I have seen this growing tendency of people, and actually Nintendo themselves, saying that they are the only innovators of the game market, and thats what they have been doing all along.
I kind of disagree with nintendo deserving the title of bringing original and new creative ideas for the market.
First of all, starting back in the SNES days. The idea of a CD system was brought up. Nintendo started announcing plans for a cd add on for this 16 bit system. This never happened. Why is this? Because they moved on to saying they needed to create a more powerful 32 bit system that would use the CD as a format.
Sony and Philips were helping them with this. What is the result? They drop it again. Around these times, Sega CD is out, as well as Philips CD-I ( a console with lisenced games from Nintendo). Pointing out here Nintendo' s will to stick with their already old cartridge, is this innovative?
They announce later that they drop their plans for the 32 bit system. Sony are fired and their work with Philips is trashed. The result is? Later Playstation sells 100 000 000 copies. That was a bit fast forward, so lets go back. After this comes out, Nintendo again talks about using CD for their new system. The final news of them not using CD arrives. Instead, they will continue to use their cartridge system.
When Gamecube comes, finally they use a cd/dvd based system. 10 years after it first was used. Is this innovative? Plus, it cant even play movies, and they the fact is, the format issue is kind of retarded now. Because does the gamecube have multiplayer possibilites? No, they reject online features at this point with silly arguments. Playstation 2 gets online a bit later, with popular titles online like FFXI, Ratched and Clank, Socom, SSX, though still they dont get credit for being properly online.
Moving on, as we just as recent as last year saw Nintendo with online features last year on their DS. Lets talk about design and interactive playing.
Talking about the DS, remember that design and look at this 1982 Donkey Kong portable game:
http://www.1up.com/media?id=2303255 Have nintendo been as innovative as they claim to be?
Also, if you look at the Philips CD-I controller here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Philips_CD-i.jpg And compare that with the Super Nintendo controllers. Innovative? That is also by the way the first controller I' ve seen with a joystick on, and this came way before N64' s controller.
Also, I want you to look at this once again Philips CD-I controller
http://personal.telefonica.terra.es/web/mallorcadisco/infoconsolas/fotos/Philips/CDI/cdi3.jpg Am I the only one getting associations with the nunchuck?
Now I' m not saying Nintendo doesnt do great things. They are one of the big ones, and I' m not an ignorant Playstation fan, I am a Playstation fan but not ignorant. Anyway, the new wiimote is great right. But is this truly innovative? Nintendo wants players to get up from their couches, and not limit gaming to pressing buttons on a controller anymore, but is this really their idea?
Here you need to know a little Arcade history, as well as be aware of the past, Sony is especially interesting here.
Have anyone of you played boxing games on the arcade? Where you use a virtual glove?
Or how many of you havent played games with lightguns? Arent these two highly fun and interactive?
Have you not seen how many interactive creations there are for arcade games? Lots of them even surpass Nintendo' s wiimote in certain ways, like the boxing glove if I may say so.
Did anyone for instance notice the Onimusha Sword released 2 years ago, that allowed you to wave the sword so it affected the game?
Now most of this technology has been available for some time, but I want to say something to those who mean that Sony never invents anything new, just improve.
This is so interesting to me because some of their really great inventions for gaming have already made the change, that players can get up from their couch and use their body to play.
Look at Eyetoy, that films you as you can use your hands and feet to affect whats on screen. Personally, it would not surprise me if someone in Nintendo commented on this mass hit and said they had to make some physical form of gaming as well. That is a vague oportunity yes, but I am entitled to my opinion saying that the wiimote can be a counter to the eyetoy.
Now not only focusing on the eyetoy, what about singstar? Isnt that great interactive entertainment. That really expanded the horizon of karaoke, and at the same time gave wider meaning to the word games, on consoles.
So in counter to those who claims that sony is not being innovative enough, does this help? I try to look at this objectivly as possible, and dont mean to bash anything. But as a Sony fan, I have done loads of research on this the last months, and felt I had to bring some valid info to the table.
Also I want to remark that Sony, who uses third parties by a greater scale than Nintendo, (how much by percentage was Nintendo games this E3?) really has helped bringing the arcade interactivity, and new creations into the homes for each gamer. For the Playstation you can have the Onimusha sword, a lightgun, an Eyetoy, Singstar, Buzz quizgame, Gameglove etc etc. And not to mention Microsoft had motion sensing controllers with their Sidewinder.
I didnt realise this thread was gonna be so long lol, I hope its interesting and nonbashing. As I' m excited to try out the wiimote myself. But I dont want to give credit for Nintendo bringing this as something completely new.
< Message edited by Cetra -- 20 May 06 22:56:02 >