Biggest Mistake In Gaming History? No.

PS3's 600$ launch price and Nintendo losing third party support because of lack of CD storage rank higher in my opinion.

To answer the question: No not the biggest mistake in gaming history. At least not yet. Let's see what Kinect can do next gen before a final verdict is given.

Wiimote was the next big thing this gen. Kinect might be the next big thing next generation. Despite being useable in precision games it still lacks the precision that a mouse, controller, steering wheel provides. Perhaps Kinect 2 will get a huge precision boost, but I don't see it replacing hand held controls for most precision games. Unlike, say Move and Wiimotion plus whaich can replace traditional hand held controls because they are equivalent to, and in some cases superior to non-motion controllers (see Move vs DS3 for FPS games).

A small part of me dioed from laughing at this thread. xD kenect did well because it was given a stupidly huge marketing champain. Ever heard of a PSP eye? same tech just a little less powerfull ^^

Funny thread. Passing on Kinect tech wasn't really a mistake for many reasons, and it certainly wasn't the Biggest Mistake of Gaming. Personally, I think Nintendo letting Sony into the games market handily fulfils that criteria. All because of a little CD dispute Nintendo had to suffer through not just the PS1, but the PS2, and those years were very bad for Nintendo. It would even be fair to say that if not for Sony and it's living room ambitions that extended far beyond just games (which is what Nintendo focussed on), that mistake could even be blamed for inviting Microsoft into the industry. Nintendo, kick yourself now. You should never forget.

i got banned for saying it was a mistake for capcom to make monster hunter on wii instead of ps3 so give me a good reason why you shouldnt get banned for this?

and the truth is that if i answered this question honesty, i would most likely get another ban.

all im going to say is that im glad sony went for OPTIONAL motion controls and not forced ones which would make games like starhawk, uncharted and twisted metal crumble.....thats if they would still be made instead of creating a 10 year old boy with family issues.

When are people going to drop the "hardcore" "casual" argument. That is really the most retarded thing I've ever heard. It's irrational to try to downplay a game by calling it "casual". A game is a game 

I think it's more how it was a great decision for MS to get Kinect. They clearly had a better vision of what to do with it. They had the money to invest and market it unlike the other two. 

Sadly, Kinect is the kind of stuff that makes you focus on it, the hardware sold too well not to support, so ms is going to rely on third to feed the hardcore while they feed the casuals. 

@Chibi

While marketing may be important to market penetration. Recognition and interest in a product will not sell a product. It is part of a equation, and it is the variable given the least weight. The product still must fulfill a need. Have the right price point. Be of significant quality. Marketing is something added at the tail end. Everything else up front is being multiplied. I highly doubt you will find anyone in this thread that is going to argue that marketing alone sold them on buying a console.

Marketing might make for more disproportionate sales on impulse purchases. A console peripheral that costs a little less then the console itself. Now that is not a impulse buy. When people have to cough up a $150 for something they tend to actually weigh the pros and cons. They have to be able to rationally justify the purchase. Commercials cannot make that argument for them.

The Kinect is a very good product as far as peripherals go. People are just not that stupid as to fork out a good bit of cash simply, because a commercial told them to do that. There are a lot of heavily advertised products that fail miserably. The plain truth is that all the advertising in the world that can sell expensive crap. For one hundred and fifty bucks the product simply has to be good.

No they didn't, they had a superior example to follow.

I agree that it was a huge mistake, but perhaps not the biggest. I think if Sony got the kinect, they would have messed up its success by making the kinect bundles priced to high. Also, the wii would not have had sales pick up as much since they practically have that market. What I am saying is that if Nintendo had the kinect, I believe stand alone models would be far greater than console bundles. In other words, it would not have really pushed hardware as much as it did the 360. The 360 was the perfect console for it to launch on imo.