Microsoft to sincerely flatter Wii, a good move for Microsoft
MTV via Kotaku

• According to an unnamed source speaking to MTV, Microsoft's latest, umm, innovation takes the form of a motion sensing remote. If you were a diehard internet cynic type, you might notice a similarity between this and Nintento's Wiimote. Rare is allegedly helping to develop a Mii-esque avatar system, who are also helping to "unified interface and look for the controller."
  
  This sounds pretty likely to me. Microsoft's already proven its intentions to court the casual market with titles like SceneIt! and with the Xbox Live Arcade console pack now cheaper than the Wii. While it doesn't appeal to me, in some ways, I have to admit it would be a canny move. The Wii's had a bit of a problem shaking off a kiddy image, with an awful lot of inane family friendly titles shovelled onto the console. Microsoft could grab some of Nintendo's casual market, especially if Rare were helping to develop, and still keep diehard Halo 3 fanatics happy with the 360's more conventional control mechanism.

possibly but Wii has already been branded the system for older adults and kids, i dont see Xbox changing that...

Oui.

Seeing as the Sony Sixaxis has motion sensitivity as well (though not the the extent of the Wii), it only make sense that Microsoft would work on this as well.
Being the only one without it is yet another thing they missed by trying to get the drop on everyone.

It wont encourage anyone to buy it.
People who want a 360 will buy a 360, people who want a Wii will buy that.
I doubt it will sway anyone away from Nintendo.

Wii60 isn't even a word!

Maybe Microsoft should first focus on getting their credibility back after all the bad pubs from their console's high failure rate. That might affect buyer's decision when choosing between a Wii and a 360.

yes, because nintendo invented motion-detection controller technology. I saw this coming a while ago, actually. as nowhereman pointed out, sony has had a (superior) motion-sensing controller from day one. besides, it's really not very hard at all to add it to a system's functionality even if you didn't put all your eggs in one basket by building your entire system and gameplay experience around the concept.

pretty much. for the most part each platform has its diehards (e.g. sammitch who does all his gaming on his pc), people who probably won't switch consoles mid-cycle unless they've got a shit-ton of disposable income or are just really pissed off with their current console. each developer has its target demographic, and for the most part they are doing a decent job of hanging onto them. microsoft is losing people not because of the quality of its gaming experience - it has a fantastic selection of software and a solid online experience - but because of the poor reliability of its hardware. nintendo won't lose an appreciable amount of business to a motion-controlled 360 - the soccer moms and their five-year-olds won't even know it exists and nintendo-addicted manchild web designers won't care - but microsoft should at least break even on the venture.

Its a simple fact that if something proves successful on one system, you can almost guarantee the others will follow!
How many systems (including PCs) have/had force feedback?

Its the name of the game, to take whats popular, and integrate it into your system as well.

You might as well say every console that came after the Dreamcast is copying them for adding internet/online capability!

Also, the 360 and the PS3 will gain more sales for something like Grand Theft Auto IV, than they will from some gimmick!

Although in the case of force feedback, the console it (n64) first appeared in was not really successful.

what makes it superior?



it actually will be somewhat difficult to add. not that it can't be done, or anything. but with wii and ps3, the feature is built in. in microsoft's case, not only will they have to ask their audience to buy a mandatory new controller (which cuts potential market by a huge fraction) but they'll have to ask developers to create for it (cuts devs for it)

in this regard, it has more of the "gimmick" type of negatives associated with it.

Surely its just operating software based in the system itself, its the controllers that have it built in, just like the afore mentioned force feedback on systems like the PS1.

PS:
I have no idea why Sammitch says the PS3 motion sensitivity is superior.

yeah, the operating system is just the powerhouse. it can do anything the game tells it to do, within limits. its the game that says "ok, we're not using a joystick anymore, we're doin some crazy motion shit." the controller then has to be set up to take advantage of that, which is why the controller, in microsoft's case, has to be entirely new.

that doesn't mean it will be bad, in fact, it could be awesome! the problem is that when you're trying to get an established community to shell out another $40 for something that may, or may not, have a lifespan depending on its gimmickability, it hurts itself.

rockband/guitar hero's guitar is a sample of this being a success
donkey kong jungle beat's bongos is not





he is a gigantic homo

I dont think 360 owners will have that much interest.
There has been very little use for the sixxaxis on the PS3 since the early games, and nobody is really complaining.
When it comes down to it, when it comes to console gaming, extra gimmicks are nice, but at the end of the day, its never really missed as long as the games are good.
The Wii though has had its whole foundation built around it, which appeals to completely different market!

also, don't forget, sammitch is a gigantic homo

He is a homo, but he likes gigantic homos, like Chewy!
The more gigantic, the better!

it's not. I just said it so rob would fire back with some of his a-list material.



and once again he disappoints. (see also name rob's website contest and jla's bowling trophy)

chewy doesnt have superior motion-sensing?

Sammitch is wireless!

Dayum.

weak sauce, bobo. I mean when I could generate better material than what you're crapping out in this thread...

Rex fucks socks! BSAMS wins!

it's true!

Rob is gay!

gay! is! nowhereman!

Rob fucks sea monkeys!

sea monkeys fuck nowhereman!

Nice "current" cartoon there Jermery!

The current sales figures for all 3 systems make interesting reading.
Its fully accepted that the 360 was never gonna sell that well in Japan against the two Jap consoles, but the US figures seem to also follow the same criteria, with the US machine being more popular than the Jap pair.

Worldwide sales figures

1. Wii: 24.45 million, as of March 31, 2008
2. Xbox 360: 19 million, as of April 25, 2008
3. PlayStation 3: 13 million, as of April 21, 2008

US sales figures

1. Xbox 360: 9.15 million, as of January 1, 2008
2. Wii: 7.38 million, as of January 1, 2008
3. PlayStation 3: 3.25 million, as of January 1, 2008


Granted there are a few months in between these sales figures, but it would suggest that outside the USA, the PS3 has sold 10 million, the 360 has sold 10 million and the Wii has sold 17 million.

Despite how much everyone says they hate Bill Gates, and how all his products are bugged, there still seems to be some sort of patriotic pride associated with console buying.
It also suggests that the apathy towards the PS3 is definetley more pronounced in the USA, which would explaing why half of whats said here about poor sales etc, makes no sense to anyone outside the USA.

I'd hazard a guess that the new Wii360 controller is mainly aimed at the US market, as I really dont see it cutting into the Wii's market domination in the rest of the world!

It will be interesting to see how US sales go on all three systems over this year, as I think its widely regarded that this year is gonna be the big make or break year for the PS3 and 360.

i think, in the US market's ps3 vs 360 battle, a lot has to do with two larger facts: 360 was (significantly) cheaper, and 360 had an 11 month head start. by the time playstation 3 launched, xbox already had a year's worth of software.

thats a similar advantage ps2 had over its competition in the previous generation, and while that wasn't their only advantage, that portion clearly worked out well for them.

in this gen, nintendo almost took itself out of competition in the fact that it, simply put, wont have the same games as the other two. its a different experience, for better or worse. 360 and ps3 are pretty similar to the average consumer. similar abilities, similar titles, similar features, etc. so price point and software balance was significant.

in europe, ps3 and 360 price points were closer together, with a cheaper ps3. production of the 360 was also slower to europe than the states -- both of those contributed to sales being more balanced over there.

in japan... thats a whole different world.

xbox is basically hated. the first one was too large, the controllers were enormous, and many of the most popular games for it were first person shooter types -- traditionally, a very unpopular japanese title. plus, throw in a little "who the fuck do these americans think they are" and boom, the system will never sell.

msoft did their best this time around in japan, but really the deck was stacked so heavily against them, it was always going to be an uphill battle. even some of the long-standing japanese developers made statements of disappointment about japanese consumers becuase there were some great games available, but they still refused to buy.

Ah, but remember Rob, the PS3 launched even later outside the US, yet sales have caught up dramatically, and the Wii has dominated outside the US.

Its not so much the 360 vs PS3 US sales that interest me, its the Wii vs the 360, and the fact that nearly 50% of the 360s worlwide sales come from the USA alone.

thats true. i still take nintendo out of the comparison, just because its a partially different product with a partially different audience. ps3 and 360 are much more similar to one another.

i forget, ps3 launched in europe on one date and UK in another, right? ...or was it just different price points?



that makes sense to me, though. US is the largest market. japan is a non market for microsoft. that leaves the smaller market in europe and very small "other" markets in austrailia and ...africa?

As far as I know, PS3 launched the same day all across the bulk of Europe, but it was some 6 months or so behind the US and Japan.

The 360 probably had an 18 month jump on the market here (only a handful of people would have bothered importing a US or Jap system).

Reading these figures though has been interesting for me as I have constantly been surprised, both here and on other boards when I have seen so many comments about the PS3 not selling, or the 360 being such a huge success.
I now begin to understand that from an Americans point of view, this is probably the case, but from a worldwide point of view it doesnt look that way.

I agree with you about the Wii not being such a factor in this version of the console war, as I have always said it appeals to a totally different customer base, it just surprises me that its not been more popular in the USA as it seems to be elsewhere.

I think the thing that has hurt the 360 most outside the USA is its reliability.
In a world where news becomes available so quickly via the internet, a product with a less than sterling reputation is gonna be hit hard very quickly.

One question though, when things are discussed, its usually US sales or European sales, with Europe obviously encompassing several countries, but does the US sales just include the actual country of America, or do they mean The Americas, as in the continent including Canada and South America?

generally speaking, no one cares about canadians, and south americans can't afford electricity, much less own video games.

this says march 23rd for europe, at 599 euros, £425 in the UK -- which is a good deal versus $600 in the states, right?



i know there's been major hardware shortage in the states versus the two markets. even now, i think i just read the US only gets 40-50% of the produced systems, instead of bumping it up to 70% or more to better tie into demand. its way more in short supply here than over seas.



the same could be said of the ps3, too. though the ps3 seems to be moving past its first year "growing pains" now, where as the 360 is still in the middle of them.

Once again, I dont see there was any problems with the PS3 in Europe.
The only sticking point for most people was the price, which even with the cheaper than US price point, was still too rich for some peoples money.
Both the 360 and Wii suffered from supply issues, but the 360 has compounded its problems with the various quality control issues (dodgy CD eject mechanism and red ring of death).

The other big issue with the PS3 last year, was as Rex has said in the past, the lack of decent titles has not helped its cause, but with the huge titles that have already hit or are due to hit in the next few months, the price drop and the blu ray win, the PS3 now has seen a significant rise in sales (sony even said that the sales of the PS3 increased significantly on the day GTA IV was released).

One thing I will say about the Wii and its success (as opposed to the Gaycube) is that some of its success has to be attributed to the fact they are now actually advertising it and its games quite heavily here, something they have never done before (the DS is the only other system they have heavily promoted here).