The People Have Spoken. . .They Will Speak Again

Now that all the Federal stuff has wrapped up in an upset, it is my belief that we are about to experience an upset of a much Geekier kind in November 2006. And the bloodshed begins in earnest this weekend.

That’s because Nintendo and Sony both release their next gen consoles, and it’s about it get interesting.

The reason is this: The new Xbox has been out for a while and it’s going pretty good, but it’s a one trick pony. Without the Halo franchise it really doesn’t have much pull. The new Playstation 3 from Sony (the reigning champion on the console scene) has the momentum of the first two Playstations to ride on, but Sony seems to be thinking they are a little unstoppable with a might $500.00+ price tag on that thing. And for what--better graphics is all I’m hearing. Not terribly compelling for the outlay of that kind of cash. The heavy duty gamers will fork it over, of course, but mom and pop for the kiddies will be a different story, I predict.

I’m calling the victory early on this one. And the crown, in my opinion, will be going to the Nintendo Wii. Yes, from Nintendo. Such a distant third Nintendo that most people probably didn't even know they were still in the race, speck on the horizion Nintendo. They're coming back, and back to the top I believe. A spot they haven't occupied since Mario was running around college dorm rooms in the early 90s.

From the buzz I’ve heard, this thing is going to do well, in spite of it’s completely lamo name. The reason is this: they are totally redefining how people interact with video games. They’ve re-imagined how it could go, and it seems to be striking a cord. If you haven’t heard, they have a wireless controller that is motion sensitive, so you are acting out the movements and the characters on the screen mimic your movements. So if you are playing baseball, you actually are swinging the controller like a bat. If you are a warrior, the control is your sword. If you golf, you use your swing from the course.

And that will open up video game play to a whole new set of players---people who are overwhelmed by the standard, button crunching type controller game play. I see my dad playing with the kids when he can just use the controller like a regular golf club. And all of this innovation for less than $250.00---the least expensive of all three. They win on play, they win on price. How does anyone hope to stop these guys?

This is going to be good. Let the games begin!

I now return you to your regular, less geeky programming.