MontanaHatchet said:
I assume you meant a slump in hardware, not games. Thanks, im tired! In which case I would say that the slump was actually very slight, and that a lot of PS3 owners or prospective owners are people from a more hardcore crowd. So while the majority of Wii or DS owners wouldn't know if a new SKU was coming out or not, plenty of PS3 owners know about the 80 gig, especially those who follow a franchise as hardcore as Metal Gear Solid 4. Why else do you think sales would decrease when such an important game is soon to be released? I agree, the current PS3 crowd is probably the most hardcore as a group of any console. Expensive hardware meets a dedicated userbase. And really, while the games you listed can boost 360 sales, they'll never truly push them. At this point in its lifecycle, a lot of Xbox owners have upgraded or moved to the Wii (or possibly PS3, but that's very unlikely). The only prospective owners at this point would most likely be casual gamers, who are going to looks for games like DDR (which the 360 has). Microsoft has realized this and that's why they're focusing on reaching larger demographics with the X-Mote and Banjo 3 (of course those attempts will fail, but what are you gonna do?). The HD console market is A. Price constrained, B. Genre constrained, C. Sales beget sales - we hear ALL the time "All my friends own the PS3 and I live in the states" or vice versa. It doesn't make sense in a market where the Xbox360 has 2.5times the userbase that all of someones friends 5-10 consoles could all or mostly be PS3s for instance. So the conclusion I make is personal interaction drives console sales beyond the early adopters who rely on the net. I hope I don't have to argue that the HD console market in the United states is saturating at the current higher price levels, agreed? Now B. The traditionally quite casual action RPG genre has been pretty neglected so far on the HD consoles. They are key drivers of sales because they are both easy to get into and apeal to the general core gamers. We haven't had any good RPGs like these, its not like another shooter, these are people whose needs are not being met by the current offerings. Xbox1 owners have probably either been lost forever or have upgraded but I was never talking about them. This is where C connects to B, its personal interaction that drives sales from the hardcore - early adopters to the mainstream. These are recomendations from friends, the desire to play multiplayer with friends, and personal familiarity with the machines. The games that apeal to the core gamer usually have a strong human interaction component. Rockband - Guitar Hero 4 <-- 10million sales and rising - Halo 3 - Super smash bros - Wii Sports - Singstar. Games that have a strong social component and apeal to core gamers. These games I pointed out ALL have a Coop/Social element and they ALL are going to be easy to play relative to their respective genres. They will drive sales because its a genre that hasn't been tapped yet so if you're an action/western RPG fan theres a good chance you haven't bought a console yet. Its because of the social element of these games that it will drive the interactions in Xbox360 owners to draw even more people to purchase the console, just like the above example. If your friends own an Xbox360, your chances of buying a PS3 are reduced.
|
It doesn't make sense that this knowledge would be so widespread as to justify such a slump in games.Lastly, the Xmote sounds like a great idea because it has instant concept recognition. With so many people familiar with the Wiimote, microsoft doesn't have to educate people on their use. Furthmore since the Xbox360 has such a strong connection to the PC they can make as much use of it as Nintendo can with the Wii. There are so many options for them in this department, they can tap the biggest market for games. All they need is a mouse-like interface.
Tease.
