Académie des Hardceaux-Game

Amanda, a rare forum user who supports Wii, recently wrote the following in an attempt to calm an angry mob of Wii Fit haters,

"Besides, your hand-eye coordination might be fine tuned, but how's your sense of balance? Your foot-eye coordination? It's a new kind of video game people, open your minds for like five minutes and try it out (I know you know someone who has one) you might like it. It won't mean that you've betrayed your apple - it'll just mean you tried an orange." - Amanda

While it's clear logic and a good plea, the problem is that she's trying to reason with a group of people who drink Mountain Dew, wear headsets and repeat the word "OWNED!" to total strangers until 4 AM, and who believe "maturity" is a game that features blood and fire grenades.

They will never play a single balance game, or attempt to put their balance up to any real test of skill. Their friend at Gamestop would abandon them if they tried.

Now if Nintendo added an animation where the Mii's head exploded if you fell off the balance board, and a gruff voice yelled, "BOOM TOTAL BALANCE DETONATION!!!" and guts flew at you instead of soccer balls, then they'd consider it a "real" game, but that's the only way.

Hardcore gamers have a superiority complex, and believe that their opinion dictates what is a "game", and what is a "non-game". Real games should be celebrated, non-games should be mocked.

It reminds me of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, who shunned Manet and all Impressionism because it was different, the brush strokes were visible and it seemed to completely ignore line, therefore they called it "non-art". 

Today we have fundamentalist gamers, shunning convention-busting games like Wii Music and Wii Fit, calling them "non-games" and lamenting their success over a traditional FPS.

I remember this same sort of complaining in the early 90's, when people were lamenting the success of FPS games, since they were bringing "casual" action gamers to PC, which was traditionally dominated by slower paced simulator and strategy games. 20 years from now, I wouldn't be surprised to see a new generation of gamer shun a new genre, while clinging to traditional balance games.

February NPD

PlayStation 2 131K
PlayStation 3 276K
PSP 199K
Xbox 360 391K
Wii 753K
Nintendo DS 588K

Wii Fit w/ Balance Board NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 644K
Street Fighter IV* CAPCOM USA 360 446K
Street Fighter IV* CAPCOM USA PS3 403K
Wii Play w/ Remote NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 386K
Killzone 2 SONY PS3 323K
Wii Mario Kart with wheel NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 263K
Call of Duty: World at War* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD 360 193K
Mario Kart DS NINTENDO OF AMERICA NDS 145K
New Super Mario Bros NINTENDO OF AMERICA NDS 144K
Guitar HeroWorld Tour* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD WII 136K


Every single month, Wii and DS sell more consoles than they had the previous year. This is usually true of 360 as well.

For one console, this isn't the case. For one console, the good times - which were pretty dismal to begin with - have come to an end. PS3 peaked in the summer of '08, since then, Sony has been selling fewer of it's "better than real" "4D" "Cell powered" black behemoth year over year. Will February make it a 4th month straight of sinking year over year sales? Some hope that the Killzone 2 hype will help, and today we will learn the truth.

Sony apologists point to the economy as an explanation for the PS3's past months, but they're forgetting something: the video game industry is booming. Sales are up as a whole, as they have been every month this generation. More people are playing games, more games and consoles are being sold, more game companies are hiring right now than at any point in history.

Let me repeat that: The game industry is making more right now that at any point in the Earth's history.

And yet, Sony (and developers supporting Sony) are failing. Yesterday, for the first time in company history, Sony put a freeze on all employee wages.
http://kotaku.com/5174363/sony-freezing-cutting-employee-wages
This is at a time when the industry as a whole looks to set record sales again this month.

What accounts for PS3's failure? Is it because they marketed the console as a graphic powerhouse, while it's unable to run many titles in HD (including big titles SFIV, RE5, GTA IV) , while the cheapest console this gen outperforms it graphically in nearly every multiplatform game?
http://misterslimm.wordpress.com/360-vs-ps3/xbox-360-vs-ps3-head-to-head-face-off-results/
That would certainly send a mixed signal to consumers.

Of course, I have my own opinion on why Sony is struggling, but I'll leave that for another article. Today is all about sales.

What? What is that I hear? You in the back - speak up!
"who cares about sales, Fryfat!"
Ah , the one question asked in every NPD thread since it became obvious PS3 wasn't going to repeat its predecessors.

Today we'll find out who cares about sales. As you might expect, just a bunch of boring suits from Bloomberg, who wrote this earlier in the week:
"Sony Corp. is under pressure from video-game publishers to cut the price of the PlayStation 3 console or risk seeing more development funds shift to Nintendo Co.'s Wii."
"If they can't meaningfully increase their install base, then you will likely see a capital reallocation"
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aLi3FF13LuVI

I hope that answers your question. Now when you hear news that EA is shifting out their unprofitable PS3 development to profitable, exciting Wii projects,
http://wii.ign.com/dor/articles/963279/peter-moore-interview/videos/moore_inv_p2_nintendo_031609.html
or that Valve is abandoning PS3 projects, or that Mass Effect 2 won't appear on PS3, it should now make sense.

Hardcore gamers doing what they do best: CRYING

Wii Fit outsells Halo 3, hardcore gamers respond with tears.

Nothing is funnier than watching hardcore gamers cry. Before Wii was released, they cried about the lack of creativity in the industry, they were angry that video games weren't accepted by normal people, and they constantly complained about generic clones and sequels.

They got what they've been begging for: innovation, new genres, and mass acceptance. Wii Fit, a new IP that has begun a brand new genre, has topped the sales an old, tired generic FPS clone. And look how they cry!

There are some real gems in this thread. I'll post my favorites.

http://kotaku.com/5177033/wii-fit-officially-topples-halo-3-in-sales

-----------------

Komrade Kayce: Hero of Soviet Kotaku

3:18 PM

From hells heart, Wii Fit, I stab at thee!

TheHeartless

3:47 PM

Well, I just want to die.

ncprime

4:18 PM

Depressing news.

ViperFTS

4:50 PM

Such is the state of the industry that a balance board, bought and forgotten in so short a time, outsells a triple A title. The wii fad seems to have taken on a life of it's own, able to sustain itself on three year old hype in spite of the well known limitations of the system and lack of quality support. As much as that accursed machine has done to expand the gaming audience, it has mutated and deformed it. Worst of all, it has hurt the quality of games and the expectations of the investors, publishers, and game designers of the 'consumer'. So few seem to be willing to take any risks on a quality title, instead opting to appeal to the fickle casual crowd in the ever deepening abyss that is the pursuit of shamelessly excessive wealth.

pearce

4:10 PM


Why are Americans and Japs so STUPID! btw. Oh Canada!

PoltergeistXIII

3:30 PM


Sad day for gamers across the U.S....Halo 3 lives on in my heart.

mr-crowley

3:57 PM

@bfwings55: calling wii fit a game is very generous.

Archaotic

3:22 PM

If there were any clue that Microsoft and Sony need to team up to fight Nintendo, it should be this one.

hyewarrior

3:22 PM

Dear God... What has the world come to?

Wibnar

3:22 PM
I really don't understand the mass appeal of this crap its like Pokemon for middle aged people. Hopefully the craze dies like it did with Pokemon.

------------------------

I hope you all enjoyed that half as much as I did! Hardcore gamers: the world's most paranoid hypocrites.

More PS3 Woes

Hardcore gamers can't catch a break.  Things are looking grim for the hardcore holy grail, the PS3.  Resident Evil 5, a series born on the Playstation, a series that has Playstation written all over it, can't keep up with its 360 brother.  Ouch!

To kick a dead horse, someone wrote an article about the 10 reasons PS3 is failing. Those are all valid issues of course, a $500 PS3 can't run a game better than a $200 360 - that disrupts Sony's entire marketing strategy of being the superior system.  But so what?  If Sony addressed every single issue in that article, they'd still be in 3rd, or 2nd at best.

The real reason PS3 is failing is the same reason 360 is failing, they're "hardcore" and therefore doomed from the start.  They're designed from the ground up to appeal to teen boys, a strategy that might be good for a game, but not good for an entire system.  The market is larger than that, and has been larger than that for quite some time.  Only Nintendo listened.

Maddox Tries to Copy Fryfat

Over on the amazon forums (the official forums of this site) people are already comparing me to Maddox.  Sorry to dissapoint you, Manly Justin, but I'm not even a Maddox fan.  I don't enjoy his writing nor his humor. If anything, Maddox seems to be a fan of me. Here are a couple choice quotes from his latest interview,

Maddox: The Wii is the best thing to happen to gaming since the original NES. And if you don't like the Wii, then this is really going to piss you off: Nintendo has single-handedly saved the video game industry. No other company is bothering to move gaming forward like Nintendo is. There are only a handful of genres in gaming, and clearly Sony and Microsoft don't give a shit about any of them except for sports and FPS. I'm so sick and tired of sports and FPS games, and if it were up to Microsoft & Sony, they'd keep milking these tired genres dry and run the entire industry into the ground. I mean, I get it that the industry goes through trends and a few years ago it was RPGs, 2D fighters, shooters, platformers, etc. But this FPS craze has been going on basically since Quake came out on PC. On the Wii, we not only see a representation of every genre of gaming, but we see new genres that didn't exist before the Wii came along (surgery, cooking, balance, etc).

...

I'm really fucking tired of people who play Xbox 360 and PS3 calling themselves "hardcore gamers." Look at the list of top 10 games on 360 up above. See anything in common? Those are the games that most people play on 360, and with the exception of Braid, they also happen to be the most popular, most heavily marketed, and most consumer-oriented games in the industry. It'd be like someone eating a meal at McDonalds and saying "I'm a foodie!" No, you're not. If you're into movies, you don't go out and see Jurassic Park and call it a day. You try to see movies that try new and interesting things. The types of movies that only someone who has watched thousands of movies could appreciate for doing something unique.

Similarly, if you're a hardcore gamer, you should be looking for new gaming experiences. You shouldn't be satisfied playing the same old mass market games. Not that these games are bad, but they're not for "hardcore" gamers any more than McDonalds is for hardcore foodies. If you're a hardcore gamer, go out and play Katamari Damacy, track down an old copy of Radiant Silvergun on Saturn, or play an indie game like World of Goo. These are the experiences that move gaming forward. Not blockbuster sequels like Halo 3. 

As I said, I don't usually agree with Maddox, but this is a big exception.    You can read the full interview here.  

A PS3 Fanboy's Ideal World of Smart, Informed Consumers

One of the funniest things I read on gaming forums is that "people are stupid!!!" and that "Wii sells because people are stupid enough to fall for its clever marketing!!!"

To better understand what would lead someone to this conclusion, I tried to put myself into a hardcore gamer's mind. I knew it worked when I began to drool and have an interest in anime, so I imagined a world where PS3 was the #1 seller.  Here's how it looked:

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hey Grandpa, even though you're not as athletic as you used to be, you can still have fun, so we bought your retirement home "Heavenly Sword"!! Enjoy

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Happy birthday Tim! We got you a new toy to play at your birthday party tonight, a PS3 with "Killzone 2"!!! You can play while all of your guests watch.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

That was a great Thanksgiving dinner, and Martha the turkey was perfect! Now let's all go to the family room and watch someone play "Metal Gear Solid 4"

Party on, Babies!

I don't judge games by their cover, I play them and then make up my mind. Hardcore gamers are the opposite - they laugh at a game like "Party Babyz", even though they would never be caught dead playing it, or anything like it. I don't see how they call themselves gamers with such superficial prejudices. It's an excellent game my friends and I have played all week. I'd prefer it over another ho-hum blood and guts shooter any day.

Hardcore gamers are not only stupid enough to buy a mediocre game because it has "mature" subject matter, they'll turn down a great game because they're worried it makes them look like a kid.

Dear hardcore gamers,
If you spend your free time playing video games, nobody will *ever* confuse you for a mature adult. Ever. No matter how much blood is on the cover, or how many alien brains you explode with fire grenades, they'll still think you're immature. Get over yourselves.

Mourning the PS3

(source: NPD shows that PS3 sales are down year over year since October '08)

PS3 sold relatively well in the summer of '08. Not good enough to justify releasing the thing, far from a profit, but the bulky old box was doing better than any other time in its life. It had just received its first highly rated exclusive, blu-ray returned from the format war victorious, and the triple was even gaining about 50k sales a month on its old nemesis, the 360!

Then something happened. Was it 360's price drop? The economy? Multiplatform gaming woes? We're not sure. But we do know that the newest member of the Playstation family has been dropping deeper into last place ever since that summer. The sunny days with the #4's, GTA, DMC, CoD and MGS, came to an end.

Sony wants us to look at the year as a whole and ignore that frightening trend line, which points downwards into their worst holiday season in memory. Perhaps if we don't look, if we pretend this didn't happen, we won't recognize the sad truth that in the summer of '08, before it turned 2 years old, PS3 peaked. It barely got to stretch its little wings.

Sony Playstation the III
2006 - 2008

Rest in Peace