16th September 2006, 8:08 AM
Paco/ You're not making any sense to me. This is not a flame, I actually dont understand your viewpoint. We've been through enough arguments to understand that neither of us are blind or stupidly biased, so please take this as an actual conversation.
First, i'll post something from Kotoku that I thought really put perspective on everything:
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/wii/some-th...200868.php
Instead of blasting off an editorial about Nintendo's day of announcement's yesterday while still digesting their news (and lovely gooey cookies and crustless sandwiches) I decided to come back to the hotel and go get drunk on sake with my wife, sleep it off and then write about the news.
I've had time to digest nearly everything by now.
I was really surprised by both Nintendo's choice of price and date. Initially, I thought that the company would try to launch a good month before Sony broke the Champaign bottle on the SS PS3, getting a mighty lead on their competition. And I figured they'd try to put just as much distance between the price of the two consoles as well.
But why should they?
They don't have to give the Wii away to win, they just need to be cheaper and offer up a good value. The console comes with a game, which I suspect would have sold for $40 not $50 if it hit the market separately, so that already knocks the price of the console down to $210. And Nintendo price was most likely determined by Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360. They just needed to release their console at a substantial discount and when they saw the price of their competition they realized they could actually sell the console at a profit, and still deliver a value compared to what has become today's standard for console pricing.
The date, well, the date just makes sense when you think about it.
All of this talk about Nintendo being a third console has sort of lulled me, and I suspect others, into thinking that Nintendo is the also ran, the other guy, a company knowingly making a console that no one is going to buy as their primary gaming rig.
Guess what? Nintendo doesn't think that way. Just because their mascots are cartoons doesn't mean that the company isn't out for blood. And this proves it.
Nintendo isn't just OK with people comparing the PS3 with the Wii, they want people to. They set the launch right on top of Sony's because they think they will win that comparison. And they don't just want to slip a knife in Sony's belly, they want to twist it a bit.
Check out what Reggie Fils-Aime was saying after the press conference: Consumers "can go take out a second mortgage and buy our competition's console, or they can buy ours."
I still think that Nintendo is taking a big risk injecting this disruptive technology into the gaming market, but I've gone from thinking that they will either sink or swim to thinking that they will do moderately well to tremendously well.
-----
Right now, Nintendo is beating PS2, PSP and XBox 360 around the globe with a handheld. They're not a distant third and never were, they're directly competing with any and all console and handheld manufacturers. Now, you bring up that Nintendo said they want to make smaller games. So, show me one. Any of the Mario games, Zelda games, Metroid, (although that's a second party it's still very much dictated by NCL) etc. We could look at Excitetruck which is a racing game, it wont be 'smaller' than other racing games. Here's why that quote came in to being. Years ago Niuntendo had a second party called Silicon Knights who teamed up to make a game called Eternal Darkness which had great success. The next game SK wanted to make is called Too Human. SK said in an interview that Too Human will be on 5 (!!) disks. Shortly after, SK broke away from Nintendo: ""Nintendo wants to focus on smaller games". This was a dig at Nintendo because they didn't want to produce a 5 disk game.
Now fast forward, you have games like Nintendogs which is actually a simulator of sorts. The game isn't 'small' by any means, it's just not a platformer or adventure game with landscapes and whatnot. Warioware for GC and the handhelds is also not 'small', and has recieved acclaim from every reviewer out there for it's gameplay and multiplayer goodness. These are games that aren't focusing on play as X character and save the world, their games that can be played as a quick pick up and play fix, and that's what Nintendo was getting at. And to show their good faith towards this new type of game, Nintendogs, Warioware, etc were released at slightly lower prices. Nintendogs retailed for 25 bucks, Warioware retailed for 39. That trend will continue. Twlight princess probably costs upwards of 20 million to make, OoT had a cost of 13 million. Production investments like this warrant a larger sticker price.
The out of the box features I was refering to are as follows:
CONSOLE:
WI-FI enabled
DVI/HDMI/SCART out
512 MB internal 'hard drive' for storage
Expandable memory cache through SD cards
USB 2.0 (X2)
Seperate Physics processor and graphics processor (hollywood and broadway)
Custom architecture
DVD drive
PRE-LOADED SOFTWARE
Picture, music and movie media player (hybrid of itunes, and iphoto) which plays all media formats either from SD card, DVD or HDD interface. (unknow right now if it plays DVDR/W disks)
Picture editing software (photoshop)
Video editing software (imovie)
"Mii" channel for creating custom characters, preferences and options (stored on the wiimote) using the build a character software that interacts with the picture editing software.
"Weather Channel" for accessing the entire globe's weather and time, updated in real time
"News Channel" for news from around the world in any region in a quick point and click reference, sports, stocks, live news, all updated in real time.
Specific channels for recieveing and sending email and 'full internet' web browsing (20 dollar one time purchase) free of charge. (can be used with wireless USB keyboard). Download station for recieving free updates for games and purchased updates through 'Connect 24' even while during gameplay.
Channel specific for the purchase and play of VC titles and titles and software available only online.
Other features included are free online multiplayer, free downloads and updates (unless specifically noted). And if needed, free patches and revisions for bugs that might be found in released software.
Future releases will have the ability to download information from Wii's channels such as weather information to interact with gameplay. ie: In Animal Crossing the weather in-game can be dictated by your regions actual weather outside. Sports games can recieve real time updates from the News and Sports channel to players that have been traded, added or removed from teams and update rosters and stats again in real time through the always-on Connect 24.
Finally, DS to Wii connectivity allows for wireless transmission of data and allows the player to have a touch screen interface during gameplay. Recently released VOIP headset for DS can be used, though a bluetooth wireless headset is also planned for Wii.
All of these features combined is vastly superior to anything MS or Sony is making. The downside, Friend Codes, will be a much easier and a more friendly experience through the use of the online modes such as message boards and chat rooms where people can share friend codes and decide who they want to play with or block.
Component/composite cables included, (DVI/HDMI/SCART cable available at launch) includes wiimote and attachment with a demo game containing 5 multiplayer games with rumored Wii Composer and Wii Airplane games as well.
All the above included in a $250 package out of the box.
As far as graphics, well I assume you've seen the new screens and what not. Excitetruck would look exactly the same on 360, as it's what the developers were going for: arcade, cartoony, unrealistic physics, etc. Compare Disney's Cars between 360 and Wii and there's no difference, the same for NFS: Carbon, this is what the developer wants as far as looks. The 360 version will have 720p native while Wii rolls in at 480p. Farcry will also look as good as the 360 version, so says the developer. You'll notice Wii has the same particle effect generators such as smoke which creates beautiful 3-D explosions, those same 3-D explosions from PDZ that wowed players on 360.
So again, next gen system, graphics as good as 360, more features built in than what the 360 or PS3 offers all for 250 bucks and games that are cheaper than the competition.
And you STILL want a price drop when you get to play games that look like this? (and it's not even optimized graphically for Wii, it's a port from GC!)
First, i'll post something from Kotoku that I thought really put perspective on everything:
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/wii/some-th...200868.php
Instead of blasting off an editorial about Nintendo's day of announcement's yesterday while still digesting their news (and lovely gooey cookies and crustless sandwiches) I decided to come back to the hotel and go get drunk on sake with my wife, sleep it off and then write about the news.
I've had time to digest nearly everything by now.
I was really surprised by both Nintendo's choice of price and date. Initially, I thought that the company would try to launch a good month before Sony broke the Champaign bottle on the SS PS3, getting a mighty lead on their competition. And I figured they'd try to put just as much distance between the price of the two consoles as well.
But why should they?
They don't have to give the Wii away to win, they just need to be cheaper and offer up a good value. The console comes with a game, which I suspect would have sold for $40 not $50 if it hit the market separately, so that already knocks the price of the console down to $210. And Nintendo price was most likely determined by Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360. They just needed to release their console at a substantial discount and when they saw the price of their competition they realized they could actually sell the console at a profit, and still deliver a value compared to what has become today's standard for console pricing.
The date, well, the date just makes sense when you think about it.
All of this talk about Nintendo being a third console has sort of lulled me, and I suspect others, into thinking that Nintendo is the also ran, the other guy, a company knowingly making a console that no one is going to buy as their primary gaming rig.
Guess what? Nintendo doesn't think that way. Just because their mascots are cartoons doesn't mean that the company isn't out for blood. And this proves it.
Nintendo isn't just OK with people comparing the PS3 with the Wii, they want people to. They set the launch right on top of Sony's because they think they will win that comparison. And they don't just want to slip a knife in Sony's belly, they want to twist it a bit.
Check out what Reggie Fils-Aime was saying after the press conference: Consumers "can go take out a second mortgage and buy our competition's console, or they can buy ours."
I still think that Nintendo is taking a big risk injecting this disruptive technology into the gaming market, but I've gone from thinking that they will either sink or swim to thinking that they will do moderately well to tremendously well.
-----
Right now, Nintendo is beating PS2, PSP and XBox 360 around the globe with a handheld. They're not a distant third and never were, they're directly competing with any and all console and handheld manufacturers. Now, you bring up that Nintendo said they want to make smaller games. So, show me one. Any of the Mario games, Zelda games, Metroid, (although that's a second party it's still very much dictated by NCL) etc. We could look at Excitetruck which is a racing game, it wont be 'smaller' than other racing games. Here's why that quote came in to being. Years ago Niuntendo had a second party called Silicon Knights who teamed up to make a game called Eternal Darkness which had great success. The next game SK wanted to make is called Too Human. SK said in an interview that Too Human will be on 5 (!!) disks. Shortly after, SK broke away from Nintendo: ""Nintendo wants to focus on smaller games". This was a dig at Nintendo because they didn't want to produce a 5 disk game.
Now fast forward, you have games like Nintendogs which is actually a simulator of sorts. The game isn't 'small' by any means, it's just not a platformer or adventure game with landscapes and whatnot. Warioware for GC and the handhelds is also not 'small', and has recieved acclaim from every reviewer out there for it's gameplay and multiplayer goodness. These are games that aren't focusing on play as X character and save the world, their games that can be played as a quick pick up and play fix, and that's what Nintendo was getting at. And to show their good faith towards this new type of game, Nintendogs, Warioware, etc were released at slightly lower prices. Nintendogs retailed for 25 bucks, Warioware retailed for 39. That trend will continue. Twlight princess probably costs upwards of 20 million to make, OoT had a cost of 13 million. Production investments like this warrant a larger sticker price.
The out of the box features I was refering to are as follows:
CONSOLE:
WI-FI enabled
DVI/HDMI/SCART out
512 MB internal 'hard drive' for storage
Expandable memory cache through SD cards
USB 2.0 (X2)
Seperate Physics processor and graphics processor (hollywood and broadway)
Custom architecture
DVD drive
PRE-LOADED SOFTWARE
Picture, music and movie media player (hybrid of itunes, and iphoto) which plays all media formats either from SD card, DVD or HDD interface. (unknow right now if it plays DVDR/W disks)
Picture editing software (photoshop)
Video editing software (imovie)
"Mii" channel for creating custom characters, preferences and options (stored on the wiimote) using the build a character software that interacts with the picture editing software.
"Weather Channel" for accessing the entire globe's weather and time, updated in real time
"News Channel" for news from around the world in any region in a quick point and click reference, sports, stocks, live news, all updated in real time.
Specific channels for recieveing and sending email and 'full internet' web browsing (20 dollar one time purchase) free of charge. (can be used with wireless USB keyboard). Download station for recieving free updates for games and purchased updates through 'Connect 24' even while during gameplay.
Channel specific for the purchase and play of VC titles and titles and software available only online.
Other features included are free online multiplayer, free downloads and updates (unless specifically noted). And if needed, free patches and revisions for bugs that might be found in released software.
Future releases will have the ability to download information from Wii's channels such as weather information to interact with gameplay. ie: In Animal Crossing the weather in-game can be dictated by your regions actual weather outside. Sports games can recieve real time updates from the News and Sports channel to players that have been traded, added or removed from teams and update rosters and stats again in real time through the always-on Connect 24.
Finally, DS to Wii connectivity allows for wireless transmission of data and allows the player to have a touch screen interface during gameplay. Recently released VOIP headset for DS can be used, though a bluetooth wireless headset is also planned for Wii.
All of these features combined is vastly superior to anything MS or Sony is making. The downside, Friend Codes, will be a much easier and a more friendly experience through the use of the online modes such as message boards and chat rooms where people can share friend codes and decide who they want to play with or block.
Component/composite cables included, (DVI/HDMI/SCART cable available at launch) includes wiimote and attachment with a demo game containing 5 multiplayer games with rumored Wii Composer and Wii Airplane games as well.
All the above included in a $250 package out of the box.
As far as graphics, well I assume you've seen the new screens and what not. Excitetruck would look exactly the same on 360, as it's what the developers were going for: arcade, cartoony, unrealistic physics, etc. Compare Disney's Cars between 360 and Wii and there's no difference, the same for NFS: Carbon, this is what the developer wants as far as looks. The 360 version will have 720p native while Wii rolls in at 480p. Farcry will also look as good as the 360 version, so says the developer. You'll notice Wii has the same particle effect generators such as smoke which creates beautiful 3-D explosions, those same 3-D explosions from PDZ that wowed players on 360.
So again, next gen system, graphics as good as 360, more features built in than what the 360 or PS3 offers all for 250 bucks and games that are cheaper than the competition.
And you STILL want a price drop when you get to play games that look like this? (and it's not even optimized graphically for Wii, it's a port from GC!)