Counting Rupees: Will the real Wii60 please stand up (Joystiq)

[R.O.B.]

Filed under: Features, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, Peripherals

Each week Jeff Engel and Geoff Brooks contribute Counting Rupees, a column on the business behind gaming:

With the Wii's apparent runaway success this generation, there's no doubt that both Sony and Microsoft are trying to figure out just what they can do - either in this generation or the next - to tap into the formula that's worked so well for Nintendo. Sony, in a seemingly obvious attempt to blunt the impact of Nintendo's newly styled controller, added motion sensitivity to their controllers before the PS3 launched. More recently, there have even been rumors that Microsoft may be prepping their own version of the Wii Remote to launch later this year for the 360. Is this really the answer Microsoft is looking for to combat the Wii?

There are a lot of problems with this, although the common "doomed console peripheral" theory actually may be the least of them. The success of Guitar Hero and Rock Band has proven that, at least when bundled with an attractive game, console owners are just fine with buying new controller peripherals for their systems.

No, the biggest problem for Microsoft here is simply a matter of audience. Microsoft has been working hard on wooing the "casual" audience, and has only rarely succeeded. Even a "hardcore" game like Halo 3 probably wouldn't sell 7.5 million copies without some "casual" players. But a quick look at the top-selling software for each system makes it extremely obvious how different the audiences already are for the two systems.

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[Jogurt the Yogurt]

So with almost no casual gamers playing their system, Microsoft expects Thwiimote to help them somehow? 99% of their demographic will have nothing but disdain for this kind of product, as they've been defining themselves in opposition to Wii gamers for years.

[Spore]

Originally Posted by Jogurt the Yogurt

So with almost no casual gamers playing their system, Microsoft expects Thwiimote to help them somehow? 99% of their demographic will have nothing but disdain for this kind of product, as they've been defining themselves in opposition to Wii gamers for years.

Do note that fanboys are blind. they'll praise whatever comes to their respective console. Just look at me with my PC.

[Jogurt the Yogurt]

I guess you have a point. The 360 fans will come up with some excuse as to why their waggle is better. Still, though, the hardcore gang that mostly plays the 360 is less likely to give waggley games a break the way casuals do.

[Kenryoku_Maxis]

Originally Posted by Jogurt the Yogurt

So with almost no casual gamers playing their system, Microsoft expects Thwiimote to help them somehow? 99% of their demographic will have nothing but disdain for this kind of product, as they've been defining themselves in opposition to Wii gamers for years.

I really try not to voice my opinion about the practices of Microsofts handling of the XBOX and gaming as a whole that often, but if you look back over the whole run of the XBOX and the 360, MS has run the whole thing HORRIBLY. They have little to no understanding of how to run a Gaming Console and have taken almost all of their knowledge from past companies that failed (Sega, Atari specifically) and applied it to their system. They even got the head of marketing for the Dreamcast to run the marketing for the original XBOX and threw 500 MILLION dollars behind him. If THAT'S not a breach of common sense I don't know what is.

So whenever Microsoft comes out and does something like this, does it surprise me? Not in the slightest. What surprises me is that they've even been able to keep their console going and have third party support. If they hadn't run the original XBOX on a 750+ Million dollar deficit and a total 'AMERICAN HELL YEAH!' platform basically telling everyone that XBOX was the system that was going to break the oppression of the evil Japanese game developers, I'm convinced it wouldn't be around today. Even now, the 360 is the reason the DS and Wii are basically taking over Japan while XBOX360 is considered the 'American' system. We didn't have this western/eastern divide back in the Playstation/Nintendo era.

[Jogurt the Yogurt]

Originally Posted by Kenryoku_Maxis

We didn't have this western/eastern divide back in the Playstation/Nintendo era.

That's because Sony and Nintendo are both Japanese companies. Or are you including the original XBox in that "good old days" statement? It shouldn't be all that surprising, anyway, given that this is the first time since waaay back in the day that a US-based company has tried to market a top-tier video game console worldwide. I think Japanese gamers were savvy enough to figure that MS didn't know what they were doing and/or that the XBox was just a poorly specialized PC in a different case.

And of course, it's not like the 360 is doing all that well in North America, either. The Wii consistently outsold it (albeit with lower software attach rates), and now it's beginning to dip even more this year.

In short, good riddance.