How To Use A Mouse And Keyboard On A Console FPS

The XIM is a really coll device that lets you play with a Keyboard and mouse control interface on your console (360 or PS3). Obviously the immediate benefit is that you can pown everybody by having a way better control interface. The only problem is that it is made by a small group of guys who can't keepup with demand. Still if you have a look at the videos page the advertised experience is very impressive.

Nintendo Talks Again About Price Cuts

I thought this was funny.
Nintendo President Iwata Said In An Interview:

This is my personal thinking, but when the model's price-tag drops over time, manufacturers are telling consumers it's better to wait, and I've always thought that was a mistake.

I have to partially agree with him as I have traditionally (as well as a lot of other people who aren't myself) waited for a console's first price cut before running out and buying it. Nobody likes to buy a console and then just after a price drop is announced. But that reminded me of something. When the N64 was released in the UK in March 1997 it was only a few weeks before the price was dropped by £100 (The Only Reference I could Find) so Nintendo are uniquely positioned to talk about such things.
However the N64 unlike the Wii and DS, doesn't print money.

Some nostalgia:

The Console Wars So Far

I found this site VGChartz.com thanks to Kim Pallister which has some awesome console sales graphs.



Comparing the numbers of units sold since launch puts the Wii in a very strong position, but look at the PS3 it isn't doing as badly as we all probably thought. The PS3 might have a dismal selection of games, but it is still giving the 360 a run for it's money.

So if the Wii is doing so well, how does it compare to the current king of all console wars the PS2, which has currently sold more than 120 million units:



The Wii does more than double the sales of the PS2 in the same period from launch. And as there is no sign that demand is going to lessen anytime soon it isn't unreasonable to predict that the Wii will sell more than 240 million units in five years.

However as Nintendo has been so successful in releasing second iterations of the GameBoy Advance and GameBoy DS everybody is expecting them to do the same with the Wii. Could we see everybody who has already bought a Wii buy a second one or people like myself who haven't yet bought one yet be swayed if Nintendo iterates on it's design!?

Clearly by the kinds of numbers we are seeing in this generation the market is easily large enough to sustain multiple console manufacturers.

Sega's 32X Suicide Note

On of the sources I use for clarity on issues is the Angry Video Game Nerd who just putout an episode on the 32X. I never owned a 32X and although I have read about it on Wikipedia's 32X Page which talks about poor quality games, cost and production issues, I had no idea the thing sucked so bad until just now when I watched this video.

Maybe Maybe Maybe

So I was reading a few video games industry bits today and I just got tired of it. Nobody says anything affirmative or insightful anymore. For example everybody seems to be very bipolar about the Wii controller. One says it is a gimmick that is working to capture the mass market, the other says it is the way of the future that everybody will emulate. The fact is that the controller is a good pointing device like a mouse is for the PC, but it becomes quickly awkward when the user has to move the camera and point at something, yet nobody says this. It's all maybe maybe.

Maybe the Wii will win this generation because of it's innovative controller.
Maybe the 360 will win because it is an all rounder and is pushing things like connectivity, video on demand, exstensability to make into new areas at a wim and indie development into new directions.
Or maybe the PS3 will win because the PS2 sold 112 million units and that means the PlayStation brand carries weight.

Less and less do I see insightful commentary like This (and click link on page). So here is what I will do, I will make some predictions and reasonings because I am annoyed nobody else will.

The Wii will sell better than the GC and with every console sold because Nintendo is making a profit will put Nintendo in a better position for generation eight, but the Wii will ultimately sell badly towards the end of this generation because of the lack of third party support just like the N64 and just like with the GC. Without the powerful graphics chip capable to handle direct ports from the PS3 or 360 it won't even get cheap licence titles as publishers don't don't see the Wii as worth the investment.

The 360 will continue to do well this generation as the XBox did last, but will fail to do well in Japan. Microsoft launching in japan without a sound product was a mistake and they will be paying for that into the next generation. But Microsoft's attacks into the areas of online and their efforts in making their platform open to indie developers will reap bountiful rewards to struggling studios, thus helping Microsoft in the long term. Microsoft will come second with about 40 million units sold. And further more will entre generation eight in an even stronger position.

The PS3 despite no reason (what so ever) will do well this generation possibly winning, but with a significant unit loss from what the PS2 sold.

I will most likely be completely wrong, but at least I am committing to something and not debating bipolar phantom issues like gameplay over graphics which is BS because everybody knows a game isn't fun without gameplay and will put people off if it is ugly.

Six Million XBox360s Sold, Good or Bad?

Microsoft has said in it's Quarterly Sales Figures Press Release that they have sold six million XBox360 consoles to date. But then there is a lot of debate on forums as to wither this is a good or bad thing, so I did a bit of research and compiled a list of all the home console generations since 1972.

Please note that the list below covers all consoles that I could find sales numbers for. There are many other consoles that have not been included on the list because I could not find sales figures for them. And portable systems have also been excluded because they are a different market and do not compete directly with home consoles.

Console Generation One
Odyssey - Units Sold ??
Winner of generation Magnavox Odyssey.

Console Generation Two
Atari 2600 - Units Sold 25 Million
ColecoVision - Units Sold 6 Million
Winner of generation Atari 2600.

Console Generation Three
Master System - Units Sold 13 Million
Nintendo Entertainment System - Units Sold 60 million
Winner of generation Nintendo Entertainment System.

Console Generation Four
Mega Drive - Units Sold 35 Million
Neo Geo - Units Sold 1 Million
Super Nintendo Entertainment System - Units Sold 49 Million
TurboGrafx-16 - Units Sold 5 Million
Winner of generation Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

Console Generation Five
3DO - Units Sold 6 Million
Jaguar - Units Sold 4.41 Million
N64 - Units Sold 32.93 Million
PlayStation - Units Sold 102.49 Million
Saturn - Units Sold 10 Million
Winner of generation Sony PlayStation.

Console Generation Six
Dreamcast - Units Sold 10.2 Million
GameCube - Units Sold 21.2 Million
PlayStation2 - Units Sold 111.25 Million
XBox - Units Sold 24 Million
Winner of generation Sony PlayStation2.

Console Generation Seven
PlayStation3 - Units Sold so far 0 Million
Wii - Units Sold so far 0 Million
XBox360 - Units Sold so far 6 Million
Winner of generation ??

Microsoft said that they would sell 10 million 360s by now, but have only sold 6 million. This suggests that things are bad, but the average console sales unit of all the generations is between 24 (discounting Sony) and 30 million. And if Microsoft sells six million 360 units per year for the next five years they will have done ok and much better than the XBox did.

I believe that unlike when the PS2 launched early, a lot of people have held back buying a console this generation because of the big question marks surrounding the Wii and PS3. Who both have fairly weak launch lineups (who doesn't). So to answer the question as to wither 6 million is good or bad, well it's average as long as Microsoft doesn't sell more or less than they did this year in future years. But while doing this research I have learned that people don't like buying games consoles. Instead they seem to see it as a necessary evil in order to play the games they want.
Good games = good console sales.

Additional: Microsoft have said that they are still on track to sell 10 million by the end of the year. I think it's possible, but they still have a way to go.

Designing the Wii and Future Battles

ArsTechnica has an article called How the Wii was born which talks about the design considerations the engineers had when designing the Wii.

The reason why I am linking to this article is because of the sales graph on the first page. I have seen this before, but I always failed to find it again when I wanted to talk to someone about it.

Just incase it gets pulled in the future here are the numbers:
NES 60 million sold
SNES 49 million sold
N64 32 million sold
GC 24 million sold

Sales with each new generation declines at an averages of 26% meaning that if the Wii follows this trend it will only sell approximately 18 million units over five years. As far as I can tell from searching Google not even the DS has achieved that number yet, so it's still a lot of machines. And even selling very well at the start of a lifecycle wont be enough to grantee that number of unit sales by the end of the lifecycle.

To get that number up consoles need Killer Apps which are traditionally made by first party developers. An easy way to think of the first part and third party developer model is that the first party development teams make games for people who don't own the console yet, where as third party developers make games for people who already own the console.

--Subjective opinions follow---

My problem here is that Nintendo is once again trying to get fans of their products to part with cash by buying games that they already own and none of the future games comming to the console that I have seen have interested me. If you pardon my very subjective opinion at this point I do not believe even that they have any Killer Apps in the works. Where as the 360 has had several titles this year like Saints Row, Dead Rising and coming titles like Gears of War, Viva Pinata that will act as a catalyst for gamers and none gamers to suddenly desire the console, run to the nearest shop and tell the shop owner that they desire to part with cash for a unit. I do not see this happening with the Wii as the most tantalising title Nintendo seems to have in the works at the moment is Rayman Raving Rabbids which from what I can tell is simply a party game. The new Zelda will probably be enough for Nintendo to sell 5 million Wii units without anybody first evaluating what they are buying, but I don't think it's looking good.

Then I have a big concern with the controller's need to be setup correctly. I know everybody keeps saying everything will be ok when you get one at home, but I haven't yet seen anybody demo a Wii console that has been properly configured, not at a presentation, behind the scenes looks at any titles or at presentations on the new controller to journalists that shows them how it works.
On the surface it simply seems very amateurish to demo a future product without taking the time to set it up properly, but that is what has been happening and I can't help but think there is a limitation with the controller that isn't being talked about, but yet will limit the designs of games that developers will make for the Wii.