It's E3 next week. Both Nintendo and Sony will be unveiling their new hardware and their games, so we will have a good idea of what their new consoles can really offer. Up to this point, all we've been hearing from those two sides are all promises. We are about to find out if they're going to deliver.
Next week there's going to be a LOT of knee jerk reactions to what will be shown at E3, much like last year. Hardcore gamers, most especially, are going to be very myopic about everything that will be shown. Conclusions will be drawn from early graphics, hardware will be judged from poor software...all of those things are going to happen next week. It's quite clear to me that the media is going to paint the picture that they're going to want you to see, and from what I've been seeing, they're more in favor of the old guard of the console industry---the continued leadership of Sony and Nintendo.
While I have a lot of respect for those two companies, I feel that they've fallen over the wayside as of late. Sony, for example, has relied heavily in the past to showing CG movies of what its Playstation 3 can accomplish. This week a lot of gamers got a HARSH reality check of what Playstation 3 graphics are going to look like.
PS3 Real-time, in-game graphics screenshots:
Full Auto 2: Battlelines
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Fatal Inertia
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Untold Legends Dark Kingdom
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
From the above pictures you can see that PS3 games will have the same graphical flaws that the 360 has, and it will not be able to render the super-realistic graphics that Sony has been showing ever since E3 2005.
The surprise is, that PS3 graphics will look no better than Xbox 360 graphics, and that all that hype about the Cell processor and Blu-ray media is all marketing-speak. Both Sony and MS are in the same place, technology-wise; they're just approaching game technology from different angles. MS is going with the a 3 core system while Sony is going with a highly experimental and untested computing paradigm with their 7 SPE system. My opinion is that the Playstation 3's approach is not going to work. They may be offering new technology, but it will certainly be expensive both for Sony and for consumers. The blu-ray drive, in particular, is technology that is so new that it will be very difficult for them to price their PS3 at something close to $400.00. I'm betting it will be near 450-500 dollars, and I can't even begin to imagine how much it will cost on Ebay. Cell technology will also hinder Sony in some way...the manufacturing techniques for it will be very new, and is thus more liable to producing defective hardware.
I heard that the PS3 dev kits right now are just HUGE, and the developers have no clue how Sony plans on fitting all that hardware into the PS3 case that they showed last year. Even if they do get that hardware to fit that case, it will certainly generate a lot of heat, so Sony will face the same 'hardware defects' that MS has. [Off topic: Surprisingly, my own Japanese Xbox 360, basking in the tropical Philippine heat of the summer season, is surviving and hasn't crashed or died at all; and I bought this thing at launch!]
In a nutshell, the PS3 is going to face the following problems when they launch:
1. Games won't look that different from 360 games.
2. Console shortages and overpricing on auction sites.
3. Hardware problems and defects. This is a problem that happens with every new console.
4. Their competitor, the 360, will have more games at launch and will be more in supply at retail.
5. In Japan, they will be facing a popular, more inexpensive, and smaller console from Nintendo.
Now, while we're on the subject of Nintendo...they have a LOT going for them. They have a new control interface, a smaller console and most likely a more inexpensive price point that is friendlier to non gamers.
I see two major issues with Nintendo. One is the name that they chose for their console. Their console is now officially named The Nintendo Wii. Yes, you heard it right. The Wii. Now, I don't know who the genius is at Nintendo who came up with this name, but let me put it on the record, that Wii in the Philippines implies the same thing that it implies in the United States and in the United Kingdom. Wii is easily associated with urine, or 'wiiwii', or 'ihi' in the local parlance. From what I've read, in most other countries it implies nearly the same thing...because the term 'wiiwii' was probably derived from the sound you hear when someone is taking a piss. It's also the sound you make when you want a younger person to start urinating (for toilet training, some parents go 'wiwiwiwiwiwi' when their kid is at the toilet so that they can start peeing). The name is truly a horrendous choice.
Now, the argument is, "It's just a name, why bother?"
Well, for starters, the market Nintendo is targeting is the kids. And I can't imagine any kid walking to the playground to start talking about their Wii. They'd get laughed out of there and probably get scarred for life by the snickering and the bullies. Also, it's not like the Wii is going to be on the video game shelf all by itself. The Xbox 360 and the PS3 will be prominently displayed there. And I have a feeling that if you had a kid pick between those three, they won't pick the 'Wii' because it has a dorky, or filthy sounding name.
The story will be different in Japan, though. I have a feeling the Japanese Nintendo office was the one that picked the name---their culture there is very different. And by virtue of the size of the console and the novelty of the control scheme, it will outsell the Playstation 3.
Problem number 2 for Nintendo: Despite the fact that they are trying to win new markets for the Wii, the games that they will be publishing are really still aimed at their hardcore audience. I don't see that many new properties or franchises being produced for the Wii at all. Most of them are rehashes of established franchises like Mario, Zelda, and Metroid, which, while recognizable to gamers straight out of the 1980s like myself, don't really look like characters that today's kids can relate with. Also, they are clearly sticking with a specific demographic--the younger audience. I think that Nintendo should recognize that the market for video games has indeed changed, and that gamers of various age groups now know what video games are and want to play them. I think it's a missed opportunity that Nintendo is only making certain types of games that appeal to only a specific type of audience. They should broaden the types of games that are available for the Wii so that they can win various types of gamers.
As for Microsoft? Microsoft has faced a lot of things in the past year. They launched their hardware a year ahead of everyone else, so they risked looking like the weaker system. [like the dreamcast]. But this year, they stand to show everyone that they are poised to take the market leadership in the console space for years to come. They have the backing of many Western developers whose games have shown us what 'next-generation' really means. Their console is now easily available in stores worldwide, and their shortage problems have been solved by this point in time. And with the number of games that they're going to show at E3, it will be overwhelming for an Xbox 360 gamer to see what they have coming. Microsoft is in a position to change console gaming forever for the worldwide audience.
I'm not dismissing Sony and Nintendo completely; I'm just saying that they're going to have a hard time with their competition. MS is going for every demographic. They want the younger crowd, the girls and the non-gamers with Xbox Live Arcade and Viva Pinata. They want the hardcore 18-35 male with the FPS shooters, racers and sports games. They're distancing themselves from the FPS and are supporting titles like Too Human and Blue Dragon. They're definitely getting to where Sony and Nintendo are, and I'm sure that both Sony and Nintendo are feeling very uncomfortable.
Next week there's going to be a LOT of knee jerk reactions to what will be shown at E3, much like last year. Hardcore gamers, most especially, are going to be very myopic about everything that will be shown. Conclusions will be drawn from early graphics, hardware will be judged from poor software...all of those things are going to happen next week. It's quite clear to me that the media is going to paint the picture that they're going to want you to see, and from what I've been seeing, they're more in favor of the old guard of the console industry---the continued leadership of Sony and Nintendo.
While I have a lot of respect for those two companies, I feel that they've fallen over the wayside as of late. Sony, for example, has relied heavily in the past to showing CG movies of what its Playstation 3 can accomplish. This week a lot of gamers got a HARSH reality check of what Playstation 3 graphics are going to look like.
PS3 Real-time, in-game graphics screenshots:
Full Auto 2: Battlelines
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Fatal Inertia
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Untold Legends Dark Kingdom
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
From the above pictures you can see that PS3 games will have the same graphical flaws that the 360 has, and it will not be able to render the super-realistic graphics that Sony has been showing ever since E3 2005.
The surprise is, that PS3 graphics will look no better than Xbox 360 graphics, and that all that hype about the Cell processor and Blu-ray media is all marketing-speak. Both Sony and MS are in the same place, technology-wise; they're just approaching game technology from different angles. MS is going with the a 3 core system while Sony is going with a highly experimental and untested computing paradigm with their 7 SPE system. My opinion is that the Playstation 3's approach is not going to work. They may be offering new technology, but it will certainly be expensive both for Sony and for consumers. The blu-ray drive, in particular, is technology that is so new that it will be very difficult for them to price their PS3 at something close to $400.00. I'm betting it will be near 450-500 dollars, and I can't even begin to imagine how much it will cost on Ebay. Cell technology will also hinder Sony in some way...the manufacturing techniques for it will be very new, and is thus more liable to producing defective hardware.
I heard that the PS3 dev kits right now are just HUGE, and the developers have no clue how Sony plans on fitting all that hardware into the PS3 case that they showed last year. Even if they do get that hardware to fit that case, it will certainly generate a lot of heat, so Sony will face the same 'hardware defects' that MS has. [Off topic: Surprisingly, my own Japanese Xbox 360, basking in the tropical Philippine heat of the summer season, is surviving and hasn't crashed or died at all; and I bought this thing at launch!]
In a nutshell, the PS3 is going to face the following problems when they launch:
1. Games won't look that different from 360 games.
2. Console shortages and overpricing on auction sites.
3. Hardware problems and defects. This is a problem that happens with every new console.
4. Their competitor, the 360, will have more games at launch and will be more in supply at retail.
5. In Japan, they will be facing a popular, more inexpensive, and smaller console from Nintendo.
Now, while we're on the subject of Nintendo...they have a LOT going for them. They have a new control interface, a smaller console and most likely a more inexpensive price point that is friendlier to non gamers.
I see two major issues with Nintendo. One is the name that they chose for their console. Their console is now officially named The Nintendo Wii. Yes, you heard it right. The Wii. Now, I don't know who the genius is at Nintendo who came up with this name, but let me put it on the record, that Wii in the Philippines implies the same thing that it implies in the United States and in the United Kingdom. Wii is easily associated with urine, or 'wiiwii', or 'ihi' in the local parlance. From what I've read, in most other countries it implies nearly the same thing...because the term 'wiiwii' was probably derived from the sound you hear when someone is taking a piss. It's also the sound you make when you want a younger person to start urinating (for toilet training, some parents go 'wiwiwiwiwiwi' when their kid is at the toilet so that they can start peeing). The name is truly a horrendous choice.
Now, the argument is, "It's just a name, why bother?"
Well, for starters, the market Nintendo is targeting is the kids. And I can't imagine any kid walking to the playground to start talking about their Wii. They'd get laughed out of there and probably get scarred for life by the snickering and the bullies. Also, it's not like the Wii is going to be on the video game shelf all by itself. The Xbox 360 and the PS3 will be prominently displayed there. And I have a feeling that if you had a kid pick between those three, they won't pick the 'Wii' because it has a dorky, or filthy sounding name.
The story will be different in Japan, though. I have a feeling the Japanese Nintendo office was the one that picked the name---their culture there is very different. And by virtue of the size of the console and the novelty of the control scheme, it will outsell the Playstation 3.
Problem number 2 for Nintendo: Despite the fact that they are trying to win new markets for the Wii, the games that they will be publishing are really still aimed at their hardcore audience. I don't see that many new properties or franchises being produced for the Wii at all. Most of them are rehashes of established franchises like Mario, Zelda, and Metroid, which, while recognizable to gamers straight out of the 1980s like myself, don't really look like characters that today's kids can relate with. Also, they are clearly sticking with a specific demographic--the younger audience. I think that Nintendo should recognize that the market for video games has indeed changed, and that gamers of various age groups now know what video games are and want to play them. I think it's a missed opportunity that Nintendo is only making certain types of games that appeal to only a specific type of audience. They should broaden the types of games that are available for the Wii so that they can win various types of gamers.
As for Microsoft? Microsoft has faced a lot of things in the past year. They launched their hardware a year ahead of everyone else, so they risked looking like the weaker system. [like the dreamcast]. But this year, they stand to show everyone that they are poised to take the market leadership in the console space for years to come. They have the backing of many Western developers whose games have shown us what 'next-generation' really means. Their console is now easily available in stores worldwide, and their shortage problems have been solved by this point in time. And with the number of games that they're going to show at E3, it will be overwhelming for an Xbox 360 gamer to see what they have coming. Microsoft is in a position to change console gaming forever for the worldwide audience.
I'm not dismissing Sony and Nintendo completely; I'm just saying that they're going to have a hard time with their competition. MS is going for every demographic. They want the younger crowd, the girls and the non-gamers with Xbox Live Arcade and Viva Pinata. They want the hardcore 18-35 male with the FPS shooters, racers and sports games. They're distancing themselves from the FPS and are supporting titles like Too Human and Blue Dragon. They're definitely getting to where Sony and Nintendo are, and I'm sure that both Sony and Nintendo are feeling very uncomfortable.