“Okay kids, on the starting line. Standard rules: first to 10 million wins — and GO!”
If the console wars were a 10 million yard dash, this is more or less how it’d work — according to Microsoft, anyway. But hey, they already won, right? Who can dispute them?
Oh, right. Everyone.
So, of course, it was only a matter of time until someone pushed through the boisterous crowds to beg the question that’s been on everyone’s minds: How do we know when somebody has won? That man was Game|Life‘s Chris Kohler, and Microsoft’s Shane Kim was his elusive target.
“When can we call it?” Kohler queried.
“When somebody’s well on their way to reaching 100 million units,” was Kim’s terse reply.
Definitely have to agree with him there. 100 million units is a champagne bottle-popping victory in just about anyone’s book. Kim continued:
“Well, it is [a long time]. But this is only the third year of our existence and only the second year of Sony and Nintendo’s existence. Are we just amusing ourselves by trying to declare a winner and loser while the customers are still out there deciding?”
Kim then highlighted Sony’s dominance last console generation and how it merely built upon the success of the original PlayStation. This time around, however, things are different. The PlayStation 3 is lagging behind, clutching its side with nearly 10 million yards worth of cramping. “Will they get to expand beyond 35, 40 million to 100 million? Will anybody? I mean, that’s going to be an interesting thing to see: Will there be a clear cut winner like there has been in the last two generations?” Kim wondered.
He certainly raises a valid point. Last time around, the PS2 deftly took advantage of its head start and never chanced a glance backward. Its wizened predecessor, the PS1, served to propel it on to inevitable triumph. But this time, all of the competitors have changed places, with only Nintendo pulling from a treasure trove of blue shells. At this point, it’s anyone’s race.
In the same interview, Kohler asked Kim about Microsoft’s worst kept secret, its Wii-mote rival.
“If you want to say that that means we’re working on something, that’s up to you,” Kim said, somewhat miffed. “Here’s my point about hardware: You know that we’re investing pretty heavily into hardware, online services, and content. And regardless of what that underlying technology is, we’re going to continue to push innovation in a whole bunch of different places. Whether that’s in motion-sensing or some other area, we’ll see.”
Innovation in the same sense that stealing a child from the playground is giving birth to that child? Well, regardless of semantics, Kim’s vague response to the motion controller question only serves to raise gamers’ suspicions even further. I’ll bet my hat, we’ll see Microsoft’s magic wand* at E3. Any takers?
*No, not that wand.
