Companies obviously exist to make a profit, and I'm not arguing that Nintendo's decisions aren't primarily motivated by the requisite urge of any company to turn a profit for its shareholders; a company that doesn't want to turn a profit doesn't want to exist. What I AM arguing is that Nintendo (alone, apparently) seeks to generate profit as the result of innovation, as opposed to Sony and Microsoft, who seek to generate profit as the result of the tried-and-true. Nintendo tried the rumble pad, Sony and Microsoft decided gamers loved it, so they "innovated" the same thing. Nintendo tried the analog stick, and history repeated itself.
Maybe I shouldn't have said "video games as entertainment," instead of "video games as art." Sure, there are people who are entertained by the EA's latest marginally improved revision of Madden, but who the fuck cares? I liken the development of the video game industry to that of the film industry. Eventually - probably inevitably - most companies forego innovation for the sake of profit, and the remaining companies who make movies or videogames in the interest of advancing the genre are cornered into a market niche. Ultimately, this results in products such as, for instance, The Island...a movie which didn't have anything new to say about anything and would probably have succeeded tremendously had it not been for the fact that everybody was aware that Pearl Harbor sucked. I would rather have a video game industry that rewards programmers for games like Ico and reprimands them for games like Doom-Fucking-3...but the mainstream has already wrapped its hands around the industry, and now it's a race to the lowest common denominator.
Clearly, I'm not going to convince anybody of anything, especially the people who take one look at a controller and consider that enough to predict the failure of the console. These people should go ahead and just ignore me, because it will make things easier for all of us. Thanks.
Maybe I shouldn't have said "video games as entertainment," instead of "video games as art." Sure, there are people who are entertained by the EA's latest marginally improved revision of Madden, but who the fuck cares? I liken the development of the video game industry to that of the film industry. Eventually - probably inevitably - most companies forego innovation for the sake of profit, and the remaining companies who make movies or videogames in the interest of advancing the genre are cornered into a market niche. Ultimately, this results in products such as, for instance, The Island...a movie which didn't have anything new to say about anything and would probably have succeeded tremendously had it not been for the fact that everybody was aware that Pearl Harbor sucked. I would rather have a video game industry that rewards programmers for games like Ico and reprimands them for games like Doom-Fucking-3...but the mainstream has already wrapped its hands around the industry, and now it's a race to the lowest common denominator.
Clearly, I'm not going to convince anybody of anything, especially the people who take one look at a controller and consider that enough to predict the failure of the console. These people should go ahead and just ignore me, because it will make things easier for all of us. Thanks.