Posted June 9, 2006 hello everyone. My new column is up at BXB... it's focused on all 3 consoles... but my opinion on Wii should be clear by now!!! let me know what you think... http://www.britxbox.co.uk/index.htm?ref=article&id=462936594 ...and below: It's become fairly common to hear people bemoan the state of the videogames industry of late. Too many licenses! Too many FPS games! Too Many clones of clones of clones (of clones of clones)! Not enough originality! Games cost too much to make! No one takes risks! God help us, this industry is falling down around our ears! Microsoft have strangled the market by forcing the generational transition early. Sony have strangled it by being late with the PS3! The PS2 has strangled it by being too successful! Games cost too much! Games are too long, too complicated! No one wants them! Is it just me, or does it seem like the more successful the games industry is, the more people complain? Of the above points, I would say that £50 probably is too much for a game… and that the rest don't really hold any water. I seem to remember that my SNES and Megadrive would have been buried under dodgy licenses and boring clones if I’d have bought them. Likewise the original Playstation. In fact the only consoles I can think of that haven't come under criticism for their software catalogues being filled with unoriginal pap and hence bringing a calamity down around the ears of the entire industry, were those that weren't particularly successful. Isn't it simply the case that all formats seem to receive the best games from the format holder? The reason the Dreamcast seems to have such a stellar line up in retrospect is that very little third party support ever occurred. I would argue that if you look at either incarnation of the Playstation family, and to a lesser extent the original Xbox, there are plenty of games that push their respective genres, and the industry, forward. It's simply that the amount of third party dross is higher - because the markets were big enough to support the inevitable ‘me-too’ rubbish. I'd also like to point out that you never hear successful companies complaining that the market is stale. When we the last time you heard Square-enix saying the industry is stagnant? Likewise Capcom. Funny that. I suppose it's quite easy to say the industry is overloaded and creatively barren when your company hasn't performed very well and you have to justify your financial performance. Also, if gamers are happy to buy 10 first person games a year, can you blame anyone for thinking they should carry on making them? There will always be trends and fashions in the genres that are popular, and during those times, it seems perfectly obvious that companies will jump on the bandwagon. I think when you look at sales figures - and this is just an educated guess - you will find that people who do make real AAA titles also make significant profits. If you look at most ‘original’ titles you’ll see that the ones that combine innovation with real quality – do actually sell pretty well. Some games, Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s REZ for example, will simply never be saleable because they are simply too hard explain or are too reminiscent of unfashionable genres. In the case of REZ, sadly, both were true. If you look at the recent fortunes of, for arguments sake, Eidos and Ubisoft, you'll see that profitability during the last generation was pretty much directly linked to quality output. Although, currently, Sega would appear to be the exception that proves the rule – their bizarre profits don’t ever seem to match the quality of their output. Going forward into the next generation however, it’s hard to say whether the industry is as fragile as the nay-sayers would have you believe. Looking at 360, it’s fair to say that the quality of both first and third party titles has been spread thinly at best – come on now, be honest, there’s nothing so far on the 360 which anyone will remember as a total out and out format-defining classic. PS3, well, no one apart from a few first party teams seems to have the money or ability to draw out it’s best (as yet)… Which leaves us with the Wii. So far, it’s a shinning beacon of originality and it’s launch line up is irrefutably the best there has ever been – if the consumer money really does shift Nintendos way, and analysts are predicting it might, then it seems unlikely any publisher will ever spend the cash needed to really draw out the best of either the 360 or PS3. In that instance, every single one of those initial statements could indeed prove to be true. Which, as now seems certain to happen to Sony in Japan with 57% of gamers wanting a Wii since the PS3 price has been announced, could leave Microsoft and Sony pretty much high and dry. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted June 9, 2006 The reason the Dreamcast seems to have such a stellar line up in retrospect is that very little third party support ever occurred. I thought exactly the same thing a couple of months back. I was thinking about all the great Dreamcast games I had to buy, and the list wasn't really that long. Even then most of them are Sega's games. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted June 9, 2006 I believe it to be so. People think that graphics alone should the the driving force motivating each new generation of game consoles. In a recent interview, Nintendo's George Harrison (not to be confused with Sony's Phil "PS3 is a PC" Harrison), said that graphics aren't all that. To make his point he mentioned The Simpsons as an example of entertainment that is good not because of the high quality of the animation, but because of it's great capacity to entertain us. And the Wii is going for that same type formula. Provide good interactive entertainment as the top priority. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted June 10, 2006 i think you have to look at it as a package... if the wii was just an 'ordinary console' then it would be hard to reccomend above either of the other formats. But what you actually have is a basic (from a technical point of view) system, wrapped up in a new control style and nintendos proven record and IP. Remember that the gamecube was the fastest selling console ever when it launched - it just didn't have anything to keep the momentum. Not so the wii. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted June 10, 2006 haha. what a start this thread had. And I love reading you'r columns as always Ultrajamie Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted June 10, 2006 Just a misinterpretation, that's all. Everything has been sorted and the show has gone on. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
