Watching the Sony press conference today I was thinking about the Wii U...
There's been a lot of speculation whether the Wii U using not exactly next-gen tech would hurt Nintendo with game support and with consumers in the long run. But to be honest, after seeing the conference, i'm not so sure anymore.
To the average joe, do these games really look that much better? Is the average consumer really going to want to upload his videos to the web and share them with all his friends?... I almost feel the Wii U has become a more attractive system after the press conference, especially if Nintendo is able to drop the price of the U by the launch of the next-gen consoles.
To be honest, I am not sure... it really depends on the development cycle this time around, the games that are offered and the price of the system.
I will not fool myself, what Sony showed was impressive... BUT, I am going to go out on a limb and say that it does look costly. I am not really sure that moving to X86 is as big of a benefit as it seems, but the RAM is than that might factor into a few more things... And there are quite a few variables in what Sony presented that have yet to be set.
As a machine that plays "The AAA experience," Sony seems to be ok... but that is not really what I want.
Call me odd, but I like Sony and Nintendo when they embrace that awkward weirdness that they got... I would like more experiments, more risk taking with games, game-play, features, etc. I didn't see that there (nor did I expect much of that), but I didn't expect that Sony would be playing it so... safe.
I am not really sure that Sony has given Nintendo a reason to divert their attention from their own issues with the 3DS and Wii U, Valve and the rumour mill around Apple.
E3 MIGHT change that, but I not really sure based on what I just seen yesterday. Sony seems to just want to deliver more of the same... which is not bad, but again... that is not what I want.
What I can say for sure is this... Sony will have to convince the consumer that they offer something great for the value of the system. Price of the device will factor into that greatly.
If everything is as rumoured (which given the accurately based on yesterday, is to be considered)... Sony will have a tough time with $400+ with what is, at it's core, a souped-up PC.