The Winning Next-Gen Console Is The Most Diverse?

Gamasutra's latest 'Analyze This' column has game industry analysts commenting on the rise of casual games, asking whether simpler games that take less time to play may be vital to game industry growth. David Cole of DFC Intelligence disagrees that any one genre or game type is vital, suggesting: 'A key for the industry is being able to diversify.... For the N64 and GameCube, Nintendo focused primarily on its big franchises and didn't have the same level of diversity. The platform that did was the Sony PS2. Which platform could work as a karaoke machine, allowed you to put yourself in the game, had all kinds of trivia products? The reason the PSOne and PS2 sold [so well] was diversity.' Is this the key to working out who wins in next-gen?"

With that in mind is Diversity the reason that the DS is selling so many worldwide and the reason why the Wii with its different controllers will revolutionize the console world. Got a comment then lets have it :)

Nintendo seems more creative with it's systems. The DS has it's touch screen which sadly not many 3rd party developers take advantage of (much like the DC's VMU unit). However Nintendo's in house titles do. Then there is a Wii it has a funky controller which seems very innovative and creative. I can't wait to see how Nintendo uses it with their in house games. Sony and Microsoft just seem to be going with the more power equals better route and pushing their new media formats then actually bringing anything truly creative or innovative to the table.

Imagination and Creativity should be kickin into full effect. Its almost like we have two categories. Traditional Games, and Wii games (Or I guess one could say, Nintendo Games). Changing the way we play, is going to open up a whole new level of immersion in games, and this is just the first step. Its going to be interesting to see where developers go with these new tools and bring about the new ways to play. The Wii demo for Zelda where you pull back and here the bow tighten in the controller, is just increadible. Its small things like this that contribute to a much bigger picture overall. Especially with how much more intuitive they try to make it as well.

Now when the Wii controls meet 360 gfx... Consider the revolution started :P

Yeah i'm getting a Wii. I don't mind GC graphics at all. It's the new games I'll be wanting.

Hello:

Competition here is not decided ONLY on diversity. We could recall video gaming history when Atari ruled the console wars at the very beginning. The reasons were: Many arcade ports; fun and simple games to play; Many, many titles available.

When the NES ruled the console wars during the 80's, were by similar reasons Atari was the king in the 70's. Games are intended to be fun. Simple games like Tetris meet this criteria and you can still play it today without getting bored. That's important even today.

Another factor is variety. Many games for many tastes. Next-Gen consoles produces very awesome graphical and auditive experience. Having fun games and many games available to choose increase the chances of more sales on both hardware and software.

If these factors decide the console wars, Xbox360 will win. One year advantage, many simple and fun games available via Xbox Live and many titles to choose from. On the handheld, well, that's another story. DS and PSP are changing their marketing stratergies to really make a proper decision by the stated criteria.

yeah, im pullin for xbox to. It's the lesser of two evils. The much underpowered wii or the super expensive ps3.

nintendos problem is with there home console third party support. so the range of titles will be poor.
the lesser hardware specs however may mean it is much easiier to create games for the Wii than the next gen PS3 and the Xbox 1.5 (couldnt resist)
of course the abilities of the Wii will have an adverse effect in ease of use for devs and may end the same situation as the gamecubes third party lineup...

Price is the only real reason why the DS is competing with the PSP. This has happened before, I've seen it time and time in the last 20 years since I bought my first Gameboy.

#1. Cheap games
#2. Cheap system
#3. Longer battery life
#4. Smaller system
= Gameboy wins

The Gamegear was better then the GameBoy, but it lost. The Lynx was *WAY* ahead of it's time, and it lost. TurboExpress was released in 1990, and remained the Most POWERFUL handheld gaming system until the introduction of the Gameboy Advanced in 2001! 11 YEARS ahead of it's time! It failed to reach most of the market as well.

You know what they all had in common?

#1. EXPENSIVE System
#2. Costly Games
#3. Large Size
#4. Poor battery life

The DS itself isn't much better then the PSP, but at least it has the GBA games to fall back on, and that's what's helping to keep the system afloat well people wait for decent DS games to come out.

The PSP on the other hand doesn't have any other games, other then PSP games, to fall back on.....

Unless you count Homebrew games! Sony is TOTALLY BLOWING what could be the PSP's true saving grace by constantly working against the existence of Homebrew games. Homebrew has been the only thing keeping up my interest in my PSP during the long periods between major game releases. Heck, I PLAY GBA games on my PSP well waiting for new PSP games to come out!

lol if i didnt have homebrew my psp would be collecting dust somehwere while i wait for a new game to come out cause, depending on the game once i beat it that is pretty much it even if i only beat it on easy i usually try harder difficulty but doing the samething again isnt that interesting to me. i played gta for a long time after i beat it cause they kept releasing the cheat device and i could play gta for hours with the cheat device. i cant wait for vcs to come out but atleast it isnt too long between releases cause 1 year isnt too bad.
i really liked need for speed most wanted but i never bought it my brother did, i rented it for ps2 and never played the psp one much after that cause i ended up beating the psp version not long after on a trip to texas i live in wi so it was like an 18 hour drive. my cheap ass dad never wants to fly anywhere.
homeberw is the gratest part of the psp. not only cause it lets me do a lot of stuff i wouldnt have done if i would hvae just upgraded it. i use it for music(pspradio), nes, snes, gb, gbc, gba, n64, internet(2.71(devhook)), a pc controller(wifi controller v0.2), and ther is something im forgeting.


i think im gonna get a wii just cause it wont be $500-600 and it is allot more creative. i hope they bring super smash bro. melee back. and i wish they would bring back mario 64 cause that is the greatest game. i also liked mario party it didnt really matter what version it was always fun. also mario kart. if they release those games at launch then i might have to get it at launch, but otherwise i might consider a ps3 cause the graphics on that are phenominal. i would definatly have to buy a hd tv if i got a ps3 but then i would have to save a ton of money cause if it is 600 for the system and cause i will be in college in a dorm i need a lcd it is 600 more for a tv and games r gonna probly be atleast 75 and a few controllers to play with my friends atleast 30-40 each that is like 180-240 cause it supports controllers and it comes with 1. and i think it comes with a built in hard drive so i dont need memory cards. the ps3 is just way to much 1455-1515 i have that now but not during college. although im not going to college till next yeah no this fall but next fall. but i would rather have a laptop when i go to college. then i can wait and check up on the homberew seen and make sure i buy a compadibly homebrew system, if they are like a psp. i got my psp right away and upgraded to 2.0 for gta but then they came out wiht a downgrader adn i havnt been back to 2.0 since and now i just use devhook to play gta. it sucks that sony is trying to sue booster cuase his program had a reboot.bin file in it. i hope that he can come up witha devhook that will lets us use 2.80 sometime before 2.8 games come out casue sony might go out of their way to make companies make their games require 2.8 but we can just try some of them with devhook leting it try to load it and some will work and some wont i just hope i can play gtavcs with devhook cause i wont buy it if i have to upgrade.

wii is the cheapest so it will do better