What Qualifies a Console as a Success?

[ookaze]

I have a very different thinking actually. As a disclaimer, I'm from Europe, and I'm a casual gamer, who stopped playing games at end of the PS1 era (last game was FFIX IIRC), and was lured back to gaming at the end of the Gamecube era. I don't think Nintendo want to be 1st. I rather think that Nintendo wants to sell a decent number of consoles. By decent, I mean in the 40+ M. They were on a downward spiral until then, and I think they want to stop that and sell decently. They already are the most profitable in the console business, so that's not a goal. Being profitable is a requirement they always achieved before. I don't think MS wants to be 1st either. But I think they want to be ahead of Sony at all costs in every market, because the multimedia offering of Sony is threatening their Windows business. They're bleeding money for that to this date. I think it's in the 6+ billions loss for now. As for Sony, I'm sure they want to stay number one in all three markets. You think Sony has no chance to catch up to the others, but I can't be so sure. PS3 is not released in every market yet, has still to have a price cut (XB360 already had big rebates for christmas, which is the same), and have not its blockbuster titles released on it yet. I'm talking of FFXIII, MGS4, GT5. You're also assuming a lot about europeans. They've not the same tastes as UK or the USA. I highly doubt the demographic is appealed to FPS and other shooters. I say this because it seems like this is the main demographic of people playing on XB360 : those who love shooters and racers (and lots of polygons with lots of effects). Most game genres are represented on playstation though. So why do you think people are more likely to own a XB360 in Europe ? Surely not for FPS. As for better online play, I really don't see what's going to be better on XB360. Some of the features work in the USA, with a huge population of english speaking people. But I simply don't see sth like for example, communicating with others, working so well in Europe, where lots of people just don't speak the same language. Most people playing online on computers in Europe basically have at least good english speaking basis. And this demographic is already far from the typical console player or even the younger (or older) ones. BTW, I'm a Wii owner, and I plan on buying a PS3. But of course, not until a price cut and I've got at least 3 games I want on it. But it's likely I'll reach the 3 games on PS3, but completely unlikely on XB360. And both consoles are at such high prices, that I have to think twice before buying one of them. And yet, I could buy both if I wanted, but there's just no point. I estimate demographics by behaviour. To make it simple (I know these are biased, they're my opinion) : - graphics whore : they will constantly argue about their console having better graphics, will talk mostly about graphics, and won't ever even consider buying the other similar console, even if it has games they want. They will always go for what they perceive as the best console graphics wise. They will review if a game is bad or good on a screenshot alone. A corollary is that they'll buy mostly AAA games. - casual gamer : they will buy the console they perceive as the best suited for them, based on commercials, demos, sales people, .... Same for games. A game will last them 6+ months. - gamer : they will buy the consoles that has the games they want. They will read reviews of games and try to test them to see if they're to their taste or not. A game will last them 1+ month. - hardcore gamer : like the gamer, but they will also finish several games a month. I put the guy with 2+ consoles in the gamer or hardcore gamer crowd for this generation. With the previous generation, you could be a gamer and buy 2+ consoles. With this gen, it's way harder, given the prices, except if you go for the Wii. Finally, I still think today, that consoles are released too closely from each other. I think 6 years is a good lifetime, and it seems to me 7 years is even better. I see that the consoles features are maxed out after 4 years of developing for them. All of this is caused by these wars. I see Nintendo has always been behind in releases, perhaps to reach this 6 years lifetime. Anyway, they sure enough didn't follow the mad race of others to have the biggest console. Perhaps that's why they're the only ones that are the most profitable. We'll see if their vision pays off. The problem as I see it, is that console gaming, already having bad reputation, is becoming more and more expensive, and the console releases are more and more close to each other. To me, the fact that PS2 is still outselling evey home console in 2006 is telling that people already can't and won't follow the trend.