Brad R.

Ludwig, please quit while you're behind. Even your "supposed" grammatical error is an error on your part. Read the press release again instead of quoting a phrase.

"That's a sell-through rate of more than 20 every minute since the game went on sale May 15."

What about that is hard for you to understand or misleading?


The title of this post should be: Joystiq plays numbers game, loses

These numbers for NSMB are clearly based on a 12-hour business day – which I didn't even have to assume. It's common sense.

Got any?


...And Derbeste, your argument "falls short" on logic. /error

Doesn't it seem like these "Hey everyone! Look how real my graphics are!" posts do more harm than good?

Though I love observing great visuals, whether stylized like Twilight Princess or realistic like these, the problem with this mindset is that it sets the graphical still up for failure – disappointment in the minds of many. You'll never satisy gamers let alone the graphically savvy, because based on reality, faux-reality will never suffice.

So what you get are some who will find the flaws no matter what. And many will be consciously (and gleefully) looking for those graphical glitches – like the grass. Instead of focusing on the beauty, the style, the historical influence or the meaning, it becomes some "Eureka!" exercise in technical knowhow.

What a buzzkill.

Reminds me of those "What's wrong with this picture?" challenges in Highlights Magazine. Sure they were fun to do. But you never remembered what was right with the picture now did you...?

Miyamoto is quite magnanimous. Gotta give him props for that.

I, on the other hand, think imitation is the sincerest cause of battery.

...What can I say...

...I have a bad temper...

A person's value is always determined by his or her peers, but unless those stars can make me invincible for a short period of time, I'll just take pride in my writing no matter what.

I didn't really know what to expect this year, but I was hoping it would be a bombtastic showing from everyone... It's such an exciting time and a great place for the big three to pull out all the stops. Can't wait til the show really gets started!

...Nintendo really seemed to get me hyped. There was something about the ease-of-use, pick-up-and-play attitude to all the games that gave me shivers when I watched the trailers on IGN. And after watching the liveblog and some of the streams, I thought Nintendo was genius for showing people actually haveing fun with the system. It was easy to see that the Wii was a game machine meant for playing games.

I'm afraid Sony left a bad taste in my mouth with the tiered pricing and expensive-ness of it all. I mean, why on earth would somebody get the lower model if it doesn't include WiFi support? Sony underwhelmed me, and I'm more than ahppy to ignore anything the PS3 has to offer.

MS seemed to really be competing with Sony for the top spot, but their flimsy answer to Nintendo (Viva Piñata) didn't go over too well, judging from the reaction in the crowd. I like that MS is trying to please a lot of people lately... but I don't particularly understand their direction. I think they need to define themselves a bit more. Live is a great palce to start, but I still think there's a long way to go. GTA4 was a nice coup, but I think the series is getting stale...

Overall my vote goes to Nintendo. Even though they didn't reveal as much as I would have liked, I'm sure there ar plenty more surprises at the showfloor. Nintendo has captured that 8-bit nostalgia that made me buy tons of cheap NES games back in the day, and now their whipping into a tight little AFFORDABLE console. How can I not get excited over the Wii!

draco: "I don't think I contradicted myself, first I said that the PS3 and Xbox could do what the Wii does if they so chose to, then I said that the Wii will have no advantages on the others.

I know that’s naive to say seeing as it will be default with gyro on wii not on ps3/360, and add-on's never really catch on. But my point is they can introduce it like the dualshock was introduced to the PS1 with analog after N64 came in."

Competitors can introduce gyroscopic sensors (I'm sure they will in the future), but that's not just what the Wii controller/interface is. It's a virtual pointer that detects motion and acceleration withing a 3-D space. Neither Sony nor MS can replicate this exactly given copyrights and patents – and their direction with their machines. Games need to be designed entirely differently in order to accomodate this vastly different controller, and I think you'd have a hard sell adopting this after a console has launched.


draco: "In my opinion (yep only mine) the Wii is making the weakest leap technologically, and I think that’s a safe assumption, and will find itself obsolete the quickest (followed by the 360), what their doing could easily be done on any system coming out, Eye-Toy(HD?) works roughly the same way."

But what do you base this on? You can't honestly tell me that the Wii isn't impressive in both concept and implementation. At the very least, you have to acknowledge it's a new technology brought to the mainstream.

You said before: "the PS3 and Xbox can do what the Wii does, but the Wii can't do what the other two can." But in reality, even in one of the recent Joystiq news stories, the 360 and PS3 look virtually the same (with ports) and have the same control setup. But the Wii can do things that the other consoles cannot with virtual motion and transferrence of positioning and gestures.

The other console giants *could* have tried a similar thing – but they didn't. You keep saying that what Nintendo's doing can easily be done on any other system. *That's* where you start to get naive. I implore you to research the Wii and it's entire setup a whole lot more.

PS: The Eye-Toy may appear to you to be "roughly the same" but it's not even close to what the Wii is. The Eye-Toy is a camera with poor implementation and very little support.

Hey Ross,

You might want to include the whole screen here:

http://www.pro-g.co.uk/revolution/rayman_raving_rabbids/screenshot-2.html

It shows a kid (in rather disturbing attire) twisting the Wii controller to "drive" the spider.

Also, I don't see any confirmation on the site, but I gotta believe that this is a screen from a Wii build given the juxtaposition of the screen and the kid using the controller.

Art Guy: "History has shown us then the one videogame hardware manufacturer is dominating, they get arrogant and start trying to force third party publishers and retailers to bend to their every whim."

Prove it.

Art Guy: "Simply because they are equal doesn't mean they will give up trying for that number one spot, the incentive is just as strong."

Uh...no... When you have more to gain in market share (like Nintendo), the opportunity cost to innovate is lower. Incentive is higher because you can gain more ground by being different or innovative. However, if all a company needs is a few percentage points to become number one, nothing drastic needs to happen in order to achieve this.

Art Guy: "I don't want to see ANY of them dominating. I'd rather they each grab 33% of the market."

That doesn't make any sense, and it's a pretty distorted view of economics. Innovation and invention aren't bred from equal market share – and neither is increased competition (lower pricing). There is greater incentive for competitors to shake things up when one company is dominant in the industry. Think about it...

-----------

Draco: "even if you don't see it now, you will know its always possible to increase the graphics of a system.

as for nintendo winning because of the controller, thats silly, there is nothing stopping sony or MSFT from making an identical controller, hell I'm 50% expecting E3 to tell me the new PS3 controller works the same as NIN.

point is though, why limit your system? the PS3 and Xbox can do what the Wii does, but the Wii can't do what the other two can. so why would I vote for it?"


My point is just because a system has better graphics and more horsepower doesn't mean it's a leap in technology – as you stated. If you like graphics, you like graphics. But don't pretend that an increase in raw numbers automatically means a system is technologically leaping forward. Sheesh!

You're pretty naive with your second point. Sure, MS and Sony can come out with a controller that includes some sort of gyroscopic technology, but nothing near the package that Nintendo is offering. The console and controller are so much more complex than that and I urge you to do a little more research on the Wii to see what's involved.

Funny thing is, you totally contradicted yourself and disproved your last point. MS and Sony games can virtually look the same and play the same given the controller, specs and interface. But notice how many developers are making original and exclusive content for the Wii... which cannot be replicated on the 360 or PS3. They're not dumbing down games for the Wii as you suppose. The Wii (from all accounts) allows devs to make games smarter, faster and cheaper, all the while different from competition – and not to mention more intuitive and fun.

Now *that's* a leap in technology!

draco:

"and I dont want the cheapest system becomming the leader, because then next generation all systems will be super cheap and no tech leaps from current (next gen)"

How is the Wii *not* a leap in technology? ::rolleyes:: From most all accounts (so far) it's the most intuitive control input and setup ever brought to the mainstream.

I'll herald the day when so-called tech heads actually get off their high-spec horse and realize what true advancement in technology is – not raw numbers, but configuration and innovation.