Killergran said:
True, Wii Sports did it alone. But you forget that Wii Sports is what created the Wii image as 'fun'. It had a clean slate to start with. There was no other image attatched to the Wii before the 'fun' image. It was also a launch game, and noone expects there to be 200 awesome games at launch. Launch games are expected to define the image of the console for the ones that come after. The Xbox is currently deeply associated with... I don't have the right word, but the word that comes closest to it I would say is 'serious'. Halo, JRPG's, FPS's. These are all serious games. To wash away this image, you cannot simply make do with one single game. Look at Little Big Planet. As awesome as that game is, it really hasn't budged the image of the console. And the changes in image you are mentioning are not fundamental. They're strenghtening it, and polishing it. In Japan, it's still a 'serious' machine. It's not 'fun'. Imagine Ferrari (or whoever owns them) suddenly realizing that Honda make more money than they do. How would they go about to change the 'sporty and rich' image to a 'affordable, effecient and reliable' image? (The answer is they would introduce a new brand, of course. It's all too difficult to change the image of an existing brand.) |
The change to the console's image in Japan is fundamental. It was seen before as simply an outside console for a niche audience that enjoys games made by Western studios. It's now seen as a system that is accumulating an impressive library of Japanese made games and especially in genres it was never even mentioned in before.