Quote: Originally Posted by foltzie Until I get to try one I dont know if it are easy to hold or not, The e3 reviewers indicated they were OK to hold, but as the old PA indicated, that is should not necessarily be assume to be a universal truth.

Perception carries a lot of weight though. The WiiU controller may be passable for comfort, but it certainly doesn't look that way.

Quote: Originally Posted by dmaul1114 In any case, taking a nice step forward in graphics will be key. Cutting edge graphics are huge in selling consoles to the core market. People are going to get whatever console Call of Duty, Madden etc. look the best on among the Nintendo, Sony and MS offering.

Not necessarily true. The Xbox was the most powerful console last gen and the PS3 is clearly more powerful than the 360 yet neither won over American gamers. The lesser powered PS2 and 360 trumped their more powerful competition. (and yes, the Wii trumped them all)

At this point I'm not so sure that we don't have hard and firm allegiances in place for all 3 companies. With online structures in place, friends and online purchases, who's to say people don't just stick with what they know next time out? It will take major bungling(think pre-PS3 launch or RROD) on all three companies parts to lose their existing base.

I am paid up for Live for 2-3 more years. I have a digital library of games and DLC tied to MS that I don't want to part with(assuming any of that content moves forward). As a consumer, I'm probably not going with the competition next time out simply because of that content. I'd venture there are a ton of people in the same boat for both 360 and PS3. Less so with Nintendo since they didn't offer much in the way of online stuff on the Wii.

Quote: Originally Posted by Blaster man Both companies took major losses at the start of this generation so I believe they are doing a sort of chicken game right now. Trying to see how long they can go without launching another console but they also don't want to launch a year after the other console. Everyone now knows that's a huge mistake.

Whenever they decide to launch, I think Microsoft will try and pull an Apple and announce at E3 and launch that fall, at least in America since this is their territory. Of course it would take some serious effort on their part to not have third parties leaking info to the press about games in the next-gen pipeline. This way Sony gets caught with their pants down and MS beats them by a year again, unless they have something waiting in the wings as well. With the hit they took on the PS3, I see them being very reactionary this time out.

Quote: Originally Posted by dmaul1114 I'll almost definitely go with only 1 again next gen if I do buy one. Most likely Xbox as I like their first party games more than Sony's. Though I'm pretty grumpy with their slow response to my account hacking currently.... I'll only get a Wii U if they have a lot more games that appeal to me than the Wii has had, and even then I'd only buy it later in the generation after a few price drops.

Same here. I own all three and next time out, one will probably suffice, and as I said above even not knowing anything about the next consoles, MS is likely to get my money.

I will concede that owning a Wii was nice for when the 360 was out for month long at a time repairs.

I can't rule out the WiiU though since Nintendo has so many killer franchises. It might be my first price drop Nintendo purchase.

Quote: Originally Posted by dmaul1114 I just hate doing anything at a PC at home after spending hours working on one every day, so I generally don't want my hands anywhere near a keyboard/mouse in my precious free time!

Amen to that. I like the Wii/Nunchuck combo (minus motion and pointing controls) strictly on the split controller aspect, but the Wiimote 2.0 really needs the four traditional buttons (A,B,X,Y). However, the lack of a second analog still presents a problem without resorting to pointing.

Quote: Originally Posted by dmaul1114 The 360 controller is the best I've every used. I love offset analog sticks and the controller just fits my hands perfectly.

I am a stickler for ergonomic controllers and the 360 can't be beat. The DualShock just can't touch the offset analog sticks and their trigger and bumper buttons are pitiful. The controller on the whole is just not ergonomically comfy either. It was great in 1997 but it's time for Sony to move on. We aren't still using N64 controllers, why should we still be using PS1 controllers?

The D-pad argument seems moot at this point. It all comes down to fighters and it just doesn't seem like a thriving genre anymore. I'll qualify this with "I'm not up on that genre anymore" but look at Street Fighter IV sales. Looks like it sold roughly 2 million combined on 360 and PS3. That's 2 million people out of a pool of about 120 million. What's that, less than 2% of the user base? I can see why they leave it to third parties to provide special controllers.