| Procrastinato said: An interesting thread, Squill. I have a few questions (for anyone): (1) What would the current market look like, if all three major HW manufacturers had taken the Wii route/model from the last gen to this one? (2) Is the Wii software situation a sustainable one for all market demographics? (3) Is there a demographic vacuum the Wii doesn't cover well? How large is it? Will it grow as the industry matures, or shrink? (4) If all manufacturers made Wii-like consoles (low-cost, profitable "razors"), what would happen if a new company entered the picture, and introduced a low-cost razor that used the "make money on blades" model, in the face of multiple-Wii-like competitors? |
1. Impossible to say.
2. I believe the Wii software situation came about in part because the good third party developers migrated away from the system whereas the small, bad or mad developers were left with a choice to either develop for the Wii or not develop at all. It relates back to the first statement as well because with a different market dynamic there are different rules to follow.
3. Obviously it doesn't cover the people that don't like the interface just as the current HD consoles definately don't cover their interface. Aside from that im not sure what you're asking. Are you asking are there large demographics of people who would have abstained from this generation of consoles if the performance was not offered? Yes probably as there are a lot of ex pc gamers in the ranks of console gamers as we have seen with the rise of genres which were formally in the PC realm like WRPG and shooters. In the longer term it will probably shrink as even greater multiples of performance are needed for appreciable improvements in visual quality and the gap between a bleeding edge console and a mainstream one shrinks.
4. Its extremely difficult to break into the industry as is. I wouldn't rank it as a plausible problem personally, almost every new entrant to the industry has been burnt.
Tease.
Essay Pro