Microsoft Wins Round 1, Nintendo Guns For Round 2

By William Usher: 2006-11-26 00:00:00

Microsoft Wins Round 1, Nintendo Guns For Round 2

After the limited supply of Xbox 360 SKUs made a "world-wide" debut last year, it looked like Microsoft had everything in the bag for the first year of the next-gen. A less-than-stellar launch title line-up and two different units to choose from (one with a hard drive and one without), still managed to grant a narrow step of success for Microsoft.

With over 7 million units of the Xbox 360 already sold...to say MS has a small lead on their competitors would be a bit of an understatement. However, even with the over-hype of Gears of War, the 360 has been the shadow of the “next-gen” throughout the fall season. Even though record sales of the cinematic action-shooter have surpassed the sales of Halo 2's launch – according to a press release by Microsoft – the 360 has only been a silhouette of the next-gen talk.

So what happened to the 360 after its prominent (but messy) launch? And has Microsoft really steam-rolled into the next-generation with the big brother of the original Xbox? Well, basically Microsoft’s problem right now is the problem they had with the original Xbox after either Halo game was released: Lack of software support. Gears of Wars and Viva Pinata aren’t enough to tear gamers away from the promising eye-candy of the PS3 and the revolutionary gameplay concepts behind the Wii.

Instead of abandoning the original Xbox, Microsoft should have had an all-star lineup of exclusive titles for both systems. That’s exactly what Sony did with the PS2, leading up to the launch of the PS3. Final Fantasy XII and Guitar Hero II are among a few elite titles exclusive for the PS2, making it a lesser priority but a formidable asset in Sony’s gaming repertoire. Nevertheless, Microsoft’s back-burning in the next-gen debut of the PS3 and Wii isn’t much of a surprise. It was quite obvious that besides Gears of War, the Xbox 360 was going to be a sitting duck once Nintendo’s and Sony’s systems launched.

So while round 1 of the next-gen war was easily won by Microsoft with a one year jumpstart, round 2 is starting to look like the 360 has a lot of gusto but no clear fighting direction. Yes, Microsoft did recently start a digital distribution service of movies and television programs for the 360, but that hasn’t done much but cripple the Xbox Live service. Maybe next time, in the face of competition, instead of trying to revolutionize the digital age with something new and risky Microsoft should just focus on stabilizing the core product. This means that maybe they should seek to provide gamers with a larger variety of games, so even if they decide to take some other risk with their next system it’ll at least have a heavy backing of software. In all honesty, that was the Xbox’s downfall; a lot of power but not a lot of software support.

And even though Sony’s hardware beast packs some serious power to its punch, the PS3 is sort of like a nuclear warhead without an accompanying army: Very powerful but useless without reinforcements. Like the 360's launch, the PS3 sold out – due to limited supplies – but has a meager and almost pathetic launch title line-up. While Resistance Fall of Man has an impressive multiplayer mode, the game fails to do anything strikingly next-gen. Yet Resistance FOM is the spotlight title for Sony’s system and that makes everything else seem...well, pathetic. Review scores haven’t been particularly forgiving toward Sony’s launch title line-up either, as Genji: Days of the Blade has done nothing but fail to impress. All of this is coupled with super-expensive controllers, a promising yet weak online service, and no mascot games to lead the wave of launch titles.

The Wii on the other hand, has managed to do something both Microsoft and Sony failed to do with their next-gen outings...it delivered next-gen gameplay. Wii Sports is an ugly little game, but it’s easily addictive and fun in an arcade sort of way. Wii Sports is remarkable only because of the Wii-mote, though. Seemingly, the Wii-mote has provided gamers with an alternative source of interaction, and there was nothing gaudy about the Wii’s launch. It came, it delivered, and Nintendo didn’t over-promote something that was destined to disappoint. Right off the bat consumers are loving the little Wii despite its lacking horse power or graphical prestige. Nintendo’s aim wasn’t to directly compete with Microsoft and Sony, so they had said nearly a year ago – but the Wii has managed to do so indirectly. With a much stronger third-party launch lineup than the Gamecube, and exclusive control schematics, the Wii is offering something different, even though it’s offering the same games as the other two systems. So long as the Wii continues to receive strong third-party support the system is destined to not fail. And so far, Nintendo is off to a great start.

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