| Scizor_99 said: 1. It isn't actually. Sony and Microsoft initially had much bigger problems on their hands. Their platforms weren't selling too well at the time and they had very negative attention from both the media and developers. They had to ensure that they didn't lose the third-party support which had been so integral to their brands while making sure their own games were hard-hitters. They also had to take the time to properly to develop these peripherals, which may not have been a top priority as opposed to other projects given they didn't target their core markets. It isn't unreasonable to suggest that Sony and Microsoft invested a considerable amount more into the peripherals they were already developing after the levels of success that the Wii achieved. 2. The eyetoy was reasonably popular for a peripheral, but your standard of comparison was the Wii. The Wii sold over a hundred million units, and is owned by pretty much every gamer despite their gaming preferences. When people think of motion controls, they think of the Wii. Most don't remember the Eyetoy. |
Not sure what planet you were living on when the Xbox 360 launched, as it did perfectly fine, sales for the xbox 360 were strong enough by 2007 to negate any issue with introducing new tech if they had planned on doing - instead they released their additions when the wii bubble had already burst, which if they were doing to "jump on board" would be a huge mistake both commercially and financially if their focus was solely on copying nintendo.
Another point to make is, this is freaking Microsoft, if they wanted to release something they would do, they arent exactly short on pocket change.
additionally, the kinects release in late 2010 was a cut down version of the tech they actually bought, it isnt outlandish to assume that the cut down version (using software solutions to band-aid fix the removal of hardware processing on the first kinect) was a cost saving measure to, along with the 500m in advertising, push the concept to the public to set the tone and sell consumers on the concept knowing that the system that would eventually replace it (xbox one) would be a prime component.
The PSEye is simply an evolutionary step for their existing hardware in the eyetoy which, for a hardware addon, saw relatively high success as outlined by one of the key titles for it selling over 4.2 million, again though my point in going in to these technologies is in response to the frankly shocking generalization that people make to claim the pseye and kinect are "direct responses to the wii", which is actually, genuinely, laughable.
As i have said, clearly, the only "direct response" that makes any sense when drawing comparisons, is the sixaxis controller, despite the dualshock 3 having the same functionality very few games released later in the playstation 3's life actually try to use these features other than to aleviate configurations or free up other buttons.
Claiming the pseye and kinect are direct responses to the wii, is as inaccurate and ludicrous as claiming the wii is a response to the eyetoy.
Also, in your last point, you are comparing CURRENT wii sales to 4 year old periperals when covering the reason for said peripherals release - the wii was hovering around 65m when these peripherals hit the mainstream, and as illustrated in prior posts, development of said peripherals was in progress before the actual release of the wii.
What it boils down to is that there are some similarities between the kinect/kinect2 and eyetoy/pseye, but essentially all three systems use completely different approaches and deliver three completely different levels of accuracy, none of which were a response to one another but simply an end point to different routes of research and development, we just have the unfortunately situation where Nintendo fans (despite not being the first company to do so) lay claim to motion controls with vigour and claim everyone else simply "copied".
The reality of that is simply that the wii's success hinged more on it's lower price point and the glut of childrends tv-show themed shovelware that capitolized on the younger generations that made up a large portion of its userbase, evidence of this can be found in the changing trends of children and what is "popular" in the school yard, the wii had the benefit of being the must-have kids toy for a fair few years, that crown now belongs to minecraft and mobile devices.
So i reitterate that point, a large portion of the Wii's success was down to the price, shovelware and timing, successfully putting it into kids "must have" list, as if kid a at school had one, kids b through d want one too, the "innovative motion controls" us forum goers discuss in ernest mean very little to a large portion of wii owners, who so clearly, by now, have their wii collecting dust on a top shelf or in the bottom of a toybox, because they have either grown up beyond the age of wanting the shovelware kids-show based games that were rife on the system or said shovelwares frequency of release has dropped considerably (which, looking at the consoles decline, curves almost perfectly with the falling sales).
Nintendo fans arent going to like reading that, but it's just the way it is.
Essay Pro