“Project Cafe” / Wii 2 – Nintendo’s new console

Nintendo is officially releasing a new console to the market, entitled ‘Project Cafe’. While not officially announced to be a successor to the Wii, it’s more or less a Wii 2.

The console is being rumoured to surpass the capabilities of the Playstation 3, the most advanced console available. While Sony has done this themselves in the NGP, for it to be released on a console means that Nintendo is obviously now seriously trying to compete with the 360 and PS3 for supremacy of the 7th Generation. Considering the success of the Wii, it won’t be hard for Nintendo to squeeze out a big initial launch sale.

With the graphical specs to surpass the PS3, does it mean that it will be kick-starting the 8th Generation, as the Wii did to the 7th? Probably not. Both Sony and Microsoft have promised that their respective consoles are having fairly extended life cycles to that seen in the 6th Generation.

So, is it necessarily wise of Nintendo to release a major competitor half-way into the shelf life of the other consoles? Probably not. While Nintendo’s family-oriented focus will bring in the sales as it always does, the PS3 and 360 being ahead in sales over the Wii should be telling Nintendo that they are selling poorly in the console market because of the fact that the generation belongs to the serious/hardcore gamers. Gamers who don’t want to stick around and play family games- although with the release of Kinect and Move, it’s becoming less and less clear what we gamers actually do want- there is a chance that unless Nintendo is really offering something with Project Cafe, that it’s not going to be surpassing the sales of the Wii. 84.64 million units since 2006 is a significant amount of sales over the other consoles, but when taking into consideration that the majority of the world’s population are still in financial insecurity after the crash of 2008, the sales of a new console like this might not be as desirable, and this price of the console will no doubt be affected by this GFC, but more importantly- the japan disasters. With the price of hardware no doubt rising in Japan, the technological capital of the world, Nintendo might be making a risky decision.

And then you need to look at whether or not gamers want a new console, and whether or not developers want to develop for it. Nintendo does have some strong IP’s, but it’s limited to the basic 3 franchises of Mario, Zelda and Pokémon; all of which have had recent (or even very near future) releases. Plus, with 84.64 million Wii sales, and 50 Million sales for both 360 and PS3, You’ve got to wonder if there is even a need for a new console.

Next Generation of Gaming becoming clear

With the amazing specs on the NGP, It’s not hard to think: if that technology is in a handheld, then what will the next generation consoles be fitted with?. Some developers have already begun looking at the next generation, and what’s even more interesting is Microsoft seems to be already working on the next generation Xbox.

At GDC, Epic showed off some examples of their new engine for the next gen. It looks amazing, no doubt. Push this even further, Square Enix is reportedly opening a new studio in Canada which will be dedicated to developing games for next gen. Does this mean that Generation 8 could come as early as 2012? Maybe!

While Microsoft has started hiring for the next Xbox, no announcement has been made, but it’s possible that the console is in the pre-production stages. Sony on the other hand have already said that the Playstation 3 will have a minimum 10 year life cycle, which it is about in its 4th year.

With developers starting to see the next generation as something interesting, no doubt the demand will start increasing for news of a console for the 8th generation; and it looks like this generation will be kicked off by Microsoft.

NGP,PSP,3DS,DS

Sony’s successor to the PSP, known to the gaming world as the NGP, its under-development name, is starting to get momentum behind it. It’s confirmed that the NGP will support a variety of game engines, and also its level of technology that has never been seen in handheld consoles before is truly a step above what will be its major competitor, the 3DS.

Yet, it’s fairly easy to see how this can go wrong for Sony. Much like the Playstation 3 featuring technology superior to the 360 and Wii, poor decisions lead the PS3 to become one of the biggest let downs of the 7th generation consoles. It’s even easier to see why- technology doesn’t come cheap. And Sony launched the console at a rather infamous 599 U.S Dollars. Sony president has said however that they will not make the same mistake twice, and that they have kept the NGP affordable.

What’s interesting is that they have also said the NGP will not replace the PSP in its early years. While only a few good SQUARE ENIX games actually are on the horizon for the PSP, it will remain supported by the company, and the NGP will be backward compatible with all PSP software currently on the Playstation Store, as long as you’ve bought it, it’ll work on the NGP.  Sony has even reduced the cost of brand new PSP-3000’s to 199 dollars, a rather cheap price for a console as diverse as the PSP.

Sony seems to have the direction of the NGP correct- they’ve focused on using current technology to create a top-end system, something that they didn’t do with the PS3, and with graphics that rival the ps3 itself, Sony might just have the bulk of the developers. This is what might get Nintendo’s new 3DS to shadow the problem the DS had against the PSP. The DS’s hardware limited it’s capability- it was really a console that made sprite games look terrific, but 3D horrific. Developers might find themselves making better games on the NGP simply because the hardware can do better. This isn’t to say that Nintendo hasn’t done a good job.

Nintendo can trace its roots back to the handheld market- in fact, if anything, they created the market. The DS only lost its lead in sales right in the last stage of its life, after an impressive 6 years of rebrands. No doubt the console also made it possible for fresh new companies to create some games. What Nintendo have done with the 3DS is looked at the trends, and looked at what they can improve. They also didn’t try to create new technology, but found a way around the hurdle of No-Glasses 3D- reverse the depth. Nintendo continues the innovation with the 3DS, and there are big developers out there for the console already.

Will it fall into the trap of its predecessor? Having little range in the games available, and being trapped in the same visual-style of each game since the first, or will it’s early launch give it the head start that will see it into the 8th generation? Nintendo treaded on fairly recognisable ground when developing the 3DS- The Company has tried 3D before, and saw why it failed. They worked around it. The company saw that the DS may have lived out longer then they thought, so the technology was retro, and they seem to have gotten around that too.

The NGP and the 3DS’ success will depend on brand loyalties, Game exclusives, and the right decisions.

 

Sony is fronting the next-gen of handhelds

 

Sony has unveiled the “NGP”, or as you may like to call it, the PSP2. With graphics that rival the Playstation 3, there is no doubt that the NPG is the most powerful handheld console ever developed. Taking what is possibly a page out of Nintendo’s books, the NPG uses flashcards for games instead of the UMD. According to IGN.com, the console consists of:

5inch OLED with 960 x 544 resolution, dual analogue sticks, 3G plus Wi-Fi, GPS, front and rear touch pads, Six axis motion sensors and front and rear cameras with a microphone.

The statistics of the NGP mean that Sony is entering a console superior to the 3DS, however this isn’t a new thing for Sony. The PSP is also superior to the DS, yet has only managed to outsell the DS in Japan, late 2010. It’s also the case that the PS3 is superior to the Wii and 360, however sales would say otherwise. Sony will probably be looking at pitching a good marketing campaign; however the one issue that might’ve slowed down sales for both the PSP and PS3 in the first place would be the ‘superior’ price tag. The NPG might be wearing a pretty big one in comparison to the 3DS judging by the technology used.

The games shown so far running on the NPG are: Killzone, Hot Shots, WipeOut, Little Big Planet, Resistance, and a playable demo Uncharted.

Nintendo 3DS- Eyesight conflicts, and Life Cycle thoughts

Nintendo revealed that the 3DS won’t be suitable for playing by children under 6 years of age, saying that it may harm eye sight development. That might prove to be a small issue for Nintendo upon the launch and life of the 3DS- Undoubtedly, Younger children probably accounted for a noticeable amount of sales in the original DS. Then, on top of that, Nintendo recommends that no matter what age you are, you take regular breaks from the console every half-hour. That’s kind of an inconvenience for some of those big games that may find their way onto the system.

The system itself is a rather great way to kick off the 2011 gaming year, as it brings a new concept not seen in Gaming, and what was probably not expected to debut on the handheld format- Direct to your Eyes 3D. Nothing is needed except yourself (and preferably clothes) and your eyes. Exactly how it works has not been revealed, but the system also contains a switch of some sort to manually change it into 2D or vice versa.

However, even if it’s a great console, Nintendo has had issues with sales for their Consoles when it comes to older serious/hard core gamers. Reflected instantly in what games are actually available for the DS and Wii, the 3DS will probably end up slipping into the same pattern. The range of games available on the DS is thin. And unfortunately they don’t vary very much. The console has had some really great games, and has presented some great games with even greater concepts that wouldn’t work on any other system half as well as it could on the DS (that’s actually a good thing) games like ScribbleNauts, Drawn to Life, WarioWare are prime examples of these great concepts. And, there are absolute master pieces that truly should be showcased by Nintendo themselves in their World Headquarters’- The World Ends With You would definitely belong there.

It’s almost as if though that the good games are dragged down by piles of games that must have had “JUST MAKE IT USE THE TOUCH SCREEN AND IT WILL BE FINE” as the entire design document. Which leads to a million bad games, taking for granted what was an innovation in gaming, and screwing it into something that serious gamers now hate. It’s a dumping ground for new (and sometimes old) companies to just release their games too, hoping that the easy-to-persuade demographic of the DS (most of its market is probably aged 7-12) will buy it and the company will make a profit.

If the 3DS ends up having the same effect, a million games but only a handful of actual good ones, then I think Nintendo needs to spread some new wings and fly to an older demographic, where you will in-turn get better games, having bigger console sales, and less crap all around. Let’s face it- it’s apparently got the power of a GameCube, and if you’ve seen some screenshots of the games already announced for the 3DS, they look on-par with the best Playstation 2 games. it’s a real opportunity for Nintendo to move into an older age demographic all-around instead of just having a mixed demographic with seemingly no point.

Microsoft doesn’t want sex on the kinect

Microsoft has stated that the  “Kinect sex game” will never exsist. While this is probably a bit of a blindsided claim on Microsoft’s behalf- the xbox 360 has been able to be hacked to play pirated games for a good while now, and if the developers Thrixxx can release the file format on the web then they could easily have such a game exsisting and giving them profit. Not only that but-The game is actually on PC. Thrixxx have hacked the Kinect into being able to work with PC games. So, there really isn’t anything microsoft can do to stop them. Technology is technology after all- microsoft can’t sue you for having porn on a computer running there OS and there hardware, so It will be interesting to see what microsoft will do to stop thrixxx from releasing just a type of porn, on the pc, compatible with Kinect. Apparantly, the game will be finished in 2011-

Now, if you really actually buy the game or even play it, that might be a worry…

Consoles: More than just gaming systems?

This is interesting. A report by Nielson has said that the consoles of this generation are becoming more and more like loungeroom standards, thanks to features such as DVD playback, Picture editing, Music Playback, News feeds, Online TV, and more. The console that has the most dynamic use is the Playstation 3. Interestingly, there might be a direct link between the figures and the marketing campaign of “it simply does everything”. 49% of total time using a Playstation 3 is spent gaming, with the rest on the other services availble. 26% of 360 owners watch streams, and 23% say the same for the PS3 and Wii. Rather biasedly, sony says that the Playstation 3 gives 14 services, the most of any outlet at current time. There isn’t really anything to confirm this, but it’s possible.

Now, of course external services have been offered in consoles for a while, but untill 7th Gen they where mainly restricted to MP3/CD playback and DVD playback. Now, There’s alot more on offer. Even the handheld Nintendo DSi offers a camera and an in-built picture editing program. but that brings up a question; Has the video game console platform lost it’s way? Should we be worried that developers will start to focus more on offering a range of services instead of giving the time and effort into building a top-of-the-range gaming platform? Who knows.

A big marketing tactic -which Sony and Nintendo have seen and clearly exploited where as the 360 seems to be dragging- of this generation is the fact that consoles are becoming more and more for everyone. Soon, people will start buying consoles not necesarily for the gaming function, but for the services that interest them. Think of the iPhone/iPad. It has a small part of the handheld gaming market, but if it was considered a console, then it would be the most sucsesful console of this generation given the fact people buy it for the features it offers. Microsoft seems intent on plastering the xbox 360 all over gaming adverts and seemingly wants to make the 360 synonymous with gaming, Where as Nintendo wants to keep pushing the DS (and to a lesser extent, the Wii) into a broader target audience position with innovation, and Sony is seemingly pushing the Playstation family into being an all-rounded entertainment package by putting the playstation brand on a new phone (‘Zeus’), building tv’s with Playstation 2’s in them, and continioung to offer services that whether unclear if the most availble on the one platform, definatley has the most availble out of the current consoles.

Will there be a complete reinvention of the traditional Gaming system before we see a generation 8 would be a good question, but it’s safe to say that this could just be something that us, the consumers, are doing. Whether or not Nintendo,Sony and Microsoft actually have any plans on capitilising the extra services they could offer will only be known if they make a statement about it.

2010 Gaming Year

With 2010 coming to a close, I look at some the results this year brought gaming.

 

Summary of 2010

Interestingly, The begining of the year (January-April) had a very strong start for gamers. The big titles of the year where all majoritively released in this period, which is actually very unusual, as companies prefer to release big games around the end of the year where consumers would have more cash on them. The early months are usually considered unprofitable because people are usually recovering from chirstmas spendings. What’s even more striking about the big titles coming out early this year is that the western world was affected by the GFC. The titles that saw launch at the begining of the year also actually did sell quite well. After that rise in the big titles h owever, things slowed down on the actual release side of things. A lot of announcements existed about the big titles at this point, however E3 is what the companies seemed to be waiting for. This is typically considered as the middle-year marking for gaming. This year, some big titles presented themselves at E3. Microsoft’s Kinect was shown off (probably not in the best of ways.), Nintendo showed there big announcement which was the 3DS, and Sony had some relatively lacking news- only the Move and a few games for the PS3 and PSP managed to be of any use to Sony. After E3, the fad of 3D era started to come in full-force. Sony launched the new Bravia 3D, which would have tie-ins with the Playstation 3’s 3d capabilities. Nintendo would give a release date for the 3DS, and Microsoft would still stick to the standard method of advertising Kinect. While very few games have any 3D capability yet, next year we will definatley be seeing 3d releases, and 3d patches. Closer to the end of the year, the big releases where back. The PSP enjoyed some much needed sales with Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep. The Playstation 3 had Move on shelves, and the Wii had experienced a rather odd colour change. The 360 would be given it’s Kinect later in the year. The November month saw some of the biggest releases of the year sale-wise. Call of Duty: Black Ops took over Grand Theft Auto IV‘s record of Most Sucsesful Launch, and some other titles such as Star Wars: Force Unleashed II have been given a notable ammount of media coverage. Gran Turismo 5 has given PlayStation 3 owners one of the very few must-own exclusives, while the Wii and 360 havent seen a game with as much coverage this year, which is suprising seeing that both these consoles are ahead of the PS3’s sales. The year still isn’t over though, and the last month of december usually showcases the great games we’ll be recieving next year. The western world takes advantages of the Spike gaming awards to showcase upcoming releases (with Sony actually having one of the very few dedicated announcements [announcements that wernt backed by an event such as E3] the day after the awards), while Japanese and RPG fans look towards the Tokyo Game Show which serves as the end of year checkpoint for gamers to showcase they’re titles.

2010 is probably not one of the strongest years we’ve seen in gaming. Few big releases, some big letdowns, and although there have been alot of advancements in the market for videogames, notably 3D gaming, this year could of offered so much more. This could partially be blamed on the uncertainty of the stock markets. Companies are probably afraid to develop and release in such a state. 2011 should be a more interesting year.

 

Handheld consoles: starting the next generation?

The next generation of gaming. a series of words that may fill you with either Dispair if you recently bought a new console, or a feeling of excitement as to what is around the corner. Whichever way you look at it, gaming is getting very close to moving on. While the recently released Kinect and Move may slow down the approach of the generation 8 somewhat, and the consoles are in relatively good fitting and standing points, one aspect of this generation just cant wait to move on: the handheld market.

The 3DS is said by nintendo to be as powerful as the gamecube, and provides straight-up 3D visuals. Developers are already announcing games for it, and no doubt the 3DS will sell very well. However the 3DS will possibly be sharing the market with another competitor- The PSP2. While information on this is scarce, and even unconfirmed, it’s an undeniable fact that is will arrive soon.

I’ll write more on this soon, as it is a very great topic.

 

Kinect: More sucsesful than originally thought, Sony happy with Move

Microsoft today released the total units of Kinect sales worldwide so far. After 25 days from launch, the unit count is at 2.4 Million units. Compared to Move’s sales since september is sitting at 4.2 million units, Kinect will definatley take the lead in sales in the next 20-25 days- especially with the holiday season sales. Microsoft had originally planned for 5.0 million units by the end of the year, and so they obviously thought that the Kinect wouldn’t be very sucsesful.

On the Sony side of things, Sony have said that they are happy with the sales of Move so far, however it is likely that this will change if Kinect sales overpass Move sales- especially since the Playstation 3 trails Xbox 360 sales by only 2 million units.