Lest anyone still be concerned about the Wii and its imminent epic struggle against the forces of Sony and Microsoft, remember the Game Gear and the fact that history — eventually — repeats itself in some form or another. The Game Gear was ahead of its time. It boasted (and boasted rather loudly thanks to an arrogant marketing scheme from parent Sega) a large color screen, more power and was downright sexy when compared to the monochromatic Game Boy. You were cool if you managed to plunk down the change for a Game Gear, or so the commercials told us.
But then something happened. Actually, then something didn’t happen. Your Game Gear stopped working, so you turned it over and opened the battery cases (there were two). Six dead as a doornail AA’s stared back at you. They were not rechargeable. This was the early 90’s. “Lithium-ion” might as well have been something in Sandscrit. The Game Gear was about three years too early, but by the time we caught up with the Game Gear it was too late. Three years in the tech industry is an eternity. People weren’t willing to wait; not with Nintendo around.
Fast forward to today. Sega now makes games for Nintendo and Sony has taken over the mantel as the arrogant, bone-headed game company on the block. Some may disagree with the label, but regardless the behavior of Sony does not bode well for its chances in the next gen. The lessons of the Game Gear were lost on Sony with the PSP, and all indications are that they will carry that ignorance with them into the marketing of the PS3.
Make no mistake about it, in three to five years time the market will be ready for a machine like the PS3. Honestly. The slim minority of people today who have shelled out $1,000 for HDTVs will have grown, and the developers (those who have remained with the system thru high cost failures and successes alike, anyway) will have hopefully mastered what is increasingly looking like a very complex system. But again, three years is an eternity to get your pants on in the “console war,” especially when the system that compares closest to yours (the 360) has more than a year head start. Then there’s the Wii, which in theory has had a five year head start with the core technology being based loosely on the GameCube. I would think mastering the controller interface wouldn’t take much, given what we’ve seen from Ubisoft, Nintendo and Konami in this first crop of luanch window titles. The robustness of Wii titles can only get better than what we’ve seen thus far. When George Harrison said the potential of the Mii was not yet known he was half right. The other half applies to the Wii itself. There really are an infinite number of new ideas this little white system has just unlocked. People just need to find them. Learning from ones mistakes is paramount, just look at Nintendo pre-GameCube and Nintendo pre-Wii. A different animal entirely.
Three to five years. Taking a loss the whole time. A disastisfied customer base before the system is even launched. Two alternatives that are either equal in capability or better in value. Remember the Game Gear.
Ed. Note: This lengthy post was inspired by an article written by Jen Gerson of the Toronto Star.
"Oh, and the Sega guys were pricks."This counts as journalism in Canada, eh? [Say 'ya' to da U.P., eh!]Anyway, what I tend to find interesting in articles such as these is that the comparison is between PS3 & Wii. More and more, Xbox 360 is being ignored as a true contender in the next generation.
Remember the Virtua Boy.All console companies take risks and make mistakes, Nintendo is just the only one to have truely recovered and excelled past such mistakes.Right now, Sony is risking high tech for manufacturing issues and high cost.Nintendo is risking incremental upgrade with experimental controler.MS is still fighting an uphill battle to be taken seriously by a lot of parties.These may be gross generalizations, but all 3 companies have to capacity to fail on these projects to some extent.How about these kind of topics stop until the PS3 and Wii actually launch. Deal? Deal.(And no, David, it does not.)
I thought the "snot nosed sh*its" was a nice Canadian journalism touch too 🙂
Well said. To hell with PS3. Sony is in denial. They've painted themselves into a corner with ungodly development and manufacturing costs. They should just call the thing the 3D0 2.0, ya know?
to davids comment. the only reason why its a true comparison between ps3 and wii is because the launch date's are two days apart from each other in N.Aas well i look at it as either you like xbox or you dont … you like ps or you dont same goes for nintendo. personally i cant stand xbox, im a ps2 and gc fan coming into now its wii and ps3
You oughta be ashamed. Ok fine, a few on this blog and (x)-thousand more on other sites "disagree" with Sony and PS3. Just because you say you're not buying it doesn't mean PS3 won't sell out at every store it gets shipped to. If anyone's in denial, it's you. You're a Nintendo fan, you don't factor into Sony's equation to begin with. PS3 is gonna kill, regardless of what you think.It's not 3do 2.0, and it's not a Game Gear. Wake up.-R
R, Of course the PS3 will sell out. They have a very limited quantity that they are selling. The problem with Sony right now is their hubris over the PS3. They think that the PS3 will win over Nintendo and MS just because of the Playstation name. Is the Playstation brand strong? Of course. Nintendo's brand name was strong within the videogame world during the SNES era. Guess what? They delayed the release of the N64, made it difficult to develop for and stayed with the expensive cartridge format which really hurt their marketshare. It looks like Sony is running into similar types of problems with the PS3, pushing for blueray, $600 pricetag, overheating rumors and saying things like "the next generation doesn't start until we say it does." You know what Sony the next generation starts when the customer says so. Will Sony have a similar fall like Nintendo did with the N64? Personally I think so. Wake up Sony your marketshare isn't guaranteed next generation.
Next-gen starts when all the next-gen consoles are out. Customers have nothing to do with it.PS3 will sell this year, next year, and the year after that. Whatever the shipment quantity, it will sell an insane numbers of units. Sony knows as well as anyone with a brain that PS3 gets top billing among all new machines, so their arrogance isn't uncalled for. They have the best, most future-proof traditional console, and they have all the great developers and publishers behind them. It has the most hype and brand recognition among current gamers and the public at large. 360 is about to enter the danger once PS3 arrives, but Wii has nothing to worry about. Don't go by history all the time to predict the future. You can't use a certain past scenario to compare 2 different companies. If you use that scenario as an example, you have to compare it using the same company that committed the mistake before. No two corporations are equal.You don't speak for the millions that believe PlayStation is the gaming standard – no one cares about overheating rumors beyond the internet – so speak for yourself. Once again, if you think PS3 will fail, you need to wake up. The price is justified and people will buy it in droves. When the time comes, you'll see.
And it'll succeed. Count on it.