Head honcho of Microsoft Europe was quick to put down the Wii in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz recently. He is of the mind that success in the mass market is determined less by gameplay and more by other factors. The way we've always seen it, games define the system.Now that the Xbox 360 apparently got a price cut over there, it's being offered to consumers for less money than the Wii. Lewis thinks that the price of the 360, along with its games and digital entertainment distribution capabilities will ultimately help it win the console war. He thinks these factors will lead the 360 being seen as a console with more rich content, whereas the Wii is kind of like the 'party appeal' system.
"I think you've got to be prepared to be appealing in lots of different areas and make sure you don't become something that only gets yanked out of a cupboard at Christmas and particularly holiday peaks and doesn't really get used the rest of the time," Lewis comments. "I think you've got to be careful with that. I think our depth and breadth of experience will ensure that we never get in any way put into the cupboard in that way."
Either way you slice it, playing has been believing and we're not sure Lewis' approach is going to help the 360 dethrone Wii in the territory.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-20-2008 @ 6:39PM
CJ said...
The 360 seems like a replace once-in-awhile console to me
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3-20-2008 @ 6:46PM
sn1per said...
More like "replace regularly". 30% failure rates are kind of a big deal.
3-21-2008 @ 6:11AM
ssuk said...
According to independent insurance companies, the figure is more around 20%, but I'll just sit here quietly.
3-20-2008 @ 6:42PM
Roto13 said...
The headline should probably be something closer to "Microsoft Europe's Chris Lewis wags penis, nobody sees"
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3-20-2008 @ 6:45PM
Mr Khan said...
It's the software, stupid. If the 360 pulls ahead, it will be because of the software
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3-20-2008 @ 7:32PM
MegaWatts said...
I know this is a fanboy site but honestly, as a owner of all 3 consoles I can honestly say he is dead right.
As much as you want to make fun of the 360 and how easy it is to do, keep in mind they have a MUCH MUCH higher games attach rate than the Wii or even the PS3. On top of that they have the wickedly addictive and well organized LIVE experience with Friends lists, Audio and Video chats, etc...
Im sure there are many Wii owners out there that only have Wii Sports for their console.
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3-21-2008 @ 10:13AM
Jack said...
But what you really meant to say was, "but honestly, in MY CASE he is absolutely right." Correct?
3-21-2008 @ 10:43AM
iMarc said...
What is the attach rate of the 360 vs. the Wii?
It seems that every week, when the software numbers come out, there are twice as many Wii software titles sold as 360 titles.
I expected the attach rate to be higher last summer when they had both sold about the same number of units simply because the 360 had been out 18 months vs. 6 months for the Wii, but is that still a true statistic?
3-20-2008 @ 7:33PM
Perverted said...
Anti-M$ here I see.....
I don't see the 360 having more sales than the Wii anytime soon...but it will do better and lets not forget he works for MS so it's basically part of his job description to shoot down the competition....
But I will say what's wrong with being a party console? Brawl is awesome with 4 players and all the banter....To me that says: Wii = fun....
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3-20-2008 @ 7:40PM
Ninegauger said...
He's dead right. The console gets played when a new Nintendo game comes out and then I go back to the 360... though I do think Smash Bros. may be able to compete with Rock Band for party use now.
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3-20-2008 @ 8:15PM
Tom said...
Yeahhh, the 360 has SUCH variety. M rated shooters, M rated shooters, M rated shooters, M rated shooters, Rock Band.....The variety and depth on it is INCREDIBLE! Although I get it's part of his job to act like his system is superior, guess what? They had to drop the price. That means that they aren't SELLING enough 360s. I love the 360, but I really don't like it as much as my Wii. The 360 is mostly and Xbox with better graphics, while the Wii is truly next-gen. That is all.
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3-20-2008 @ 8:39PM
agelgamer said...
The Wii has crappy shovelware games. Cooking Mama? Major League Eating? COME ON!!! WTF is next? Major League Writing my name in the snow with the Wiimote?
I lost all respect for the Wii when Major League Eating was announced. Notice how THAT title, among other pieces of garbage weren't released on the other 2 consoles?
Not to mention SSBB is practically unplayable ONLINE. I think the consumers are going to start questioning the Wii library soon once the novelty of the controls wear off.
As for FPS's - yeah.. the 360 has it's fair share... so does the PS3...and the Wii - Gee... is Metroid a shooter? How about Red Steel? COD3? Funny how COD4 wasn't released on the Wii.
No High Def on the Wii - man... get with it... the prices have dropped dramatically on Flat Panel displays... you would've thought Nintendo would have said, "You know... HD isn't a big thing right now... but in 2-3 years... it might be... let's throw support for it anyways." Going from a 360 to a Wii is harsh in the visual department. IMO, a next gen experience is both in gameplay and visuals. Dolby ProLogic? Ugh. I'll take my Dolby Digital experience anyday. Hell, the ORIGINAL XBOX supported 5.1 surround sound!
As for lowering the price on the 360 - they're making hardware revisions which ultimately makes the 360 cheaper to produce. Be thankful, they're passing that savings onto the consumer and not keeping the price the way it is to make more of a profit.
3-20-2008 @ 10:11PM
Haohmaru said...
The rest of the frothing-mouth fanboy vitriole in your reply aside, Agel, I really have to address one thing: Metroid Prime is NOT an FPS. Sure, it's from a first-person perspective, and you do happen to shoot things as part of the experience, but at its core, it's still a Metroid game. They're all about exploration and solving puzzles; MP3 is no exception.
As for SSBB's online being practically unplayable online, I have yet to have any issues, and I play four-player matches pretty frequently.
That said, I enjoy my 360 just as much as I do my Wii.
3-20-2008 @ 10:33PM
WiiFTW said...
@agelgamer
Let's not forget that almost all console FPS (including X360 FPS) have shit for controls. Wiimote on the other hand is on-par with mouse/keyboard. Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 had great controls despite being an EA game. The only thing it lacked was realism on the part of how many shots from a gun could kill an enemy (EA's fault).
As far as Brawl, most people who have bought it or will buy it have IRL friends to play Brawl. And personally, I haven't had trouble with it.
How about the 30% failure rate on a rushed console? I think that's pretty not-next-gen.
Ask yourself honestly, what innovation is present in this gen (360) that wasn't present in its original? Graphics, which have changed every generation?
Then ask yourself what changed from the Gamecube to the Wii.
3-21-2008 @ 12:22AM
BDR said...
Apologies in advance for a tirade @ abelgamer (and Wii-haters in general :P)
I absolutely love it when someone who is clearly vehemently opposed to Nintendo and what they're doing comes to a FANBOY website to point out the flaws in the Wii. We own the console, we know its flaws. The last thing we need is some raving Xbox fan going on about HD and First-Person Shooters.
The people on this site support Nintendo, and by doing so we knew that there would be no High-Definition, and would probably be branded as "kiddy". But you know what? I'd rather have an innovative console that actually does SOMETHING other than a slight graphical push to change the way we play games. If that means I can't play many FPS games, then that's what I have to deal with. (Besides, a well-implemented Wii FPS would hands down beat the best control system the Xbox 360 or PS3 could ever offer up)
As for the games you mentioned, I don't even know where to begin. Major League Eating is a WiiWare game, and yes it will probably be a poor one, but look at the equivalent service on Xbox and you'll see a hell of a lot more bad independent games. Cooking Mama was the first game my younger female cousin ever played, but now she's already finished Mario Galaxy before me and is well into Twilight Princess. Games like that introduce more people to video games, and the more people the better.
The Wii is opening new doors for gaming, and injected a breath of fresh air into a stagnating industry. Yet we still have to put up with these "kiddy" "low-def" nonsense arguments. I find Metroid Prime 3 and Twilight Princess infinitely more mature than running around in circles firing off your gun at random people online. Go away, you aren't wanted here.
3-21-2008 @ 10:49AM
Jeff said...
"Be thankful, they're passing that savings onto the consumer and not keeping the price the way it is to make more of a profit."
hehehe... are they actually making a profit these days? as far as i knew, they were still selling it at a loss in a desperate attempt to 1) be relevant in the industry, and 2) lock more developers into their proprietary DirectX system.
But if they're finally making a profit, then kudos to them. :P
3-20-2008 @ 8:33PM
Max Headroom said...
I'll admit the first year for Wii was a little sparse with the games. We had a few megatons with Zelda, Prime 3, and Super Paper Mario, but the months in between were a little dry at times.
In contrast, now that the Wii is in its second year, there are already too many games for me to keep up with. Starting with Galaxy and continuing with Brawl, Mario Kart, and Wii Fit, Nintendo is swinging hard and fast with its properties. In addition, I see the third party support is seriously increasing. Games like Okami, Bully, House of the Dead, Baroque, and Ghost Squad might be ports, but they are high quality. Original games are still a bit lacking, but efforts like RE: Umbrella Chronicles and Sonic & Mario are selling quite well. This all shows that Wii owners are looking for a variety of gaming experiences including - but not limited to - party games.
He got it half right. The Wii is definitely a fun party system, but it is also certainly one that I've been spending many hours with playing solo.
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3-20-2008 @ 8:40PM
ALH said...
I agree with him. I dont think the 360 will dethrone the wii among casuals, its too much of a fad, but for a 'console' console the 360 is superior. I only touch my wii on occasion, and while it has value as a party system,i dont have anyone i can party with on a whim, and as a single player console the wii falls short. For some reason i find it really hard to get 'into' the tiny selection of deeper games the wii has to offer.
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3-20-2008 @ 8:51PM
3G58 said...
he looks like a gremlin
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3-21-2008 @ 1:26AM
Pointz said...
True dat, and it's his hair that's falling short.
3-21-2008 @ 6:15AM
ssuk said...
MS saying a competitor isn't worth it and that consumers should buy their products? Well, I never.
Seriously, this kind of shit shouldn't hit news outlets, it should be discarded and the people ridiculed. You're never going to get an unbiased opinion on a product from a company which has a product out there to rival said product. Of course they're going to say their product is the best one and everyone should buy it.
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3-21-2008 @ 9:42AM
Jeremy said...
I do have to admit that last gen Microsoft had a hit with the XBOX but now that they are on their second console they like many others are not so enticing. I am one who did fork out the money for the 360 but I was kind of disappointed when I realized that it was nothing more than the original with better graphics. IMO the two consoles that did step up was the PS3 and Wii. Sure Sony started off with a bad start but they are now catching up and they have had IMO some major upgrades from the PS2. Now Nintendo took a different approach and didn't up the graphics all that much but they did develop a whole new way of gaming. In all honesty I think that the 360 will fall short this gen and the winner will be a hard one to see between the PS3 and Wii. I feel that Microsoft will end up left in the dust within the next year or so. Also if you visit pawn shops or stores that sell used consoles you will find that their are many used 360s compared to the other two. At one point or another I have been a fan of all three companies and in one way if not more I have also not liked each company and this gen the 360 is my turn off.
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3-21-2008 @ 2:13PM
Mr Khan said...
Really, I feel the opposite. The Xbox was everything to hate about American products in a box, from the very name (X appeals to the Xtreme Mountain Dew generation, gag), to the fact that it was big, clunky, black, and powerful, and had a severe lack of software variety
360 >>>> Original Xbox. Even though i enjoyed Halo 2 (who didn't?) and a handful of other things, the console, in and of itself, was an abomination
3-21-2008 @ 9:50AM
Ryan Hartman said...
It's silly to even compare the two consoles honestly. The Xbox360 is very much a traditional gaming console and gaming experience. The Wii -- is something new. It's it's own little "thing." I don't even consider it a video game console since the majority of "video games" in the next gen market are going to PS3/Xbox. The stuff that goes to the Wii are "interactive virtual entertainment discs" ... not video games.
It's two seperate categories. For my money, I prefer the xbox, but not because I hate the Wii or feel threatened by it like some weirdos. It's mainly because I'm lazy. I don't like flailing around for too long. Also I like RPGs and traditional gaming formats done in a familiar and accessable manner.
Don't get me wrong, I like my Wii, I play it and I have a good time with it ... but the elements I look for in terms of what a "video game" represents seem to fall more on the PS3/Xbox side of things.
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3-24-2008 @ 11:26AM
agelgamer said...
@Haohmaru
MP3 IS a FPS.... every single review site calls it a FPS. Prey on the 360 has complex puzzles and exploration as well - and yes... it's a FPS.
Ok.. dig up the RROD.... the failure rate was high. So what? I bought an extended warranty. Didn't have to wait to get mine replaced. You can search You Tube for Wii and PS3 failures as well so don't tell me that the Wii doesn't have problems of its own.
I OWNED a Wii for about 3 months when it first came out - my son loved Excite Truck, Bowling was fun for a while, and Red Steel - wasn't as cool to play as the demos online showed for being a "next-gen" game.
Not to mention entering Mii codes online is a pain in the ass. The game shortage after the release wasn't great either. Delay after delay - while the other 2 consoles were releasing new games? As a consumer, I didn't want this thing to be gathering dust after only owning it for 3 months just wait for the "next big thing from Nintendo."
So I sold it. Big deal. It wasn't for me. I've tried most of the new releases at my local ebgames on the Wii and I still think selling it was a good idea.
When the Wii came out, it was meant for the casual gaming crowd - the "once in a while" crowd. I'm a hardcore PC gamer (FPS, RTS, RPG) turned console gamer. So my main choices were the 360 or PS3. The PS3 was a year late so I'm not going to be jumping ship just to get the PS3 when I have most of the AAA titles on the 360.
I don't see anything wrong with Chris Lewis' comments because I know a lot of friends who have both the Wii and the 360 and we all agree, the Wii only comes out when we've got a group of people together. We all regularly game on XBOX Live the rest of the time.
Since the Wii doesn't have 5.1 sound (which both the last-gen XBOX and PS2 had) and HD graphics, it seems to me that the ONLY next gen feature of the Wii is the Wiimote itself (and the balance board). If you look at the multiplatform releases the only thing different on the Wii is : a) low graphics, b) Dolby ProLogic (not 5.1), and c) the control scheme.
Of course, having HD graphics and 5.1 audio on the Wii would make it cost more - guess you do get what you pay for.
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