| Shameless said: Also, do you think it's possible the Wii's sales will be cut down by the introduction of Sony and Microsoft's waggle-motes when they reach a similar price-point to the Wii? |
Probably not.
The Wii is penetrating the non-gamer market by the fact that the console presents itself as something other than a console. The Wii holds a meticulously-crafted image designed to push into that market segment, and I don't mean just the fact that it has a motion controller which allows you to play sports games or exercise.
Take the Miis, for example: they're crafted to be adorable caricatures used as avatars of the people in your house. Even the Miis designed to look like Freddy, Jason or Chuckie have this innate cuteness about them which makes them harmless and approachable. This is why the Wii is creating new players, because Nintendo figured out what kept people from liking games and buying consoles and came up with a solution.
Then there's the fact that the Wii is a slick little box which barely looks like a console at all. Add any controller you want to the PS360, but they're still obtuse, massive rectangles with no sense of design having gone into their creation. Their Mii rip-offs look bizarre and have an edge to them which makes them unappealing.
I don't want to cite Maelstrom's "Birdman" article, but it really is the most succinct method of pointing out why Sony and MS just don't get it. All they see is a remote-shaped controller. They don't seem to be grasping the underlying psychology behind the Wii which is what's making it so successful.
I'm betting the Xmote/PS3mote will have far too many buttons and will be intimidating to the non-gamer market. I also bet they'll release patches for existing games like Halo 3 which will allow use of the Xmote and completely unbalance the game because the core gameplay is designed around analogue sticks (just like RE4 on Wii was ridiculously easy on professional mode because the difficulty of analogue aiming was intrinsic to the challenge).
"I mean, c'mon, Viva Pinata, a game with massive marketing, didn't sell worth a damn to the "sophisticated" 360 audience, despite near-universal praise--is that a sign that 360 owners are a bunch of casual ignoramuses that can't get their heads around a 'gardening' sim? Of course not. So let's please stop trying to micro-analyze one game out of hundreds and using it as the poster child for why good, non-1st party, games can't sell on Wii. (Everyone frequenting this site knows this is nonsense, and yet some of you just can't let it go because it's the only scab you have left to pick at after all your other "Wii will phail1!!1" straw men arguments have been put to the torch.)" - exindguy on Boom Blocks
