EA: Motion control is not a thread to the industry
July 17th, 2009 Posted in News, Posted by Valay, Wii“I think they’re really interesting. What Nintendo have done is shown a fabulous interface for a mass market population. The appetite for video games has grown significantly because you don’t have to button mash. It makes the whole thing much more accessible. You’ve only got to watch who doesn’t play games as a hobby, who plays games casually, their ability to get straight into a game on the Wii is far greater than when they have to press buttons. It seems a logical step for Microsoft and Sony to have motion sensors or visual sensors to enable that interface with the games. It’s fantastic. It will work particularly well on some genres, maybe not so well on others, but overall I think it’s going to be a great benefit to the industry. Nintendo have shown just how it can be exploited. People look back too much instead of looking forward. What these devices and mechanics bring, a lot of stuff we haven’t even figured out yet. We’re going to be doing that over the next few years. The opportunities are much greater by having numerous interfaces between the player and the content. Your opportunities become so much greater. Is there a threat to the industry? No, not in any way, shape or form. Complete the opposite. This allows us to go into an area of entertainment that isn’t thought of… while there remains an audience for certain traditional types of core games, and it’s a financially viable audience, companies are still going to make those games. Of course they are.” – EA UK boss Keith Ramsdale
I remember that when I first heard of the Wii controller’s functionality, I was very skeptical and even a bit disheartened that it would be motion-focused, mainly because it was completely different than anything we had seen before. However, I am now completely on board with the Wiimote. It actually grew on me very, very quickly. Motion control can really add something new to games, and as we have seen with Wii MotionPlus, games can feel much more realistic. So, at this point, I would have to say that motion control is not a threat to the industry at all.
2 Responses to “EA: Motion control is not a thread to the industry”
By PsiWren on Jul 17, 2009
I don’t have any Xbox or Playstation and am not likely to get one anytime soon ’cause:
1) don’t care for button-mashing
2) frankly, they don’t cater to the kind of games I like
For me, the Wii is okay. But, it (and I suppose the new up-and-coming MS and Sony game systems) are merely the closest option on the way to what I really want but most likely will never see in my lifetime. A Star Trek-style Holodeck.
By Ponkotsu on Jul 18, 2009
The Wii and DS are simply the first steps forward in the natural progression of the medium and industry toward something so much more than what we could have dreamed of before, after decades of gameplay input and overall experiences that amounted to little more than using a dpad or analog stick and buttons to interact. I took a gamble in betting on both the Wii and DS with my money when they came out, and I don’t regret it. I still haven’t invested in any of the other platforms this generation (Planning on a 360 eventually and possibly a PSP for some of its cheaper stuff), and at this point, I think that even if I only had the Wii and DS this generation, I’d be completely satisfied.
The only things threatening the industry are the dangerously conservative leanings some third parties still have, as well as the Sony and Microsoft moneyhatting they’re doing for exclusives to “persuade” a number of companies to avoid putting serious efforts on the Wii. That’s just downright corrupt, and poor business sense on any third party’s part who takes money for support for these other unsustainable consoles.
Given their track record with peripherals and their more conservative userbases that don’t have a track record of buying peripherals outside of expensive plastic guitars (Which themselves, are basically just differently shaped controllers to push buttons on) I don’t expect Natal or Sony’s wands to amount to anything game or market changing – something more along the lines of what’s happened with the EyeToy and PSEye largely sitting on store shelves and lacking compelling software. Frankly, I’m expecting to see more things done with content generation through things like the Vitality Sensor than the others’ motion control systems.
But anyway, I’m wandering all over the place with this comment. I’m with PsiWren. A Star Trek style Holodeck or VR band world a la Caprica would be amazing, as much as I’m never expecting to live to see anything like those myself. In the least, the gaming industry and medium have picked up momentum in a new, positive, and incredibly important direction after decades of the same basic input and approaches to gameplay coupled with ever-ramped-up focus on graphics over actual gameplay design and the soaring costs accompanying that, which have ultimately become a pivotal weakness in the high def systems – as a number of recent news stories have shown – in the systems just not being profitable, with even major titles struggling to break even.
Sony and Microsoft don’t know how to do good, sustainable business in the industry, and they’ve pulled a lot of third parties down with them that need to redouble their efforts on the Wii, where they can return to sustainable profitability.