Console War V Part 4 September 4, 2013

Before I begin to talk about how the motion control revolution altered the landscape in the Console War, I want to briefly chronicle a sad footnote which happened to take place during the time before Sony and Microsoft launched their motion-control systems.  In 2010, Microsoft made the unfortunate decision that in order for the Xbox 360 to be expanded to its fullest potential, Xbox Live’s connection to the original Xbox would need to be severed.  That would mean that any Xbox player who had not been playing Xbox Live on the Xbox 360 would no longer be able to download content, updates or play multiplayer matches on any original Xbox game, and Xbox 360 players would no longer be able to play original Xbox games online, even if they were backwards compatible.  Any Xbox Live user who hadn’t upgraded to the 360 would have their service terminated and would no longer be charged for it.  Microsoft said the decision to shut off Xbox Live access to original Xbox games would allow them to bring in new features for the Xbox Live service they otherwise could not.

Microsoft discontinued the service just in time for the Halo Reach beta test, but a stubborn group of about 18 players refused to log off the system for days hoping Microsoft would change their decision.  Microsoft stood by what they were doing and would not change their minds.  Just as promised, Microsoft discontinued Halo 2’s multiplayer as well as the multiplayer for every other original Xbox game, however they did not sever access to anyone who had already been logged in.  The players who refused to log off Halo 2 were offered Halo Reach beta access as an incentive to stop playing but their protest would continue for days before they eventually logged off.

I remembered Microsoft talking a long time ago about the reason why they had to cap the Xbox Live friends list at 100 users.  It was because Halo 2’s menu system prevented showing more than 100 friends.  Theoretically, by discontinuing the online component to original Xbox users, more features could be possible on the Xbox 360, like an expanded friends list.  To this day, I can’t think of any new feature that Microsoft has added to the 360 since Xbox Live was discontinued on the original Xbox that necessitated that service being shut down.  In fact, to this day the Xbox 360’s friends list is still capped at 100 users.

Time ticked on and Holiday 2010 would become the new battleground for motion control in a way that the gaming press had never seen before.  Project Natal would launch with a new name, the Kinect, and while the original Milo demo would never see a release, the Kinect saw a heavy installation base quickly.  The price tag for a new Kinect would be $149 US, or Kinects bundled with a brand new Xbox 360 for just a $100 US premium over a non-Kinect bundled model.  While the system’s games would have a varied amount of criticism, there were a few hits including Dance Central and Kinect Sports.  In fact, players really liked the Kinect’s free pack-in game, Kinect Adventures.

The Playstation Move launched in a pretty aggressively priced bundle in comparison to Microsoft’s Kinect, but unlike the Kinect which was one solid price by itself or a discounted price when bundled with a new Xbox 360, the Move needed a lot more than just what was in a Move starter pack to take full advantage of the control system.  The Move’s special Navigation Controller, which worked similar to a Wiimote’s Nunchuck was not included with the Move bundle, and players would need to pay $25 US separately to buy one, or be forced to use one of their Dual Shock 3 controllers for a very uncomfortable experience.  Players would also need to have a Move controller and Navigation controller for every player in a Move-compatible game, and a Move wand alone cost about as much as a Dual Shock 3 controller did.

Sony bundled the game Sports Champions with all of the Move Starter packs, hoping that it would be the Move’s killer app at launch, but what Sony didn’t realize was that most PS3 gamers already had what I consider was the Move’s killer app at launch, Quantic Dream’s PS3-exclusive hit Heavy Rain.  Heavy Rain received a hefty free patch some time before the release of the Move, which added full Move support to the game.  Quantic Dream had really done their homework, as they were able to make the Move’s control scheme work seamlessly with the already existing game.  I had played Heavy Rain with just a Dual Shock 3 at the game’s launch, but playing it again with a Move controller felt like I was playing it for the first time all over again.

Over the next two years, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo would continue to fight it out amongst each other for console supremacy.  Microsoft would eventually release several major system updates to improve the interface of the Xbox 360’s dashboard for Kinect users.  After sales of the initial release of Kinect-exclusive games were a little underwhelming, Microsoft started to release 360 games with some form of Kinect support, so players could have several Kinect features in otherwise controller based games, and it is my opinion that is where the Kinect really started to do its best work.  Sony’s Playstation Move did not get the installation base Sony had hoped for, and because of that games that supported it were few and far between.  The game that was supposed to be the Move’s killer app, Sorcery, was released at a reduced price and could not gain the critical or financial success the Move needed to improve its sales.  Nintendo would continue to release new games from their classic properties in order to push the Wii to its absolute limits.  While games like The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which took full advantage of the Wii’s MotionPlus feature, would be a critical and commercial hit for Nintendo, many players believed the game would have looked and played so much better if the Wii could display in high-definition.

As time continued to tick by the Playstation 3 continued to gain more traction on the Xbox 360, and the Xbox 360 continued to gain on the Wii.  However, Nintendo’s early lead was just too great for either the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3 to overcome.  By 2011, Nintendo had decided that it was time for the Wii to be replaced with an all new HD game console, and with the announcement of the Wii U, the latest console war began to wind down.  Sony and Microsoft were not deterred by the Wii U’s announcement and continued to pour support into their current consoles while Nintendo ramped up support for the Wii’s follow-up.  Shortly after the release of the Wii U, Sony and Microsoft announced their newest consoles, and with those announcements this console war has come to an end.  As we close the book on this console war, the Nintendo Wii would come out with the gold medal, and the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 would share the silver medal.  For the next console war, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft would be fighting it out once more, but that’s a story that is still being written.

Console War V Part 3 September 3, 2013

A wise man once said, “Every bubble bursts.” That is precisely the most articulate way to describe the fall of Nintendo’s Wii around 2009. As we enter the third part of our history series on the fifth and most recent console war, the Nintendo Wii was sitting in first, the Xbox 360 was in second, and the Sony Playstation 3 was in the far third based upon console sales. After Nintendo was able to sell an exceptional number of Wiis, a larger number than any of the console makers could have hoped for, the wind started to fall away from Nintendo’s sails. By this point, Nintendo had started to reach the limit of just how many people were interested in obtaining a Wii. They had sold beyond the gamer demographic and entered into the casual market and beyond. Unfortunately, Nintendo was now hitting their threshold.

The third party publishers were not happy. While the Nintendo Wii had the largest installation base of that generation of consoles by far, most of the sales of multiplatform games went to Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 versions, not the console with the largest market share. With its lower powered graphics package and unique control system, Wii games were not easily ported and in most cases, games for the Wii had to be designed from the ground up to be on that console. While publishers were willing to take a chance on a system with such a large market share early on, third party publishers quickly learned that once a Wii owner had a copy of Wii Sports, that was about all they were interested in playing. Sales of third-party Wii games, including games specifically made to take advantage of the Wii, just weren’t selling. It was in this environment publishers were able to release some great Wii exclusives like No More Heroes and Dead Space: Extraction, which did well critically and garnered a devoted fanbase, but just could not sell anywhere near as well as the exclusives on the other platforms. On top of that, gamers were not happy either. HD televisions were getting more affordable, and people were upset at the fact that the Wii could not support high-definition resolutions like the PS3 and Xbox 360 could. Nintendo was still riding high on a much larger market share than any of their other competitors, but the Wii was in trouble.

The Playstation 3 was starting to gain traction. After a terrible first few years marred by a high price point and constricted library, Sony had finally started to right their path. By 2009, Sony made some very aggressive price drops to the PS3 and launched a series of phenomenal exclusive franchises for the platform, like Uncharted and inFAMOUS. While they were still sitting in third, their sales numbers were climbing. On top of that, with the death of HD-DVD, Blu-Ray Disc was taking off as the exclusive HD video format, and the most popular Blu-Ray Disc player by far was the Playstation 3, due to its ability to incorporate new Blu-Ray features on a regular basis alongside regular PS3 firmware updates.

Microsoft on the other hand may have been sitting in second with the Xbox 360, but they still considered themselves to be in first. They were sitting on superior monthly sales numbers for their console and believed that they could take the Xbox 360 into the market Nintendo had previously charted. Their strategy was to get all the third party games that normally would have launched exclusively on Sony’s hardware and get the developers to release them on the 360 as well, cutting Sony’s expected PS3 exclusive titles mostly to first-party releases. They were also making a ton of money on subscription fees from Xbox Live. While they had a great string of hit exclusive titles up to this point like Halo 3, Dead Rising, and the Gears of War series, the Xbox 360’s installation base was still nowhere near as high as the Wii was.

Sony and Microsoft believed the time was right to make a break for Nintendo’s crown and the battleground would be E3 2009. That was when both platforms would announce their own new unique control systems with the intention to strike at the novelty that Nintendo had so successfully capitalized on for the past three years.

At E3 2009, Microsoft would be the one to strike first. Microsoft’s development and management team stood together to announce Project Natal. Since a major part of the Wii’s success had been in its unique motion controller, Microsoft began working on a motion control system for the Xbox 360, and they believed what they had was truly revolutionary. Project Natal was a 3D camera system that had the ability to track a user’s gestures and voice so they could interact with their games completely without the need of a controller. By incorporating real-time 3D motion capture capabilities and voice control in the Natal, Microsoft promised it would be the most immersive control experience a gamer could ever have. The most crowd pleasing part of the Natal reveal was a short pre-recorded demo done by Game God Peter Molyneux called Milo, where a woman interacted in real-time with a virtually rendered child. She could pass him pictures, and he could make out her expressions, words and gestures. The gaming press went wild.

The next day, Sony announced what their plan was going to be for the future of the Playstation 3 and it would be called the Playstation Move. Building on the already available Playstation Eye camera, Sony showed off an entirely new type of controller called the Move Wand, which featured a glowing color ball in front of a button-equipped controller grip. The Playstation Eye worked in conjunction with gyroscopes inside the Move Wand to track the controller, and the player could use the Dual Shock 3 or a smaller navigation controller to function as an analog stick. Sony explicitly stated the best part of the Move was it would have buttons with tactile feedback for the player, unlike Natal’s purely gesture based control system, and existing Playstation 3 games could be patched to support the Move controller. The bad part was the Move looked and played nearly exactly like a Nintendo’s Wiimote and Nunchuck and everyone could tell.

Nintendo made their own announcements as well in the form of a slew of new games that would be coming exclusively for the Wii including Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M, but their real response to Sony and Microsoft’s motion control announcements would be releasing shortly after E3. While motion control had already been a built in feature of the Wii since launch, in June 2009, Nintendo released something for the Wiimote that would enhance the motion capability of the Wii and allow full 1:1 control between the player and the system. It was called the Wii MotionPlus and it would launch bundled with Wii Sports Resort, the sequel to the most successful game on the Nintendo Wii. Nintendo hoped that by bundling the latest Wii Sports game with the MotionPlus, it would give players the best opportunity to see what this new technology could do, and encourage more Wii owners to upgrade their Wiimotes. If enough players upgraded their Wiimotes, more games could be released that would take advantage of it.

The announcements had been made, and it was clear that Sony and Microsoft were actively going after Nintendo. Were they able to deliver on all their promises and overtake Nintendo, or was Nintendo’s dominance in the Console War too strong to give up their crown? We’ll talk about that next time!