* “Gears of War sold 5 or so million copies in a few weeks. From the sounds of things, that’s what success is today.”
That would be a major really huge success on PlayStation 2 too. GTA-style, where every PS2 game sold around ca. 3 to 7 million units.
5 out of 11 is SO HUGE A SUCCESS, compared to maybe 7 out of 110, do the math.

* “110 million is almost a third of the U.S. population.”
Does the term worldwide mean anything to you? I know, the “world = North America” in some heads (exceptionally often found in action movies like ID4) but hey, that’s the number of worldwide sold units, and you maybe can say ca. 1/3 was sold in the US.

* “Again, who’s the genius who said that Sony automatically knows what to do with a social community like Home?”
Well, Sony is good at hinting at the future, remember the infamous “real-time” rendered videos from E3 2005? Home has inspired people, it’s a buzz – you’re right you never know what Sony will really deliver and I think Home is very very ambigious and nobody can achieve this level of social interaction out of the hat.
But look at Nintendo, where everybody is happy, if and when they get out a game that lets you play online multiplayer…?

* And what I also don’t get: What’s all the talk about “non-traditional gamers, Web 2.0, and the user-created revolution”?
Let’s break it down: non-tradition gamers are WHO? WHAT do they like? HOW MUCH do they spend? Nobody knows, it’s a buzz word right now.

Everybody who actually truly uses the term “Web 2.0″ is complety clueless to me. It’s a marketing buzz word, nothing more. It has no meaning, Web 2.0 normaly means you have a badly designed (=not stylish) website that encourages users to interact in very limited ways by using a technology called AJAX. Example in case: Flickr. I would argue that the whole bunch of Yahoo! sites combined would be more Web 2.0 than Flickr, and that since 1997!

For the last two years (or more) I keep reading about user-generated content, yes that’s the custom painted cars in Forza Motorsport 2, yes that’s the custom levels in the future Little Big Planet game, etc.etc.etc. I actually believe that’s the only point there is. Yet on the PC we have had this for a very long time already, so please: Where’s this news? And what has Nintendo up their sleeves for user-generated content: Nothing, or at least I can’t remember anything?

* Final thoughts
This all should not lessen the really big success that Nintendo has right now. I think the NDS is very interesting right now although I like to play PSP as well for another kind of games. The Wii is the less played home console that I own, with a leading PS2, then Xbox 360 and PS3 all before Wii. I throw Wii parties and for these occassions I dust off my Wii and we play some multiplayer sessions of Wii Sports or Wii Play, even Wario Ware. But do I play single player games on it? No. I even bought Zelda:TP as GameCube-version.
While I believe that habtic experience like the Wii remote is a important part of the future it’s not the only way. For example: There’s a single game that rivals all the fun that can be had with a Wii: Guitar Hero on PS2. Everybody is just crazy, and a lot of people bought PS2s just to play Buzz, SingStar, EyeToy and Guitar Hero. But what if the novelty of Wii controls wears off and people start to realize that it’s not as “creative” as Nintendo would like us to think?

While I agree with Jack’s basic premise for this post, I think everyone missed the biggest problem the entertainment industry (movies, TV, books, etc… not just video games!) faces today: the increasing cost of production vs. the return on investment.

But I’ll expand on that on Jack’s second part, because he might point it out next…

The industry needs to stop discarding things in the same way it needs new types of games. The goal should be as much variety as possible. Why did side-scrollers go the way of the do-do. I like 3D games, I want them around too, but I also like side-scrollers and certain games have not transitioned well ( I am looking at you Sonic). Also new genre’s need to be created not everyone wants to play a sport or shoot something. I think Trauma Center is a great example of what the industry needs in terms of genre. So if you can not make as pretty a 3D game on the Wii make an awesome looking side-scroller. It does not even have to use motion, just a simple two button control scheme that my sister would play. Paper Mario comes close, but switching characters and flipping the world muddy up the mix for people who just want to jump on stuff.

The point is the Industry needs to stop boiling down its genre’s to the ones that are currently most popular. Be creative and make new genres and at the same time bring back some old ones. I do not want to look at a shelf and only see the latest shooter claiming to be a Halo killer a few of those can be there,but I want to have other experiences. This is why I believe that rhythm games have done so well. The DS has shown how new game types can do well and I hope the Wii will eventually grow to do the same.

Good point about the guns. Seems like they’re a necessity today or the game doesn’t get made.

*clap clap clap*

It is true that appealing to mass market = lots of money. Duh.
Who cares (and who doesn’t already know)? I just want to play great games and as long as there are so many developers/etc all trying to outdo each other with the “best gamer ever” (Spore, Mass Effect, Galaxy, Prime, Too Human etc etc) it is a win win situation for gamers (ie: us).

I do NOT want to see these games go away and they won’t either. The non-gamers section of the market will grow a lot, as it must do (helped by clever developers). This will in turn increase the ‘Hardcore’ market as the newcomers look for progressively meatier experiences.
I see it analogous to the music industry where ‘newcomers’ (kids, teenagers etc) start off listening to American Idol/Fall Out Boy (and so on) and then progress to more ‘developed’ music.
That’s not to say the simple stuff can’t be enjoyable either. A nice example would the Beatles’ transformation from I Want To Hold Your Hand to Strawberry Fields Forever (etc).

/pretentious-ramblings

Ps: Why the PS3, as an example, isn’t trying very hard to appeal to the mass market yet? Well, the answer is the PS2, by far the most mass market console of last generation with the Eyetoy, Singstar, Buzz Guitar Hero etc and selling second only to Wii ( ). Sony are still aiming the PS3 squarely at the hardcore with its current price (if only they had the games).

In conclusion Nintendo’s genius design of Wii and it’s interface as well as their whole strategy ensures that will appeal to the public like no console before but,
thank god they still want to make classics too…

Rokerovakero – I don’t think Jack’s point was that all franchises are bad, just the ones on which a system hinges its success; Even hinging a console on Mario games isn’t a foolproof success, as Nintendo discovered with the Gamecube. As far as Mario Party goes, I don’t think it’s a big enough project to really warrant getting upset over sequels being similar.