This article is made of truthiness.

But Ninty needs to stop being so stingy and secretive to the third parties though.

Now that I've said that....

JackOfNoTrades Defense Sheild... ACTIVATE

American society tends to believe that Blood = Adult and cute = Kids. I am an adult and I'd still rather look at baby tigers all day than puddles of blood.

People here seem to think anything nice and positive is just wrong (like calling those willing to stop global warming tree huggers), and hating and killing is cool.

I'm shocked we can survive and evolve as a species.

I'll agree that its the fanbase at majority fault. This all started at N64, when third party software was crap or non-existant. This began the stigma that 3rd party titles weren't worth your time on Nintendo. The stereotype was re-inforced on GC, but to a lesser extent. Now, diehard nintendo fans turn their noses up at 3rd party software, even if its good to mediocre.

The problem is we have to high standards. Not everybody can make a game as good as mario, but people are trying. So, as one nintendo fanboy to many others, I say:

Give it a chance. Buy a 3rd party game, even if you don't think its the bomb diggity. Lots of people returned/sold back Red Steel, but its a solid title. Its not MP3, but its a solid title that can stand on its own. Go buy it. Go buy Elebits. Show everybody that we're not snooty people who only like games from Nintendo.

If you buy it, they will come.

No idea what he's smoking. All the forums I've been to, including Neogaf, view the game very positively what with it's background from Elebits.

Incidentally, they also make it out as the second coming in terms of graphics for the Wii, but that's neither here or now.

No, the third-parties/Nintendo are at fault. If they didn't make shitty games, people would buy them. If they make a bad game and no one buys it, it's not because Nintendo fanboys don't like third-party games; it's because Nintendo fanboys (just like everyone else) don't like crappy third-party games.

Because the third party games were all pecies of SHIT with the exception of 4 games Blur, Rayman, Madden 07, and Trama Center. Start making good games so we can all be happy :)

"Dewy's Adventure, a game he feels internet users have called in "kiddie" based on its looks alone, subsequently refusing to give it a chance. This is a problem Nintendo had when revealing Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker"

well, noone likes childish graphics. even if the gameplay is solid(gameplay is still the most important) but making better visuals is the icing on the cake. people arnt going to be excited by graphics rivaling the old WB cartoons.(even though they were cool)

"Is the "kiddie" problem inherently Nintendo's, though? Regard Microsoft's Viva Pinata"

that is ONE game. (which is awesome by the way) and the graphics are fitting. when you "grow" pinatas you dont need them in full HD gears graphics.

the problem is *most* of nintendo's games seem to be in "kiddie" animation. thats how it earned its rep. not by fanboy accusations. its a fact.

"A prong in Cassidy's rant also concerns titles rehashed by Ubisoft and EA: "Prince of Persia: Rival Swords; Godfather: Blackhand Edition; Scarface; Mortal Kombat: Armageddon -- fans lambaste them all because they appeared on last-generation platforms"

well duh. you go buy the wii, an extra remote, zelda, maby another game. your are all excited(and rightfully so) then!!!: to your dissapointment you see the current release list full of games you already own or have already played a year ago to be released for your brand new awesome console you just shelled out for. fans are right to be up in arms over rehashes with a new control scheme.

i cant blame anyone for not being overjoyed to see a list full of old shit. if they released new games or at least sequels to the old ones then they wouldnt get backlash. once fans figure out your simply milking a cow with old tricks then they wont be happy.

This is so true. There are great third party games on GameCube, GBA and DS. Not many were best sellars.

perhaps it could be that third-parties don't want to develop for old technology. developers are all gearing themselves towards making high-powered games for high-powered systems.

and Nintendo does have the most hardcore fanboys out there. i'm sure the article has some amount of truth in it.

I completely agree, I didn't buy Halo or Halo 2 because I thought Master Chief was too cute.

It's a vicious cycle. 3rd parties stop supporting Nintendo in the N64 era, which led to Nintendo taking a majority of sales, which led to 3rd parties not wanting to compete with Nintendo on the Gamecube, and so on.

The fact is that *many* games are crap, just like movies. For people like myself, who will probably buy a total of 10 games for my Wii and rent 1-2x as many more, a game has to be good to be worth my $50-60. Generally speaking, ports of last generation games don't fit this criterion. I will buy Mario and Zelda games, I might buy Metroid (I wasn't a huge fan of the GC games), and I might buy other 1st party games... but I'm buying them because they're good, not because they're Nintendo products (though there is a relationship). I will also buy 3rd party games - if, like those Nintendo games, they are the type of games that get 90+% on review. Half-arsed ports rarely meet this standard, though Nintendo games that are in development for 3 years do.

It sort of reminds me of the whole "government investment crowding out private investment" phenomenon in economics. Nintendo's games actually end up doing too well, and kill the third parties who try to compete.

I actually like some of the third party offerings. Rampage is pretty fun. I borrowed that from someone. I also liked Call of Duty 3. DBZ:BT2 is one of the best fighting games I have ever played. I know people hate DBZ and whatnot but seriously this game deserves some credit, even if it is a port. I think they ported it rather well with multiple controller options. I like the wiimote the best but the VC controller is just as good.

Its the fans....As i see it they dont see the wii as kiddy, this is evident of rants that ive witnessed on a day to day basis. I blame the fans though because look at resident evil 4 Is sold less that mario party. Which isnt even a game but several minigames with no online play. And im betting that mostg people didnt play with someone

ha

The only major flaw about that line of thinking is out of the window with the Wii: the console is not selling exclusively to the Nintendo fanboys.

The lesson for third party titles? Be better than Nintendo. It's not their fault they are so good at what they do.

"American society tends to believe that Blood = Adult and cute = Kids. I am an adult and I'd still rather look at baby tigers all day than puddles of blood."

Now this, honestly, is the shit that annoys me the most. Someone says, "Hey, can I get a more mature video game in here, please?" and the quickest response is usually, "I'm mature enough to see the value of Pokemon. I don't need blood."

I hate to say it, but that's a pretty lame arguement. Mature =/= Adult Content. If someone says they want an engrossing RPG experience filled with a deep plot and an open leveling system, you don't hand them Pokemon and tell them they're immature if they can't appreciate Pokemon instead of, oh... I don't know... FFXII? Likewsie, you don't hand a hardcore baseball sim fan Super Mario Baseball and expect him not to say "The fuck is this shit?"

Mature is more than the guts and gore in a game. Despite MarioKart and GT4 both having the same rating, I hope we don't have arguements over which one is aiming for a more mature fanbase.

There's definitely a big change in how people perceie games, nowadays. If the game doesn't involve violence or sex, then people don't feel the game is "core" or "fun" enough. There's this illusion that if a game just happens to LOOK silly or kiddie in some way than people are turned off. I don't know where this ignorant view is coming from!

People are more willing to pass a game that seems kiddie, without even first trying, by looks alone.

Love Nintendo, hate their fans. They crap and poop about innovation and take everything personally, but if a game like Katamari came out on the Gamecube instead of the PS2 and Mario Party 6 came out the same day, the game would've been a bomb instead of a cult classic.

"I blame the fans though because look at resident evil 4 Is sold less that mario party"-remember me

thank you. that is a PERFECT example. RE4 was one of the best games of the last gen and undoughtedly the best GC game IMO.

i guess it is the fans that destroy it. anyone who has played RE4 in its enirety will agree that is was a shear masterpiece of epic proportions(almost made me get a GC just for it, luckily friends let me borrow it and their GC to play it for a week)

the fact that a game like that was out manuevered by mario party is a sick twist on reality showing that anything with mario in the title(no matter how good or bad it is) will always get picked up before games that are far FAR superior to it.

the ninty world is a depressing one at times.

shepy wrote:

"Despite MarioKart and GT4 both having the same rating, I hope we don't have arguements over which one is aiming for a more mature fanbase."

Of course there's no arguement. Mature people understand that modding and pimping your car with every last piece of new and theoretical tech is pure fantasy, only to be pursued by the same rich kids that go on "My Sweet 16" and cry when Jay-Z can't come and rap for them personally. Mature people understand that Mario Kart + friends = a really good time. And when you're mature and have a job and a house and a life, having a good time is what's important.

#7
"well, noone likes childish graphics... people arnt going to be excited by graphics rivaling the old WB cartoons.(even though they were cool)"

Speak for yourself, and only yourself.

One word: Metacritic.

If the game sucks, don't buy it. If it's good, consider buying it. Simple. This time-tested formula will have you playing the best games on all the systems.

I'm all for third party Wii titles, just don't give me no lame ports. Ideally, every third party game would be a unique one, built with the motion controls in mind from the start.

Perhaps there is truth to this, but I'm not sure that it is completely the fanboys' faults. Ninty fans buy the consoles for the first party offerings first and foremost. There's very little that third party devs release on a Ninty system that can't be had in a better format on a different system. The Wii could change this if third party devs create truly unique experiences on the Wii, but they had better not try to release against one of Ninty's main franchises. They're dead if they do. Personally, I know what I'm picking up if I've got the choice between ANYTHING and Mario/Metroid/Zelda/etc. So, who's fault is it really?

Mature is hardly the word to describe most people thjat think anyting with less of a rating is for kids.

If you are mature, then you are adult enough to see that anything can be fun, regaurdless of looks or content. Sure, some M rated gmaes can be good, but most tend to be uninspired and are forgetable.

Some of the most memorable/famous games do not have consist of only blood.

gears of war is a good game and all, but do you really think people will give a shit about it 10 years from now? No, cause most of the games we remember are the ones that stuck out and did something new

And with this...

"Of course there's no arguement. Mature people understand that modding and pimping your car with every last piece of new and theoretical tech is pure fantasy, only to be pursued by the same rich kids that go on "My Sweet 16" and cry when Jay-Z can't come and rap for them personally. Mature people understand that Mario Kart + friends = a really good time. And when you're mature and have a job and a house and a life, having a good time is what's important."

Wolfeboy has proven my point. Okay, let's say, for a moment, that you don't enjoy overly arcade racers or likewise, you absolutely fucking hate weaponry in your racing games with a passion. Likewise, you have a genuine love for cars and not carts. And yet, here you are, saying the person who fits the above description is an immature retard because he just doesn't like MarioKart. He likes real racing. In your own little world, he doesn't exist and he shouldn't matter. But here's the catch. In the real world, he does exist because he's buying games too. And your downright moronic analogy only proves why Nintendo fanboys can be downright moronic.

Someone loves Supreme Commander but hates Advance Wars with a passion, obviously they are not mature.

Someone loves Gran Turismo, hates the Cruisin Series, obviously they are spoiled brats.

Someone loves MLB 2K7 and not Super Mario Baseball, obviously this person doesn't know how to have fun.

Seriously, who the hell are you to dictate what people find interesting about their game choices? And more importantly, why is every single Nintendo fanboy on the planet like you?

Nintendo copies the vernacular of http://www.playmobil.com/ way too much lately (look at their mii for a good example). They need to grow up and become something that has more to offer than just their sugar coated mario mainstay junk. I liked mario, but I now find him, his voice, his friends and foes extremely grating. He should be either retired or put on hold for awhile. Seriously, imagine if Disney had Mickey Mouse in such heavy rotation.

Make a decent game, and I will buy it.

This article seems to assume that if a Wii owner buys Zelda they aren't going to buy Dewey. Not true. I don't know what the attach rate is, ut I know that I personally have 6 games. They are 50/50 nintendo/3rd party.

Sony and Microsoft fanboys attack Nintendo for being too "kiddie" because they'll attack any competitor's perceived weakness and it helps them feel "mature" for owning a blood-drenched 360 or PS3. Nintendo fanboys also put down the "kiddie" games, both to reflect the Sony and Microsoft fanboy attacks, and because they too feel their "maturity" is somehow linked to the games they play.

Honestly, Calling Nintendo: Ninty is one of the most idiotic things I ever heard.

I think the problem and the solution lies on all fronts: the fanboys, the 3rd party publishers, and Nintendo itself.

Nintendo:

Nintendo did make some screw-ups in the past with N64, and the cube suffered because of the poor call. In the past big-house publishers like Capcom, Konami and Square got big in the SNES era, but completely jumped off ship with N64 because it was expensive to develop and it was severely limited in terms of media size (can't exactly swap cartridges in middle of gameplay a la PS 1).

Additionally, in the past Nintendo has quite the draconian content control censorhip until recently. I do believe nintendo is going to the right approach by allowing some room for mature games (No More Heroes, Godfather, PoP) to flourish on the console.

In short, Nintendo should do what it is doing as of now, while continue supporting third parties so that their titles can have the same success as their in-house titles have done so. The more titles that people get excited about over a console, the better it is for the console's long run success, obviously.

Developers:

The developers had a good reason to jump ship from N64 and the Cube. It was more beneficial for them to develop PS2/Xbox games because (1) it has a larger install base, and (2) between xbox and pc it was an easier jump to make. As a result exclusives on the Cube never lasted that long (Tales of Symphonia, RE4, to name a few). Developers realize that they would be missing out on the mass market when they sign up for exclusives on the cube, which is why they went south on the exclusivity deal. I dare to say that their cost for breach of contract is a fraction of the potential profit made by porting those titles to the PS2.

Additionally at the time titles that sold well on the cube are mainly children friendly titles. All of the first party titles are kiddie friendly, and developers were working on the presumption that mostly kids own the cube and developed the titles accordingly.

Regarding rehased titles, I am probably disappointed with third party approach of tacking in wii controls with their one year old games. The problem lies with the fact that people already owned and played the games before, and no matter how cool the controllers may be for the wii, it does not justify paying the full price again for an encore experience of the game, especially if there are no extra contents available in the game.

I think it would be much better for all of us if the developers come up with fresh ideas and games instead of recycling prior made games. Ubisoft's Rayman Raving Rabbids is a good example of a totally new experience that cannot be found on other systems as of now.


Fanboys:

Fanboys for the most part can act as a barometer of the system: it is unlikely for fanboys to pick up on a crappy game and defend it to death. A game title must have its own merit to for fanboys to line up and buy the game. For example, MGS Twin Snakes had quite the following even though it was a rehash of MGS 1 with the MGS 2 engine. Granted, it wasn't as a classic of an experience as the original, but it definitely had its own moments and merit to stand on its own.

On the other hand, fanboys can go too far as well. Fanboys who rip apart games even before giving it a fair chance may influence others and destroy a title's potential for success. And fanboys is not infallible. After all, the controversy wind waker had began from fanboys being disappointed from Nintendo doing a giant experiment on their beloved franchise. At the end of the day, it was perhaps one of the better games made for the cube.



In short, fanboys should give titles that can stand on their own merit a chance and not blasted it out of existence. Developers should take note on what the fanboys have to say, but not blindly following the demands and the rants of the fanboys because ultimately they are the creators of the game and not the fanboys. Nintendo should support developers as much as they can because when the developers publish kick ass titles that everyone wants, it means more hardware sold and more opportunity for everyone to be happy under the sun.

This is only the fault of the Americans, where they only like mind rotting filth like Halo and Gears of War. Perhaps Nintendo games do not provide adaquate training for their criminal activities.

You don't see the civilized people in Japan crying "kiddie".

I would never pollute my HDTV with Batsu-Box 360 filth

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c203/Emotep032/IMGP0157.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c203/Emotep032/IMGP0158.jpg

Mario Party 4, 5, and 6 individually outsold RESIDENT EVIL 4 on the GC... nuff said. Nintendo Fanboys need to give third party devs a chance.

"I am an adult and I'd still rather look at baby tigers all day than puddles of blood."

Ah, baby tigers...when they hunt & kill gazelles, they're just sooo cuuuuuute!

I think Nintendo does a good job of hurting 3rd party support with the lack of help given to them. Seriously Nintendo, open up will you? =/

I can see some truth in Sheppy's post (While adult content makes a game mature, a mature game does not necessarily require adult content [meaning extreme violence, sexual aspects, obscenities, etc.]), but I must disagree with it on the whole.

I'll use the example of Windwaker since it is prevalent enough where most Nintendo gamers know it on some level. Zelda title and introduced a lot of neat things to the series. I bought the game and enjoyed it very much (I actually traded in the majority of my 64 games to be able to afford it at release). It was surprising to me that it was such a big deal that a worthwhile game didn't live up to some fan's expectations (the early realistic photos were a bit misleading, but as I remember those were way before the release.) I could take that game and (under hypothetical circumstances) force a naysayer to play it. After they had played it far enough to be into the main story line I would bet that person wouldn't have much to say about the graphics (unless it was that the smoke animation is way cool). Now I know it is not possible for the third party developers to shove games down the craw of their customers, gladly so, but it also says something about what games people choose to play. If those people aren't playing Windwaker because it looks too childish for them, then fine. That is clearly a choice they make. Does it affect the enjoyment of the throng of others who enjoyed the game, not in spite of, but due to its graphics (or at least those who tolerated them enough to find what a good game it was)? My point here is that Nintendo and any other developer is going to make games that they think will sell well and make them money (and bring enjoyment to millions of their fans). If blood and gore don't sell well on the (insert Nintendo system) then it's probably because the people who play the games on those systems are drawn to other sorts of games, like Windwaker. I think it would be fair to say that most of the people decrying Windwaker as kiddie crap were probably people who played other systems more than Nintendo and are more open and wanting of games where you can chop off someone's appendage with a chainsaw.

The fans will always dictate this relationship because Nintendo isn't coughing up their hard earned dollars to buy their games, the fans are. Nintendo will do what it thinks it's fans want as long as that coincides with them making money. All three parties have a hand in deciding in which direction and system or company (like Nintendo) move, but none more so than the fans.

I think it's pretty cool to have that kind of power, even if I can only personally represent a few hundred thousandths of it. (or whatever number it would be-not much of a numbers guy.)

I agree with sheppy for the most part. Dewy's Adventure doesn't appeal to people because it just plain sucks. The gameplay of the game may be up to par, but the main character's design looks like something created for small children.

A game doesn't have to be "kiddy" or "mature". It's not an either-or situation. There's a balance that's neither violent nor sugar-coated. Plenty of games hit this target like Zelda, Final Fantasy, Rayman, and (most of the time) Mario.

Sheppy that was rad, he walked right into that with his fanboy self. LOL.

I don't think the blame can be placed on Nintendo fanboys... not directly. I offer that it has to do with two things: 1) the hardware is generally inferior and 2) devs & gamers aren't stupid. It goes something like this:

1) Adult gamers, or rather, gamers who like mature-themed games, are more likely to buy a PS3 or 360. They should, that's just being smart. If you like mature games, you'd be stupid to buy a Wii over a 360 or even a PS3 now. What does that mean? Gamers who like mature titles are going to buy a PS3 or 360 before they buy a Wii. If they have a Wii, it's in addition to one of those other two consoles.

2) PS3 and 360 are more powerful than Wii. Xbox 1 & PS2 were more powerful than GC (though yes RE4 was amazing on GC), and likewise PS1 outclassed N64. This is a very important point, in that mature games rely far more on realism than do children's games... and the more power you've got the more realistic you can make it.

that leads to

3) If a developer is aiming to make a mature game, the non Nintendo platforms are more appealing. First because the non-Nintendo platforms have more users that are interested in mature games. And second, because the Nintendo hardware isn't as powerful and is therefore capable of less realism than the competing platforms.

that leads you to the buyer behavior--

4) If a mature game comes out on multiple platforms, the Nintendo release will sell the worst, since any mature game consumer will buy it on the more powerful non-Nintendo platform that they likely have. If it's only available on Nintendo's platform (read: RE4) it will sell well, but not as well as more universal games such as Mario, Pokemon, and Zelda.

So developers don't aim to create mature games on Nintendo's consoles, in part because of the inferior hardware and in part because the other platforms have more gamers that want mature games. And consumers don't buy the multiplatform mature releases on Nintendo, because they aren't as good. On top of that, people who only own the Nintendo platform are less likely to play mature-themed games.

In a nutshell, every Nintendo platform will have awesome 1st party games, mostly kiddie/universal 3rd party games, and very few mature games compared to the other consoles. Until Nintendo starts making comparably powerful hardware, or comes up with a novel new controller that can make mature games more realistic..... hmmmm... Manhunt 2 anyone? ;)

Erac, where are you getting your facts? The Gamecube was more powerful than the PS2 and a bit less powerful than the Xbox.

I give third-party developers crap because they make crappy games. I was so excited for Red Steel, for instance. But the voices were worse than most anime, the controls were shoddy, and the environments were awful.
As annoying as it is that Metroid just got pushed back AGAIN, more than likely they're going to have the bugs worked out. I'm so tired of lazy or greedy developers who don't take the time necessary to put out a game. Take some pride in your work. I know it costs more money, but game developing is an investment. You'll sell more copies if it gets good reviews.
As for the kiddie scheme: I agree. I loved Wind Waker, and had Elebits been a good game I would have purchased it, and I plan to buy Dewy's Adventure, assuming it doesn't suck donkey balls.

I have 8 Wii games. 2 are made by Nintendo and 6 are made by other folks. So it wasn't me. And one of those Nintendo games is Wii Sports, so if you don't count that, I bought 6 3rd party games and 1 Nintendo game.

When somebody makes a good game, I look forward to seeing what they make next. I liked Elebits, so I'm looking forward to Dewey's Adventure. I liked Killer7 so I'm looking forward to No More Heroes. I liked Manhunt so I'm looking forward to Manhunt 2.

All games are not E or M. And all gamers are not 8 year olds who only play E games or 9 year olds who only play M games to show how much more "mature" they are than their 8 year old friends. Some of us like a little of everything.

"I liked mario, but I now find him, his voice, his friends and foes extremely grating. He should be either retired or put on hold for awhile."

You do realize Super Mario Sunshine came out in August of 2002. Thats 5 YEARS ago come august, and the enemies were very diverse compared to Super Mario 64. Most games never have that big of a break. (Ratchet and Clank had 4 games in 4 years.) Super Mario 64 came out in Sept. of 1996! Thats 6 years without a true Mario sequel. Sure, there are Mario Sports games, and Paper Mario, but they are all different in their own ways. (enemies, sounds, play style, visual styles, etc.)

So let me get this straight. You think 3 games in 11 years is too much? Are you joking? Nintendo realizes they have a great franchise on their hands and dont want to risk 'sequelitis'. And they havent.

I stay on the NSider forums and I can tell you that Nintendo fans don't look at most third party titles. When asked what games are worth buying, most would either say Zelda, Excite Truck, and Wario Ware. This can also be seen for the VC. Games like Super Ghost and Ghouls, Street Fighter 2, and others come out and you can see people posting threads of disappointment because no Nintendo titles were included. I think two things are the problem a) Nintendo fans being spoiled by the great first party titles, they just pay attention to Nintendo releases and don't pay attention to anything that doesn't say Published or Developed by Nintendo b) people buying Nintendo consoles only for Nintendo games and buying other consoles for third party games. What Nintendo should have done before anything was to have released the demo channel for Nintendo fans to download third party titles to try them out and see if they would like them. Nintendo, moreso than Microsoft and Sony, needs a demo channel to get more sells on third party titles. Hopefully when they get around to doing that, sells for released third party games will pick up, and also future third party games. Having said all that, Nintendo and third parties are doing way better than what they've done on the past 2 generations. No one can expect a third party game to outsell a Nintendo staple franchise, but third party titles have been selling pretty good (except in Japan, but not even PS3 software sales are good over there).

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://uqmgp.hp.infoseek.co.jp/AoG_2y_net%2520-%2520Children%27s%2520drawings%2520in%2520the%2520subway!.files/stomping.jpg&imgrefurl=http://uqmgp.hp.infoseek.co.jp/&h=432&w=576&sz=44&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=tASL96NaeCnngM:&tbnh=101&tbnw=134&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfuck%2Bjapan%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN

@erac3rx

No, the PS2 was significantly less powerful than the GC. Amazing that people still believe Sony's advertising hype after all these years.

"So let me get this straight. You think 3 games in 11 years is too much? Are you joking? Nintendo realizes they have a great franchise on their hands and dont want to risk 'sequelitis'. And they havent."

Except that franchise has been milked to death. In that same period there were 7 mario party games, countless sports, and other stuff. And just because they are not Mario exactly, it is still killing the franchise by overpowering everything and overdoing it.

Oh and the PS2 was not more powerful than the GC. The PS1 wasn't even more powerful than the N64. With the RAM expansion pak the N64 was the most powerful system of its time. I think what you're referring to is the PS1's larger media size for all the cutscenes and multi-disc games.

You also said that if I like mature games and own a Wii, it has to be in addition to another console? I own a Wii, I don't own a 360 or a PS3, and I didn't own a GC, XBox, or PS2. Maybe people aren't making console purchases solely based on the number of M rated games or on the level of realism the system can achieve.

Personally, I hate realism in games and think it should be left to photography. In gaming, realistic looking games are the ones that age the worst. Try playing a 10 year old game that used to look realistic, and then try playing a 10 year old game that never looked realistic.