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Resident_Hazard on 14 May 2011
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brendude13 said:
Resident_Hazard said:

The Xbox360 appeals mostly to hardcore gamers and Western-focused gamers.

The PS3 appeals mostly to Japanese-focused games, and people who just gotta have the HD movies.

The Wii appeals mostly to family types, and those looking for something fun to play in a group setting at home that isn't as intensive as, say, Gears of War or Halo or Killzone.  

 

I agree about the Wii, but not about the PS3 or the XBOX 360.

It is a common misconception that the XBOX 360 is a "hardcore" console, but I think it is almost as casual as the Wii. Violence and gore doesn't mean it's a hardcore game, the vast majority of the XBOX 360 exclusives and top sellers are shooters, which are casual games. For a lot of people, the XBOX 360 is their first console that they own or bought for themselves. In my class, there is a clear divide between gamers. My friends are hardcore gamers and they own plenty of consoles such as the Dreamcast etc, and they all went for the PS3. The people in my class who aren't REALLY into gaming, they just pick up a shooter every now and then, they own XBOX 360's.

The problem is, because I own both consoles, I'm not really accepted by either side.

Anyway, onto the PS3. That is true that a lot of the games are Japanese-focused (which is a very good thing for me), but I would also say the PS3 is about variety. With the PS3, there is something for everyone, which is why the PS1 and PS2 were so successful, problem was, from 2006 - 2008 there was NOTHING for everyone, hence the reason why the Wii took off. I do like to play a nice variety of games, but the main reason I own the PS3 is for those blockbuster games, the games that are masterpieces and hailed as some of the greatest games of all time. As soon as MGS4 released I knew I had to get a PS3, it was totally worth it.

For the Wii, I would say it's for families, but I would also say it's for hardcore gamers aswell. The reason why I love the Wii so much is it's simple, none of this online account and trophies crap, it's just pure gaming. Simple, cheap and fun. Backwards compatibility with the Gamecube is a huge incentive to buy it aswell.


You've got a point that the Xbox360 has been able to reach the casual crowd with success with the Kinect, and some of the earlier games.  I don't count violence and gore as hardcore gaming, though.  It's more tha the Xbox360 put very little or no focus on non-gaming things originally--such as surfing the net on the system, or playing  moveis.  It was marketed as a game machine first, and everything else were bonuses. 

Sony, on the other hand, initially marketed the PS3 as a kind of "central media hub" for your home that "also does video games."  And the Blu-Ray player was intended to appeal very strongly to hardcore movie fanatics, in the way DVD sales rocketed the PS2 to prominance.  

When I worked for Best Buy, I had to sell game consoles to people (worked in the games section), and the main idea was that I "found the right console for the right person."  This is where I first noticed how surprisingly different the Xbox360 and PS3 could be, and that they would indeed be better suited to one type of person over another.  Talking to customers, there was good reasons for a certain system to go home with a certain person.  Kinect and Move really helped seperate the two companies.