Keepalive: Wii Rant & Recent Numbers

What? A Tuesday update? When does that happen?

Well, someone ticked me off. Plus I woke up with only two hours until I had to be somewhere else, so I figured I'd make an entry, then shop for some more used Xbox games.

So who ticked me off? Some guy. I don't feel like giving him free press. Long story short, he called Wii a virus because people pick it up, play for two months (during which time they infect others) then stop. Why does this tick me off? It ticks me off for two reasons. Well, one's a reason and the other's a suspicion. The reason is that game developers (like the one he works at) don't support the machine. The suspicion is... he's not a gamer. He probably never owned a Gamecube. He's never played Mario Sunshine, Metroid Prime 1&2, Eternal Darkness, Thousand Year Door, Wind Waker, Pikmin, or any other Gamecube exclusives. If this is true and he shelved his Wii after two months, he needs to turn in his Gamer's Club Card.

In other news, the virus is spreading faster. Nintendo must have upped production or shifted it to the US because they moved from selling a half a million Wiis a month here to almost three quarters of a million Wiis last month. It sometimes seems people will keep saying it's a fad until there's no one left to sell to. The PS3 finally fell back behind the 360, but just barely. I'm thinking the Blu Ray bubble popped. But if the sustained sales are enough to keep them competitive with Microsoft that can only be a good thing.

We know how Microsoft "innovation" goes when they don't have competition (see: Windows Vista). Of course, considering how little we're hearing out of MS these days, Sony will probably need to actually beat them this holiday season to get them off their collective butts. Case in point, the 360 is getting a Wii remote.

This will never work. Microsoft always pays lip service to broader audiences to keep investors thinking their dollars are in the right place, but they only put enough developer power behind it to produce a quiz game and a couple "family friendly" titles like Kameo and Viva Piñata. The truth is, they could probably already be succeeding in this space just by pushing Live Arcade, but until someone can make a convincing argument internally that the numbers are there, MS will just keep trying to bleed the hardcore dry. Of course, EA recently went back on charging for extra weapons in an upcoming game due to gamer backlash. One can only hope this marks the start of a "we're not gonna take this nickel and dime garbage" movement. Of course, nickels and dimes are now five and ten dollar bills, but the principal is the same.

Over on the music industry front, Rock Band is finally announcing full albums for download. I don't think anyone really cares about Judas Priest that much, but the Pixies album due in the summer should be better. I keep wondering when the tipping point will be. With MTV behind them, it seems like eventually Rock Band should simply be a platform for music, like an iPod.

I think the problem is that that's how MTV and Harmonix feel. The tipping point should just "happen". Creating infrastructure; creating platforms, requires megalomania, vision, expert knowledge, and giant piles of cash. I'll leave it to the reader to determine which of these MTV and Harmonix don't have / aren't willing to risk. Of course, being tied to gaming consoles may be the worst part. They might need their own mini console (with hard drive). Yeah. Platform building ain't easy.

The PS2 continues to sell well. I keep thinking it's selling as a Guitar Hero player, but then again, maybe it's selling as a DVD player, or Rock Band player, or cheap old game player. That's the benefit of owning a proprietary platform. Once there's enough compelling content, the thing sells itself and the money rolls in.

I suspect that's what's going on with the PSP. It's selling gangbusters in Japan. How gangbusters? It's almost equal to the Wii and DS combined. Yeah. And it beat everything but the Wii and DS in the states. Capcom's Monster Hunter franchise is disgusting popular in Japan. Plus there's UMD porn in the land of the rising sun. That never hurts. Here in the US, I'm guessing the lower cost plus God of War and Final Fantasy having recent (and well reviewed) releases on the system would cover it.

Well, that's more than eaten up my time. Congratulations, you are now up to date with my largely ignorant opinions about the game business.