informationarbitrage.com — A look at how the Internet opinion from leading gaming sites is effecting the investing landscape. Professional investors are watching the dialog and the Internet seems to be a great leading indicator of the success or failure of each company. According to this post Nintendo is the early winner.
Dec 8, 2006 View in Crawl 4
xpaladinDec 8, 2006
A fair counter argument: The Internet also predicted/hailed Snakes On A Plane too. Granted, the major difference there is that the movie is digitally tangible (and available, in fragments, on YouTube), whereas consumers actually have to purchase the game consoles.I'd think it's more accurate to say that Sony buried themselves. Instead of being truly innovative with their hardware, it's more or less the same brand with a significant hardware upgrade. When they were innovative (SIXAXIS, for example), it was already too late - they had already lost the steam to an even more superior product by Nintendo.And that's not even taking into account all the bridges that Sony, over all its divisions, have burned. They've gone out of their way to alienate fans.Nintendo made a lot of interesting (and successful) marketing moves. Even the console's renaming was major news and marketing. On top of that, the Wii also provides a game experience that market research has been telling the execs for *a very long time* that people want: active user involvement in the games themselves. There's significantly more emotional investment when the player controls more of the action.Ultimately, the real winner here is the consumer in the market process. Everyone involved got what they wanted:- The PS3 is a good brand upgrade for the PS2.- The Wii is an excellent technological innovation that even non-gamers are interested in and enjoy.- The XBOX 360 is still going fairly strong.- Game producers now have a stronger gamer fan base overall which which to sell productsAnd most importantly,- The consumer has a good variety of distinct choices
sagarianDec 8, 2006
It read like pretty factual reporting.Speaking of factual reporting, here is what I saw at my local Gamestop yesterday:. 1 person playing an offroad racing game on the PS3 with nobody watching. 2 people playing NCAA 07 on the X360 with 2 people watching. 2 people playing Excite Truck on the Wii with about 10 people crowded around, anxious for their chance to try it.The Wii doesn't really appeal to me personally (I'm satsified with my X360), but the difference in interest was obvious.
wailosDec 8, 2006
@Gerz1219:The Wii will never be the platform for cutting edge games? I don't even plan on buying a Wii, but it's pretty nearsighted to think that a game can't be cutting-edge just because it doesn't have top-notch graphics.
microdotDec 8, 2006
nintendo may be on the downward slope according to the front page article (movie clip) on cnn, and the commotion with the current lawsuit being plastered on npr every half hour. but hey... go ahead and dig me down. show your fanboyism in denial of the truth.
zenmojoDec 8, 2006
The internet isn't hitting on a remarkable prediction. The internet is clearly feeding analyst opinion. There's not a coincidental meeting of minds, the analysts are getting their opinions, facts, numbers, and predictions from the internet.Notice how all of these "predictions" are coming post-release. Milton Friedman said it himself, economists do not predict the weather, they don't see the future, they just tell you how something that has already happened has happened. Anyone that tells you otherwise is full of it.
zenmojoDec 9, 2006
We can always stack our successes and ignore our losses. Truth of the matter is, there are some very simple, instinctive reasons to predict success and we, as hardcore industry folk, will ignore what those are.Early adopters for DVD players ignored the PS2's DVD capability. Fans of Sega's previous failing systems ignored the fact that they failed and stepped in line behind the Sega Saturn. Mac OS users still predict the rise of the Mac (what's it been...15 years since the Mac started pulling up sales revenue and still behind?) and insist that it will conquer all, but it doesn't play videogames worth s**t.The list goes on and on, and the fact is that geeks repeatedly fail to predict market trends. Geeks loved Beta. Geeks loved the minidisc. Geeks loved the power glove. Geeks love everything that's new and shiny and lets them steal s**t, that's what makes us geeks. But one day the novelty is going to have to stand up against the innovation of smarter competitors.
spriggigDec 9, 2006
"A look at how the Internet opinion from leading gaming sites is effecting the investing landscape." In this context, the correct word would be "affecting" not "effecting".
staticneuronDec 9, 2006
Sony's PS3 of to a bad start"Sales of the PlayStation 3 console during its first full week of availability in Japan were sharply lower than those during the two days immediately following its launch, according to estimates published this week."then"The sharply lower number of consoles sold is likely due to tight supply of the machines. Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. has faced problems procuring blue-laser diodes for the PlayStation 3's Blu-ray Disc drive and was forced to cut-back on launch plans."Diggers aren't going to stop with this nonsense anytime soon are they?
raindog469Dec 10, 2006
Yeah, I'm liking my Wii a lot, and don't see myself getting a PS3. But even I have to admit Sony still has the capacity to pull it off by this time next year, and it remains to be seen whether the Wii will actually dominate this generation, or just be another Furby that everyone has to have at xmas but by mid-January is trying to ignore. "I don't CARE if you're koo dah way loh! Shut up or it's the back of the closet for you!"