The 360's weakness is now its strength

[Bodhesatva]

MikeB said:
I agree with you, most XBox 360 owners are FPS fans, so releasing a game like Halo 3 will do very well amongst its userbase as will other shooters. The Wii has a much larger percentage of yound kids and females playing, while PS3 and XBox 360 is preferred by older teen and mature males.

I do applaud the approach of game diversity though, games like Singstar and Ratchet & Clank can be enjoyed by the whole family. On the PS3 there's still a lot to keep the hardcore FPS fan satisfied with good 3D shooters like Warhawk, Resistance, Unreal Tournament 3 and Call of Duty 4. I think having a large game diversity is good for the long run, eventually there will be a slimline PS3 for kids to afford and there will be a nice selection of games to choose from.

Killzone 2 (and of course Metal Gear Solid 4)I think will be very important for the PS3 to be more viewed as the ultimate shooter console, I think that in people's eyes offering the best is more important than the amount of games offered within the gerne (quality above quantity). Personally I applaud the addition of light hearted games like Snakeball and LittleBigPlanet to it's games library as I'm not the type of guy who plays 3D shooters all day long and like the ability to play some game with my girlfriend (she hates FPS games, she loves Motorstorm, R&C, Super Stardust HD, Super Ruba Dub, Fl0w though, of the PS2 games she likes Ape Escape 2&3 but for instance doesn't feel like playing God of War games although see likes to watch me playing these unlike FPS games).

 Entirely possible, Mike, and I do agree from a purely philosophical perspective that a well rounded library is better. As a game player, as well, there is probably more on the PS3 that I would want to play than on the 360, because I personally tend to prefer the Afrikas and the Viva Pinatas to the Killzones and Gears of Wars. 

But from a sales perspective, it isn't clear, and it may end up that Uncharted and Ratchet style games wasted resources (again, from a purely economic perspective). Let me put this in a crude but clear manner: if the Wii is going to take 90% of child and female gamers no matter what you do, wouldn't it be best to put a hugely disproportionate amount of your company's resources into capturing males age 18-30? Because all that money spent trying to capture younger and less masculine audiences is essentially going into a pit.

Again, this entirely assumes the Wii continues to remain dominant in all demographics outside males age 18-30, which it may not. But if it does... well, again, the 360's weakness becomes its strength.