Topic: Watch Out Wii, Here Comes Fusion

[Strell]

No way would a fourth company try to enter the race.

Sega already died, and despite how stupid they are, even they know how bad of an idea that would be at this point.

A fourth party wouldn't get the developer support and also cannot offer anything the big three already can, will, and do.  MS has your PC integration and XBL, Nintendo has their interface and proven first parties and portable market, and Sony has their own media capabilities and exclusives.

Hell, three consoles is almost too much.  Almost.  

I'm going to assume no one can adequately offer what the Wii can do, third party peripheral or not.  We'll see what happens down the line.

[MaryJane]

I was playing Devil's Advocate.

this is like the armageddon scenario.

hopefully reality will be much less severe.  

[Edfishy]

I can easily see both Microsoft and Sony releasing a controller much like the Fusion's two-piece game pad with Wiimote pointer and accelerometer abillities.  The controllers would be an ideal replacement for the standard gamepad on the systems, as newer games could support things like using the pointer to browse through menus, etc, but developers wouldn't be forced to use the technology in their games if they didn't want to.  Exactly like the worthless Dual Shock analog sticks.

In the end, the underpowered Wii would still have developers who are a bit more supportive of mastering the gesture system and focusing on fun simple gameplay in their games.

In any case, if the Wii becomes a success, the technology will be as common as the analog stick. Or as the saying goes, "if the shirt fits, wear it.".

[GoldenPhoenix]

Maybe I'm misstaken but wasn't it stated that the Wii hardware was built around the Wiimote or something to that effect? If this is true I could see some incompatibility issues for Xbox 360 and PS3.  

[SixthAngel]

The sound emitter is absolutely huge.  The thing looks bigger then the ps3.  I find it unlikely for people to want to set up something so big in addition to the main console.

For this to take off the Wii would already have to be a big hit.  Can the average person tell you the name of the ipods competitors?  Exactly.  Besides everything is in the concept stages with computer generated models, this is a looong way off.

[MaryJane]

I wasn't sure where to put this but it makes sense somewhat to be here since it outlines the Wii so well and makes me a little bit more skeptical as to other companies introduction to motion sensing.

They would probably want to do something more well designed than the Fusion and more akin to the Wii this is actually a very well done presentation of everything Wii from IGN.

It also says it will have a section for software up on the 31st. I wonder if this is when NOA will F**KING FINALLY release the full launch list for the U.S with V.C games as well.

[couchmonkey]

The thing about someone copying Wii two or three years down the road is that Wii would have hundreds of games and probably tens of millions of users.  Why would you want to buy an imitation with only a handful of games?  Let's call the imitation T-Bone.

1. T-Bone has better graphics, oh no!
But if Wii is already such a big success that someone is releasing a whole new system to imitate it, then we know for a fact that better graphics aren't much of a selling point since PS3 and 360 had noticeably better graphics all along!  T-bone would also have to cost more than Wii, and again, its game lineup would be pitiful by comparison - T-bone is to Wii as 3DO was to SNES and Genesis

2. T-Bone has better motion capture, oh no!
I notice that the Fusion thingies try to boast superior motion capture abilites - they'll work without a direct line of sight, and under any lighting conditions.  However, videos show that they have just as much lag as Wii (if not more) and they probably have other issues we don't know about.  Instead of light interference, maybe you need to worry about sound interference.  At any rate, T-Bone would need to feature much better motion capture than Wii before it would really matter, because consumers are still looking at T-Bone's 10-20 game launch lineup and wondering why they should buy that instead of Wii.

3. T-Bone has a better Virtual Console...oh wait, no it doesn't.  Nobody will ever have a better virtual console, at least not for the forseeable future, because Nintendo has the best game lineup of any developer in the past 20-odd years, and it has secured the support of many other key developers.

Basically Sony and Microsoft are out there now trying to convince us not to invest in Wii, and they're going to use this development to try and scare you, but we shouldn't be scared.  Right now the scare tactic is, "A Wii killer is right around the corner - look at these!"  A Wii killer is not impossible, but it needs to come to market by next Christmas if it wants to be effective, and I think Sony and Microsoft are still too busy fighting each other to bother.  A surprise contendor is possible, but not probable.  Nobody but Microsoft has made a serious attempt at entering the industry since Neo Geo pocket and Wonderswan died.

/end FANBOY.