He got the HDD PSP right though. I never thought it would happen, but Shadowlayer was right. However, the Wii prediction was epic fail. He couldn't have been more wrong.
Did he predict it'd be a flop, though? I don't remember that particular ramble of his. Honestly, at the end of the Gamecube pre announcement of the Wii I couldn't see Nintendo surviving more than another hardware generation as a first-party hardware company on the console side. It'd been 60 million NES, 50 million SNES, 30 million N64, 20 million Cubes... that's a downward trend right there. The market-dominating runaway success of their next console wouldn't have been smart to bet on then. As soon as the announcement of the controller and motion tracking came along (which is when this thread is originally from) and I heard my non-gamer colleagues at the time talking about it, though - the same people who'd laughed at the Gamecube were interested. Not sure if I realised it at the time, but that was definitely a good sign that the Wii would do decent numbers.
The term "Repackaged Gamecube" really bothers me. It is extremely inaccurate. It would be like saying my '88 Buick LeSabre with 160HP is the same as a 2011 Honda Civic that also has 160HP. Yes, their power is the same, but they are different cars. You have GPS, an airbag, etc, etc. For the Gamecube and Wii, it is a similar predicament. Power is similar. I will agree to that, but capabilities and control are very different. If Nintendo has released an extremely powerful console with a Gamecube controller(*cough*PS3*cough*), would you consider it next gen? Have you ever played Elebits? That is an amazing game. The physics are incredible and the interactivity in just excellent. No game before or since has reached the same level of world interaction. How about Super Mario Galaxy? A fun game with great music. Seriously, it is not a repackaged Gamecube. If anything Sony sold a repackaged PS2. Same controller, same buttons, same poorly built hardware. The experience only changed if you had an HDTV.
yes, but elebits has very poor graphics that hurt my eyes..It's not a repackaged gamecube, it's an evolution of the GC design (at its core) but with different, more modern approaches to its peripherals.
A PSP with a HDD of sorts was bound to happen, as sony didnt want to use carts, although the NGP is going to use rewritable cards, which might backfire like famicom disks did. On the Wii, doesnt anyone remember how the times when it was called "revolution" were? nobody took it seriously at all, nintendo was already 3rd place in consoles, even the DS was considered a better idea as at least its predecessor dominated the portable market. Besides at first only the hardcore cared for it, but at the end it were the casuals what made this console a best seller, and as I said before until then casuals only cared about which was the most powerful console, or if it had a PS-logo... Again, betting on this kind of reversal is crazy, but hey Apple was done for in the 90s, bankrupt, nobody gave a shit about it, and now it has already surpassed Microsoft in revenue and its among the most valuable companies in the world. So, craziest stuff has happened these years. Thats one of the most retarded counter arguments I have ever read, do you even know why it's a repackaged gamecube? How about same CPU, GPU and even drive? only slight modifications such as compatibility with DVD9 discs and mildly overclock, and thats all. The motion controllers were originally meant as an accessory for the GC, and if nintendo did something right was looking back at other cool accessories they made which didnt sell shit because those were "sold separately" For your argument to be true it would have to be another Buick but with a different name, different body panels yet the same engine and tech, but a joystick instead of a wheel (to keep with the controllers idea). Under your 'wide' parameters a frigging iMac its a Wii
That wasn't my experience at all. As soon as it was released people I knew that never really played games were talking about it, especially my family (none of whom ever noticed the launch of any other platform). Certainly lots of gamer friends were interested, many picked it up and most were subsequently disappointed, but I think it's fair to say that from day one the different control mechanism drew in lots of people who either didn't play games or hadn't for a long time. I still wonder how different the first year figures would've looked if Nintendo could've supplied all the demand. A year and a half after launch there were still reports of stock shortages. I remember people speculating at the time that Nintendo were doing it deliberately to amplify demand, and other folk saying it was just that their shipping practices were in huge batches sporadically to save money. I don't know enough about that aspect of the industry to speculate really.
It's not a good analogy though. The Wii hardware is souped up GC hardware. It's really closer to say it's like taking an '88 Buick LeSabre, adding a turbo, putting in a knightrider style steering yoke and sticking a 94 badge on it. It's fundamentally the same, but it drives a bit differently.
There is a strange thing about PS3 vs N64.. Or well maybe not directly, this will be more about nintendo and sony and their impact on me. However everyone agrees that on paper the N64 was more powerful than the Ps1 except now the PS3 is more powerful than the wii.. Back in the day I had both N64 and PS1 (actually still have them) And I actually prefer the N64 overall for mostly for Nintendo and RARE brand games. Anyway We all know the story of how this was the first time Nintendo started to loose the console wars, they did very well and I would not say they were exactly loosing money but PS1 just blitzed the market, with an inferior model not to take offence to anyone.. remember I bought both. Worldwide sales figures PlayStation – 102.49 million shipped (Japan: 21.59, US: 40.78, Europe: 40.12)[SUP][40][/SUP]including PSone – 28.15 million shipped [SUP][40][/SUP] Nintendo 64 – 32.93 million[SUP][41][/SUP] (Japan: 5.54 million, the Americas: 20.63 million, other: 6.75 million)[SUP][9][/SUP] Sega Saturn – 9.5 million[SUP][38][/SUP] (Japan: 6 million, North America: 2 million,[SUP][35][/SUP] Europe: 1.5 million) Now I prefer the PlayStation 3 to the Wii.. why because its just more powerful, so maybe I just like the more powerful consoles? I don't know.. I would like to point out I still have a wii and love playing Mario galaxy etc.. But it is an interesting look at things.. and fun-illy enough I think the Wii is outselling the PS3? Worldwide sales figures Wii – 94.97 million as of 31 December 2011[SUP][9][/SUP] Xbox 360 – 57.6 million as of 4 November 2011[SUP][53][/SUP] PlayStation 3 – 56 million as of 2 November 2011[SUP][54][/SUP] So in conclusion its just a thought I had about Nintendo and Sony.. So microsoft I hear you cry! Xbox though well I enjoyed the Xbox 1 hugely more so than the GameCube and the PS2 maybe as that just seemed most powerful..? playing splinter cell on the xbox over the other systems to me was no contest. The 360 is so so like it play it but for me sony has the edge now.. maybe I just fluctuate with the times..?
