signifyingmnky

@Cap Morgan

As a gamer, I don't care what Sony says about it's sales figures. As someone who enjoys following the market, particularly when it comes to the tech and games industries, it is of some interest.

For some, it is about justifying a purchase. Some people love competition/superiority whether the subject is games, cars, smartphones, etc. It's all "mine is better and here's why..." It's consumerism at its worse, amounts to litle more than free advertising and evangelism on behalf of corporations who don't know you from a number on a spreadsheet, but it's also human nature, so it's not going away.

On the flip side though, If it weren't for the flame wars that arise every time one of these articles pop up, some decent conversations could be had about trends and people could actually learn a thing or two from one another.

A couple of points:

1) Given Sony's history with shipped/sold numbers, I don't take this at face value. The PS3 has been outsold in the US consistently for years now. While they certainly dominate in Japan, Microsoft isn't similarly shut out of the other territories. Sony's advantage in Japan would only close the gap so much as long as they continue to trail in NA.

2) Sony spent the first year or two of the PS3's life marketing it as a Blu-ray player. It would be interesting to see what the lifetime attach rate looks like.

3) Sony's recently announced financials don't look so hot. This sounds like a effort to soften the blow.

Accurate or not, these announced numbers don't tell the whole story.

(cont.)
If you're not open to the idea of controlling games without a controller, it doesn't matter how good Kinect is, you'll still be left unsatisfied by it. That's not a failure of the device.

If you're not into games that aren't sufficiently violent enough to call "mature" or "hardcore", it doesn't matter how rich of an experience Dance Central or other launch games deliver, you'll still be left unsatisfied.
That's not a failure of the device.

A review should reflect this.

This review and Engadget's are pretty poor in quality. I can appreciate that motion controlled gaming just doesn't appeal to some gamers, but that should be taken into account when putting together a review, and I can't help but take away from this review, and Engadget's that this disdain for motion controlled gaming is coloring the judgment of the device. That's unfortunate.

I've heard the complaints. Unrealistic space requirements. Lag. Poor launch titles. And none of this is accurate.

How do I know? We have two Kinect installations in the house, in two completely different spacing conditions. One is in the basement/home theater area. The other is in a pretty well furnished--read lot of furniture--master bedroom, on one side of the bed.

To hear Joystiq and Engadget tell it, the bedroom installation should be impossible, and yet it works perfectly, with only a space about 5-7 feet in length and 4-5 feet in width.

The next complaint: Lag. I haven't noticed it. At all. There is not one minute in the several hours of gameplay I've experienced with the device since launch in which I can honestly say that my playing was interrupted by lag. Not one. Not in Kinect Adventures. Not in Dance Central. Not in Your Shape. On either Kinect install.

To hear Joystiq and Engadget tell it, my playing experience with either of these games should have been seriously compromised. Yet, I had no problem.

And now the last big complaint: Poor launch titles. I find this one particularly difficult to take seriously, because in my nearly 20 years of console gaming (I still have the NES I got for Christmas when I was 6), no launch has ever come with a deep selection of high quality games, Usually you get 1 or 2 standouts, with 1 being a "killer app" if you're lucky. You've got standouts in this launch in Your Shape, Dance Central, and Kinect Sports, and if Dance Central isn't a "killer app" for the device then the term no longer holds meaning. That isn't a terrible launch.

These points, along with my own personal experience with the device, along with the experiences I've seen shared from other Kinect users, just confirms to me that the reviews here and with Engadget are colored by a distaste for motion controlled gaming.

Kudos to Microsoft for getting behind a technology that innovates and explores the future of gaming interaction, and to Ubisoft for recognizing the potential of this tech and making a serious investment in it.

This family of gamers will make that same investment at launch. If the Kinect doesn't pan out ultimately, so be it. Exploring the future, if only for a glimpse, will be worth it.

Early innovations like the Power Pad, the Power Glove, and the U-Force all promised a future where gamers could truly "be" in the game.

We're almost there folks...

@Kirkpad

Then don't buy it, That sounds simple enough to me...

It must be amateur night over at Capcom right now. I thought after seeing Bionic Commando flop, they'd have learned an important lesson about playing Russian Roulette with their IP.

Allow a developer to take dramatic liberties with an iconic character to the point that they're utterly unrecognizable, and the fans of the series, you're most reliable base of support (and possible return on investment) and you're going to fail.

They turned Nathan Spencer into a roid raging Bohemian who spends the game trying to track down a wife he's actually wearing as a bionic arm. The game played well enough, even shared the franchise's penchant for being difficult. It failed because the artistic liberties they took made it unfamiliar to fans, and when more causal gamers didn't hear fans raving about it, they weren't interested either.

Dante was an iconic character. Show up at a games convention with a red leather trenchcoat, white hair, and ridiculously large sword prop, and everyone knows exactly who you are, just as sure as if you were wearing red and blue overalls a big red hat, white gloves and a mustache.

The look defines the character of Dante as much as his wisecracking, assholish attitude, as much as the fact that he's a Devil hunter. It's WHO HE IS.

This guy ain't him. It's really that simple.It's like turning Mario into some drug addicted, French dog catcher and expecting folks to love your "fresh re-imagining" of the character. He's already a successful icon, he doesn't need to be re-imagined.

Give us an original story, imagine all the cool new weapons and game mechanics you want, but when the character, the icon of the franchise, the whole reason the franchise still exists, has been re-imagined beyond all recognition, beyond having to tell us who he is, you no longer have a franchise.

Call it fanboy bitching if it makes you feel more sophisticated, but what Ninja Theory has done here isn't innovation. It's pissing in your glass and telling you it's lemonade.

GT: signifyingmnky

Just say Joystiq sent you.

@Chareth Cutestory

Sony isn't targeting hardcore gamers with this campaign, they're targeting dedicated Sony fans, and that's kind of my point.

Hardcore gamers have already chosen their consoles of choice this generation, be it a 360, PS3 or Wii. If you're a gamer that already has a PS3, you don't really need to be told the Move is for you, because you've likely already been exploring what's coming down the pike. If you're a gamer who has the 360 or the Wii, or both the 360 and the Wii, then the LAST thing you're likely to respond to in an ad campaign is the idea that your console choice "sucks".

This is where Sony is missing the train entirely on this.

Pushing this message will make Sony fans feel great, like they made the right choice, And maybe they will spread the message on, but the message still comes across as "your console (the competition) sucks".

It's like trying to attract bees with pesticide instead of honey.

It's the same message that comes across when you argue that the Kinect has no hardcore possibilities. You say Child of Eden doesn't count because it can be controlled with traditional controls. Which "hardcore game" is Sony going to offer with Move controls ONLY?

Killzone 3? Resistance 3? MAG 2? The next Uncharted?

Are all of these going to be Move control ONLY? I don't think so. So that makes the claim that interesting Kinect experiences like Child of Eden "don't count" pointless beyond saying Kinect/360 "sucks".

Again, not a strong argument for anyone other than the folks already on your side.

If Sony spent more time and money on simply showing off what Move does instead of attacking their competition, they might attract attention and investment from more than just Playstation owners.

People buy the Wii because they like what it offers. People will buy the Kinect or Move because they like what they offer, not because Sony or Sony fans say the competition sucks.

Finally got around to finishing Bionic Commando, and about 40% of the way through Metroid: Other M, and loving it. It's not Super Metroid, but it definitely delivers the 3d version of SM's gameplay a lot of folks expected before the Prime series.

Other than that, I'm grinding through Dragon Quest IX, and I may jump back into Halo 3 on Monday to get primed for Reach.

Can't wait!