GameDaily 'Persons of the Year': #1 - 3 and readers' choice
by Alexander Sliwinski 
{ Dec 18th 2007 at 11:15PM }
Major Nelson -- guru of Xbox -- received the readers' choice award after politely directing his loyal readership to GameDaily's website. Before Major Nelson stepped up his campaign, Assassin's Creed producer Jade Raymond was in the lead. Too bad Raymond didn't win though, GameDaily ended up having "Men of the Year" awards rather than "Persons of the Year."
Read -- 2007 Persons of the Year #1
Read -- Persons of the Year: Readers' Choice Unveiled
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Shagittarius @ Dec 18th 2007 11:19PM
The fact that game daily picked a collection of suits as their top persons of the year points out that their priorities are completely screwed up.
Developers and Engineers deserve these awards.
Cheezeman3000 @ Dec 18th 2007 11:25PM
You're just sad none of them were Sony suits.
Ooh burn.
gonk @ Dec 18th 2007 11:27PM
they'd have to hand out about 1000 then
also, who the f is major nelson? joystiq mentions him every once in a while but doesn't say much
Grant @ Dec 19th 2007 12:49AM
Major Nelson is basically the human personality of XBL.
Major Nelson = XBL as
Cliff B = Epic
or TwoZeroFOur = Infinity Ward
or Frankie = Bungie.
gonk @ Dec 19th 2007 1:49AM
yeah i've heard that cliff b guy's name too, didnt know what he did either
Jeff @ Dec 19th 2007 6:37AM
You're completely right. And I didn't think of that until it was pointed out.
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Dec 19th 2007 8:49AM
Ok, shag, which engineer would you choose for the top person of the year?
I want names, not "the guy who coded the physics in crysis" or something.
Because it was likely a team of people who coded the physics in crysis.
Psykoboy2 @ Dec 18th 2007 11:45PM
He's a Microsoft fashion model. Pretty good at it from what I have seen.
MOT @ Dec 19th 2007 12:20AM
Major Nelson doesn't look like a real person in that picture. He looks like a cardboard cutout to me.
phihexy27 @ Dec 19th 2007 12:32AM
To be honest with you I really don't care about any of these names. Truthfully I am kind of getting sick of hearing Reggie's name. I understand that a lot of people like him and all and with the success of the Wii it kind of makes sense, but I just don't care much for the guy. I would have preferred for Jade Raymond to be at the top of the list.
NukeAssault @ Dec 19th 2007 12:31AM
HYRB FTW!
Grant @ Dec 19th 2007 12:52AM
Activision and Harmonix suits take the 2nd and 3rd spots?
just wtf did they do for gaming?
Approve the giant marketing budgets of a new impractical series and a used-to-be-revolutionary-but-now-repetitive series?
Grant @ Dec 19th 2007 1:01AM
I still think the success of the Wii is a fluke and the fact that Nintendo is still under producing over a year later kind of shows how little faith they had in their "wonder product". Even with a year of success, no where the needed amount of 3rd parties have jumped on the bandwagon.
The only thing Nintendo has done differently is make a gimmicky peripheral the main controller, rather than a poor selling add-on later on. That pulled in mass market appeal, and once the mass market gets tired of playing Wii Sports, cause there's nothing else, the wii will begin it's traditional Nintendo console death cycle.
Disclosure: I own a Wii, i camped out over night for it, i have not sold it despite only having bought 2 games and renting a handful more. I love Nintendo, Zelda, and Mario... but Nintendo needs to get it's shit together and stop relying on hand helds and just letting this wave of console sales crash on top of them instead of taking full advantage of it. Someone in that company needs a business degree.
eldee @ Dec 19th 2007 1:45AM
or rather, whoever is responsible for the major decisions should be giving the rest of us business lessons.
you do realize that you just said the manufacturer of the most phenomenally selling console in recent history (we'll have to check back in 10 years to see if it annihilates the PS2 as well) to go back to business school? Do you understand how ignorant that makes you sound?
Business is about making money.. guess what- somebody at nintendo realized the 'niche market' is actually the majority of the population on this planet, and designed a console around usability. That is business genius.
Having said that, I personally hate the wii.. there's not a single game on it that I'm dying to play, nor are there any announced for the future that pique my interest. But as far as business goes, Nintendo is genius.
Grant @ Dec 19th 2007 3:02AM
business isn't about selling the product thats supposed to have a 4-5 year life span for a single year and then rolling in your money.
If you read my statement, my point wasn't that Nintendo isn't able to sell it's console, it's that it is not properly utilizing it's current popularity to the fullest and ensuring it's long term staying power in the market, which it absolutely does not.
No games = No staying power, and once Mom sees that the wii hasn't been turned on in a year, it's probably going in the basement or attic and no more games are bought for it. While Nintendo was the only console maker to turn a profit off it's hardware this round of console wars, the real money in video games is in the licensing of actual games, which are no where to be seen.
The Wii managed to sell purely off of hype and ease of use, there was no marketing genius there, they took a basic formula for product success and applied it to the video game hardware. Their commercials are laughable, nearly as bad as Sony's obscure shit. They "borrowed" the sleek white styling from apple. Motion sensitive controls have been done before, and once people get over the gimmick of that, the Wii's ONLY advantage is a low entry cost.
As i said above, their lack of ability to provide enough stock shows their lack of faith in their own product. If you don't think a product will sell, you don't create a couple million until the demand exists, which is exactly what happened.
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Dec 19th 2007 8:57AM
Except that its "mom" who's turning the wii on everyday to play bowling, or tennis, or whatever. Its not like the NES or SNES that the "kids" will outgrow when they discover girls or highschool sports: the user is already the grown up, playing the games they like.
Tennis players don't one day say "Man, I'm so bored of tennis, I think I'll stop playing tennis forever". Why should wii-tennis players say the same thing.
And seriously: underproducing? Its the fasting selling home console in history. No console has had the kind of demand the Wii has. Even favorable predictions said it would only be sold out for 4 months after launch,
Is Sony producing 1.8 million PS3's a month? Is Microsoft producing 1.8 million 360's a month? I very much doubt it. They're probably producing half that, if even that much.
Ability to provide enough stock involves a hell of a lot more factors than "lets make more of them". I work in manufacturing. Lead times on new production lines is up to 6 months to a year. Unless you know anything about how stuff gets made, you're better off keeping your opinions to yourself about it, because you sound like a noob.
NintendoFanbot @ Dec 19th 2007 1:26PM
GRANT:
Or you could say, even if your assertion was 100% correct and not due to huge game sales and a few quality releases, that the Wii's huge success in the US is due to its marketing.
Which is Reggie.
PS: Wii was outperforming the DS for a couple months in the US. Yep, absolute handheld reliance. :P
phihexy27 @ Dec 19th 2007 1:48PM
"I still think the success of the Wii is a fluke and the fact that Nintendo is still under producing over a year later kind of shows how little faith they had in their "wonder product"."
I agree with you on that. Actually I think the fact that Nintendo is under-producing has helped fuel the sales of the Wii. Many people feel that they must have it simply because they cannot get it.
Grant @ Dec 19th 2007 2:58PM
Chrono,
"Ability to provide enough stock involves a hell of a lot more factors than "lets make more of them". I work in manufacturing. Lead times on new production lines is up to 6 months to a year. Unless you know anything about how stuff gets made, you're better off keeping your opinions to yourself about it, because you sound like a noob."
you should recognize that they had little faith initially by having such small output and are now not able to play catch up. Sony doesn't need to produce that much because they had an initial stock to meet demand and have had constant reserves.
Does everyone forget how the 360 faced similar production issues just 2 years ago? except MS had stockpiled a bit, and their demand wasn't as high as the wii, but it has had steady demand since. Also, MS saw the increased demand for their product and managed to open up new distribution channels and production BY SPENDING MONEY. 6-12 months is normal lead time, but if you want things done, and have resources, the process can be achieved much quicker. They are not catering to the consumer and looking to get consoles in peoples hands NOW, before they get bored.
But what people seem to miss is that my point is Nintendo is NOT NOT NOT utilizing it's current popularity.
The Hardware sells like crack, and has not needed any marketing past it's inital "Hey, look what i can do" Demos(Especially not the "We would like to play shit"), but thats only the beginning of the console life cycle. If you push a product out the door and don't support it past point of sale, it's going to crash after that initial surge, which is most likely is going to happen unless Nintendo starts looking forward.
"Tennis players don't one day say "Man, I'm so bored of tennis, I think I'll stop playing tennis forever". Why should wii-tennis players say the same thing."
Oh, thats right, because Wii sports has so much depth.
I assume you have played your favorite game non-stop for the last 10 years then? If Wii sports has this gripping staying power that you claim, than the big N is truly fucked, because the only game people need comes with the system.
Nintendofanbot:
"Wii was outperforming the DS for a couple months in the US. Yep, absolute handheld reliance"
a few months of outperforming the DS? Do you know how many YEARS straight handhelds have dominated Nintendo's sales? The only, and i mean ONLY, thing keeping Nintendo in the hardware business for the last 5-8 years was handhelds.
quickshade @ Dec 19th 2007 2:07AM
Yep Major has a huge following and really does work to get us what we want. I can name a few times that he has said "no thats not going to work, heres what you should do" Best of all he's funny and has the best job in the world. Deserve it.
Packwolf @ Dec 19th 2007 2:12PM
Congratulations Major Nelson. Keep up the great work! You have helped me on many occasions and you are approachable. Thanks.
Packwolf
Korova @ Dec 19th 2007 8:07AM
Jade didnt win?! Outrageous~
3 CEOs? The Troika of the Year. I have not heard anything admiring about anyone except for Reggie. CEo is generally not the glam position in the media/entertainment business. I guess they had to pick somebody.
Man, gaming needs to grow bigger. Next year it will be Jerry Bruckheimer and Spielberg, you watch. (Dont blink)
Gangsta Smurf @ Dec 19th 2007 11:27AM
Who the hell is Jade Raymond?
*googles*
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Dec 19th 2007 11:37AM
The hottest chick in gaming.
robotplague @ Dec 19th 2007 11:57AM
There's a few things I like about Major Nelson and a few things I don't. It's VERY smart to have a community person like this who can actually get inside info and whose job it is to keep people informed with their product. As far as a personality though, he's not all that like-able, funny, charismatic, etc. I listen to his shows for the interviews/news but not necessarily for him.