EDITORIAL: Microsoft has “Wii Dreams?”
- Scribbled on June 15th, 2008 by Jonathon Howard
- Filed in Editorial Content, Industry News, Microsoft Xbox 360, WTF, Xbox Live Marketplace
Hmmm… that’s a suspicious image there isn’t it? What the hell is an avatar? It sounds a lot like something I could make on Microsoft’s competitor’s product. So what’s it doing here on my Xbox?
Apparently Nintendo’s success with the Wii has the folks over at Microsoft squirming in their gold plated panties… I wonder if Bill takes it as a personal insult when some other than him is literally rolling around in piles of money? Anyway, it seems Microsoft’s answer to Nintendo’s highly original product is to blatantly rip it off, without bothering to consult their core audience (Halo Players). I could be wrong but I don’t see that many casual gamers on Xbox Live. I know that people play those puzzle games and such on Live Arcade, but that’s between matches, down time, or its our girl/boy friend who doesn’t “game” except for casually. Or, perhaps Microsoft is trying to out-home Sony’s PlayStation 3 home service (a service that they’ve yet to deliver and is similar in ways to Second Life)? If I wanted a Mii, I’d buy a Wii and if I want a virtual apartment and such I’d buy a PS3 (or save myself a lot of money and download Second Life for free!) I didn’t want those, I wanted FPS’ with robust on-line multi-player gaming, so I bought a Xbox 360.
I don’t know. What I do know is that I didn’t get an Xbox 360 to play with virtual paper dolls. If I wanted a paper doll, I sure as hell wouldn’t pay $400 for it either. I’d go down to the toy store and buy one for $5. I’m not looking for a fake place to hang out with my friends on-line, If you are, then I have several questions I’d like to ask you about your social life and idea of fun. I think the days of one do-it-all box on our TV sets is 15 years out-of-date, gaming is becoming more and more diverse, for a company to try and fill all the niches is a company destined to much a bunch of mediocre products.
In general, I’ve had serious reservations about this on-line life thing for several months now, and I don’t think Second Life is what’s next. Second Life is 5 years old and still hasn’t shown how it’ll revolutionize gaming or interacting socially in a new way over the Internet. This is the same revolution that the Media has been touting since 1996! It didn’t happen then, it didn’t in 2003 and it isn’t going to happen in 2008. I just hope after Microsoft and Sony have sunk all this money into their empty, unused virtual worlds they have some left to develop a game I might actually want to play.
Well my rants over, your thoughts?
June 16th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Jonathon,
A couple of things…first it is highly rumored that the price of the Xbox will be dropping in the next few months. So the $400 entry price you referenced may not be valid when/if this feature hits. Their are rumors that the core package will be inline with price of the Wii.
Second, not sure how this functionality precludes or discriminates against what you call the Xbox’s core audience (Halo players). You can have both.
Third, yes this is a blatant rip-off if it is true. But who cares? Tech companies are always ripping each other off. It’s the nature of technology and science. Issac Newton said, and I paraphrase, “I can only see so far because I stand on the shoulders of giants.” So, if MS drops this functionality on us, I hope they do what they can to improve on the original design. If they don’t, so what? Yes I would have preferred they spend their dev dollars elswhere, but at the end of the day it is not going to make me sell my Xbox.
Just my $.02
June 16th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
The core package doesn’t have a hard drive I don’t know where else Microsoft would store this avatar world their developing… So that’s out. Also they charge for Xbox Live Silver and Gold… I don’t see how a casual gamer is going to pick an 360 over the Wii knowing that…
Of course you can have both, the trick is being good at both and that’s were I’m having trouble. Nintendo is cleaning up in casual gaming, but they’re having a hard time getting “hardcore” gamers to care about their product. Microsoft has that and wants a piece of the casual pie… I worry that Microsoft is sinking capital into something that isn’t going to grow their audience… Capital that could be used to deliver software to the audience they already have.
I never implied that anyone should sell their 360’s. I simply stated I think this pursuit of casual gaming and/or virtual worlds is not going to help Microsoft gain market share one bit, but it may in-fact alienate it’s cusotmer base, it will certainly make it feel unimportant or neglected…