The AbyssThe Abyss

Posted on Jun 16th 2007 at 01:28:38 AM by (TraderJake)
Posted under Nintendo, Sega, Wii, Craziness


According to a Reuter's Article, according to Scott Steinberg, the Vice President of Marketing for Sega Sammy. Who does he think is going to win? Well, in his infinite wisdom, he predicts the PLAYSTATION 3 to be the winner in the next console war, regardless of the fact that the wii is currently the fastest selling console of this home console generation. As Satoru Iwata would say, "It prints money".

Steinberg believes that the creative pool of Wii development will likely die within the next year. Regarding the Wii, Steinberg states,

"But how much value can developers and creative folks get out of this wrist motion two years from now, or 5 years from now, or 10 years from now?"

Well, to Mr. Steinberg my response is probably more creativity than Sega has put out since its Dreamcast days, but then Sega hasn't exactly been the most stellar publisher post-dreamcast, save for Shenmue and the handheld Sonics.  Who wants to buy the 360 or PS3 version of Sonic? I bet they'd give that away.

The truth is that perhaps the Wii does have a creativity drought. How many mini game based games can publishers possibly release? Are those games really what the mass market wants, or is it more of publishers looking to make a quick buck? The truth is that there is much potential for great games on the Wii, but everyone seems to be content taking the easy way out, developing crap. If the Wii fails it will likely be because the only games ever released for it were crap.


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Comments
 
I hope this isn't a preview of  how Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games will turn out.  Sega is developing it for Wii and DS.
 
and maybe Project H.A.M.M.E.R. is a casualty of this form of thinking as well. I think Metroid, Smash and Galaxy will be a sign of things to come. Metroid may be a hardcore game but the other 2 may have been made with casual gamers in mind.


 
I agree 100% with Sega in this case. Wii is really proving to be a huge bust right now.
 
@Tondog:

Agreed. This waiting game seems much worse than with the DS. Hopefully e3 shows that our thinking is off base. If it isn't well, at least I have a system that plays my GameCube games.
 
The quality of the games has been rather poor...it will be sad to see the Wii suffer the same terrible fate as the Nintendo 64: a quality product (and in the Wii's case, downright revolutionary) that fails because of poor software development. Hopefully this is really just a 'working out the kinks' period where they are really trying to feel out the capabilities of the system, but looking at a list of the upcoming games I am starting to get a little worried.

It's amazing that you STILL can't go to the store and find one of these things. To this day, I have only seen one on the shelf and it's the one I bought.
 
@BadEnoughDude:
We should play a game. You name a great PS1 game, I name a great N64 game. We keep going back and forth. I bet I'll win. Ask The Evil Leon how this turned out.
 
@Shimra:
Didn't think I was going to get challenged for my comments. Great games are different for everyone, and I'm sure there are plenty of people who prefer the N64 to the PS1. The fact of the matter is, a majority of people preferred the PS1 and it played a part in the downfall of the N64. You can't argue that.
 
that and the significantly higher price of cartridges.  There was nothing Nintendo could do to lower the price for software sales.  Meanwhile, the Greatest Hits line of games are rereleased and at $20, they were a real bargain.

I understand what you guys are saying for game preferences.  I always preferred the N64.  For some reason I think N64 versions of cross-platform games shined more because they weren't lost in the flood of other available software.
 
Dude, N64 had horrible 3rd party support. I can't think of a whole lot of significant cross platform games for that system. There was not a whole lot because Nintendo decided to stay in the past (a philosophy they still embrace to this day) with a cartridge format. That and they kept their tight leash over 3rd party companies. Why? God only knows.
 
@Tondog:

The N64 had horrible 3rd party support, the GameCube had horrible 3rd party support, and the Wii looks to be having horrible 3rd party support. I see a trend. Nintendo is best to encourage development houses not to release crap.
 
Third party support eh? Still doesn't effect it having an assload of great games much like the PSX. That was my point. Even though it didn't have the greatest third party support it still had just as many outstanding games. Essentially, I don't buy the whole PSX had better software because really none was better. And if you are interested in playing that game I suggested, I can almost guarantee I would list more games considered great, not just by my preferences but by proffesional reviewers.

Sorry, it just irks me when everyone claims the N64 had terrible software.
 
It wasn't just software, but hardware too.
The N64 only had a handful of actually great games, but as already stated, it's a kind of hard thing to argue as everyone has their on taste in games. I mean the Saturn was my pick as despite it having a smaller library than the PS1, I had many more games I loved on it than any other system ever released. But this was a time when Sonic Team, Sonic Software Planning, the AM teams and Sega were capable of pure gold classics one after another.

But the N64 hardware was even worse than the software available, not only the limitations of the carts, but the controls were a horrible design that were best played by people with three hands (but still better than the Atari Jaguar's). Not to mention the lack of actual action buttons, so the four yellow view buttons soon had to be used for more important things despite their smaller size. And then there are the visuals. Well unless Nintendo also secretly invested in the glasses business the blurriness of the N64 was just ridiculous!

I honestly don't think the N64 was revolutionary in any way. As for the Wii, well the worst I can say about it is I don't know why they had to give it such a stupid name when it had such a cool project name. Plus it's still early days, and with the number of Wiis being sold leaving the rest in the dust, we may well see a lot of strong 3rd party support yet.
 
I honestly don't know why people bash the Jag controller so much. It's not uncomfortable to hold, and it performs similarly to a genesis controller with the added bonus of a num pad. You play Doom on a PC, you still have to hit different keys for different weapons, map etc. You play it on a Jag, you control it with the d-pad plus buttons and hit the keys on the num pad for other fuctions. Same thing.

In any case, the Wii hasn't sold me yet. Nothing really that interesting. A bit of Gamecube-itis where the games are an acquired taste, and the controller is odd like an N64. I like the SIXASIS a lot more for motion sensing, but I suppose that's because it's better for racing/flying and the PS3 has mouse/keyboard support for FPS.

"We should play a game. You name a great PS1 game, I name a great N64 game. We keep going back and forth. I bet I'll win. Ask The Evil Leon how this turned out."

Fine. Name 20 serious kickass N64 racing games, 20 fighting games of good quality, 10-20 strategy games, 30 good sports titles, and 20 RPG's for that system. The fact is, there aren't enough games in the N64's library to even match the PS1 pound for pound. If not for Rareware the N64 would have died a horrible quick death.
 
And there pretty much lies the Jaguar's controls biggest fault. While it may be possible to be comfortable it's over complicated. The goal of a control is both comfort and simplicity. Your meant to completely forget your holding it and lose yourself in the game itself. This is made next to impossible if you are made to keep looking back down at the control to make sure you are going to push the right button.

However as games became more complicated, more buttons were needed. But there still needs to be a balance. The Jag control shot way over... and then some. Keyboards aren't really the best game device, and computer games has been good proof of this with more intense games such as fighting games steering away.

Even in something like doom, unless your dedicated enough for quick weapon changing via number keys, in the heat of battle you just died. There shouldn't be any need of dedication, and the learning curve of a control should be almost non-existent.

To a much lesser degree, I guess you also have appearance. The Jaguar control is the only control I can show off and have everyone so far wondering what the hell is it. But then again, I also had one person confused about how the Amiga CD32 control is upside-down in comparison to most control standard so i guess that doesn't mean much.

All in all, I know this is now off topic, but I just wanted to state why I see the control the way I do, instead of just coming off as a fan boy. But I also believe everyone has the right to love what they do, as we are all different, with different tastes. If you are very fond of the Jaguar and it's control Tan, please let me know and I will hold my tongue whenever the next time it comes up may be and respect your preference.
 
I have no particular softspot for the Jag controller, but I don't get distracted by the amount of buttons either. Not every Jaguar game needs or use them, just like not every PC game needs 108 keys. I have no idea how many Jaguar games you've played yourself, but few Jaguar games need/use those extra buttons extensively. It's not like you need to dance over the num pad constantly. Tongue

But I will say this, in the heat of battle when playing Doom I'd rather be able to hit the right button for the right weapon the first time around instead of cycling through them as most ports of Doom tend to do.

http://www.atariage.com/overlay_page.html?SystemID=JAGUAR&SoftwareID=2516&ItemTypeID=OVERLAY

 
From the Master System on, I was devoted to Sega, and only brought their systems (aside for a PS1 I got during the huge gap here in Australia between the death of the Saturn on the birth of the DC). So I never owned one. Just like with any other rival systems I played a friends, or one in a store.

As for the Jag, the only game that I can vividly remember playing is Tempest 2000. Which did rock, so I was really excited when I saw it for Saturn. I may of played Rayman too, but can't remember if I played it on Jag or PS1... one non Saturn version a long time back.

The thing about too many buttons is when you want to jump straight into a game and pick it up as you go along (like I do in any), the more buttons, means the more you have to try to see what you can and can't do. Computer games are a nightmare for this as like you stated there are a LOT of keys to try and see what each one dose. So in comparison to that the Jag is quite tame. But as it is a system, and made for the one purpose, gaming it really is a pain and no doubt contributed to it's early grave.

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