:: New Year's Resolutions for the Big Three

[hd007]

Kill "Games for Windows" – Porting hit Xbox brand games to PC is not a bad idea, but it all goes to hell when you force users to purchase a separate "Live" account to play PC games online, a feature that has a long history of being free on the versatile platform. It also doesn't help when Microsoft tries to strap most of the big releases with exclusivity arrangements that tie them to an operating system nobody wants (Vista). There are primarily two types of PC gamer: the casual types that play Bejeweled and online poker, and the dedicated core PC gamer who loves complicated, immersive, and in-depth experiences provided by the complexity of the PC platform. "GFW" seeks to streamline the PC gaming experience and make PC gaming as accessible as a game console, but this goes against the very conventions of PC gaming because the gamer market they are after traditionally choose the PC platform because it is so distinctly opposite from that of a console. "Games for Windows" and its deep association with Vista is a horrible idea which is crippling Microsoft's potentially fruitful PC efforts.

 

Make Xbox Live free – Microsoft has the best online service, yes, but the value of "free" can speak louder than features, and did just that in the past. Sony and Nintendo's online services aren't the greatest thing in the world, but value speaks to consumers. Last gen, Microsoft took the critical acclaim for their exceptional online gaming experience, but the PS2 had more online users in total, even with Sony's crappy setup. The majority of Live users tend to fall in the core gamer and "casual FPS player" brackets. If Microsoft truly wants to expand their user base into the range that includes people that don't play games more than 72 hours a week, they should think about merging the features of Gold membership into Silver and provide all customers with an equal experience while focusing on an ad-based revenue system to cover network costs. If they were truly desperate to keep subscription services an option, they could always gives some perks to their subscribers. Oh, you know—stuff like dedicated servers, free themes, or something. Microsoft can either take the initiative and build on their online empire now, or wait and retaliate when Sony decides to challenge the throne, and it will happen. It's just a matter of "when". And while they're at it, Microsoft needs to solve the constant Xbox Live downtime problems before more people like those three guys in Texas decide to file lawsuits and bring Microsoft's technical difficulties further into the public eye.

 

Stop replacing faulty machines with faulty machines – We know all the first year models are ticking time bombs. They're all going to go sooner or later, yet now the media is catching wind of "refurbished" replacement units breaking down even faster. There are people that have cycled through five dysfunctional replacement units in less than half a year. The sad thing is scenarios like that aren't uncommon. Microsoft needs to call their losses and dispose of the faulty replacement units rather than sending out another faulty machine to the already abused and disgruntled customer. Microsoft must begin replacing "Red-Ringers" with the new Falcon chipset units to lower long-term replacement costs and protect their already heavily tarnished brand from further damage.

 

Stop releasing new SKUs – Nintendo is kicking Microsoft's a*s with a console that has about 1/24 the power and doesn't even play DVD's, and now there is word that Microsoft might release yet another model of the 360 late this year with a bigger proprietary hard drive, built in HD-DVD drive, and a bunch of other features the average Joe doesn't want or really need. General consumers who don't keep up with gaming are getting confused by all the available versions of each console on the market. People aren't looking for a monster media convergence box. They're looking for a game console. And why strap a console with an HD media format nobody wants? Had Microsoft put their money where their mouth is and actually backed the format back in 2005, the format war might have gone differently, but they didn't. 2008 is three years too late to fix the problem. Developers won't use the format for games in fear of fragmenting the user base "Sega style". We all know the 360 needed that HD-DVD drive from the beginning for storage space. Content is now regularly getting cut from multiplatform (and exclusive) games now just because the DVD format can't hold all the required data. Compression only goes so far, and Microsoft has an ego wall stopping them from breaking down and using multiple discs for games that need it for fear of looking inferior to Blu-Ray. Sorry, Microsoft. You had your shot for HD media. Stop throwing money at a problem that requires a much simpler fix.

 

Actually try to broaden the market, or stop pretending to care – Microsoft is the sugar daddy of core console gamers. Millions of gamers praise MS for being the saving grace of hardcore console gaming and Microsoft rightfully does everything they can to tailor the Xbox 360 experience to please that group. Yet every so often, you'll see Microsoft make a half-assed attempt to reach out to an audience just beyond their reach—you know, those elusive "non-gamers" Nintendo has in such over-abundance. Well, sorry Microsoft. The "Scene It? Movie Trivia Game" isn't quite going to cut it. Non-gamers already bought that on DVD. Think Viva Piñata is going to reach out to the young kids? No, it just appeals to what's left of the Rare fanbase. Same goes for Banjo-Threeie. If you so badly want the attention of the grandma and grandpa gamers in the world, then take a look at your original casual gaming platform—Windows. We gamers may think of PC's as the home of RTS and serious FPS games, but people were playing casual games on the PC all the way back to Windows 3.1. If you want to get in on the casual gaming phenomenon, then focus on the platform casual gaming was born on. 40,000,000 people play casual online games at AOL.com. Even more than that plays Microsoft's own Spider Solitaire on Windows XP. Why not use that so-called "Games for Windows" brand that core games so rightfully loathe to reach out to an audience that might actually care? Face it. Grandpa and Grandma gamer aren't going to buy an Xbox. They probably think that's the name of an adult toy (well, maybe that's just Grandpa). Instead, go where the market is. Go to the one market Nintendo can't touch, which just so happens to be where your bread money comes from…Windows.

 

 

 

Get Prepaid PSN cards into circulation as soon as possible – Believe it or not, a lot of people who use the console download services don't have access (or don't want access) to a credit card. Think of all the kids out there who would like to buy a prepaid card to download Wipeout or Toy Home without nagging their parents to log in with a credit card. Think about all the shopaholics who don't use credit cards because of their own fear of running up debt they can't pay. Microsoft and Nintendo had their prepaid point cards out at launch, yet Sony still drags their feet over a year in. Granted, Sony uses a cash based wallet system instead of point, but a prepaid card is a prepaid card. Stop stalling Sony; it's just putting off potential online shoppers.

 

Offer a trade-up program for Dual Shock 3 controllers – The little war Sony and Immersion had over rumble technology dragged on way longer than it should have, but time has moved on and the PS3 is getting rumble. Wonderful, now what about the eight million console owners already stuck without the feature? They get to buy a new $50+ controller. That just sucks, plain and simple. It was wrong to launch the console without such a basic feature, but the feud with Immersion caused them to do just that. While it wouldn't be cost effective to offer a rebate program for the rumble-less controllers, Sony could at least offer a trade-up program where you ditch your old rumble free Sixaxis and trade it up towards the cost of a new Dual Shock 3.

 

Support full Backwards Compatibility on the 40GB model through software emulation - Phil Harrison once spoke in an interview about how he saw the PlayStation brand as "a format that transcends many devices – PSOne, PS2, and now PS3". If that is true, then why has Sony broken a long standing tradition and stricken backwards compatibility from the cheaper 40GB model? The 80GB model moved away from the 60GB model's hardware-based backwards compatibility and switched to the less reliable software emulation solution, but 80% of the library does work on the machine even without the PS2's Emotion Engine. It's not perfect, but it still counts and could be built upon to create a cheap and easy solution that suits both Sony and their customers. People need backwards compatibility in their consoles for their potentially massive back catalog of titles because their old PS2 isn't going to last forever, just like the PS1 before it. Seeing as the 80Gb model uses a software solution, what is to stop Sony from adding this low-cost solution to the cheaper 40GB model via firmware update other than the desire to sell more PS2s at the upcoming $99 price point?

 

Re-launch the PlayStation Store with HD movies, TV shows, and anything else – Microsoft is a software/hardware maker trying to make it as a part-time media conglomerate with their Xbox Live marketplace and its modest selection of television and movie content mostly tailored to guys in the 16-35 age brackets. Sony, on the other hand, is a long time media conglomerate ignoring one of the largest television and movie archives in the world. Considering their talk about trailblazing DLC into homes, and their established relationship with other production giants, you would think Sony would have made their move into the digital movie and TV marketplace long before Microsoft.

 

Offer IPTV and TiVO functionality through a firmware update – Sony loves to plug the PS3 as the total, all-in-one media convergence box. Well, if Sony wants people to look at the PS3 as a total media package, they need to provide everything an HD enthusiast could ever need. That means Sony needs to offer downloadable IPTV features and Digital Video Recorder/TiVO functionality to the PS3. It's been talked about before, but nothing has yet materialized. Combined with the Blu-Ray drive and all the possible HD content Sony could also make available on the PlayStation Store, the PS3 could provide you with all the HD content you could ever need or want. And on the portable front, there's also talk about furthering the PS3's use as a media hub by offering "LocationFree" support for the PSP, meaning you could use your PSP as a portable TV/DVD monitor anywhere with a Wi-Fi hotspot with the PS3 serving as the base station. It might not be for everyone, but it would certainly be a nice perk for the high-end market Sony's machine initially appealed to before the price drops.

 

 

 

Downloadable Wii Demos – While it may not be possible with every single release, it would sure be nice to have the occasional demo show up in the Wii Ware Channel. Sure, the demo video channel is nice, but anybody who wanted to see that content could just as easily look it up on the internet in higher resolutions. So why bother? Instead, Nintendo could get some demos out for download. It wouldn't be possible for every game due to space limitations, and you might have to clean out all your Wii Channels and move a couple dozen Virtual Console games to the SD card slot, but wouldn't it be worth it to try out a new game a month or more ahead of time without having to go stand in line with the drooling kids at Wal-Mart (or E for All)?

 

Get voice chat in games, even with Friend Codes – Friend codes are one of the worst ideas ever, but we all know Nintendo is never going to get rid of them. So let's make a compromise instead. At least get voice enabled chat implemented in games for people who are on each other's friend lists. The DS can do it for a couple of games, so why not Wii? Denying friends the right to trash talk while playing Smash Bros. is already a sin in and of itself. Don't make the same mistake for Mario Kart.

 

Open up the SD slot - Perhaps Nintendo doesn't think space on the Wii memory is much of an issue. The main offerings now are Virtual Console games that fall in the 19KB to 5MB range, with a few large exceptions. But what are they going to do once those 150+ proposed Wii Ware games start to pour out the floodgates in April? You can bet they will require more space, and you can bet people are going to start running out of space really quickly and wonder why that SD slot is really on the front of the machine, anyway. It's a real pain in the rear to have to delete your games or move them back and forth from SD cards every time you want to play something that won't fit in the system memory. Worried about piracy and copy protection Nintendo? Fine, just update the software every couple of weeks and show us how that RSA encryption is actually worth something. At the very bare bones least, Nintendo could offer some sort of official retail copy protected hardware memory expansion to give people some room to breathe. 512MB of memory just isn't a whole lot of s[ace anymore, especially when a chunk of that is reserved for system operations. Something has got to give Nintendo. Don't punish your millions of honest users (like the music industry does) as if they're cheaters who would never bother to download Virtual Console/Wii Ware games anyway. The real pirates are already too busy playing their massive ROM collections to bother with the Wii.

 

Cut the Crap - The Wii is seen by many as a novelty. There are the traditional core games that cater to the Nintendo fanbase, and they are as top-notch as always (Mario Galaxy, Smash Bros, Mario Kart), yet the majority of the library is made up of low-class filler garbage (Chicken Shooter) that wouldn't have been welcome on the Tiger Game.com. It also hurts that a lot of Nintendo's "treasured" non-gamers are buying the machine for the included copy of Wii Sports and leaving it at that. Nintendo has to do two things. First, stop allowing garbage to be published on their console. Even an inexperienced gamer knows when something is a piece of crap. Second, start to advertise to those non-gamers in places they would traditionally look. Want more soccer moms? Throw an ad or two in Good Housekeeping. How about forking the cash and supplies to get Oprah to give a copy of Wii Fit (and a Wii) to her audience like everybody jokes about? A console can sell and sell and sell, but if nobody buys any games after purchasing the box, then the machine is still just as dead as if it hadn't sold a single unit. If Nintendo wants more non-gamers, and to maintain their momentum in 2008, they've got to go where the real casual market lies.

 

Pander to the core gamers – Nintendo's franchise regulars like Mario and Link are always going to be welcome in millions of gamer's homes, but they don't appeal to everybody. There was a time when the gamer that now traditionally owns an Xbox 360 also owned a Nintendo console, but that time has passed and the market has been segregated. It's as if Nintendo knows that a core gamer is traditionally not going to want to share company with a casual or non-gamer, so Nintendo isn't even going to try to lure them. Why is that? We were perfectly happy sharing space on the NES? We even happily co-existed on the PlayStation and its successor. There seems to not be a console this generation that seeks a middle ground that appeals to both casual and core gamers like the PS2 did such a relatively short time ago. The Wii could very well be that machine if Nintendo would reach out beyond the non-gamers and their own fanbase, but that window of opportunity is closing fast. The PS3 is set with one of the most killer years ahead of any console ever. Core gamers have taken notice as PS3 sales have begun to climb rapidly. If Nintendo ever wants more than the frivolous, flighty, and disposable casual gamers market, the time to act is now, or not at all.

 

- Lucas DeWoody, AMN.

[karanc666]

Good post