Microsoft after Sony's family friendly image

by Jennie Lees { Apr 21st 2006 at 12:58PM }

C|Net Australia recently talked to Microsoft's Shane Kim, and after some careful reading between the lines, they've come to the conclusion that Microsoft's after a piece of Sony's pie. No real surprise there, then, but this is in the arena of family-friendly gaming and innovation through peripherals, something Sony has managed to capture for the PS2.

Broadening the 360's audience is a priority for Microsoft, with Kim describing Viva Pinata as "the most important title" Microsoft Game Studios have lined up this year. However, with PS2 gamers already familiar with the range of party titles and peripherals, the PS3 has an advantage to casual gamers or families who aren't entranced by the next-gen nature of it all. Between the Xbox Live Arcade and the media functionality, the 360 has some strong features that will back up this family-oriented approach, but pitting the 360 head-to-head against the PS2 as a family machine may be a losing battle.

[Thanks, Sense]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Sockatume @ Apr 21st 2006 1:01PM

The fact that they're having to pit the 360 against the PS2 sort of underlines Sony's dominance of the industry right now. The next gen may be here, but the current gen isn't going anywhere.

Vik @ Apr 21st 2006 1:11PM

I never thought I'd see the day that Microsoft and Sony would realize 'Kiddie' games are tickets to a largely ignored demographic. The world is going all topsy-turvy it is!

Which home console is most adept for mass market penetration given the current stance of MS, Sony and Nintendo, their innovations and their shortcomings?

King-of-Storms @ Apr 21st 2006 1:31PM

"the most important title" Microsoft Game Studios have lined up this year."

Could this statement indirectly say that Halo 3 won't be launching this year, as I would think Halo 3 would get alot of people who haven't bouth a 360 yet, to go out and purchase one ASAP.

knight37 @ Apr 21st 2006 1:33PM

Neither Sony nor Microsoft hold a candle to Nintendo when it comes to family-friendly. I wonder why Microsoft wants to emulate #2 in that market rather than emulating the clear winner?

Kamalot @ Apr 21st 2006 1:46PM

This statement does not mean that Halo 3 isn't important, ut in the grand scheme of things, it isn't as important as Viva Pinata.

Halo 3 isn't going to draw in new gamers. People who like Halo 1 and 2 will pick up Halo 3.

Viva Pinata will pull in new gamers, and their parents. It has the possibility of making HUGE strides to expanding the console's install base.

Did you know Viva Pinata is also going to be a cartoon? Kids everywhere are going to ask for a 360.

JodyAnthony @ Apr 21st 2006 1:50PM

"We're microsoft and sony! games are all about power and maturity! who wants to have this kiddie image! nintendo is stupid!

now with that out of the way, how do we become more family friendly?"

MetaHuman @ Apr 21st 2006 2:04PM

"family-friendly gaming and innovation through peripherals, something Sony has managed to capture for the PS2."

SONY?!? Am I taking crazy pills?

Aren't both of those things that NINTENDO gets crapped on most of all? I see now. Nintendo is only gimmicks for kids. Whatever. :/

Jed Merrill @ Apr 21st 2006 2:09PM

Since when was Sony family friendly? Ever heard of Grand Theft Auto? The only family games of note for PS2 were Jak and Daxter and, briefly, Ratchet and Clank.

I think they mean Nintendo.

jennie @ Apr 21st 2006 2:27PM

Ah, but family friendly doesn't mean just for the kids. Family friendly means games the entire family can enjoy together -- karaoke, Guitar Hero, dance mats, Buzz! -- as well as games the kids can play *and* decent titles for adults too. At least, that seems to be the definition Microsoft's shooting for. Nintendo has a special place in the market, though, it's true.

SuicideNinja @ Apr 21st 2006 2:47PM

The only way the PS2 is family friendly is that it doesn't matter if the kids break it...it would break itself anyway...

Remember what Nintendo said about too many buttons? They're right. Too many buttons = scary for non-gamers.

I don't see Sony or Microsoft being family friendly. But Microsoft more-so with XBLA.

realvictory @ Apr 21st 2006 2:58PM

I think what they mean is:

Viva Pinata will be the biggest title until the next biggest title is revealed. They want Sony's popularity and Nintendo's respect.

Anyway, it's not going to work for a long time - mainly because "casual gamers" don't give a shit about graphics, and aren't going to pay �300 for something with better grahpics, when they can pay �100 for something with all that Singstar, Dance and Eyetoy stuff.

Mullinator @ Apr 21st 2006 3:06PM

Actually I have seen before that if you look at the ratio of "E" rated games to every other rating on the PS2 and Gamecube you actually find that the PS2 has a higher ratio.

So yes, Sony is the one who has more of a family friendly market once you consider that and the total number of PS2 units sold.

Justin Day @ Apr 21st 2006 5:47PM

I don't see Microsoft of Sony taking the Family market from Nintendo, espeacially with the GBA, DS, and Game Cube running strong. Not to mention the Revolution coming up. Any time I got to my local gaming store, the Gamecube Section is where the families go as soon as they walk in. Go to your local store and look, it's the truth.

I'm surprised this article didn't add the big N into the equation.

Not to mention that part of Microsofts and Sonys quota has been branding Nintendo as "That Kiddy System", now they turn around and want a piece of the pie? Guess what! It's too late! Now that you've branded Nintendo as a Kiddy system, the kids are flocking towards it (RIP PSP). Guess you should have thought that marketing plan through a little bit more, eh?

I'm glad too, because I prefer Nintendo Products over the other two, so it works out for me and my little brothers and sisters.

Shawn Oster @ Apr 21st 2006 6:07PM

The Media Center Extender nature, MP3 and picture streaming, etc. plus Arcade pretty much make the 360 the family friendly system for my household. A lot of the people that use it around the house have never played a game on it, they just dig controlling the visuals while music it playing.

me kizza @ Apr 22nd 2006 7:34AM

"Neither Sony nor Microsoft hold a candle to Nintendo when it comes to family-friendly. I wonder why Microsoft wants to emulate #2 in that market rather than emulating the clear winner?"

I beg to differ actually.... Sony has stolen the crown from nintendo in regards to family orientated software....... Look ate eyetoy & it's games, not to mention buzz, singstar, ico, I-ninja, shadow of the collossus & other sony games that are family friendly. Then theres the ratchet & clank series, the jak & daxter series, we love katamari, pyschonauts, beyond good & evil, spyro, ape escape, crash bandicoot, sonic, parappa the rappa, guitaro hero, etc,etc. Most of these games have either been at the top of their game or still are & a lot of them are either sony 1st party exclusives, 3rd party exclusives or multiplatform.

Fact is that MS have had nothing on ratchet & clanks or mario 64's scale on either system..... And after experiencing Kameo this does not look set to change & shows that Rare done their best work for nintendo's 64bit machine. I say this as a fan of sony's machine as well, I wish that rare had stuck with nintendo as they gave me at least 1 good ecperience on my decent game starved 64.

MS desperately needs something out of the box for it's latest console as interest in it is draining fast. I am actually selling mine now as I have started playing my ps2 & ignoring the graphically great, but fun challenged machine that is 360. If MS keep it up with the flood of online FPS's & online tom clancy games they will lose more customers apart from me. I hired out perfect dark & it just proved that Rare have lost it........ I guess that happens when all your talent leave & create Free Radical & the timesplitters series. Now thats a multiplayer game I would like to see on my PS3 Timesplitters PS3 edition....sswwweeeet.... The best part is that there is an announcement gonna be made at E3 about a PS3 game being made by free radical.

GamerZero @ Apr 22nd 2006 7:42PM

I sold my PS2 ages ago and and the only thing I miss are some of the titles that are exclusive to that machine.The graphics and audio were both sub-par on release as I had 5.1 Dolby back then and hated the aliasing that occured in games.If the PS2 had the Xbox 1 hardware I would of stuck with it for sure.I never liked Nintendo's dominating policy of controling it's developers and content so it lost a load of third party support and also my interest.Nintendo have great games no doubt but I don't like someone telling me what I should be playing.I have a 360 and I enjoy playing Oblivion and PGR.I am interested in buying a PS3 but not the Rev.The Rev will be the cheapest but I don't believe that a new control method will hail a new king.I believe that they looked at the business of competing with Sony and Microsoft and chose an option where they don't compete at their level any more.It's so obvious that they chose a new fangled control method to distract the public from the truth that they wern't willing to put all their chips on the table unlike Sony and Microsoft.Lets face it,Sony really are taking the biggest gamble of all with untried technology,high costs and promises galore.I like what MS are doing with XBL and I'm pleased with the 360 so far.It's not as much fun as my Suzuki SV1000,but then,I don't worry about crashing my console.If the 360 bombs,which I doubt,I'll go PS3 after selling my house to buy one.If the Rev takes the crown I'm giving up gaming until the next generation and I'll enyoy putting miles on my bike in the meantime...