Round Up - Wii is casual but wins big, Ps3 gets universal criticism

October 29, 2007 |

Round Up - Wii is casual but wins big, Ps3 gets universal criticism

By Dave Parrack

Round Up - Wii is casual but wins big, Ps3 gets universal criticism It’s been quite a week in the games industry, with company profits being posted, the Wii slaughtering all at the Game Baftas, and Sony and the PS3 coming in for even more criticism than normal. Let’s take a look back…

One of the big guys at Konami claimed that “The Wii user isn’t a hardcore user” and upset millions of fans at a stroke. The story opened up a whole surge of Hardcore Vs Casual gamer debates. I’d just like to say right here, right now, get over it, none of it matters, games are games, they’re meant to be fun, so just enjoy them. Stop the bitching.

EA claimed that the success of the Wii surprised developers, including them. It’s true that both the DS and Wii went from laughing stocks to huge success stories overnight, and I’m glad it shocked such a big name publisher. maybe in the future, they’ll stop assuming which consoles are going to hit big, and start sharing their games out more fairly over all of the formats.

At the annual British Academy Video Games Awards, the Wii, and particularly Wii Sports, beat off all comers to walk away with 6 of the 13 prizes on offer. But the big news, at least for me, was the fact that the PS2 won 4 awards compared to 2 for the PS3. Sony bosses take note, we aren’t ready to move on yet, the PS2 is still king.

Even more bad news for Sony, or at least their games division, came on Wednesday when profits for Sony Computer Entertainment, the games subsidiary of Sony announced losses of $841 million. That means the PS3 has directly lead to losses for the company of over $1 billion. How long until Sony call it a day on the PS3 experiment?

Just to end the week off nicely, the PS3 came in for even more of a roasting, and this time it was from someone who has had close contact and experience of working with the machine. Ex Harmonix employee Jason Booth roundly ripped in to the console on his personal blog claiming it was much harder to develop for than the Xbox 360. Of course, the fanboys came out in force, but it’s hard to doubt the words from someone who knows what it’s like to attempt to make a game on both consoles.

For all the latest news on the gaming industry, and the continuing battle for console supremacy, keep your browsers pointed at GAMER.BLORGE.com.