Microsoft is hoping to duplicate the rabid success of Nintendo’s Wii by re-creating the Wii Remote for use with XBox 360. For all of the younger gamers out there, this is exactly what Microsoft did when it took over Netscape as the top internet browser in the late 1990’s and this is how Microsoft began to dominate the personal computer market.
Granted, I do not think this will be successful because all of the bad things about Microsoft and Windows (poor customer support, extremely high prices for a mediocre product, and unexplained stall-outs on the hardware) are present on the XBox 360 and gamers are famously fickle about such issues. However, this is pretty pathetic. The gaming division at Microsoft lumped all of its hopes in bigger and better, but much like their personal computing division, they didn’t ask the consumer what they wanted. The same problem happened with Sony and the miserable sales performance of PlayStation 3.
Nintendo created a new gaming experience at a reasonable cost with a decent presentation and they’re decimating the competition. Will high-definition gaming take over the market at some point? Absolutely. But that time is not now nor is it in the near future. Gamers wanted something new that didn’t cost them a sizable portion of their paychecks and Nintendo delivered. No fake XBox 360 wand will be able to replace that fact.
But it’ll be fun to watch Microsoft try…
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