ugachaka :: Jacob was here

A recent published story brought to my attention via Joystiq pointed out the hidden message behind console ownership.  I can’t say that I really agree with what the article Joystiq is reporting on concludes about gamers.  For some of the input, it seems to pull straight out of a target market blurb from the marketing department of Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft, but other notes just jump right off the deep end.

• PlayStation: The consensus is that this guy is an early adopter who demands the best from his game experience “and probably his women.” This is the guy who is hard to keep up with because he’s either working or out on the town. He uses video games to relax.
• Wii: This guy is fun. He also knows that this is the best date machine as many games appeal to both sexes. He’s also fiscally responsible because the system is the cheapest least expensive.
• Xbox 360: He’s probably a serious gamer and women should ask to see his gamertag to see how much time he’s logged. These guys like “violent, visceral games, as well as the social aspect of connecting with friends online. They may be living out an active and social life through games, because they are a bit on the shy side.” According to one comment, these men are passionate about gaming and transfer that to the bedroom.

The reasoning behind this article is to give women some idea about the men they date.  I can’t say that I agree with the PlayStation summary.  With the popularity of the PS2, some PS3 owners are still sort of casual gamers.  Some of the lucky PS3 few just happen to have purchased one because of the hype and enjoy the PlayStation series of games.  They are fine buying the system and waiting for the next Metal Gear Solid.  I wouldn’t consider a Sony fanboy someone who “demands the best” from his women.

Nintendo Wii’s were hard to come by there for awhile, so not everyone got them on the cheap.  I would say a better summary for someone who owns a Wii would be someone who likes to have a good time and play party games.  I wouldn’t consider any gaming machine a “date machine,” but I guess the Wii is the closest if I had to pick one.

The Xbox 360 like “‘violent, visceral games.’” Geez, that sounds like we are all about to go on a rampage.  I would say your 360 gamers might be more on the hardcore side, but also probably could fall into the category the commenters defined for PS3.  Some 360-ers are early adopter types who like cutting edge graphics and gameplay–not necessarily complete and utter violence.  Microsoft currently has the largest library of games, so they might be more in-tune with the gaming industry and just want to take advantage of that large catalog–along with the robust online system for communicating and multiplayer gameplay.  Hey, maybe a 360 gamer is just a lonely tech junkie.  You never know.  We don’t have to hurt people and love violence just because we own the console that produced Halo.

Maybe the best lesson from all this commentary is just not to try and generalize gamers for a console purchase–not even trying to define a select subset or few.  It would probably be a better idea to try categorizing people by the games they buy and not the systems.

EA wants a single platform. Like several other outlets, I wouldn’t have seen the comments coming to the BBC.

Gerhard Florin, Executive Vice President and General Manager International Publishing for Electronic Arts, recently told the BBC that incompatible consoles make life harder for developers and consumers and that he can see a day when set-top boxes replace the PS3, Wii and Xbox 360.

His argument that individual consoles will eventually be replaced is based upon online gaming’s take off recently. Florin thinks that we will one day be able to boot up a single unit and stream games to our console. I doubt the success of a completely streaming game delivery system for all gaming. Just look at the Apple iPhone community that tried to get everyone to work with online widgets. Users are crying out and hacking their individual iPhones just to be able to take advantage of actual third-party software.

I like the fact that there are multiple hardware companies simply because it drives innovation and competition for that killer app game. I think having all games streaming online would make the industry stagnate–worthless.

Besides, console-makers and techies in the gaming industry are always looking to make things bigger and better. Right now, we have developers and media outlets debating whether Xbox 360 can continue to dominate the hardcore market with PS3’s having the ability of BlueRay storage. There are rumors now of an HD-DVD 360 hitting the market in the future. Streaming games would take some time to become the preferred delivery method. While they compliment the catalogs of current gaming stations, there is no way they could take over without significant improvements on Internet speeds and hardware.

The topic might be worth revisiting years from now, but maybe EA is just looking far beyond their 10 year plan.

The Today show totally screwed Microsoft in it’s coverage of the videogame industry recently by saying that the Xbox 360 had been “recalled” in not so many words. Way to leave it open for interpretation. I bet the PR people over at Microsoft are moderately upset about that one.There has to be a camera tech or correspondent that knows enough about games and the latest consoles to step in there and correct someone before these mistakes are made on air. The tech guy and Roker look to hate down upon the Xbox 360 over the warranty extension and make it seem to unknowing parents like a recall is expected and necessary.

No good at all. The Today show crew also made goofy references to Wii being a #2 console and PS3 being a “Trojan horse.” Trojan horse? I don’t see how it being pretty much the most advanced tech makes it a Trojan horse. I think everyone that buys it knows exactly what they are getting. The Blu-ray player is part of the expense of the system. Ah well…it’s the mainstream media I guess.

Nielsen just started up a gameplay metrics system. I know your excited.

First of all, the PC study shows that tried and true games are occupying most of computer gamer time despite the latest and greatest new games. I guess no one updates their video cards anymore. Shocker…World of Warcraft somehow dominates. I think they should change the name of the game to “computer gamer crack.”

The other “sad of Sony” stat is that the PS2 is the most played console while the PS3 is at the very bottom of the list as least played. It is like a little console list sandwich by Sony. All the other console-makers put their game consoles in couples, but PS2 and PS3 can’t play nice together.

After news of the 80 GB PS3 came out here in the colonies, the Sony Computer Entertainment Europe President David Reeves just had to mouth off about how the 80 GB really wasn’t much of an improvement over the 60 GB.

While his statement may be correct, is there no universal goal within Sony around the globe to make sure any message from any part of the company gets a positive reception. If Europe is still going to badmouth every mover here in the US, Sony is going to have real trouble convincing American gamers that it is alright to come out of the shadows of the PS2 and buy a PS3.

Don’t corporations like Sony do media training? at least for their executives? Sony has a lot of Barry Bonds in the upper management.

For all the grief that Sony has gotten for lack of good games, they do have one coming.

I haven’t really followed every game in the Metal Gear series, and to say that, I mean, I haven’t done more than watch other friends of mine play through the game. From this cursory view though, I can still say that the series seems to be one of the more intricate plots and storylines that has come into gaming. I would consider it beyond Halo with the epic nature of its story.

It is cool when fans really get into the plot of the games they play such as one Metal Gear-head that Joystiq’s Jared Rea pointed out from YouTube.

Dan Dormer breaks down and analyzes all that Sony and Kojima is giving with this latest and supposedly last installment of the series. The videos may be long, but they made me feel edumacated.

Part One

Very well done, Dan. I wish someone would break down every game trailer with such detail in this YouTube format.

Part Two

I subscribe to the GamesIndustry.biz weekly newsletter. The site is based in Europe and usually covers a variety of European complaints and concerns about the gaming industry, but they also frequently cover topics relevant to the United States market and the world.

This week, the newsletter column covered the retirement of Ken Kutaragi, known to many as the “Father of PlayStation” at Sony. His retirement seems to come too close to the commonly felt failure of the PS3. I thought, as in American companies, that it was probably a forced retirement as punishment for the failure. According to GamesIndustry.biz, it goes a little deeper than that to a Japanese tradition for shareholders.

No, Ken Kutaragi’s retirement has to be considered as an offering to shareholders who are understandably upset that the hugely expensive PS3 has failed, so far, to look like the all-conquering platform Sony had hoped for. It is, essentially, a head on a plate; the long-established Japanese tradition of an executive being helped to fall on his sword to placate unrest among investors.

I do think that someone really jacked up the PS3 in the Japanese and US markets. The PS3 is just too high-priced with no real justification. I know my gamer friends and I are not running out to buy Blu-Ray movies just yet, and many don’t even have an HD TV to play those movies.

The lack of software is the biggest drawback of purchasing it from my perspective. Sony needs a hit game, and it needs it now.

The newsletter column ends in saying that Sony must now make strides to recover and show that Kutaragi’s “seppuku” was not in vain. As we move through the summer into holiday season, all eyes–especially those of their shareholders–will definitely be on Sony.

As if Sony has not already generated enough bad press for itself with the PS3 mess they have on their hands, today Kotaku posted that they have been blackballed by Sony corporate over a rumor they reported on about PlayStation Home.

Apparently, Sony just wanted to launch both the rumor story and the blackball story to the top of digg today, or they just weren’t thinking clearly this morning. Even if they were saving the news for an announcement during GDC, do they really need to blackball Kotaku if they caught wind of the story before? The news was good and reported in Sony’s favor.

The professionalism of Kotaku certainly shines through on this one and shows once again that gaming journalism is still quality journalism, but it certainly won’t help the bad blood against Sony in the gamer community. You can see the full email from Dave Karraker at SCEA at Kotaku.

Update: more very well-crafted comments by Brian Lam at Gizmodo

PS3’s ability to download in the background while its users play games is broken after promises to have a firmware upgrade out to correct it. Silly Sony, don’t you know how to use that INCREDIBLY powerful system that you market at $599? If I pay that much, I expect results. Check out more details via Joystiq.

Seems that Sony’s only real draw might just be giant crabs and RIDGE RACER!

So who is going to win the next-gen war?

Personally, I think Sony has really done a horrible job this time around. The bad press is not being balanced by a dominant system or equally matched titles going into the holiday season. Xbox 360 has a pretty nice library established and all the Xbox zombies waiting for Halo 3 to drop. On the other side of things, PS3 has a meager little collection of titles with Resistance heading that up. Most say Gears of War matches if not topples that title anyway.

And what about the Wii? Nintendo was a pretty quiet player this last gen war–which was nice for me since I could pick up popular multi-platform titles for my Gamecube at half the price of my Xbox and PS2 buds after price drops. The Wii kind of brings Nintendo in to a unique market. Even though PS3 tries to copy them with the motion-sensing remote, I think I will like the Wii better for some types of gaming than even a system with superior graphics.

Just checking out the Madden controls gets me pretty pumped about the possibilities. I know I can never remember the button for spin or juke when I am running, but if all I have to do is stick out my arm…now we are talking.

I think the Wii and the 360 are going to win big, and I can’t really feel sorry for Sony. You did it to yourself, Stringer.