Brittany said:
I think Nintendo is going downhill. They have many innovations, but most aren't largely pusued by developers or the average gamer just don't appreciate them. Their gaming is really innovative(same word two lines in a row =D) and all, but is becoming more of an acquired taste in my opinion. You may like pure gaming overall, but I can tell you that the average gamer doesn't. Playing DVDs and now Blu-ray movies without additional equipment are simple steps Sony is taking to get ahead of the competition. Now I don't want you to think I'm going completely Sony vs Nintendo in this discussion, but Sony is going past this to accelerate yet another step in this field.
In the e3 Sony press conferrence they showed multiple movies playing along simultaniusly and commented that any screen could become focused at a time, and that some of the screens could be online video chats or web browsers. It might not be a huge deal to you, but I'll bet you that the average gamer sees this as two steps forward for Sony and one step back for Nintendo. How about the fact that Nintendo has just moved to standard size media but Sony has acquired a format with over 7 times more space? I won't be suprised if down the road when gamers are emulating on the PS3, they stored every Final Fantasy on a single disc and played them all at once.
Again, these preferences might not apply to you, and you might just consider them stupid, but most current gamers don't think so. I think Nintendo's current fanbase can hold them for now, but unless they do something in the future I don't think Nintendo will be able to hold up any longer.
By no means do i think the extra features Sony presents on their gaming systems are stupid, but i do feel that just because they give you other things with video games that does not mean Nintendo is going downhill. Sure Nintendo may not offer all of those features, but their consoles are cheaper, and the "average gamer" does not necessarily want to browse the interent on their gaming console. I would just rather take the 20 steps to my computer to browse the internet at full-capabilities, and not bother with an analogue stick and on-screen keyboard. And buying a keyboad would be dumb, as you could save what, $30, by taking 20 steps to your computer? Sony isn't as bad, but Microsoft is, in a way, going away from gaming, with giving their 360 extra functions, like wirelessly streaming pics and stuff from your PC. Why not just look at them on your PC? So you can have them on your big screen TV? That, in my opinion, is not worth the extra $150 or so bucks. And at their unveiliing of the 360, they spoke about how you could go on Xbox live and design TShirts and sell them for live points. Thats great, but WHO CARES?!?!?!? I want to play games, not make virtual TShirts and sell them online. Microsoft's presentation focused more on the person who would do dumb things like design T Shirts than play video games! Like i said, Sony is not as bad, but things like this is NOT what the "average gamer" is looking for. That is why i feel that if Nintendo keeps up their "gaming comes standard" approach, that when companies like Microsoft get so far away from gaming, people will get tired of all the useless extra features and come back to Nintendo.
Now Sony's features are at least more understandable. Watching movies on a portable game system is cool. However, with the PS2 talk about the DVD player, i didn't really care. Why? Becuase my family already has one. If you don't have one, and you can get one on your video game system, thats great. But personally, i don't want to fork over the cash for something i already have. I don't want to pay the extra money to watch multiple movies at the same time - my family's TV already can do that. As cool as that is, and while its MUCH better than Microsoft's ideas, i, and many other video gamers, don't feel the need for that, especially when its coming out of our pocket. And video chat is great, but again, thats what computers are for.
Now the extra media storage is great, and i would like that, but beggars can't be choosers. Overall, i have nothing against Sony (or Microsoft), i just feel that as the consoles come out with more and more features that people already have in other electronics, people will come back to the pure gaming consoles - for that what we buy them for, right? Games.
And also, someone posted a graph of the GCN compared to the other consoles, and duh the GCN has sold less than the NES and SNES, Nintendo didn't have [much] competition in those days - it was a near-monopoly.