PlayStation "Move"....

[joeorc]

Gamer1211 said:

Before I start I wanted to say that I am not a Sony or Microsoft fan.  I have both consoles and really have no need to bash either.  Both have their pros and cons; really no reason to bitch about a specific one.

I watched Sony’s GDC presentation yesterday which focused on their new motion controller, the “Move”.  During E3 last year I was not really surprised that they were developing a motion controller; however, I was surprised that they were directly trying to compete with Nintendo.  After watching and reading the GDC coverage from yesterday’s press conference, I think Sony has taken a significant step in the wrong direction. 

Essentially, the Move is an advanced version of Nintendo’s Wii-Mote.  It definitely looks like it, apparently feels like it and has a significant amount of software based off of the same principles that have made the Wii so successful (reference http://wii.ign.com/articles/107/1076600p1.html.    If Sony is going after the casual market with this thing (which they obviously are), is it not a little late for them to enter the market with a non-differentiated product?  Sure Sony will have “Move Enabled” games catering to the hardcore gamer (Ex. Socom 4); however, the point of this thing is to capture a new market not serve an existing one.  If I was a casual gamer why on earth would I buy a bundled Move-PS3?  I could go get a Wii which has more software catered to my tastes, is cheaper and is far more established in this space.      

I am not saying that the move and to a broader extent the PS3 doesn’t have a good value proposition; what I am saying is that their go-to-market strategy is not viable if they are targeting the casual gamer.       

The PS3 is a great console and IMO, has the best 1^st party line-up.  God of War 3, Uncharted 2, GT5, etc, are among (or will be among) the best titles released this generation on any console.  IMO it would have made a lot more sense for Sony to focus solely on the hardcore market by continuing to release amazing hardcore games.  This is especially notable this year since Microsoft has a lot of good games in their pipeline this year (Reach, Fable, Splinter Cell, Alan Wake etc.).  Why not focus on eliminating Microsoft from this space?  Why not try to take over the online space and create an offering that can effectively compete with Live?  Why not try to innovate something that caters to who is interested in buying your product rather than releasing something that already exists?

What are your thoughts on the Move and Natal and their effect on the causal gaming market?  Also, do you agree or disagree with Sony’s approach?                

 

I think it's less about the casual market as more about the "Wii cannot sell hardcore software" which we know is false, but by offering something like the Wii developer's could indeed what would have been exclusive Wii only HARDCORE game's from 3rd party , now there would be 2 Platform's with pretty much the same control scheme

porting 3rd party app's which compete with 1st party Nintendo App's have a tendency to favor Nintendo not 3rd party's . this way they can get more sales for the 3rd party.

this I think is more about getting more 3rd party developer's to put their Wii only application's now on the PS3 also.