Nintendo and Sony have switched places

[WHONG]

Years ago WRIGHT was a bit of a Nintendo fanboy. WRIGHT owned an N64 when his friends had a PSX. They played sports games and action games and stuff while WRIGHT played Zelda and Rarewares games. WRIGHT thought that WRIGHT was more of a gamer and that the N64 suited WRIGHT compared to my casual gamer friends. Sony was for casual gamers.

Now Nintendo has simplified controllers for anyone to use (not that they were hard to begin with but thats a different debate), made the price of their low so anyone who has a job or parents can afford it and releases games with simplistic graphics such as Wii Sports. Sony on the other hand has put effort into making their console have the best looking games, has a heap of technology stuffed into the console and has a massive price on it that only hardcore gamers will save up for.

WRIGHT think that Nintendo is now the company/console for casual gamers and Playstation is for hardcore or 'true' gamers. Even Xbox360 is more for gamers than a Wii. At uni the other day 2 people were talking about gaming. One mentioned he had a Wii, then added "but thats not for gaming, thats just for f*cking around."

Nintendo is for casual gamers while the other consoles attract the true gamers of this generation. Although most of this site is Nintendo fans, does anyone agree with WRIGHT?

[JPW]

No one really knows where Nintendo's market is in the first place. I think Nintendo's got a bit of everything. One moment they're trying to appeal to the child gamer with cute and original characters and games, the next thing you know they've gone to the extraordinary appealing to the adult gamer. With games like Zelda: TP, Metroid Prime Corruption and Red Steel. Where do these ideas come from sometimes.

i reckon you've brought up a very good point though. When a console struggles people feel sorry for it, and see that's where the future should be heading. They become fanboys and supporters of that particular console. You see when the gamecube most of us got behind it didn't we. We supproted it and we did our best to make sure people don't forget about Nintendo, and now i've just realise what a hypocrit i've become. Now that the PS3 is struggling could the Sony fans get behind their console and push it for that extra little attention, that it rises from the ground up and builds some respect around it, that's it's the games and feeling that matter.

Back on Nintendo's market though I reckon Nintendo were hurt pretty bad with the Gamecube it had some great hits no doubt, but not a lot of people took them seriously, and they wanted to appeal to gamers again. Plus they're not after the casual market, sure some games may look like that, but i see they are more after the family market. But honestly how many Wii games that you name could be for tyhe casual gamer. All i've seen a exclsuives and fun games that use an excessive amount of motion sensoring.

[Jesusberg]

I agree WRIGHT.

At the moment Wii isn't a serious gaming machine. Outside of Zelda which is quite an epic game, there's mostly casual games. Wii Sports, Wario Ware, SMB, Excite Truck, Red Steel etc.. That's not to say these games aren't enjoyable, they just don't have lasting appeal.

[nshady]

On the whole I agree with you WRIGHT, but perhaps Sony's decision to switch focuses is the reason they're having so many problems at the moment?

Additionally, I do expect deeper games to arrive in the future.

[Jesusberg]

Hopefully Wii will become more like the PS2, which I believe had the greatest balance of 'fun' casual games, and hardcore games. Unfortunately this means a LOAD of craphouse games.

Sony has always been arrogant, but is it just me or has it increased tenfold over the last few years? It feels like they have little respect for the consumer.

[RJG]

Look what happened with the DS when it was first released. All anyone did was release silly mini game collections and titles that poorly implemented the extra features. As soon as the thing started selling though, quality went through the roof as companies realised there was money to be made on the little dual screened wonder.

Same thing is now happening with the Wii. All we're getting are dodgy titles with poorly implemented controls. Now though, the tide is turning once again. Early adoption is a pain in the ass for everyone concerned. After the excitement of launch, it's just a matter of waiting for the good second wave titles to arrive. And they're coming, believe me. Five million sales in half a year is a potential market no publisher would pass up.

And yes, there are going to be bad games. Lots of them. Always have been, always will be.

[Napoleon Insists]

I think SSX Blur is a decent example of someone starting to release the so called good games. Best example atm anyway...
New controls which work really well, some recycled content just so they could release it in time I guess, but a ton of stuff to do and basically a really fun game which is heavily improved because of the controls.

[jango]

i definately agree WRIGHT- the Wii definately appeals to the pick up and play gamer....and thats where gaming seems to be going. Games are quite short and easier now (on a whole) compared to previous generations....most people don;t have alot of time to invest in 40hour epics- they want that casual release at the end of the day or that game that you can have mates around with a few beers to play...and that sums up the Wii perfectly at the moment...