It's hard to argue with the Wii's success as a gaming device, but it's not competing in the same category of "living room monolith". People bought the Wii, and a blu-ray player, and probably a cable box or satellite box. Microsoft is clearly saying that their device is the one and only thing you need attached to your television, amalgamating all the other devices you would normally buy. Sony, meanwhile, talked up on delivering a pure-bred gaming machine that is absolutely and inarguably the machine of choice for gamers, this generation. Microsoft is shooting higher, billing itself for whole-household appeal and trying to take on several markets simultaneously with one package, telling "gamers" in essence that they're only a fraction of the pie.Vendetta wrote:The living room audience might like to have something for the kids to do that can also play netflix, but theyre also the least likely to spend that amount of money on a games console, they're the people who bought Wiis. They bought Wiis because the Wii was cheap as well as being a suddenly desirable brand item.
And to me, all of this looks less and less stupid when I think about Microsoft's bread and butter - the Windows PC. I've already heard tell that we're out of the PC age, where people sat at desks to do everything you'd do on your computer, and moved into the living room with tablets and other devices that deliver net content to your television. I can see why Microsoft would push to challenge the smart TVs and cable boxes as well, at a time when consumers seem willing to spend money to get their whole casual computing experience out of dens and offices.
That's a whole other issue; I believe, personally, that the vocal hardcore (read: urban male nerds) simply don't have the power they used to within the gaming culture. I see consumer power as having been taken out of the hands of the vocal hardcore and handed to Mr. and Mrs. Dick and Jane Homeowner. It certainly used to be that the hardcore would lead the charge, and everyone else would follow suit, but I think we've come to a point where brands are so well established and crowds so comfortable with technology, that the nerds are still charging only to find the crowds have comfortably moseyed to where they want to go.The people who are most likely to spend money on the most expensive piece of gaming kit are exactly the people who follow E3 and react negatively to, well, all the things they have reacted negatively to. And then you're not buying an xbox to play with all your mates who have xboxes, you're buying a PS4 because that's what the one guy you know who's an early adopter has bought and won't stop telling you about.
