Normally I’d wait until there is something worthwhile to post about each console before making a blog entry. However today a little gem came out titled “Square Enix CEO: 360 and PS3 too complicated” Now by itself this isn’t news, this isn’t the first time a developer has come out in praise of the Wii and the lambasting (I don’t really know what that word means but it sounds good) of the PS3 and 360.

First he accuses the two consoles for being over engineered and mismatched to gamers needs. Thinking of past consoles you wonder what gamers this guys talking about. After all online play became extremely popular torwards the end of the last console generation, the HD era is upon us, and digital media is prevailant. When you get to the meat of the article you find out who exactly who he considers “gamers”. Is it the people that made the industry into the money maker it is today? Nope. It’s the “non-traditional-gamer-including women and older people”. Yep that’s right the CEO of square enix thinks the entire gaming industry should shift focus to the casual gamer. What’s his proof? The fact that Nintendo has sold 5 million Wii’s.

Like I said this wouldn’t even be news if it wasn’t for the fact that all kinds of companies are now rushing to put out games for the Wii. What the short sighted companies refuse to see or are blinded by the dollar signs in thier eyes, is that the Furby and Tickle-me-elmo trends lasted longer than the Wii’s current history. In fact these product trends generaly have a life of about a year to 18 months. If you read the blogs and message boards the “traditional gamer” is getting bored with it, myself included. When you look into the future of the Wii you don’t see that many compelling titles on the horizon. Are these non-traditional gamers going to keep buying games? Let alone the 2-4 games a month bought by the traditional gamer? Still, they insist on counting eggs before they are hatched. They ignore two most important things about the Wii’s success. First a $250 console that comes with a novel controller and a game is an impulse buy especially at christmas time. Second parents faced with the choice of a $500 console, a $600 console, or a $250 console guess which one little Timmy is gonna get? Even if a parent is willing to spend more than $250 they can get multiple controllers and games for the Wii…so to a parent who knows next to nothing about consoles but all kinds about buying power it’s a no-brainer. That aside if little timmy was asking for the wii the parents are gonna jump on it before he starts asking for one of the more expensive consoles.

The article also talks about making games for everyone, which is corporate speak for time for another wave of dumbing down our product. I remember games of yore when we had complex RPG’s and intricate strategy games. Those have already been dumbed down to twitch RPG’s and resourceless RTS’s, and they are going to be made more accessable? The learning curve on games is already shallow enough. Spiderman 3 wasn’t a challenge until the final boss fight, and it was the lame ass button sequences that made that hard not the actual fighting. And they want to make them MORE accessable? What’s Halo 4 going to be? A game of put the shaped block into the proper shaped hole? Is Final Fantasy XX going to be a color matching game? Is the downloadable content going to be more shapes and more colors? Games are retardly easy now, so now they are just going to flat out make games for retards? Making titles for gamers-but-not gamers is fine by me but to say the focus needs shifting to these people is not only a wrong move but laughable.


Anyway there are rumors of a PSP redesign, or did sony already come out and say it? There’s suppose to be a thinner more efficient LCD going into it. Which is good because the battery only lasted a couple hours playing games or watching a movie. They are also suppose to put 8 gig of flash memory in it, which is fine by me. They are keeping the UMD which I think is a bad idea. Never do I meet someone that has more games on them than what can fit in the PSP. Who wants to carry around the PSP and their accessories. I’m not a chick I don’t accessorize esecially with things that can get broke if they’re in my pocket when I sit down. They might add a camera which is cool, but only if it’s a good one. It’s like cellphones……..why buy the $250+ cell phone when the damn thing can’t take a better picture than the phone you get for free with your contract. If there is one feature I wish they would have added but didn’t was that of a phone. Works only with a Bluetooth headset, to avoid having to hold the monster PSP to your ear and the screen would slide up to show a nice sized qwerty keyboard. I don’t use any feature on my phone save the phone book because I don’t enjoy typing on keys the size of pin heads. As it sits now my PSP sits unused unless I go on a road trip or have a plane flight. I don’t need my pockets bulging with crap. I got my wallet, my phone, my keys, my faceplate for my headunit, and my cybershot. I don’t have room for a PSP. I refuse to carry a man bag, they were never cool, and I don’t have enough crap to warrant a back pack. In my pockets is how I keep my stuff from getting stolen, and having a utility belt like batman isn’t going to fly either.

Wish I could come up with something to say about Microsoft and the 360. Oh yeah, they both suck. Actually if the 360 was an Apple product I would think about buying it. Apparently some guy whos 360 failed called to get it shipped in for repairs and they were out of return boxes!!!!!!! But just remember, according to microsoft, problems with the 360 are isolated cases.

Update: I just read that the new PSP may have bluetooth and a flip up screen. While this is most likely to help protect the screen I see it (in my blind wishing) as evidence that it may indeed have a phone function. It is rumored they are moving the controls to the bottom edge of the device and it will have 4gig of flash not 8.