Japanese game pubs jumping from Sony to Nintendo

Mmmmm... Futurama.

While were posting pointless parables (sp?):

There was a scorpion who wanted to cross a river so he asked an alligator to give him a ride across. The alligator said , "No way, you'll sting me if I let you get on my back". The Scorpion said, "If I sting you then I'll drown as well so I wont sting you". The alligator thought about it and said, "Ok, I'll let you ride, climb on".

As they reached the middle of the river sure enough the scorpion stung the alligator and as the alligator started to black out he cried out to the scorpion, "Why, why?". The scorpion replied, "Its just my nature".

Whos next!!?!?!

posting pointless parables? I prefer potent potables.

I figured this was obvious, except for the Namco-Bandai one. With "Cellius" and all you'd think they would be more committed to the PS3

@ shagi..

you say systems that comes out first usually have a advantage.. well look how fast the wii is catching on the 360.. it will have outsold it by august..

sorry 360 fans but you guys know its the truth

Jody,

Why?
WHY?!??!?!?!?!!

;P

i still loves you, matt

Once there was a guy, and he had himself... a.. bollum head... lotsa guys got bollum heads, I seen em!

@5

right only gamers buy games, thats why brain training sold over 3mil. and all these non games are doing extremely well. congratz you have been negated by the penas.

MattB, I'm trying to help you realize how delusional you are so you won't be heartbroken when the truth punches you in the face.

The first step is admitting you have a problem.

Man, I need some weed, man..

I wonder if Tekken 6 will be coming to the Wii. I couldn't possibly know how the controls would work out without using the classic controller or the new fighting stick.

I hear the term hardcore gamer thrown around a lot on this site. I would love to know what makes someone a hardcore gamer. Can anyone give me a definition?

A Hardcore gamer while not an exact definition is by nature someone who buys a lot of games and spends a lot of time playing those games, they also tend to finish games quicker (due to playing more often) than the other types of gamers.

If you want an exact number I'd say a hardcore gamer generally buys 3 games a month and spends at least 15 hours a week playing them. You can adjust these stats depending on the amount of cash/time a gamer has so its really hard to provide an exact definition.

It really has nothing to do with the types of games played although hardcore gamers usually don't play shitty games beacuse having played a lot of games they don't waste time on crap.

Hope this helps you Gausser.

@Shagi

Oh Jesus, only 3 games a month and 15 hours playing them? I only wish I could ONLY buy 3 games, I think I'm at 7 or 8 games a month :(

But I used to support the Wii60 movement.

Until I got the red rings. Now I'm sour. Fuck that shitty piece of hardware.

@Lp47

Why dont you shut your fucking mouth? Thats how the rumors starts... dont say things if you are not sure... the PS2 will NOT have a motion sensitive controller... check by yourself

http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/06/sony-ps2-motion.html

"94. Thanks for justifying my point crono. That is exactly the mindset I'm referring to. What you see today will be the same the next day.

Lets talk in December and see if you still have to same shortsighted view of the world."

Matt B, what I want to know is this: If December comes around and the situation is more or less the same, will you finally accept things for what they are, or are you going to continue laughing at our supposed narrowmindedness and claiming that in a matter of a few months things will somehow be completely different?

Has Jack really moved on? I was under the impression that he was posting under a new buts somewhat similar username. Anyways the guy was a sony fanboy and a douche of the worst kind.

The same goes for Shaggi to be honest. If Jack was the King of Trolls then you're definitely the Queen.

And I'm glad Nintendo is doing so well. I hope that they come out on top or at least tie with the 360 by the end. The PoS 3 is not what people want this time around and not even games like Final Fantasy, Tekken, or MGS4 is going to convince the masses that a 600 dollar machine that just happens to play games is worth the time.

Revo and crono,

First, the only "problem" I have is disagreeing with you(actually, it's your problem with me).

Second, I never denied the PS3 is selling less than the 360. the PS3 is in a software drought, what would you expect? Maybe the PS3 came to the market too early? I don't care about any of that. I have a PS3 and am damned happy with it.
The reason I say December is because a few top titles will have dropped by then possibly evening the field software wise and sales will follow.

Much to your distaste, Sony will NOT abandon the console because it had a shitty year. It is a financial position unlike Sega and 3DO and even Nintendo when the GC came out. SO if you think they are going to just stop supporting their flagship, you are a fool.

If that is what a hardcore gamer is, that must be a miniscule fraction of all gamers. In reality, how many people buy 3 games a month? I live in Canada and a new Wii games costs $60. Not only that, having a job and doing other things limit the amount of game playing time. Even if I bought 3 a month, I would never be able to finish them. Just not enough hours in a day. How do you guys do it?

Lol I love videogames but if thats truly the definition of a hardcore gamer I do NOT want to be one. Thats bordering on having NO LIFE besides videogames and to me thats quite pathetic. I know I'm gonna be buying a lot of games this season but 3 games a freaking month....?

Ridiculous....

@118

living and mooching off your parents is what I'm guessing they do

"116. Revo and crono,

First, the only "problem" I have is disagreeing with you(actually, it's your problem with me)."

To be fair, if we disagree and we're in a debate, it seems we each have a problem with the other's point of view.

"Second, I never denied the PS3 is selling less than the 360."

To my knowledge, neither of us claimed that you did.

"the PS3 is in a software drought, what would you expect?"

Perhaps not much, but definitely something more than a dismal 80,000 a month in North America and 8,000 a week in Japan. The bigger problem is that there aren't really any games in the near future that will significantly boost console sales.

"Maybe the PS3 came to the market too early? I don't care about any of that. I have a PS3 and am damned happy with it."

Congratulations. Really. At least you're having fun with it, even though it's doing as poorly as it is.

"The reason I say December is because a few top titles will have dropped by then possibly evening the field software wise and sales will follow."

Really? I don't dispute that the PS3 will have a few blockbuster games out by then, but aside from MGS4 I can't think of any that really have a chance at significantly impacting console sales.

"Much to your distaste, Sony will NOT abandon the console because it had a shitty year. It is a financial position unlike Sega and 3DO and even Nintendo when the GC came out. SO if you think they are going to just stop supporting their flagship, you are a fool."

The problem with the PS3 is not the threat of Sony abandoning its console. It's third-party developers that are the issue here.

The thing you don't seem to grasp is that the PS3 does not have an unlimited amount of time to recover from its slump. Slow sales means less developer interest, meaning less exclusive games, meaning less sales, and so on. Conversely, high Wii sales means more developer interest, more exclusive games, more sales, et cetera. The PS3 is in a downward spiral while the Wii is in an upward one, and the longer this pattern continues the more difficult it is to reverse it. A few blockbuster titles could help, but by the time they actually hit, they will probably do little to change the overall direction in which the PS3 is heading.

WARNING: this accidentally turned into a ridiculously long blog involving my life story, and um... dragons yeah! Dragons rule, so read it.



A hardcore gamer is a filthy otaku nerd who has no life. They make up about 1% of the market, but they are the loudest 1% and absolutely hate the casual gamers that make up the other 99% of the market. While hardcore gamers are useless, the casual gamer has decided every console war ever. In droves they purchase casual games like Guitar Hero and Madden (best selling game of 2006, mind you).

More games are casual than you think. These self-proclaimed hardcore gamers like to think that games like Halo and Gears of War are hardcore, when in fact they are very casual. They are shooters. You walk by an arcade and you see people playing shooters, from Terminator 2 to House of the Dead. A baby could play one. People recognize these as casual pick-up-and-play games: you pop in a quarter, you point at the bad guys, and you pull the trigger. To call this hardcore is to call Nintendogs hardcore; it's ridiculous. The best selling shooters are all tied at about 8 million: GoldenEye, Halo 2, and Half-Life 1. However, this fails to take into account that (including pack-ins) Duck Hunt sold 28 million copies. 28 million copies of Duck Hunt are out there. That's never going to happen again, until the planet's population is maybe 10 times bigger. The most casual shooter is the best-selling shooter. And yes, Duck Hunt is in first person. Ooooh...

GTA is quite possibly the most casual game ever made. It is a game in which you can just hop in a car and drive around and do whatever you want. I've watched somebody play San Andreas for 2 hours straight without doing a single mission. They just started a new game, and grabbed a car and drove around the map for 2 hours until they stole a boat, went to the wrong side of the map, and got shot down. San Andreas sold 16 million copies (14 on PS2 and just about 2 on XBox) because people like how you can just do whatever, and because the "aiming" in the game requires an "aim button" instead of actually AIMING. It is the easiest most casual game ever. The genius of GTA is that it's a collection of minigames disguised as a hardcore game. You collect oysters, you collect clothes like it's Animal Crossing, you go to the gym, you go dancing at the club, and oh yeah there are some missions on the side. The missions are all the same thing anyway: drive somewhere and/or shoot somebody and/or steal a vehicle, mix and match ad infinitum.

Seriously, if you consider yourself a hardcore gamer because you buy 3 games a month, shoot yourself in the face. There aren't even 3 good games a month (until Christmas)! Are there really 36 good games a year? Who throws that kind of money away? Are you people crazy? Why would anybody call themselves hardcore anyway? That's like a weird junior high joke gone wrong. Aww yeah bitches what I'm hardcore aww yeah watch me.... play some video games 'cuz I'm more of a hardcore nerd than you are woohoo! How do you people sleep?

If I wanted to, I guess I could call myself "hardcore" because I've played about one billion hours of SMB1 and about one million hours of StarCraft, and I'm going through my 4th X-Com phase right now. I've collected 285 NES carts so far, I've played games my whole life, graphics mean nothing to me because I've seen everything by now, and all I care about is INNOVATION and diversity in gaming. I don't mean just diversity in control schemes (Wii and DS own that department), but diversity in gameplay mechanics, art styles and plots and everything else. In the last few years the only games to truly blow my mind have been Katamari, Viewtiful Joe, Wii Sports, Electroplankton, Smash Bros. (best 4 player fighting since Thrill Kill, ZING!), Ouendan, and Elebits. I'm dying to try Okami and Shadow of the Colossus, but my roommate took his PS2 and moved out.

On top of being an avid gamer, I am also a cheap bastard. I've been working 2 jobs and paying my way through school for years, and even $250 for the Wii was a bit much for me. I think paying more than $250 for a gaming system is totally insane and $250 was only worth it because it came with an awesome game which I still play. Can I be hardcore without buying 3 games a month? Can I be an avid gamer without feeling the need to draw arbitrary lines in the sand between 1337 and n00bz, hardcore and casual, Wiihuggers and Shagi? Am I crazy? AM I NORMAL!?!?

I like dragons.

Wow, this topic just got real serious all the sudden...

Okay... HERE WE GOOOOOOO!

@Revo,

Honestly, as much as I want to say Wii will become the defacto winner for the hardcores, I'm afraid to say it won't. Yes, more sales equals more exclusives but let's put it this way... 360 and PS3 are currently in the same boat. Their audience is primarily the graphics and immersion crowd (was playing The Darkness last night, one of the most impressive intros in a game I've ever seen). When Wii continues to dominate and pull more games there, what do you think those titles are going to mimmick? Fresh, innovative ideas or old ideas with Wii tacked on? Honestly, I'm suprised we haven't seen a WiiSports clone yet. We've seen minigames keep getting announced each week but still. Companies will wait to see what hits or shovel their hits to make it fit. And as Japanese developers keep pulling support from PS3, where do you THINK it's going? Nintendo? This is a drastically good thing? Let's just put it this way. RPGs have been about graphics and story. Show me an example of that on Wii. I don't want the focus from Japan becoming a 4 player coop stylus driven Dragon Quest or removing turn based mechanics in favor of flicking the remote. Because, frankly, Western developers don't strike me as creative most of the time. Occassionally they come through but majority of the time, they are so focused on "real is brown" and "bloom looks cool" that I can't get into the art style. So while you see this shift as a good thing, I see it as a bad. After all, if it's one thing DS has taught developers, doesn't matter how horrible your shit is on that console, people buy it in droves. I don't want that mentality coming from Japan for the next four years. Of course all this is the worst case scenario but I digress.

@Rubang

Why you gotta be bashing the hardcores? Because, in my opinion, you are one. Frankly, I don't buy into the whole "gotta buy X number of games and play games to completion on a set percentage of them." Of course the last thing I worry about with my Gamerscore is the actual SCORE part.

Honestly, I consider someone a hardcore gamer if someone legitimately cares about the industry. Apply this to the same principles of someone you would call a music lover (not snob) or a films buff.

Let's just put it this way. Your average music listener listens to things that are catchy, focuses on the dropped singles, and barely anything else. You music lover listens to full albums and enjoys the way the tracks tell a complete story, follows certain groups and bands, listens to things even outside their favorite genre, and can even tell a mood or tone of an album or the differences between albums even from the same group. They don't subscribe to an ideal that, should someone KNOW of the band you're listening to, they earn instant cool points for having heard of your obscure preferences or that people should be judged the moment they listen to an album that went platinum. That's just a music snob. Apply the same concept to movies.

Hardcore gamers? I feel these are the people who LOOK UP what's coming out for their system, feel concerned about an AO rating and what it means in this industry, hears about upcoming games or even visits sites like this. In my eyes, if you don't mindlessly wander into a store and "happen" across a game that looks "awesome" or all your game purchases are NOT dictated by what your friends are playing, then you're a hardcore gamer. I don't care if you have 10,000 games or 2, you're a hardcore gamer. Now gaming snobs, however, these are the people who annoy me and apparently you too, Rubang.

MattB, neither of us said sony would abandon their platform. We said that the console is dead in the water and will probably be the lowest selling console this generation. It might even sell less than GC/Xbox. Its doing THAT BADLY right now.

I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!


Word sheppy. I can live with that definition.


Anybody else read "Japanese game pubs" and not immediately think of publishers, but think of some sort of gaming bar, like what Bushnell's got going on these days?

Oh, and if anybody comes back to this dead thread ever, I've decided to call myself a game enthusiast.

Political Correctness FTW!

ofcourse Wii is outselling PS3 you stupid fanboys. A Corolla outsells a Mercedez doesnt it? ;)

now excuse me while i return to 1080p 60 FPS 14 player online Ridge Racer 7 (on a system thats region-free and uses a highly scratch resistant disc)...

you Ninty fanboys keep enjoying Wii Sports in all its 480i glory! and dont worry, i heard Mario Strikers Charged will support 2 player online! LOL

Curmeo doesn't get it.

It doesn't matter if you can equate the wii to a toyota and a PS3 to a mercedes. Developers don't make games for cars, they make games for consoles, and the one with the highest install base gets the most games, and by the law of averages, the most quality games.

So you can still drive a mercedes no matter what the company decides to do, but its kinda hard to play a PS3 when all the games you're interested in are on a competitors platform.

Wii60 is clearly the most logical choice of consoles this generation.

hello! anyone remember sony's motion based controllers: a)eyetoy and b)onimusha sword?

both are terrible to use. so is sixaxis. i don't think motion based control really is making wii rule, its just a trick to get ppl who don't play games to pick up a controller- then guess what? same moldy old game play nintendo perfected 20 years ago makes them like video games. here's an easy way to look at the big three:

nintendo= easy
sony= shiny
xbox= pc w/o need for screwdriver

all three are fun, but who is really winning? i think despite wii sales, its still too early to tell with nintendo AAA franhises already out but still largely missing on ps3 and 360.

What are you talking about? Trolling much? The only AAA nintendo franchise currently out is Zelda, and that was the GC port. Nintendo is winning the console war in sales/time based on GARBAGE, and garbage alone. Think how it will take off this holiday season. This may be the first time in history that a console has been completely sold out not just 2 holiday seasons, but for an entire year encompassing 2 holiday seasons.

Maybe even longer.

"the one with the highest install base gets the most games, and by the law of averages, the most quality games."

its not as simple as that. that would only be true if the competing consoles had similar hardware/services because in order to satisfy the law of averages, there needs to be a constant, which in this case is similar hardware/services. clearly Wii is a totally different machine than PS3/360:

a)Wii's online service is a joke.

b)Wii is limited to stereo sound unlike PS3/360 where 5.1 is the standard for all games, which adds alot of depth especially in FPS games.

c)Wii's controller focuses on motion sensing.(Wii Classic controller is an accessory: it doesnt come with the system and so isnt a standard/constant. PS3 controller does not focus on motion sensing, it only compliments it).

d) Wii doesnt support HD and so FPS games will always be inferior when it comes to splitscreen gaming or when trying to see an enemy in the distance.

Your arguement would only be valid if Wii was as capable as PS3/360. You just cant compare apples to oranges.