Okay I will try to answer a lot of this. First VGCharts is not a perfect place, but they do get the ball park figures. And as you said, those numbers have great truth because MS sure did a song and dance of changing almost everything in a 180 after saying "It could not be done" (mainly from Nelson). The thing is though look at the Wii U. I agree that Kinect had a good attach rate, however, I think it was a gimmick. For the people I know that do have it (families) they hardly ever use it. I think the whole "get up and dance around and use your arms that the Wii/Kinect/Move tried to do" motion thing really is going by the way side now. It was a fad, and I think it is fading quickly. So I think we are in agreements on a lot of these aspects. I'm just trying to make myself more clear. Honestly just because something is successful...doesn't mean it's long term or...really good. I can look at a lot of movies and see that.
Yes Microsoft didn’t take notice that the views were ridiculously one-sided and they really should have changed their policies before E3. Major Nelson saying it could not be done was plain stupid although it was a reaction when he was annoyed rather than a thought out premeditated lie. And I agree on the wii aspects of the Kinect. The sudden explosion of motion control was a fad that has somewhat died like 3D on films, both technologies that were underdeveloped for their time and vastly overpromoted.
But I've used both the Kinect and wiimote a lot (in the 1st year) and there is much more untapped potential in the Kinect. Most people don’t know how good the voice commands are and this is the part that is applicable to improving any squad based games, RTS, or games with AI of any sort. Most are also unaware of the huge improvements of Kinect 2 and when/if technology reaches the point one day where what you do is instantly and accurately reflected on screen this fad might see a revival, particularly if an Oculus Rift type device catches on and can be used in conjunction with it. And I agree something being a flash in the pan success is great but doesn’t mean the future is rosy for that product.
However, I will agree that to a point the vocal "minority" had no say. But the internet is powerful...don't ever deny that. Some try to say it's not when they feel it convenient. But honestly....the GA is not the one buying the initial run of new consoles....first adopters are mainly us....the hardcore gamers. And with the online phenomenon, what sells more at first has a tenancy to spread quicker. When later adopters come along usually they will look at what everyone else has...most friends of mine (including myself) bought the 360 because everyone else did and if you wanted to play online with everyone that is where you went. The same will probably happen with the PS4.
My point being, the small hardcore can have a trickle down/snowball effect. The GA does not watch E3,. Like you said the amount that actually go to these sites and so forth are minimal....but there is a reason the pre-orders are very skewed one way. Even GA friends of mine heard from peole like me the crap MS was pulling. The reason MS changed their mind after E3....was because there WAS NO PRE-ORDERS then. But again it's more of the hardcore community that had a huge outcry, press did as well, and the press reported our outcry. It has a snowball effect, and trust me if we were not complaining about it....the GA just would have bought it anyways. But due to our informing them and screaming I think really had a snowball effect and did cause a problem in the bottom line of pre-orders. And still is hurting MS's image right now.
I wouldn’t (& didn’t
). The internet as a whole is very powerful, sure. And what you say is true to an extent. I think the national press though, rather than the gaming press and idiotic article commenters, are much more important and they haven’t unified over issues like this very often. When I saw similar articles in ‘The Sun’ to those on IGN I thought that right there has changed a couple of million minds!
Preorders were totally skewed towards PS4. They’ve since pretty much sold out. Microsoft on the other hand have not only reversed nearly every negative policy, they’ve come out with good news nearly every week since and have caught up a lot. Many 360 guys had decided to convert to PS4 but now a lot of those have come back. PS4 is still ahead at this stage prety much everywhere but the gap is not as big any more.
360 definitely had that trickle down effect due to the online experience. But that online experience and friend network is what keeps a lot of those players with Xbox, unless the whole group of friends decide to move, some of which did. This doesn’t affect gamers who mainly play single player or don’t join XBL parties nearly every time they game. That friend network is more important than single player exclusives to many and didn’t get the chance to grow on PS3 because of lack of cross game party chat.
Back to your point though, the trickle down effect definitely was in effect here with the MS policies but I think it was a much broader movement and not only instigated by the hardcore but the press itself which can shape opinions a lot quicker when the casual gamer is looking for a legitimate opinion (even many of them will expect an owner of a particular console to give him/her biased information while they trust (correctly or not) anything in print or from a well known site, especially a non gaming site or at least one that isn't affiliated to a particular company.
Now I know it sounds wierd, but ya I can agree that at times the internet geeks like us don't have as strong as a voice as we think we do. But there are times where it rises up and causes change, it's just not blatant change or do they admit to it being the problem. Actually I think companies now listen to us a little more because of social media, me and many of my friends who have hundreds of friends each on Facebook complained about it, so word spreads now even if it's a small amount at first. Us informing everyone about what MS was doing during those weeks helped significantly for the eventual turnaround of what MS did.
But most of the press was talking about US. If you look at alot of the articles, and podcasts they always talked about how pissed we were about MS's policies. So in turn yes we did help the influence. But I know you agree with this I'm just trying to spell it out where yes the minority can have a big voice with social media in today's world. However I do agree that yes sometimes the small minority complains about irrelevant things that really never catch on. But with instances like this we do have a big voice and MS learned that.
When it’s loads of casual people talking about it on facebook and general social networks the effect can be huge and snowball but the obviously biased gaming site games article commenters from Sony, Xbox & PC are who I’m talking about. I’m not including even the likes of people on websites like SHH who can generally think for themselves and don’t react in exactly the same way whatever the news of the article. The hardcore minority are incapable of changing any of their views no matter what news comes out. But when the press agrees, the hordes of casuals see tidbits of info from them that push their opinion one way and the hardcore gamers outside of the idiot commenters also decide not to preorder... then things have to change & fast!
But about the price thing. To me the price thing is not as a big of deal as it is to others. Because I was fine with the price of the PS3 though I know it really hurt it during launch. However I remember many Xbox fans talking about how important it was (prior to all the announcements) of getting the price right and Sony better not screw up again....and now I almost see none of you really complain about the price. I'm not saying you personally but more so a lot of hardcore Xbox fans. They act now like it's not a big deal...when they made it such a big deal during the PS3's run. How do you feel about it?
I’m in the same boat as you in that I don’t care about the price for myself. This is a product I’ll be using for up to 10 years and I’ll be using it so much the real value of it to me is probably over £1000. I only care about price in that I don’t want my primary console to price itself out of the market like my PS3 did and put its own future unnecessarily into jeopardy. I thought many of those who complained about the PS3 price were Sony guys though who were also pissed off at their attitude of ‘work more hours to earn it’.
And you’re talking about fanboy commenters and most people would acknowledge that 360 had the very worst & most immature of those all these years (a couple of them have even made their way to the Hype & been quickly banned). They’ve died down to an extent though as the 360 has given up much of its lead last gen and the XB1 policies became known and the new Sony commenters that have risen up recently are every bit as bad (although less immature). It’s disgusting to me as Sony fans were never like this in the past and used to have a superior ‘live & let live’ community. During the PS1 era most games fans I encountered were almost like brothers just all glad at the massive innovation & technological progress taking place in their entertainment industry of choice. I guess they were less fanboyish as the PS was the 1st console without much history and there was no real competition. Also seemed to be older on average than with the previous Nintendo consoles but don’t know for sure how true that is.
The commentary on all articles in recent months has been completely dismissive of even very positive news on XB1 and the same thing gets announced for Sony and there’s no criticism and suddenly that negative thing is now relevant. Luckily on the Hype we don’t attract these idiots.
But to answer your point, I don’t care about the price myself but I acknowledge it as both high, risky and something that any opportunist XBots who were complaining during the PS3 launch should also be complaining about now for XB1.
