OK, so no one *knows* anything until it actually happens, but something came across the Infendo news wire today not directly related to the Big N and confirmed in my mind the Wii will dominate the holiday–again.
Weird thing is, it was an Xbox 360 box and the press release that accompanied it.
Jeff Bell, MS PR drone, take it away:
“As families gather together this holiday, it’s the perfect time to launch a new low-priced, high-value Xbox 360 that plays games, TV shows and music for everyone to enjoy,” said Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of global marketing, Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “In addition to offering an incredible all-in-one package for families to get right into the fun, the Xbox 360 Arcade system features the industry-leading Family Settings, which allow parents to control what their kids are watching and playing ’ and we know how important that control is to families around the world.”
Nintendo has PR spinners too, but my BS meter just blew a gasket and went on sabbatical to recover from that one. I can see the families gathered around Gears of War as we speak! “Nice head shot, Timmy.” “Thanks Mom, that chainsaw kill was one in a million!” “Daaaad. Did you have to unload your entire clip into my corpse? Hell-ooo!” And then little Susie gets a 2nd degree burn on her arm when she goes to play blocks with the power supply. Merry Xmas!
MS did a great job marketing this system truthfully for the past two years, but now all of a sudden this billion dollar behemoth has a sudden change of heart? The cliche is you can’t switch horses midstream, and it’s a cliche for a reason: they’re accurate. MS sees a winner in Nintendo’s cheap little system, and has attempted to put some mom-friendly lipstick on a pig (and to a lesser extent the hapless Sony releases a white PS3…). Another cliche, I apologize.
Chris Kohler said it best over at Game|Life today: The Xbox is for shooting people in the face. Mothers around the world tolerate an Xbox 360 as their sons shoot monsters and kill things. They welcome the Wii. It’s family-friendly and has Super Mario Galaxy this holiday. It dominates and starts 2008 with a bang. IMO, natch, so tell me why that won’t happen.