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Back at E3 this year, the big three gaming companies, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo all debuted their plans for the next year. All of the announcements followed the same particular trend.. Motion gaming. Nintendo planned on releasing their latest console called the Wii U, a completely redesigned device that utilises a new controller with a built-in touch screen display. Microsoft showcased more titles for their latest platform Kinect (a device that captures the users movements and actions, making people the controller) and Sony try to push their Move controller (based on the Wiimote, it interprets the user gestures and movements into the game). It seems like the big three are forgetting about the people who used to buy their products ten years ago, the hard-core gamers. In a bid to push their new devices to the main stream public, there was very little mention about games that didn't involve waving your arms in front of a TV screen or jumping up in down in your living room. Call me old-fashioned, but I care about games that are filled with game play and a deep story rather than games that leave me a in a sweat and looking like an idiot.
Ever since Nintendo released the Wii back in 2006, Sony and Microsoft have been playing catch up, desperately trying better Nintendo's attempt of making gaming available of the masses. Video games have long been associated with a small group of people, generally male and in their early teens. However Nintendo broke that trend and made a console designed for the mass market, bringing mum and dads, grans and grand dad's in on video gaming. To be fair to Nintendo, they have done well with the Wii. It was a great success, selling 89 million units so far (33 million more that the PS3 and Xbox 360) making it Nintendo's best-selling games control. As far as Nintendo is concerned they had achieved what they set out, making Video gaming more appealing to the main stream market.
However as a by-product of making video gaming more appealing to a wider audience, (In my opinion) the games became easier and less appealing to the hard-core gamer. I think, in a trade-off between making games more appealing to a wider audience, Nintendo have alienated the people who might have bought their controls 10 years ago. The question is, while the big three pushing their latest devices, how long will it be before we see established PS3 and Xbox franchises such as Final Fantasy, Call of Duty and Gears of War adopt motion controlling. I cant imagine playing my favourite games without a controller joystick in my hand. For example at E3 this year, Lion head studios (The developer of the Fable series) announced they would be releasing Fable: The Journey. The new title in the series would abandon the traditional controller, in favour of adopting Microsoft Kinect. Watching the trailer it looked very promising, letting the user cast spells and fire guns by just using gestures with their hands, until it became clear that you didn't control your characters movements, just where he fired his guns. Essentially the game's character was on rails, in a fixed place until you defeated the enemy's on the screen. The ability to roam around freely and adventure on your own (One of Fables previous selling points) has been removed in favour for motion gaming. I don't think I'm the only person to feel cheated that one of my favourite franchise title's gameplay had been watered down to take advantage of gimmicky motion gaming.
To close, I hope Sony and Microsoft don't forget about their loyal following that appreciate games which involve depth and gameplay and don't sell substandard games in order to appeal a wider audience. Call me old-fashioned or a skeptic but I would prefer playing Skyrim or Call of duty sitting on a sofa and not waving a remote in front of a TV, and I hope I'm not the only one.
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Liam Miller
Jackal Computers
http://www.jackalcomputers.co.uk/
