Sky Render said: I don't really recall any HD games I have played being particularly fun to me. Oh certainly, they have impressive visuals, but... Well, Oblivion quite frankly bored me with its dated gameplay. What little I tried of Motorstorm didn't impress me either; it just struck me as yet another racing game with an annoying "vehicle can fall apart" feature that made it unnecessarily harder. In fact, the only even remotely impressive high-resolution game I've seen (if it even counts as one) is Portal. Mostly because of its gameplay merits, not its visual ones. To put it another way: impressive visuals are nothing but what they are. If the game isn't fun, for me at least, I don't care if it does look pretty. I won't be replaying it, or likely even finishing it.  Saying that a game is good because the graphics are impressive is like saying that you're a good artist because you use the best paints money can buy.  The former is not implied by the latter in either case.

PREACH YOU CRAZY SQUIREL!! PREACH!!

Anyway, it's not really worth discussing any further. People will have their own opinions no matter what. Mine is that graphics matter less than gameplay, particularly at this point in time. Nobody's required to believe as I do. I just hope that you've gotten an understanding out of this that not everybody thinks along the same lines as you do about graphics, MikeB.

Sqrl said: I think you are both missing the point a bit actually. Consider this: "We do want games to become more and more visually impressive but we also want them to become more and more intuitively interactive. " And in that one statement I have just made there lies the key to this generation. Think about the technological path of both graphics and interactivity. Now ask yourself the question which one of these has been focused on almost to the complete exclusion of the other. Which one of these is pushing the limits of technology and which one of these could greatly benefit from new changes and could easily be coupled with existing technology to make leaps and bounds improvements? The answers should be fairly obvious and if they are then you are probably the sort of person that understands why the Wii is successfull even if you don't like it for those reasons (or at all). This whole generation can be boiled down to these basic principles. The PS3 and 360 were pushing the graphical envelope and the result is that their technology is ahead of the "cost effective curve". This is of course why Nintendo's decision to focus on the underdeveloped area of interactivity has been so successful. Because not only are they on the correct side of the "cost effect curve" but they are also showing major and tangible improvements. Again some may not agree but the sales say that most people do agree. In any case both of these are important aspects to pushed and it is not a bad thing that Sony and MS want to push the graphical envelope. It is however a bad thing that the pushed themselves beyond the curve to achieve it. I look forward to when consoles are pushing the envelope on interactivity and graphics together because that will truly be an amazing generation, I can only hope it will have neural interfaces as well.

DANG YOU SQUIRRELS ARE SO DEEP! PREACH YOU DRUNKEN SQUIRREL, PREACH!!

I just want to make it clear that I agree with both of the Squirrels' comments and I wasn't making fun of the comments but I did find the Avatars to be funny. And also the fact that they are both Squirrels.

Ja Mata!

my PRediction...

Wii ~50 million
360 25 million
ps3 20 million

as to Next Generation- you know the one that comes out in ~3 years or so...

the "Wii2" is going to offer imo the most significant upgrade graphically and processor power wise vs the other two- while the other two- if they come out with new consoles- will receive minor graphic upgrades, a decent processor upgrade and...as to controller imo they will start copying the motion control scheme more.

2008: Year of the PS3 and Wii.

Affordable HDTVs will be the norm, BluRay will take off, and cost reductions will drop the price to $299/299EUR by fall of 2008 (we may even see a $349 model by spring). Sony is already getting a huge boost thanks to the strength of the euro - all those Eurozone sales means plush margins. Microsoft simply doesn't have the studio network, next-gen media capacity or long-term strategic vision necessary to compete against Sony. That's not the fault of its game division, which has worked hard, or its console, which is a fine platform, it's the fault of top management's penny wise, pound foolish policies.

MikeB said: @ Shams You seem to distinguish between console (home console) and handheld (handheld console) yourself as well. Did the success of the Gameboy Color hurt the PSX? Did the Gameboy Advance hurt Playstation 2 sales or help GameCube sales in any significant way? Did the success of the Playstation 2 or the Gameboy marginalize the PC gaming market?

 Yes, the DS is taking RPG's away from the other video game machines. They are competing in the same market. The DS is taking the casual titles from the other video game machines. They are competing in the same market. The DS is taking away development dollars from all the other video game machines. They are competing for the same entertainment dollars.

@ Sqrl

Not due the advancement of game complexity (not meaning complex to play or anything like that) and graphics.

Six main reasons why I thought the Wii would sell like it does, before the Wii launched:

1) GameCube discontinued
2) Relatively cheap, but (despite low specs,
3) still looks fresh due to) Motion sensing, fun new novelty gameplay (and)
4) Cute form factor
5) Popular game franchises, brandname people grew up with playing.
6) Targetting new groups of people like Grandparents and good brandname reputation for producing cute kids games.

This may explain why I never was much surprised like others the Wii sold like hotcakes and likewise I won't be surprised when sales start to slow significantly in the future.



The graphics and processing potential of the PS3 would result in a more expensive device for the short run killing one of the Wii's most profound advantages at this point.

Of course I agree there's a lot of potential with regard to input devices, Amiga based solutions pioneered with motion sensing enabled virtual reality (head and hand tracking in games, sword games, tennis, boxing, FPS, etc) and the Amiga Joyboard (balance board) from the early eighties was rather similar to Wii-Fit (surfing and skiing games). It was clear there's a lot of potential for games in the future for such innovations back then.

Sony also introduced the Eyetoy and games like Eye Sports for the Playstation 2, of course the PS3 includes Eyetoy support and motion sensing as well, for example the flying levels in Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction are a lot of fun where motion sensing really adds to the experience.

I would love to see a Wii-mote-like device for the PS3 (technically only needs a Wii-mote driver), but in no circumstance would I want such a device as a complete replacement for the Sixaxis controller, IMO for the majority of games I care about the Sixaxis controller is far more suitable.

@ Sky Render

Niche? The PS2 is being played on by a majority of gamers, sorry to say but currently the Wii is also just a niche market, the PS2 has to deal with market saturation (more than 120 million userbase) but still is selling like hotcakes!

We are so early in this generation the Wii hasn't even pased total GameCube sales...

@ fkusumot 

Handheld gaming does not kill home console RPG demand, the home console RPG market is doing very well. Sure the DS eats up developer work hours, but DS games are relatively easy to make due to the simple nature of the games, but in all honesty allthough developer companies want to earn a quick buck on the DS, most game developers are gamers too and the best devs like to challenge their imagination and creativity and for this a higher specced system is often needed.

Movie maker talents, Music making talents, writing talents, etc, etc could also be redirected towards game development...