| kingofwale said: >Do you, kingofwale, believe that the playstations, including the original and the Playstation 2, did not suffer from a deluge of shovelware? If you do, then what is it about the DS and the Wii that would justify restricting developers when a lack of restrictions has not been a problem on Sony's systems? I have many other questions for you, but I assure you we're all waiting on tenterhooks for you to answer this question first. I look forward to your response.
I absolutely agree, there are TONS of crap on PS1 and PS2, which was the reason why I skipped both gen. HD consoles right now are way too expensive for a developer to produce on for a quick buck. that's reason number 1... Number 2 is that for people to commit 200-500 bucks on a console, those are normally people who enjoy gaming and more likely to check out reviews before they shop. So less chance they'd pick up trash... that's reason number 1. I do think we can all agree that shovelware problem on PS1 and PS2 are not nearly as bad as those on DS at this point. |
Thank you for the prompt response. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you: I had a minor emergency to deal with. I'd like to begin with your last point, if I may. I do not, in fact, agree that the DS is experiencing a bigger shovelware problem that the playstations have. I invite you to browse the PS2 section of games. Organize them by sales. You'll discover that starting at about six crap like "Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks" and "Derby Stallion 04" start to rear their ugly heads. Be warned that you still have roughly fourteen more pages of games to wade through, before you begin to run into duplicates and untracked games.
The DS has stuff like "Paws and Claws" show up on page 4, but you'll reach the end eleven pages later. I would also point out that because many DS games are still selling, some good games like The World Ends With You and Soma Bringer are still stuck in the "shovelware" section, something that's less true for the PS2. To me, that makes it pretty clear that the crap-to-cream ratio is about equally low...
And that being the case, why should Nintendo take a paternalistic stance towards gamers? If you'll like at the sales figures for both the PS2 and the DS, the "shovelware section" that I just highlightedis filled with games with comparatively low sales. Obviously, those companies made enough back to stay in business, but as I said earlier, they do not seem to have gotten their mitts on as many of the soccer moms as you fear. I'll admit that there are 200 thousand poor souls out there who got stuck with "Hamsterz Life", but considering the DS has an install base of roughly 80 million, that's an incredibly miniscule amount of people for Nintendo to "protect" from themselves. People didn't need protection from shovelware in the 90s, or during this millenium, and I still haven't seen anything to indicate that they need protection now.
I would also disagree with your assertion that because a PS3 is more expensive, it is "way too expensive for a developer to produce on for a quick buck." Unless, of course, you feel that "Transformers: The Game" or "My Summer Holidays 3" are actually big-budget games with high production values. There are more examples, if you want to look through them.
In short, just because it's expensive to make a good game for the PS3, that does not mean it is expensive to produce shovelware for it. I don't have enough data to judge whether you are correct about PS3 owners being more likely to read reviews for the games they buy, but since part of the appeal of the PS3 is supposed to be that it is also a Blu-Ray player (the cheapest one available, in fact), I strongly suspect that many people are purchasing it for that reason. The low software sales that the PS3 has been experiencing are, I believe, indicative of that, with Smash Brothers Brawl alone outselling the entire PS3 line-up in America this March. However, I freely admit that I could be way off base here, and if you'd point me to sources that indicate that, I would be most appreciative.
In short, shovelware is not a new phenomenom, and even the Playstation 3 has not proven immune to it. Since there was no need to protect consumers from the ravages of developers during earlier years, why would Nintendo need to do so now? It would only prove self-destructive in the end.
