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Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo: All Doing the Same Thing
AveryZoe
June 16, 2010
If you are connected to the Internet, chances are that you've been hearing tons of E3 news-bites the past couple of days (whether you wanted to or not). I haven't watched all the press conferences myself (children are soooo needy), but one thing has struck me about all the various articles, tweets, status updates, etc. on each of the gaming companies press conferences: They. are. all. doing. the. same. thing.
Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo--doesn't matter which one you're hearing about, just assume they are talking about motion control and 3D. These are some majorly huge companies, each one possessing many of your hard-earned dollars (mine too!). You would think they could afford to buy an original idea if they can't come up with one on their own. Sure, motion control and 3D are cool ideas, and will likely appeal to a lot of people. That does not mean that the gaming community as a whole wants to completely abandon gaming as we now know it. What the Big 3 need to remember is that they are actually *separate* companies.
What do I mean by that? Well, here's the thing: if I want a Wii, I'm perfectly happy to go out and buy a Wii. I am not likely
to say, "Man, that motion control is awesome. I think I'll wait a couple years until the console I already have comes out with the exact same thing."
The same thing goes with any other new innovation. If it's good enough, gamers will buy another console, even if they already have several at home. Lots of gamers now own multiple consoles, and are happy to use each for their strengths--whether it's the motion control, exclusive games, or awesome multi-player. If all the consoles are pretty much the same, there's no reason for people to have more than one. That right there hurts the bottom line of all the console companies.
This whole keeping-up-with-the-Jones's attitude also has a bit of a playground aspect to it, when you think about it. Nathan Nintendo runs home after school to yell, "Moooommm! Little Susie Sony is getting motion control for her birthday! I want one!" Meanwhile, Xavier Xbox is worried that if Nathan Nintendo has 3D and he doesn't, nobody is going to invite him to their sleepover. If your company makes enough money to buy children (not that they would...probably), then they shouldn't be allowed to act like them.
The other thing that bothers me about the gaming companies trying to outdo each other on the exact same stuff is that it hurts the consumers. How? It's simple. All the time and energy they are expending on competing for the motion and 3D markets has likely been diverted away from some really worthwhile projects. Who knows what kind of great original innovations that could have been unveiled at E3 if even one of the companies had just said something like, "They're doing 3D? Cool, but wait till they see our holograms and edible controllers (like edible underwear, only not nasty!)."
So listen up Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft (in no particular order other than my own). We are the people buying what you're selling, and we're dying for some new ideas here. Don't be sheep, following along with everyone else's ideas. Be the bad-ass alien soldier blowing the sheep to smithereens with a gratuitously large bad-ass weapon. Next year, show some something awesome, show us something cool, show us something that doesn't really work (seems to be alot of that going around)--but please, please, please, show us something original.
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