How Sony and Microsoft Hope To Crack the Motion Control Market 138
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Soulskill
from the flailing-of-arms-and-marketing-departments dept.
from the flailing-of-arms-and-marketing-departments dept.
An editorial at Eurogamer delves into what Sony and Microsoft hope to achieve with their upcoming console motion control systems, despite entering the market several years after Nintendo set the standard. "The cards Sony has placed on the table this week suggest one answer to that question. It sees PlayStation Move as being an upgrade path for Wii owners — an invitation to the tens of millions of consumers who have invested in Nintendo's platform to swim upstream to the more powerful, HD-enabled system. Yet even Sony's most optimistic view of the market will be tempered by a dose of realism here. ... What's more likely — and what Sony are probably quietly hoping to achieve a significant proportion of the Move's success through — is that the technology will expand the appeal of the PS3 in the family setting." The Digital Foundry blog has an in-depth look at the PlayStation Move from Sony's event at the Game Developers Conference, saying, "... if there was one positive you could take away from the event, it was that Move is clearly a far more precise implementation than the Wiimote. Some of the games felt clearly more 'tactile' than the Wii equivalents."
What's wrong with gamepads? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:What's wrong with gamepads? (Score:5, Interesting)
The wii controller can be turnd on its side and used as a gamepad -- so what are you complaint about?
Re:And here I thought people bought the Wii (Score:4, Interesting)
My experience is that it's really not that much cheaper. But rather it serves a different purpose. It is more for groups to play games and for casual gaming. The PS3 and XBox 360 tend to have games more designed for 'extreme gaming', online play, and long term commitment. Many of my friends who own a Wii say they only play it when friends are over and even at that haven't touched it in months. My friends who have a PS3 or XBox 360 play it at least every weekend, and often use it as a media player during the week.
The console is a tad cheaper and the games are a tad cheaper, but the peripherals, which make a Wii what it is, are expensive and plentiful. In order to play those group games successfully you need four controllers and likely four 'nun-chucks' which is $60 x four players. The PS3 controllers are $55 and the XBox 360 controllers are $35. Then there are balance boards and light sabers and gun attachments and who knows what else to go along with the Wii in order to play all the various motion games they have, most of which you will again want / need to have four of to get the 'full experience'. And now there's some "motion plus" thing to make the controllers more sensitive? Not interested, sorry.
Good and bad news for PS3/360 owners... (Score:4, Interesting)
The good news is that you can basically think of all of the good or even great games on the Wii and then imagine them with HD graphics and surround sound. The best examples I can think of are Resident Evil 4 Wii edition and Dead Space: Extraction. Both are highly polished, adult oriented, motion controlled shooter titles. Now imagine the graphics of Resident Evil 5 or original Dead Space on the PS3/360 with the motion controller functionality of the Wii.
The definitive version of Resident Evil 4 is the Wii version in my opinion. After using the motion controls I had zero desire to go back to the old pad controller for RE5 on my PS3. And after playing the RE5 demo I didn't even buy the game. If RE5 had the Wii style controls I would probably be playing the game now. At this point Capcom should should be begging MS and SONY for motion control dev kits for RE5 Motion Edition.
And think of added functionality and benefits that recent games like Heavy Rain (PS3) will have. SONY and MS could really take the motion control idea and expand it into games geared towards adults and older gamers.
The real downside is that the motion controls on the Wii have led to an enormous number of gimmick games with little polish. Basically crap titles that are churned out day after day completely watering down the system's library of games. For every good Wii game that comes out it seems around one hundred awful games join the fray.
Re:Games??? (Score:3, Interesting)
Exactly. My parent tried my wii when they were visiting me for holidays. As soon as they came back they bought a wii. Guess what they are playing the most : wii sport and link crossbow training !
And damn they are good at those games since they have been playing it about one hour a day last year. How should we call them 'casual hardcore gamers' ?
Re:Intentional disconnect between player and game (Score:4, Interesting)
Because in this case, the "controller" makes it fun. I'd guess the same applies to guitar hero and other music games.
But making such a "specialized" controller the standard controller backfires quickly because they are only suitable to a very small subset of games. I hope you agree that a DDR dance mat doesn't really work for ... well, any game but DDR.
Re:More precise? (Score:2, Interesting)
The Wii configuration is better for games that have you point at the screen, and the Move configuration is better when you're not pointing at the screen.
Crickets? (Score:3, Interesting)
It's the sound of millions of Wii haters
Millions?
I'm hard pressed to think of one. Lots of people think the motion control system is a decent idea, they just don't necessarily care about it much for games they play.
I don't have a Wii myself but I admire what they have done, which is to grow the gaming market to places traditional consoles never went.
I honestly can't remember seeing single negative post on the Wii, in a long time...