Jack Tretton, president and chief executive officer of Sony Computer Entertainment America, talks on how the Wii may be a fad or trend.
Jack also stated that comparing Sony to Nintendo is like comparing Sony to Nike
Then Jack talks about the press conference. Ranging from Install base to 500 titles from PS2, pS3, PSP, and Home combined.
Q: Do you feel good that you guys took your time launching your console when you see that Microsoft has a billion-dollar write off?
A: Extremely good. One of the problems with having a little bit more visibility than the average industry follower is you have to take some lumps and suffer through some things in the short term and take some criticism when you know in time that your strategy is the right one. We firmly believed in this ten-year product life cycle. We were heavily criticized for our production issues and our lack of inventory at launch. But the product is incredibly high quality, incredibly sound, and the consumer is the great benefactor. I don’t think there is any getting around the fact that you run the risk if you don’t have a hardware heritage and you potentially rush a product to market. You can run into problems. We are very concerned about anything that has the Sony name on it. We want to make sure before we release it to consumers that is going to be a good quality device. PlayStation 3 is proving to be the most high-quality device we’ve ever launched.
Q: On this question, I’ll note there is a glut of games. It does seem like there is a marked shift of development resources from the PSP to the DS and the PS 3 to the Wii. That seems like a dangerous thing. I have talked to developers who agree with that shift. Is it dangerous or are there just too many games?
A: Now the Wii is having success. They are touting casual gaming. Supposedly everybody is going to race over to casual games. The unfortunate thing is the fruits of those labors will show up two years down the road, and if the consumer tastes shift, they will find themselves all dressed up with no place to go. That’s why we invest in our own studios. Because while I don’t think it is right, I understand why people shift on a dime because of the pressures. It’s incumbent on the bigger companies to keep a foot in multiple camps because you never know where things go.
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Though it's a shame that there are some stupid points in there too ... i.e. Yet another Sony exec bringing up the "Wii is just a fad" and "Wii is not on par with Sony" comments again, simply because the Wii is succeeding, whereas the PS3 is still having a "late start". Pfft. I'm sick of Sony blowing their own trumpets. If they honestly believe that the Wii is just a fad, then why don't they prove it... instead of big-noting themselves, because they think their future "plans for success" are going to win this console "war".
Gee Sony, it'd be a shame if your plans don't end up ... going to plan.
Tretton brings up a great point. People are fickle, right now they seem to love this party game atmosphere and everything on the Wii is a party game, they have what 200 games and i would predict about 6 of them aren't party games, i mean thats all well and good but if the public tastes shift they will be left with the weakest console game library and all those developers working on more party games will be left high and dry.
Which isn't far fetched at all, i mean the Wii is already suffering in my opinion from an over saturation of games aimed for those with no attention span, and personally i think right now my £179 ($363 USD) on the Wii is an expensive waste since their is nothing worth playing. Yes you can all say but you got a PS3 you hypocrite! Which is fair enough that is an expensive console to some but not a waste, i have gotten more gameplay and fun out of Resistance, Motorstorm and Ninja Gaiden than my Wii games combined, and thats the problem.
Nielson pointed it out with their ratings figures that the average household only plays the Wii in 50 minute increments, which really does lead me to believe while their games are fun for a short time their is nothing to engage the player for the long term goal with the exception of Zelda. The Wii to me is a fad but it is a very good fad that in its 1-2 years in the preverbial gaming stratusphere will make Nintendo alot of money, but i would be surprised to see the rampant buying of the console like we see now beyond the 2 year mark.
Also, you sighted the Nielson survey, which does indeed say that Wii has shorter play periods than PS3. The fact you forget to mention is that the Wii has more average play periods than PS3, meaning while people do play Wii in shorter burst, they more often, meaning they take a break during long play periods.
Congratulations, you don't enjoy your Wii as much as your PS3. That is your own personal preference, and really has no bearing on how good or bad a system is, especially since their are plenty of people that enjoy Wii a lot more than anything else they play.
Some innovations manage to stick with the industry. Time will tell if the Wii's setup will, but it's a bit early to write it off just yet.
There were some interesting remarks though, Wii comments aside. They're making some right moves to attract more market share. Again, time will tell if Sony's financial gamble is going to pay off.
Plus, I wouldn't even call casual gaming a fad. It's too vague to be one. Casual gaming can come in so many different forms (in fact, probably more than hardcore games come in), it won't get boring and tossed a side for A LONG time.
The Xbox 360 and the PS3 are video game consoles, and multimedia entertainment devices.