Hi Everyone,
So I finally mannaged to track down a wii of my own today after spending months looking and being told 'we had some earlier today, but they're all sold out...' I eventually ended up tracking online availability through http://www.consolewatch.com/ and noticed something interesting. PS3 6G's have been and have stayed in stock online for weeks. The wii? Gone in an hour at most... Sure, you can say that the PS3 is pricey, but give me a break - its the cheapest bluray player out there AND a game machine with more polygon pushing power than you can shake a stick at. And say what you like in retrospect, no one thought Wiis would be outselling Sony like this... So, why?
My thought: the problem with the PS3 is basically the same problem people have with blue-ray players. Forget the format wars over HDD and Bluray, just think - why don't I want one? Because its just a souped-up dvd. A little prettier, but basically the same deal. DVD players on the other hand took over because they were DIFFERENT in a substantial way: no rewinding, substantially clearer picture, fast movement between scenes and bonus features. Remember the move from cassette to CDs? Sure, it was something different. DAT tapes and Minidisk? No? Well minidisks were smaller, easily recordable and sounded, well, just as good as cds. And no one wanted them. MP3 players - suddenly we can carry around our whole collection in something that fits in our change pockets. But notice that here we have a similar case to the Wii - an MP3 players condenses sound files and so just can't sound as good as CDs. But they are still revolutionary rather than evolutionary. The Wii has the 'capacity' to do something so obvious it should have occured to everyone: (a) get people OFF the couch and moving around, and (b) immerse us in games in a way that feels much more interactive than punching a button. Notice I said capacity, and EVERYONE who has bought a WII has invested in unproven technology because lets face it there arn't many games yet, and of those yet released most are just the same old with a bit of wrist movement. But it could be great! People see the potential here and let us just hope so will the game developers - and sooner rather than later. But regardless, revolution catches on while evolution does not. But then how to explain the PS2?
So I finally mannaged to track down a wii of my own today after spending months looking and being told 'we had some earlier today, but they're all sold out...' I eventually ended up tracking online availability through http://www.consolewatch.com/ and noticed something interesting. PS3 6G's have been and have stayed in stock online for weeks. The wii? Gone in an hour at most... Sure, you can say that the PS3 is pricey, but give me a break - its the cheapest bluray player out there AND a game machine with more polygon pushing power than you can shake a stick at. And say what you like in retrospect, no one thought Wiis would be outselling Sony like this... So, why?
My thought: the problem with the PS3 is basically the same problem people have with blue-ray players. Forget the format wars over HDD and Bluray, just think - why don't I want one? Because its just a souped-up dvd. A little prettier, but basically the same deal. DVD players on the other hand took over because they were DIFFERENT in a substantial way: no rewinding, substantially clearer picture, fast movement between scenes and bonus features. Remember the move from cassette to CDs? Sure, it was something different. DAT tapes and Minidisk? No? Well minidisks were smaller, easily recordable and sounded, well, just as good as cds. And no one wanted them. MP3 players - suddenly we can carry around our whole collection in something that fits in our change pockets. But notice that here we have a similar case to the Wii - an MP3 players condenses sound files and so just can't sound as good as CDs. But they are still revolutionary rather than evolutionary. The Wii has the 'capacity' to do something so obvious it should have occured to everyone: (a) get people OFF the couch and moving around, and (b) immerse us in games in a way that feels much more interactive than punching a button. Notice I said capacity, and EVERYONE who has bought a WII has invested in unproven technology because lets face it there arn't many games yet, and of those yet released most are just the same old with a bit of wrist movement. But it could be great! People see the potential here and let us just hope so will the game developers - and sooner rather than later. But regardless, revolution catches on while evolution does not. But then how to explain the PS2?
