Well you are here arguing on a forum designed for Video Games.  You tell me what casual gamer would give a damn what someone says about video games?  Ahhh I know what you did.  You assume that I'm a Sony fanboy, therefore I must be the center of the universe.  Nope, sorry, not that.  If I were I wouldn't have a 360, and wouldn't have had a Xbox in the last generation as well.  Also I wouldn't have gotten addicted to WoW because I'd be too busy playing with my Playstation and reading all things Sony. 

I'm just giving you an alternate example on what people may want to do in the future when it comes to video games and systems. 

Did I even say anything about Sony?

You specifically said "Everyone on this forum are hardcore gamers and that is the reason we are here." That is simply not accurate. If you want to give your opinion fine, but don't go around spreading inaccurate information.

some of us just want to know what the actual gamers think, and hopefully, once in a while, read an argument that actually makes sense.

in general there's too much squabbling, unfortunately. 

 Decent argument but unfortunately that is a miss-informed one.

Especially your comments about going directly for a hardcore market and going for the core and hardcore gamers because they will buy 5 - 10 games a year... unfortunately the number of people who purchase that number of games WORLD WIDE are in the minority when compared to the sheer volume of the casual and lower level crowd.

Saying that Nintendo is taking a bad tactic is completely un-heralded as well, you don't understand the videogame market on a very wide level.  Hardcore gamers such as yourself are a good breed, heck I'm one of them, but I know I'm in a minority market (when compared to the overall number of potential players).  

Part of the positivity of Nintendo's tactic with selling the Wii with Wii Sports is that they have a different range of games that are coming that suit these people more than gamers (More Wii Sports, Big Brain Academy, Wii Health, Wii Music), while they also have the Nintendo 'fanboys' which they can please with their core games, the Mario, Zelda, Metroid etc games that you are sick of, however there are legions of Nintendo fans that will follow these games to the death forever.

Nintendo have tried to form a hardcore market and going directly against Sony and Microsoft in the last generation could be considered a failure, they brought out games like Eternal Darkness, RE Remakes etc to try and rope in the older crowds, but these just served to appease the Nintendo fans rather than drawing in new customers.  Therefore they are shaping a new market for themselves from people who would have otherwise been estranged from gaming since they became to complicated or who have never really been into games before, it has worked successfully with the DS and it will work successfully with the Wii and there is no doubt in my mind about that.

Unfortunately your mind is quite closed minded to Nintendo's position on the market.

[quote]To myself I start to think that much of the hype of the wii is from the "Pokemon" generation of gamers that are older and are starting to earn a disposable income. (Just a joke, I'm having fun with this. :P ) I'm thinking that they may have corrupted and brain washed the followers to "buy a Wii, your friends will love you and you will be cool!". There is nothing that really gets my attention from Nintendo. Of all those "Must have" games that are coming out, how many involve Mario? Link? Donkey Kong? Samus from Metroid? I think at my last count it was around 80% of the games listed by another poster above. (It could be higher as the name may not have had "Mario" in the title like 40% of them.) I grew up with those characters since I was a kid, and honestly, I'm tired of them. Nintendo seems to be very good at manipulating the fans of Nintendo by saturating the market with rehashed games of ones they made 20+ years ago hoping that they are such big fans that they will buy every single game that has them involved.

For myself, there are several games that I am looking forward to playing on the PS3. I won't name them because everyone has repeated the titles names about a million times here. The PS3 isn't dead, it's just waiting for the games to come out and bring the PS2 owners to the next generation by releasing the games that they have been waiting for. I'd rather have my $600 sitting in a interest bearing savings account or a money market account instead of it sitting on my entertainment center waiting for the game I want to play on it to come out.{/quote]

 First of all, Nintendo isn't "manipulating" or brainwashing anyone. As for Nintendo's franchises, they have just been around for so long and continue to sell so well that it would make sense to make a million sequels. Its the same reason why we see like Splinter Cell 5 or whatever its at now, MGS4, Resident Evil: The Sequel, or whatever blah blah franchise. What's a big PS3 game? FF 13 or something now? Final fantasy is something I'd hardly call "new"

For MYSELF, i'm planning on eventually getting a Wii, but i'm waiting for the friggan system to be available so I can buy the stupid thing. I'm not brainwashed or manipulated or peer pressured or anything. I just think its fun and I'm a sucker for those crazy japanese games (i.e. games that make you say wtf because they are so weird, such as the surgery game)

@jjseth Just like you said, that you have played Nintendo games as a kid, and now are tired of them. Well, you know, don't you think that it's the same thing with these "Pokemon generation" kids? They have been playing PlayStations as a kid and now want something new. I do agree with you in this one. You know, most of the consoles go to kids rooms for kids to play them. There are 2 main reasons why kids want certain console: 1. All their friends has one 2. If console has adult image, they must have it, because it's something for adults. In last gen, PS2 users had the youngest average age and Xbox had the oldest. Sonys plans on marketing PS3 for hardcore gamers is the ony reasonable option, otherwise they can't break even with PS3. Anyway, most games will still be sold to non-hardcore gamers. It's not that they would buy so many games, but there are so many of them.

You are inaccurate because you have some strange idea that Nintendo would sell the same with a standard remote. That is the really simply thing, Nintendo needed to change to have a chance in the market, the couldn't continue to fight a performance war against Microsoft and Sony, in the long run they would have been ending up only with their fanbase that hasn't grown for the last three generations.

Eh, all my hardcore friends have a wii, and basically stopped playing our 360's for it (or it breaking) 6/7 friends with one broke including myself, still like it tho. wii can do everything ps2-xbox can do, + semi virtual reality. Quality is not about graphics. God of war/ FF12 for example. You could do a god of war/ heavlny sword, with wii controls no problem. I personally hate madden games but i love it for the wii, because of the controls. I finally dont screw up the dang button combos timing, cuz its now just movement. Hardcore, whatever, is not about graphics, if you think it is, your not hardcore. Its about the expierence, If you cannot enjoy a game of goldeneye n64, because it is too old, or not HD, well sucks to be you. Personally if starcraft 2 looks like diablo 2 and was released today, i'd be happy. I could care less on graphics on that. I just want war3 matchmaking. Anyway, almost any game type can be imroved using the wii control system to a much closer representation of the mouse/keyboard combo. If it is easier, cheaper, quicker to make and with a greater userbase = profit. "Hardcore" will follow. Alot easier to adapt to a cheap system later than a expensive system early. I mean, developers will have a huge sales base in the wii, and then that'll boost the sales of the wii further by adding hardcore games to it because it'll draw the hardcore in droves, and it's cheap enough to not cause them to wait for 5+ must have games, even 2 must have's could do it. The lineup is quite similar to the ps1, - jack squat because nothing on it, but when stuff got made for it, all the hardcore people jumped off the n64 and onto the ps1. Difference here is, ps2 sales, ps1 lineup. Thus if it starts getting ps2 level of lineup, the sales will come rushing like a tidal wave.

Hello everyone, I've been following this console war for a while now, but never posted. Anyway, I think there are a few things to take into consideration when it comes to Sony's strategy.

First it's true that price is one of the reasons keeping the PS3 from competing with the Wii. With that said people seem to forget one very important thing. Blu-Ray belongs 100% to Sony, meaning their production costs are what will dictate the price of the Blu-Ray drives.  Each day that passes, Sony is making these drives for less and less money. In case people don't know yet the Blu-Ray drives are what make the PS3's cost so much. Yesterday Engadget had a article about a $300 pioneer Blu-Ray drive. http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/18/pioneer-hits-china-with-300-bdc-s02-blu-ray-drive/ . If Pioneer can sell them for $300 with a profit imagine how cheap Sony can make them. I really believe the PS3 will be the fastest dropping console in history when it comes to price. 

Second, all these people saying that HD is unnecessary. There is a federal mandate in place that states that all television stations must be broadcasting in Digital by Feb, 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_television_in_the_United_States .I know that date has been changed a couple of times before, but I read an article a few weeks back that said that would not happen again. Currently HDTV sets make up the majority of all tv sets purchased in the US, that will only increase in 2009 with manufacturers discountinuing more analog televisions.

I believe Sony really though about these issues and prepared their console accordingly. I know their sales seem dismal  but I really believe their system to be the "marathon runner" of the three. Slow and steady but with the ability to keep going when the other stop or slow down for various reasons.

The only problem is they might lose all their software by the time it catches on.

A small point but the thing with TV's going digital has nothing to do with HDTV's, it just means no more antennas really, you can still get SD cable and satellite just fine.