HD Gaming Overrated

[flash]

I've owned many gaming consoles over the years and I prefer the 360 right now due to the Live experience.
A lot of the games I play, I can't play with my son due to the violent nature and graphics (GOW, GRAW2 etc....) of the games I play.

Now with respect to the Wii....... I will probably pick one up for my son when the price dips to around $150. It's just a pricepoint for me. I can just sell our Gamecube to somebody for around $25- $50 or so. I've talked to a few friends who own the Wii and they
say they haven't picked up the their 360 controller since picking up the Wii. Now in all
fairness, they play the games as a family which adds to it's attractiveness.

I think there is room in the household for more than one console due to each having their own niche market (as long as someone can afford more than one console)

[picopir8]

All of this could be supported through peripherals and coding.  There's nothing inherent in the Wii controller that couldn't be copied by Microsoft or Sony.  It just depends on whether or not they decide the market wants to see it added.

Scott

I highly doubt it.  Consoles tend to be manufactured w/o upgradability in mind and they tend to make use of every resourse w/o little to no overhead to spare. While there are some things that can be done in software, there are a lot of hardware limitations that would need to be worked around, and you cant just change everything up because you still have to support the existing controllers.

I have no clue what the protocol is like for the different consoles but the wireless controllers most likely send a packet of data at regular intervals that contains an A/D reading for each control axis and a single bit for each button d-pad quadrant.  If any console manufacturer wanted to create a new controller with more contol axis or more buttons then they either need to do some sort of time sharing (ie every even packet corresponds to one set of axis and every odd packet corresponds to another) but that would make the controls much less responsive.  The other option is for the new controller to send half its packets as controller 1 and half the packets as controller 2 but then you cant have as many players.

Its may be possible to do but the result would not meet consumer demand.  Secondly, you would have to convince game designers to use the new hardware while still supporting the old.  That would be a hard sell.

[SRW1000]

I highly doubt it.  Consoles tend to be manufactured w/o upgradability in mind and they tend to make use of every resourse w/o little to no overhead to spare. While there are some things that can be done in software, there are a lot of hardware limitations that would need to be worked around, and you cant just change everything up because you still have to support the existing controllers.

I have no clue what the protocol is like for the different consoles but the wireless controllers most likely send a packet of data at regular intervals that contains an A/D reading for each control axis and a single bit for each button d-pad quadrant.  If any console manufacturer wanted to create a new controller with more contol axis or more buttons then they either need to do some sort of time sharing (ie every even packet corresponds to one set of axis and every odd packet corresponds to another) but that would make the controls much less responsive.  The other option is for the new controller to send half its packets as controller 1 and half the packets as controller 2 but then you cant have as many players.

Its may be possible to do but the result would not meet consumer demand.  Secondly, you would have to convince game designers to use the new hardware while still supporting the old.  That would be a hard sell.

Both HD game systems have USB ports that could easily be adapted for new controllers.  

They could be mapped to the traditional control screen, for games not created specifically for it.  Other games could get compatibility updates via downloadable content on the web.  Other games could be written specifically for the new controllers.

It all depends on whether or not the marketing groups see the Wii's controller scheme as a legitimate threat.  If, through long-term use, it's only seen as gimmick, they won't develop it.  But, if consumers are sold on it, I'm sure we'll see something similar (if not better).

Scott