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IIIIITHE1IIIII on 12 March 2012
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RolStoppable said:
IIIIITHE1IIIII said:

That's one side of the coin, but the Wii is special: The word of mouth does not apply to motion controls as it's something that they have to try out to fully enjoy.

You can't compare download play to split-screen as it means that all players involved already owns a 3/DS, and then will want to be able to play the game at home, possibly with his/her friend through the internet. Playing split-screen on the other hand let everyone share the same hardware, which is the true money maker for Nintendo. I remember from my own experience how I never bought a Playstation since I could go to my friend's house anyway, and even more people came home to me to play Nintendo 64 and Gamecube since they didn't own one themselves.

The one-save-file policy does actually push sales in cases like Mario Kart 7. Me and my brother used to share the same cartridge but using my username and knowing that all progress made where going straight to me, he felt a need to get his own copy of the game. Had there been several save files he might as well just kept sharing it with me.

Really? So games don't need to be tried out to be fully enjoyed or what?

Your argument against download play makes no sense for your position. You say that download play leads to purchases of software, because people will want to play the game at home. By the way, the big money in the video game business is in the software, that goes for Nintendo as well. The story about your youth probably doesn't hold true for your current lifestyle anymore. Besides, it's just an anecdote. I am not saying that your experiences are lies, but it's foolish to assume that one's personal experiences are equal to those of most (or even all) other people.

If you want to strengthen your argument, you should name some examples where splitscreen gameplay hurt a game's sales.


The big money is in the hardware because I'm pretty certain few people only buy one single software for it. How is that not clear?

I said that comparing the download play to splitscreen makes no sense since it means you've already bought a system (and thus will likely buy several titles for it), while splitscreen gives gamers a reason not to buy the console altogether. That's where my personal experiences enter the picture. I never assumed that those experiences are equal to most people, but a substantial part.

This is not about splitscreen hurting single game's sales, but stopping potential console buyers.