Wii HD Could Crush PS3 Comeback, Says Pachter

[Wafflestomper99]

I have to disagree with the prophecy. The wii wasn't sold to most people who give a shit about graphics. It catered to casual gamers, households with small kids, older generations who never got really into games and were just starting, and people who like gimmicks. Which one of those will ooze their pants to get a hold of an HD-capable wii? I'm not saying it won't sell. I'm just saying it won't be a revolution, prodigy, or major comeback. The wii has already stopped selling as well now that people can get a hold of it and it's not in huge demand, which is the reason it was always bought and beating the other two consoles: no one could get a hold of it. In addition of course to it targeting children and families, rather than gamers, which always helps sales. I've worked in electronic retail stores and I've seen the numbers plummet recently.

Also, quick question: the other 2 are already HD, why didn't the wii come with HD to begin with? I suppose it's really a rhetorical question. Probably the same reason you still can't play a DVD or even a CD in a nintendo console even though they did that 2 generations ago with the playstation 1.

Okay...I'm done now. I'll be quiet

 

[00010101]

I dunno....even if such a system came out.....I doubt I would be comfortable using it because I've used the Wii before and I don't really get the satisfaction out of playing it compared to playing games on the PS3 or the 360. I mean, if they offer an alternative to the Wiimote....like the wireless controllers used by Sony and Microsoft in their products, then maybe I would reconsider but I just can't picture a Wii in every household dominating the 360 and the PS3.....

 

[randommaster]

Patcher, for god's sake, make up your mind!

First you say the PSP Go! is a ripoff, then you say you didn't mean it that way, then you say the PS3 will make a comeback sometime in the near future then you say "nope, Nintendo will stop that!" or something.

Make up your damn mind! Is the PS3 going to make a comeback or isn't it? Not that it matters what an analyst thinks, I just like consistency.

I think his job is probably in danger, so he just keeps spouting nonsense till people are satisfied (or tired). But PSP Go! was his personal opinion, and he seems to believe he isn't allowed such a thing.

Well, you're just arguing with everybody, are'nt you. Analysts get paid to say things that may or may not be true. If they are right, then they are geniuses, if they are wrong, the data was unclear or there was an unexpected fluctuation of tachions or whatever.

Spoiler

I have to disagree with the prophecy. The wii wasn't sold to most people who give a shit about graphics. It catered to casual gamers, households with small kids, older generations who never got really into games and were just starting, and people who like gimmicks. Which one of those will ooze their pants to get a hold of an HD-capable wii?

Hello Mr. Birdman. [http://malstrom.50webs.com/birdman.html]

I'm not saying it won't sell. I'm just saying it won't be a revolution, prodigy, or major comeback.

No. It'll be an iterative step along the disruptive path. And it'll eat up some of MS and Sony's niche audience forcing them to move further upstream.

The wii has already stopped selling as well now that people can get a hold of it and it's not in huge demand, which is the reason it was always bought and beating the other two consoles: no one could get a hold of it.

Simply wrong. [http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii&reg1=All&cons2=PS3&reg2=All&cons3=X360&reg3=All&start=39943&end=39985] Wii sales are growing. Last week, the other two console sales shrunk.

In addition of course to it targeting children and families, rather than gamers, which always helps sales. I've worked in electronic retail stores and I've seen the numbers plummet recently.

Because the plural of anecdote is data.. oh wait..

Also, quick question: the other 2 are already HD, why didn't the wii come with HD to begin with? I suppose it's really a rhetorical question. Probably the same reason you still can't play a DVD or even a CD in a nintendo console even though they did that 2 generations ago with the playstation 1.

Because they're not competing for MS and Sony's audience.. yet. And by waiting, they let Sony and MS work out the kinks to making a very cheap, efficient HD graphics processor, so that when they do start putting them into Nintendo machines, they can do so while maintaining a significant cost advantage.

Thanks for linking to that article, it was a very fun read. It's even funnier when you imagine that Malstrom is from Unforgotten Realms.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

Patcher, for god's sake, make up your mind!

First you say the PSP Go! is a ripoff, then you say you didn't mean it that way, then you say the PS3 will make a comeback sometime in the near future then you say "nope, Nintendo will stop that!" or something.

Make up your damn mind! Is the PS3 going to make a comeback or isn't it? Not that it matters what an analyst thinks, I just like consistency.

I think his job is probably in danger, so he just keeps spouting nonsense till people are satisfied (or tired). But PSP Go! was his personal opinion, and he seems to believe he isn't allowed such a thing.

Well, you're just arguing with everybody, are'nt you. Analysts get paid to say things that may or may not be true. If they are right, then they are geniuses, if they are wrong, the data was unclear or there was an unexpected fluctuation of tachions or whatever.

I am. I won't lie, it's good fun, I'm an opinionated person. However I know what analysts get paid for, that was said out of malice. It's one of the few times you will see such a biased view from me about someone. However if the PSP Go! Statement wasn't his personal opinion, why did he double back on it? That's what I always think to myself.

Actually, hold on, how was I arguing with Jumplion? I'm not trying to start anything I would just like to know, seeing as I didn't disagree with him, I just said how I felt.

 

[randommaster]

Patcher, for god's sake, make up your mind!

First you say the PSP Go! is a ripoff, then you say you didn't mean it that way, then you say the PS3 will make a comeback sometime in the near future then you say "nope, Nintendo will stop that!" or something.

Make up your damn mind! Is the PS3 going to make a comeback or isn't it? Not that it matters what an analyst thinks, I just like consistency.

I think his job is probably in danger, so he just keeps spouting nonsense till people are satisfied (or tired). But PSP Go! was his personal opinion, and he seems to believe he isn't allowed such a thing.

Well, you're just arguing with everybody, are'nt you. Analysts get paid to say things that may or may not be true. If they are right, then they are geniuses, if they are wrong, the data was unclear or there was an unexpected fluctuation of tachyons or whatever.

I am. I won't lie, it's good fun, I'm an opinionated person. However I know what analysts get paid for, that was said out of malice. It's one of the few times you will see such a biased view from me about someone. However if the PSP Go! Statement wasn't his personal opinion, why did he double back on it? That's what I always think to myself.

Actually, hold on, how was I arguing with Jumplion? I'm not trying to start anything I would just like to know, seeing as I didn't disagree with him, I just said how I felt.

It was just an observation on you being very active in this thread since early in the first page. It's also easier to say that "you argue with everyone" instead of "you argue with everyone, except for some people that you are in agreement with. And, actually, it's not really an arguement since we aren't angry, it's more of a civil discussion, so ignore my previous statement."

 

[ajb924]

HD doesn't really improve the graphics in games, i play my PS3 on a shitty little tv in my room and it looks the same on an hd compatible one

 

[Jsnoopy]

This guy is an idiot.

Voice your opinion but choose your words a little more respectfully, there's no need to get abrasive :|

Edit - I own a Wii and have been gaming for 20 years and graphics are important to me, just probably on a few more levels than you care to appreciate.

Yeah my bad, I was typing what I thought when I first read it. And I'm not saying that no wii owners care about the graphics or aren't gamers, just that I don't see the majority of them caring to deeply for an HD upgrade to their wii.

 

[pantallica95]

I wish the Wii didnt have all the motion control bullshit. If it didnt then 3rd party developers would actually be able to make a game for all three consoles without having to make a very different (and more often than not, inferior) game just for the Wii. The motion controls are a bit much. And furthermore, they dont even work half the time! And we shouldnt have to pay extra for the Motion Plus thing. That shouldve already been integrated before the Wii came out.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

It was just an observation on you being very active in this thread since early in the first page. It's also easier to say that "you argue with everyone" instead of "you argue with everyone, except for some people that you are in agreement with. And, actually, it's not really an arguement since we aren't angry, it's more of a civil discussion, so ignore my previous statement."

Aye, fair enough, I can be fairly bull-headed if I truly believe someone is wrong/ignorant/trolling. What can I say, this place is for discourse and conversation, might as well make the most of it.

 

[randommaster]

It was just an observation on you being very active in this thread since early in the first page. It's also easier to say that "you argue with everyone" instead of "you argue with everyone, except for some people that you are in agreement with. And, actually, it's not really an arguement since we aren't angry, it's more of a civil discussion, so ignore my previous statement."

Aye, fair enough, I can be fairly bull-headed if I truly believe someone is wrong/ignorant/trolling. What can I say, this place is for discourse and conversation, might as well make the most of it.

At least the Escapist is fairly civil.

You seem to argue like my brother, except that you are willing to concede a point. I've had to argue with him for so long that I tend to have an advantage when debating with others simply because they are willing to concede that they may be wrong.

I wish the Wii didn't have all the motion control bullshit. If it didnt then 3rd party developers would actually be able to make a game for all three consoles without having to make a very different (and more often than not, inferior) game just for the Wii. The motion controls are a bit much. And furthermore, they dont even work half the time! And we shouldnt have to pay extra for the Motion Plus thing. That shouldve already been integrated before the Wii came out.

The motion controls work fine as long as your not trying to get exact one-to-one input. In my experience with the motion controls, they tend to work well as long as there are not too many different gestures that can be used. A control scheme like the one in No More Heroes works well because there are only a few input commands possible, so there is a smaller chance of the sensor misreading the gesture.

Also, without the Motion+, you can't get the speed of a gesture reliably. Trying to just tack on motion controls is a bad idea, especially when the limits of the technology aren't understood. You have sufficient buttons and movement controls, with the nunchuk and remote used for moving and aiming, a D-pad, and four other buttons. You're missing, I believe, about three buttons.

A Wii port is going to be inferior, regardless of hardware, if developers don't spent the same amount of time developing that version. The same goes for the controls, if they suck, it's almost always the developer's fault for not spending enough time testing them.

 

[danosaurus]

This guy is an idiot.

Voice your opinion but choose your words a little more respectfully, there's no need to get abrasive :|

Edit - I own a Wii and have been gaming for 20 years and graphics are important to me, just probably on a few more levels than you care to appreciate.

Yeah my bad, I was typing what I thought when I first read it. And I'm not saying that no wii owners care about the graphics or aren't gamers, just that I don't see the majority of them caring to deeply for an HD upgrade to their wii.

That's fine, we've all been guilty of rage-typing (me especially) at some point

As for HD - You're right, I couldn't care less.
In my opinion, graphics shouldn't have to rely on higher resolutions to appeal to me.
Style always holds weight over clarity and it upsets me that developers seem to be ignoring that principle so much recently

 

[RRilef]

I'm pretty sure this guy means a whole new console, not just a wii with HD support. The way he sounds, he seems to think it'll have two controlers, the wii one, and a conventional one so ports of 360 games will work.

 

[Megacherv]

I've stopped paying attention to what this guy says, even with his comments about the PS3 overtaking the 360. I don't think either will happen. Not wanting to sound like a fanboy, but I think that the 360 could possibly die on its own with its lack of large capacity media and less-powerful hardware unless Microsoft start planning a new upgraded model. Games like the up-coming Rage and FFXIII are evidence of this. Natal will, however, expand the audience even further to the casual Wii-type gamer aswell as serving the core audience. This battle-plan will help keep it riding relatively high.

The Wii won't even though that is even less powerful since the gamers it caters to a lot don't need all the stuff more hardcore gamers need like vast beautiful environments or deep story-telling. And hardcore gamers wanting a Wii experience will come to expect something more like an arcade-type game (House of the Dead, MadWorld, etc.) or a Mario/Metroid/Zelda-type game. The Wii is impossible to bring down in popularity, as basically the entire world wants one.

The PS3...well...I love the big black monstrosity, but Sony need to start re-thinking their battle-plan. Ways of doing this are things like the Eyepet (don't know much about that one, only heard about it from the ZP E3 Hype video) and the PS Motion Control. Again, like Natal, this will expand to the casual Wii-type gaming audience aswell as the current fanbase. Sony need to give help soon to 3rd party developers to make the most of the PS3's hardware, so that they don't risk losing out on 3rd party support. Exclusives won't help the console survive for long, and people will eventually get bored of ModNation Racers, LittleBigPlanet and Ratchet and Clank...well...maybe not that last one, but you get the idea. Also price-cuts are needed, possibly a slim-model, and PS2-game support for the 40GB and later models for when (or if) the PS2 dies out.

The PS2...I say that's going to remain immortal. Easy to develop for; best selling console ever, so there are loads of people who have them, Wii-level hardware (nearly). It'll be a shame to see it die really.

Remember this though, I could be wrong...

 

[CrystalShadow]

(snip)

You can't deny that one of the Wii's big selling points is family friendliness. Your average Wii ad shows a nuclear family in the living room, waving their arms and having a good time, or old people playing and having a good time. The message is "this isn't your average gaming console." If these people get the impression that the Wii is a "murder simulator" like the other consoles, I think that they will tune out. I will admit, though, that's just wild speculation.

I was just teasing about the last bit with the hurt feelings...all in good fun, yeah?

That depends. Thanks to the Nintendo channel, I've seen a lot of these ads (despite not watching any TV).

How they are presented seems to depend on the game. Notice that things like the Legend of Zelda, or Red Steel, (and Red Steel 2) weren't depicted with a 'family', but rather a guy in his 20's playing alone, in a relatively darkened room.

Contrast this to stuff Like Wii sports, Wii Fit, Warioware and the like, which shows people of all ages, often in groups of 4, playing together in well lit rooms, and laughing a lot.

So... Nintendo's aims with their advertising clearly depends on who the advertised game is targeted at.

Making a blanket statement about their advertising being aimed at 'families' isn't true if you consider the ads as a whole.

As for Wii HD, I think it would be counterproductive.

Why? - Because HD graphics take more money to produce. The better the graphical quality of a game, the more it costs to make. (costs have been steadily increasing with each new generation since the times of the NES onwards).

Now, why does this matter? Sure a HD wii would allow better quality for games that benefit from it.
But the counterpoint, is suddenly all the other games where graphics isn't the #1 focus look even worse than they already do by comparison.

That's even obvious with the existing Wii titles.
Compare the quality of the graphics in Super Mario Galaxy and a typical 3rd party 'casual' game and tell me the casual game doesn't look horrible by comparison.

Now imagine that the Wii could do graphics to the same standard as the 360, and tell me that situation wouldn't get 100 times worse. (as well as making it nessesary to spend even more on the high end titles than is already the case.)

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

HD? On a console that is on-par with the original xbox?

 

[Gerazzi]

I disagree. I'm sorry but I just don't like the Wii controllers. I much prefer Controllers such as PS3/360 or even better, Keyboard and Mouse.

This, but whoever said PC gaming was a fad was wrong horrifically.

Why can't we off the Wii as a serious console?

 

[Jursa]

A good library of games on Nintendo's part would be a far larger threat than the Wii slightly increasing it's visual quality.

 

[Aura Guardian]

[

The component itself is fine, it just seems to be poorly implemented at times. Mario Kart is seamless, for example, and so was Medal of Honour. Smash Bros can be bad but the problem with this is that it's four different connections. A fix can be made but it will have to be server wise.

At least you said can be bad. I rarely have lag on Brawl.
One of my favorite matches I had(read the title)

Second favorite match.
Reason 1- at the 1:26 mark.
Reason 2(the main reason)- at the 2:45 mark.

and this one I like because of a comment I got for the video.
That and at the 1:54 mark was fucking funny.