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June 17th, 2008 @ 09:01
Nolan Bushnell knows what’s what. The games industry only has itself to blame for the fact it’s not truly mass market. And it’s all down to buttons.
“I think the Wii by Nintendo is getting games that once again are fun for people who don’t want to make a career out of figuring out how to run a 47-button controller,” the Atari-founder told Next-Gen.
“I think that the business right now should be much, much bigger than it is. If it were evenly spread over all demographics and age groups, it’d be huge. But it’s not. It’s basically an 18 to 28 year-old male dominated business of about 15 million. That’s where most of the traffic is. Casual games on the net add to that, but they’re all network-based.”
More through the link.
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June 17th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Amusingly enough certain Wii games have button / waggle combinations that are more confusing than anything on the 360 / PS3.
June 17th, 2008 at 9:18 am
They always trot out this little chestnut. Here’s a thing - the controller might have 47 buttons. That doesn’t mean to say that your game has to use 47 buttons.
June 17th, 2008 at 9:20 am
How many buttons do the PS3 / 360 / Wii controllers have anyway?
June 17th, 2008 at 9:24 am
8 triggers and face-buttons - d-pad - start and select - analogue sticks
June 17th, 2008 at 9:25 am
PS3/360 have four face, four shoulder, two stick buttons, four d-pad buttons, plus two analogue sticks. So that’s 14 and the sticks.
Edit: Oh… and select/start buttons. So up to 16.
June 17th, 2008 at 9:27 am
So where’s 42 buttons coming from? PC?
June 17th, 2008 at 9:31 am
He just made it up because he’s old and hasn’t played a game in years yet still somehow thinks he’s relevant to the industry.
June 17th, 2008 at 9:40 am
“He just made it up because he’s old and hasn’t played a game in years yet still somehow thinks he’s relevant to the industry.”
QFT brother!!!
June 17th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Daft bugger’s probably still playing on his Acetronic MPU 1000.
I don’t think even those joysticks had 47 buttons. Probably nearer to 20 odd…
June 17th, 2008 at 9:58 am
How many buttons did Jaguar pads have? Perhaps that’s the last console he bought?
Seriously, though - what does he know? He runs restaurants these days, doesn’t he? It’s the press-quip equivalent of your dad complaining about modern music.
“Ooh, it wasn’t like this in my day - it was all fields and roses and getting sent to war to get blown up.”
June 17th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Coming soon to XBLA…
Pong HD
- Vision Camera support
- New HD visuals : The sharpest corners you’ve ever seen on a Pong bat
- 5.1 Dolby Sound giving full 3D audio
- Free code to send off for a bio-hazard suit to protect you from Jeff Minter’s bile
June 17th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Pong HD still sounds better than Space Giraffe.
June 17th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Quote by Blerk:
… “He just made it up because he’s old and hasn’t played a game in years yet still somehow thinks he’s relevant to the industry.” …
This is exactly what I thought when I read this statements by Nolan Bushnell.
It was great what he did back in the ‘70-ties, but I wish he would just keep his mouth shut nowadays.
And I’m old too, by the way (48) ….
June 17th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I don’t see why you guys are complaining. He’s completely right as far as I’m concerned. The Wii has been popular because all you need to do for, say, Wii Sports, is pick up the wiimote and wave it around a bit. It doesn’t get much more complicated, and it’s very accessible. Regular controls are extremely confusing for non-gamers, I’ve anecdotal evidence of that.