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Kantor said: I think people overstate the importance of Wii Sports. It was basically a tech demo which was successful because it was bundled with the Wii and it showed off the Wii's controls, not for any other reason. It isn't objectively a very good or deep game. In that way, Nintendoland seems more likely Wii Sports than Mario 64. It's more "Look what our technology can do!" than "Look what we've managed to do with our technology!" It also isn't entirely fair to say that Wii Sports pushed Sony to go into motion control. They had the EyeToy in 2001, and at the same time they were demoing this: But as you say, we haven't seen a lot about Nintendoland. It could end up being the next Mario 64. |
Wii Sports was a lot more successful than you give it credit for. Not only did it basically establish the motion control paradigm, but most stories about the Wii being popular centred around Wii Sports - Wii Sports being played in nursing homes, Wii Sports being a hit at bars, Wii Sports being the game that gamers play with their families. It wasn't as "successful" with traditional gamers, at least the ones that spend a lot of time on the internet... but there's little doubt that Wii Sports is a major part of the Wii's success. So much so that Wii Sports Resort has sold nearly 30 million copies, and most of that is not bundled.
Remember, innovation isn't about going "look what our technology does" or "look what we managed to do with our technology" - it's about establishing something that becomes a norm, taking something that has never before been successfully implemented, and implementing it successfully.
And I'm sorry, but until the Wii was a massive success, Sony treated the Eyetoy as just a minor peripheral, and showed no interest in motion controls of any greater significance. Note that the only eyetoy title that sold more than 450,000 copies was the original EyeToy Play (which managed a significant 4.2 million... but nothing was ever able to follow it up). While a few games had EyeToy functionality included, most of those were games where the EyeToy was basically used to take a picture and use it in-game somewhere. EyeToy was an innovation... but was never intended as an innovation of game control.
Sony likes to go "we've had it in development for a long time"... but the fact of the matter is, they only added motion controls to the PS3 (sixaxis) in response to Nintendo's unveiling, and more generally, were very critical of the Wii remote's design... right up until they announced Move. Penny Arcade made the point very well.
Sony may theoretically have been working on motion controls at the time that the Wii was announced... but there's no indication that it was ever heading anywhere. Sony added motion controls to the Sixaxis... yet most people forget it even has motion support, seemingly including Sony themselves.
