Comment Graphics and Demographics (Score 1, Troll) 58
It's all about Demographics, really. Sony struck gold by marketing to 20+ year old gamers, making games they wouldn't feel silly playing (it's hard for a 27 year-old welder to play a cartoon peter pan running around rescuing a cartoon princess. But let him play a mobster capping other mobsters...)
This is what Nintendo never got. Adults don't feel silly watching action movies and thus don't feel silly playing action movies. Adults do feel a little silly watching peter pan cartoons, and thus do feel silly manipulating a little guy with his green hood and tights.
That market exploded; video games moved into the mainstream with the playstation and PS2, and Sony played it perfectly. It didn't hurt that they included DVD capability right at the upswing of the DVD boom.
Nintendo has continued to market to the kiddies. A PS2 looks like a piece of entertainment hardware like a VCR or DVD player; a GameCube looks like a toy, it's purple plastic and cute shape and cute little lunch box handle on the back.
That little kid audience is limited; they're not where the frontier of this market is. It's about making video games as common as watching videos at home, about convincing the older guys that it's not just a kiddie thing. Sony knows this, MS knows this. I doubt Nintendo ever will.
This is what Nintendo never got. Adults don't feel silly watching action movies and thus don't feel silly playing action movies. Adults do feel a little silly watching peter pan cartoons, and thus do feel silly manipulating a little guy with his green hood and tights.
That market exploded; video games moved into the mainstream with the playstation and PS2, and Sony played it perfectly. It didn't hurt that they included DVD capability right at the upswing of the DVD boom.
Nintendo has continued to market to the kiddies. A PS2 looks like a piece of entertainment hardware like a VCR or DVD player; a GameCube looks like a toy, it's purple plastic and cute shape and cute little lunch box handle on the back.
That little kid audience is limited; they're not where the frontier of this market is. It's about making video games as common as watching videos at home, about convincing the older guys that it's not just a kiddie thing. Sony knows this, MS knows this. I doubt Nintendo ever will.
