Handful of Nothing

So simple, yet so powerful to the already casual-king console of all time =)

Take your time to see it. Ok, in a land of hoax this could be fake, parents could be playing behind the camera (a little to far, but could work) but see how the little boy actually understands a little bit the mechanic and at least wave his wiimote in the correct time sometimes. That’s creepy. I can’t wait to see what our kids will be able to do when they reach our age =)

Cool. pretty cool.

Marcelo

So you can read here that these guys at apple inside think that apple’s recent game designers hiring is a signal that the Cupertino company is aspiring to enter the Console market. I really don’t think so, and I think apple’s hiring has other meaning: Focus on great application.

Great gamedesigners have a set of common skills : ability to entertain the user. Lock them into an experience that he fells part of it and can “evolve” in it. Deep understand of user aspiration. They know how to keep the user excited while using their software. So what if Apple has just again foreseen the importance of immersing users into more game-like experiences. I think this is just a warning signal for usability professionals out there =) New times are coming, even if Apple is REALLY thinking about the console market.

Ok, I understand that Brazil is known for the piracy and everything, but there’s also serious gamers like myself, and I would really like to be able to buy consoles and games just like a american guy or european or a japanese can do.
Why can’t I do that? I will show you.

Let’s do first some benchmarks :
imagine that a very good salary for a software developer here in brazil is 5.000 reais. That gives you some 2000 dollars, but if you compare with a guy in the US, it can be almost 1 by 1. So they guy in the US, goes in the store… and want’s to buy a ps3.
He pays 499 dollars, and 60 bucks for a game. and go home. spending a little bit more than 15% of his salary to buy it all.

In Brazil the same guy would have to pay 8000 reais, or 3711 USD. so, more then 1 full salary (not excluding taxes) to have a ps3 at home.

What’s so funny : with 8k reais, I can leave know, pick a flight to new york, buy a ps3 there, come back and I will almost have some money to spend in beers.

This should be a joke but it’s not. What makes me mad is the gov saying : we need to protect the local industry. Sorry politicians… no game industry here.. or even signal of plans for it.

It seems that Nintendo is getting ready to shake the 3rd console generation pretty hard. To be able to buy one Wii + xbox360 + games for the price of one psp does sound incredible, and even more incredible is that the price of 1 xbox360 you can buy 1 wii + 2 games + accessories =) Yeah. yeah yeah! I think it’s time to prepare my wallet and get ready to enter the 3rd gaming era. Brazil really sucks for buying those consoles, but I will be riding one Wii as soon as possible!

[ youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/ljZOHnZNaBc]

After some problems with it’s dual shock controls (force feedback mainly) from Sony, now it’s time to see Microsoft e Nintendo face some trouble with controls and patents. Some Texan company has sued both companies from breaching a bunch of patents with it’s gamepads. Take a look at some of the patents name :

Variable Sensor with Tactile Feedback / Analog Controls Housed with Electronic Displays
Remote Controller with Analog Pressure Sensor / Analog Sensor with Snap Through Tactile Feedback
3D Controller with Vibration / Variable Conductance Sensor
Game Controller with Analog Pressure Sensor / Variable Conductance Sensor with Elastomeric Dome Cap
Remote Controller with Analog Button / Image Controller with Sheet Connected Sensor
Game Control with Analog Pressure Sensor

Again: this simply blows my mind. What a fuck is a company that does nothing related to videogame doing claiming technology ownership on something that they didn’t released any comercial product using it?

This whole patent thing is becoming more and more a *** in the a***, with zero-products company creating patents on everything just waiting to see someone using those in some products, sue them and make some money. God, please keep those stupid patents in the US only. Please!

Nintendo is shaping up what I assume to be the killer strategy for next-gen gaming. Many specialist were saying that the decision of going below in hardware power and not above but in a different direction in gameplay, was too risky and that we are going to see Nintendo loosing the console war.

I couldn’t disaagre more. Why? Simply! In the last few months I’ve watching people playing with my nintendo ds and fighting to leave it behind. Nintendo is really catching up both with casual gamers that were bored like hell to play actual games and the hardcore gamers that are having great fun with incrediable releases like the new super mario, animal crossing etc.

This baby is now part of my collection, it came only with video cable missing, but it comes with almost everything from the original pack : paper money, roulette coins, cards, inlays (2 sizes), some gameboards and 2 controls. Just incredible to see it boxed in a incredible condition.

Unfortunately it maybe go away from me, : / I will maybe post it on brazilian ebay. let’s see what happens.

So now we have an official price for the next-generation star console! Nintendo has officialy released the price tag of 250 USD for it’s new revolutionary console. I hope to put my hands on one of this beauty at least after 1 month of launch!