivering purchasers and with good 1st party releases (and Wii Sports in the box) there are plenty of reasons to buy it.
3. Waggle
Motion sensitive controllers, you can tell how much it scared Sony, they added it to their controller after Nintendo announced theirs. What’s more astounding is that not only is the remote motion sensitive, so is the nunchuck attachment, the two can be used in unison (can’t do that with the SIXAXIS), also the idea of having attachments means that cheaper controllers (like the classic controller) can be made for specific games without the expense of having all the wireless electronics in the attachment. One of the stumbling blocks to getting people playing games is the complexity of current controllers, 2 sticks, a D-pad, a dozen buttons, they’re pretty intimidating if you don’t know the conventions used, the Wii Remote looks like a TV remote and most people understand how to use one of those.
Why it might lose
1. Novelty
There’s no denying it, Motion control is a novelty, it’s something we haven’t seen before, and therefore it’s novel, however is it a gimmick? That’s the million dollar question, so far the Wii has been selling well on it’s new controller, however how long will that last, can the Wii remote and it’s decendents really become a new standard for game input?
2. No HD
Right now HDTV penetration is low in all regions the Wii is selling in, so there’s no real reason for people buying a HD console, however as more and more people replace their TVs with new HDTVs they’re going to want to make the most out of those, the question is, how fast is HDTV going to catch on and will the Wii’s SD graphics start to show their age 2-3 years down the road?
3. 3rd Party
3rd Party software doesn’t sell on Nintendo systems, or that’s the perception, during the NES/SNES days this wasn’t true, many companies made their names supporting the early nintendo systems, however when Nintendo released the N64 they made some bad decisions, the “Dream Team” and limiting 3rd party support meant that the only really good games coming out were made by Nintendo and Rare. The Gamecube continued this with poor sales of both systems, and nintendo/rare’s own killer games, no one else wanted to risk creating games on nintendo platforms, and less games means less console sales, which means less 3rd party sales, and so the vicious circle continues. Nintendo is starting to show that 3rd party games can sell on the DS, but can they really turn it around?
i love to play all day on my gamecube. -”
I like both the Gamecube and Xbox, we have them in our home office and also in our living room.”.;
i love to play on gamecubes and on psp machines, so addicting ,.