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Lifer
- Apr 29, 2003
- 48,920
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Originally posted by: BoberFett
Yeah, and peripherals are always such hot sellers. The only console peripherals that sell at all are those specific to a specific best selling game. See DDR or Guitar Hero for example. Those are two popular peripherals, but how many games outside their original game and it's sequels use those controls? None. The problem with requiring a peripheral means you cut your market severely. Publishers want to hit a maximum audience, so they shoot for a baseline system, and in the case of Sony and MS that means a standard control.
I don't count Sony's motion sensitivity, because from what I've read it's pretty pathetic compared to the Wii. An afterthought that they added only because the Wii had it. And this was after Sony publicly stated that the Wii was a joke and that nobody would be interested in that "gimmick."
Exactly right. Since I started playing games, there have been oodles of peripherals intended to create a more immersive experience. I remember back when Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II came out, you could buy a device that was a ring with sensors around it. You'd stand in the ring and punch and kick. Incredibly stupid idea - who can punch as fast in real life as you can in a video game? But I digress. There have been tons of these peripherals, some good and some bad, but almost all are unsuccessful for the reason you mentioned. No one wants to develop a game that will have its audience limited by possession of a peripheral. It takes a really good game to get people to shell out money for the game plus more for the peripheral. $80 for a game is a hard pill to swallow.
So what Nintendo did was they made the peripheral standard and multi-purpose. They solved the problem that made so many other good peripherals failures.
