How the heck s the Wiimote a gimmick if certain devs like HVS,Ubi Montrealand Prope were able to take full advantage of the controller's motion capabiliies. It's a gimmick in the sense thatdevs just tacked Wiimote capabilities into anything thry created without utilizing the controller.
super600
All you just told me is that certain developers made the best out of the tools that were provided to them. Nintendo was not trying to be jesus and ressurect the industry, or revolutionize gaming, or any of that PR talk. They made the Wii because they lost money on the gamecube after getting a mighty fine pimp hand from the PS2 and Xbox last gen, and they wanted to focus on profit this gen. So nintendo higher ups sat down and thought of a way to essentially take a gamecube, repackage it as something else, and sell it for a higher price tag, while manufacturing costs stay roughly the same. Developers have gone on record saying that the Wii is basically 2 gamecubes taped together. But how would they accomplish a task like this? How would they convince people to buy a console with such cheap hardware without wondering why? Well, they came up with a gimick to set it apart from everything else.
The Wiimote was their way to get people to pay next gen prices for last gen hardware, while keeping manufacturing costs dirt cheap, and keeping a high profit margin right out the gate. That way it was pure profit for them. They needed a new revenue stream, and the Wii was a godsend to them.
As far as Kinect and PSmove, those are Microsoft and Sony realizing what nintendo was doing and simply capitalizing. Kinect and Move are not trying to revolutionize anything either, they exist because Microsoft and Sony wanted a new revenue stream as well.
Another close example I can come up with is Sony with the PSPgo. This is also why I laugh at people who bash the PSPgo and call it a failure. They just dont get it. The PSPgo was not meant to kill the ipod touch, or break sales records or anything. The PSPgo was a method for sony to create another revenue stream. They basically took the PSP which was selling for $160 at the time, cut the manufacturing costs roughtly in half (made up figure for the sake of arguement), yet at the same time adding $90 dollars to the price. So lets recap. They released a STRIPPED DOWN system that cost them ALOT less to make, yet it had a $90 higher pricetag. How would they ever convince people to buy this? Well, they tacked on the gimick of the games being download only. The only difference between the Wii and the PSPgo is that Nintendo was more serious about it than Sony was.
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