E3 2009: Microsoft’s Conference (and Nintendo’s innovations)
I just finished watching the Microsoft press conference for E3 2009 and I have to say that I’m pretty pleased with their offering. They had some really solid looking games coming soon. Social networking ties. Video upgrades. A whole new way to interact with your Xbox360. I’m happy Microsoft is bringing all this to my Xbox 360, but what I thought after I was all done is about how much I respect and will ALWAYS own a Nintendo console. Let me explain real quick..
I can quote the famous South Park episode in which everything ever done is responded to with a simple “Simpsons Did It!”. It just amazes me that every large innovation in video gaming was initiated by Nintendo. I think about the first gamepad most of us played with with the NES and think about where Sega went with it shortly after wards. They made it a little curvier and added an extra button. The basic idea was the same just slightly modified. Then came the N64 which brought a multitude of new innovations to gaming that were soon adopted. That analog stick you see on every major console in production since the N64. Then there was the Rumble Pack that was released for the N64. How many of us gamers have a hard time playing a game without that feedback that was introduced into every console as a standard feature after that? 3D games were also a very big step forward coming into the N64 and now you’ll be hard pressed to find games that aren’t. Now, this is a lot of Nintendo love for 1 paragraph. I’ll admit that I can’t think of much in the world of innovation when it comes to the GameCube, but I also can’t think of anything done by Microsoft or Sony that pretty pushed the envelope either. The latest innovation is getting us lazy gamers up off the couch to actually move around a little bit while we play games. Sony soon tried to follow suit with a really awful implementation in the SixAxis controller and now Microsoft is following suit by offering their own ‘get up off the couch’ solution. One that I’m certain they would not be showing off right now if the Wii wasn’t doing as well as it is. I’m not hating on anyone here. It’s the nature of the beast. You invent something amazing that everyone wants and you’ll find all your competitors trying to one up you. The main point I’m trying to make, is that Nintendo always seems to be ahead of the curve on a very consistent basis. For this reason, I don’t care what their next console is, I will own one. Back to Microsoft..
