Microsoft to sell Xbox One without Kinect. Removes requirement for gold on apps

[Bolivar]

You talk about Sony being innovative. It isn't, at all. What it has is a system that caters enough to third party and indie devs that it allows them to be innovative with its system. Flower, Journey, and Final Fantasy aren't Sony products (and Final Fantasy is hardly selling because of "innovation", just an FYI), they're third party products that have done incredibly well on Sony consoles.

I'm not sure you're really up to speed on this front Sky. You just can't compare the interesting twists you mentioned in Zelda to what Little Big Planet accomplished for user generated content on consoles or the storytelling risks taken by Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls. And from what I understand, Flower and Journey were co-developed by Sony Santana Monica. Demon's Souls, arguably the most influential game of last generation, came about from a similar arrangement with Japan Studio.

If you want to make a case for Nintendo over Microsoft and Sony, innovation is not one of the categories you should pursue.

[Loony BoB]

Nintendo releasing their games on multiple consoles would be the worst thing they could do. It would absolutely destroy them as a hardware producer. As soon as they made that shift, they would basically never sell another console.

I don't mean all their games. Just once per generation, say. Or put out another TV series or something for their next IP, I dunno. But they need to hook people in and right now they are not gaining new fans because the only way to introduce yourself to Nintendo is to buy one. There is no "try before you buy".

You talk about Sony being innovative. It isn't, at all. What it has is a system that caters enough to third party and indie devs that it allows them to be innovative with its system. Flower, Journey, and Final Fantasy aren't Sony products (and Final Fantasy is hardly selling because of "innovation", just an FYI), they're third party products that have done incredibly well on Sony consoles.

Sorry, I never intended to say that Sony were innovating software, but indeed that they actively promote software innovation and are happy to market it. Although I will note that Flower and Journey were financed entirely by Sony. Nintendo do not market the Wii U third party software at all.

Also, Nintendo does innovate in software, even on its major franchises. If you take a look at The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, at first glance it will seem like just a High Definition version of Link to the Past. But it is actually is one of the most innovative games in the franchise, serving up a huge amount of changes to the series formula (all of which works brilliantly).

Again, this is good and all, but if it's not what is being marketed nobody is ever going to pay it much attention in the long run unless they're already using Nintendo.

[Skyblade]

Which is why, as I said, their biggest problems are lack of third-party support and horrible marketing.

[Dat Matt]

General lack of games in general for the Wii U is an issue. I'm excited to see what's coming from the next E3. If any of the games that have been leaked are true we are expecting to see 5 or 6 new games by the end of the year, with half of them being 3rd party. People keep on suggesting that they buy back rareware and reboot the Banjo and Kazooe series. I wonder how that would turn out.