Insomniac exec defends PS3 and gives the Wii a lashing.

[Cless Aileron]

The exec of the developer company that brought you Ratchet & Clank had some things to say about the PS3 criticism that happens to include a diss to the Wii.

Since I can't link to the actual blog post on their official site, I'll do two things.

One:  Gamespot's story summarizing the blog.
Two:  Even though you'd need to register to Insomniac's site to see the blog, I'll just quote the one with the Wii lashing, since I did register to Insomniac's site back in 2004 (Long stuff coming through).

7. The Wii Fad Will Fade
OK, this one’s going to be controversial, but I have to say it. I like Nintendo a lot. I think Nintendo has innovated far more than any other company in the industry. And I think the Wii is really, really fun. But… let me relate to you a story that may sound familiar:

Your friend Reggie invites you over for a Wii Party. It’s awesome. You and your friends partake in whatever beverages are legally appropriate for your age group. The next day everyone who went to the party rushes out and buys a Wii.

A week later Reggie hosts another Wii Party. This time only half the group comes. It’s still fun, but there isn’t quite as much shoving to get at the Wiimote.

The next week Reggie hosts another Wii Party. You tell him you have bird flu.

Obviously I’m exaggerating, but the Wii does have many characteristics of popular mainstream fads. It’s instantaneously accessible, it’s unlike anything you’ve tried before, and it’s great fun to share with friends. In short, it’s everything Nintendo said it would be and it has captured the world’s imagination. The only downside is that the world is easily distracted. Tickle Me Elmo captured the world’s attention at one point, as did Furbies. They were both instantly accessible, were unlike anything people had seen before, and were fun to share with friends. But a year later, after everyone had seen them and tried them out, their popularity waned.

The Wii is currently riding on a massive wave of mainstream attention and has been purchased by lots of people who don’t normally play games. But how many of those people who are hooked on Wii Sports will also buy Wii Need For Speed? Mainstream fads usually run their course within a year. As the honeymoon period fades, the Wii will be going up against more and more graphically impressive games on the PS3 and Xbox 360. More people will be buying HD televisions and looking for the most immersive and stunning experiences available. For these reasons, I think the Wii will be more successful than the GameCube or N64 but in the long run will still be outsold by the PS3.

So, anything to say about this?

[throughhim413]

The guy's company is going to live or die based on the PS3 performance, they develop for Sony exclusively.  I mean, the guy has the agenda to say stuff like that, so as for what he had to say, I don't take it too seriously.  As for the Wii being a fad, well, Nintendo has always done their own thing and had the strength to support their brand with first party titles.  I don't think that in the long run that the Wii is going to be a huge force.  I think the 360 just about has the next-gen thing locked down.  I think Sony has lost major steam and unless they turn it around fast, 3rd party developers are going to keep jumping ship.  I don't think that the Wii is going to have too many 3rd party games just by nature of the system.  Though in any case, I think the Wii will preform better than the Gamecube did.  I think the PS3 will simmer for this whole gen of gaming while the 360 and the Wii coexist peacefully, neither threatening the other in any way because they're focused on different markets.  I like what Nintendo's doing, so I hope they don't change.

[Kajitani-Eizan]

okay, so let's say Wii has that fad thing going that the PS3/360 doesn't. now let's say the fad dies out. is the Wii suddenly not a console? uh, no. what, exactly, does the PS3 have (generally speaking) that the Wii doesn't? better graphics? i don't think that's going to cause it to massively outsell the Wii later on. maybe once they start dropping that price tag, if ever, but certainly not anytime soon.

i call BS.

[Goshi]

The NDS has single handedly proven that you don't need graphics to catch attention of an audience and make good games.

The Wii DOES have a normal controller for a reason. I can understand why all this jazz about the remote but if the remote gets old then they can switch back to the traditional style, which DS also had. And as we all know, the DS slaughtered the PSP.

[Cless Aileron]

I manage to get the entire blog post down in a .txt file.  The only reason I haven't posted it is because of some ethical stuff.  It was ment only to be seen by people registered to Insomniac's official site and it was someone else's blog post in its fullest.   Then again, I feel I didn't give the entire details on this news bit.  However, if you think I should post the text file to give the entire thing of what this person said, I'll do it.

For now, I'll summarize the remaining 9 points that the blog post done by exec Brian Hastings mentioned.  This doesn't reflect my opinion, I'm just summarizing what he said.  In this way, the discussion will at least have some clearance of what the blog post said.

1.  Home & Little Big Planet
Fully realized Metaverse (i.e. Second Life) and player-created content, all on a console.

2.  Free Online
Same concept as Xbox Live.  Now let's see, lag-free decidcated server and an online service that can be used for free with features that function better vs.  A laggy peer to peer online service that you have to pay $270 if you end up using it for 5 years ($70 to start the subscription and then $50 to renew)?

3.  50 GB Games
Do more things and get a better experience from the games and in high definition.  That's why he said Blu-Ray is important.

4.  Casino Royale
You're probably wondering...what does a James Bond movie have to do with the defense of the PS3?  Well, he stated that it's the first Blu-Ray movie to crack Amazon's DVD charts at number 7 and proving that high definition disc isn't some niche thing and it will take off with mainstream.  Also linking to these sites to show that Blu-Ray is the way to go:
http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/
http://www.hdgamedb.com/amazon/versus.aspx

5.  HDMI
Sony shipped the PS3 with composite cables.  In a few years, it would be a move that pays off due to HDTVs getting cheaper and more popular plus sophistication and knowledge of high def among consumers is growing.  Thus, HDMI becoming the standard.

6.  Standard HDD
The advantage of having a hard drive as quoted by him - "virtually unlimited save data, improved load times, custom music, downloadable content and user-created content just to name a few."  Microsoft left it out in their cheaper Xbox 360 package and leave developers a hard time on developing, especially considering the things mentioned beforehand.  With the PS3, you can put any third party hard drive in it and still get the necessary feature.

7.  (Go back to my first post in the topic.  I quoted the entire thing there).

8.  PS3 Has a Major CPU Advantage

The PS3 is a powerhouse and helping developers use it, even as far as having multiplatform games look better on the PS3.

9.  PS2 still outselling 360
The idea is that people who buy the PS2 will end up liking what the system offer and when they're ready to jump to the now-current generation, they'll want to get the PS3 due to the Sony franchises and broad library of games.

10.  Something for everyone.
Microsoft has too many M-rated games.  Nintendo has too many E-rated games.  Sony has something for everyone and has better justification to getting the system.  Microsoft may be building franchises, but Sony has better established and successful franchises.

Now that I summarize each points from that blog, this should be a better time to discuss it.  I haven't made heads or tails on all this just yet.  Most of you may already know about my thing with Nintendo and how they really haven't been impressing me, particularly with their games and how they do things, so that's why I need some time to make heads or tails on this.

[Yetika]

I quite agree in some respects. Right now there's still that post-launch hype about this generation of consoles (although the 360 has been around for longer now), and none of it has died down yet. It's always after everyone's settled down and seen past the initial wow factor that we really find out who's doing better. Granted, sometimes a loser or winner is obvious early on, but that isn't my point; after a while we will find out which console(s) will ultimately keep players hooked, and it'll generally be up to several factors to decide that (cost, specs, accessibility, game quality, hardware robustness, etc).

While I still doubt that the PS3 will ultimately do well this generation (especially with an underwhelming launch, but the 360 went through the same thing and now look how well it's doing), it's still possible.

May the best-balanced console win, I suppose.

[Phren]

I also worry about the Wii's performance after the innovation becomes stale... But I don;t think it'll just die.


9. The real issue is it's outselling the ps3. I like ps2. it's affordable and with an immense library of games, the idea that you'll buy 3 because you bought 2 is a streach..

10, Third party support? The games that sony realeses themselves (althought they have published some good ones) aren't the real appeal of most gamers. The one who wins the most 3rd party support usually wins the war. Nintendo is also really good at making its own games, but how can you say what will ultimatle find its way on to which system. 360 is becoming attractiv to people making tamer games because of the dim porgnosis on the ps3 and wii's innovative premise tends to discourage traditional games at the moment, so who's to say what wil be on what? A Wii Fatal Frame sounds awesome.

[Cless]

All I have to say is...

[Goshi]

For those curious on the sales

Nintendo DS 485,000
Wii 335,000
PlayStation 2 295,000
Xbox 360 228,000
PlayStation Portable 176,000
Game Boy Advance 136,000
PlayStation 3 127,000
GameCube 24,000
Xbox 480

http://www.tales-cless.or...site/duckhuntpredator.gif

That is like the best picture I've seen so far.

[StIoachim]

For those curious on the sales

I was going to ask about that

About the third party support, the 360 and the Wii have each a good point.
In the case of Nintendo the "upgraded GameCube" thing, it makes easier (and cheaper) to develop, or at least flattening the learning curve (also by shaving complexity, because of technical limitations), and on Microsoft's side, the offer probably the most complete and well documented development kit of the three, using solid and well proved technologies and APIs (Visual Studio is 10 years old, DirectX is even more) and helps if the game maker wants to port to PC, of course.


Unrelated and offtopic: Yay for Spell Cheching!!

[Cless Aileron]

I just thought I should bring this back up because I do have some things to say, especially after hearing a podcast from Insomniac discussing the blog plus the response from it and the stuff surrounding it has calm down.  So here comes the long stuff.

Now with my thoughts.  I'll have to start by saying that...*steps in front of a mirror to reveal a demon spirit* I'm going to have to play devil's advocate here for a bit.  I see what Hastings was getting with his Wii statement.  In the podcast, his thing about the Wii fad fading is that after those non-gamers buying it dies down, what's really going to be needed is to satisfy the gamers and the Wii is going to end up in competition with the PS3 and the Xbox 360.  In other words, it was in reference to the big hype surrounding it, not necessarily saying "the Wii is dead."  So I agree on the thing that non-gamers is not going to fuel the success, referring back to "Are those people into Wii Sports going to go out and get Wii Need for Speed?"  Not to mention, one can only play Wii Sports so much before it gets old.  I can also see how the motion sensing can lose its novelty.  I feel it myself in some cases (I don't know if using Gamefly to rent so many Wii games may have any affect to that, though).  Not to mention, it needs a healthy release of good games.

On another subject, I just want to say that I have played with a Playstation 3.  It's not that bad.  One of the games I played on the PS3 just happens to be Insomniac's most recent game, Resistance: Fall of Man, which is a pretty good game.  I even had some moments playing the game online and was very smooth.  I haven't got to really dig deep with all of its features, but I have to say it's not really that bad.

Now that I said that, I can do this...*swipes a Ghostbusters costume from the Narikiri closet (just don't ask how that got there) and captures the demon spirit around him in Ghostbusters fashion*.

Taking in what I mentioned already, do I have things to say in the opposite view of what I said to Sony and Nintendo?  Absolutely.

The Wii does have some games that show what the Wii can do.  Wario Ware: Smooth Moves showed creative use of motion sensing and Trauma Center shows that, "You can't do that game with traditional controls."  Even I have to admit aiming in Twilight Princess felt much better than using a stick to do it.  It just needs truly inventive use of the controller to really stand out.  Not to mention, the games (at least there's Super Paper Mario).

Now with Sony.  One problem is that Sony needs to get their butt back into gear.  Get some exclusive games to give some reasons to get the system.  This is why the PSP was not able to stay ahead of the DS.  Lack of game releases that would get people to the system.  Another thing is the obvious one.  The price.  It's so high and scaring people away.

I'm not able to say anything about the Xbox 360 since I never got to evaluate the thing deeply.  However, it certainly feels more appealing with what's there to offer.

With everything I just said, there's one thing I can also say.  It's too early to declare one the greatest.  I just feel that people are already calling Nintendo the winner, especially with the blown out of proportion hype of the Wii.  I know I've shown a history of criticizing Nintendo and I was trying to avoid overdoing it here but I did have to say something on it in regards to them.  With Sony, I just needed to say that the PS3 isn't bad but they really need to get their butts into gear. 

That's pretty much what I have to say on the matter.

[Magicpaint]

There's just no backbone to his some of his points and nothing that indicates some of them. The Wii fad will die? Why? The only precedence we have is the DS' (which shares the same philosophy as the Wii) and that's still selling out everywhere. The console wars tends to have a snowball effect... once the leaders gets rolling, there's no stopping them. Nobody is going to wait for Sony to get their acts together, they'll simply be left in the dust if they don't drive forward momentum for their console.

I'm not surprised of course than an Insomniac executive who makes games for only the PS3 is placing his bets on THAT system. Of course he will, the sales indicate otherwise however and that's what matters.