The First Decade: Questionable Quotables
It’s hard to predict the future. Sure, I attempt to do that all the time here at G4, but that’s not going to stop me from poking fun at other folks who did the same thing. Thing is, sometimes people are right. I combed through quotes from the past decade attributed to some of the industry’s most important voices and found out where they were right, wrong and just plain crazy.
Into the time machine we go…
"[PlayStation3 is] for consumers to think to themselves ‘I will work more hours to buy one’. We want people to feel that they want it, irrespective of anything else."
– Ken Kutaragi, former CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, the father of PlayStation, July 2005
Kutaragi made this proclamation more than a year before the launch of PlayStation 3, back when Sony believed its $599 price point was simply a testament to the amount of technology the company had packed inside. Arrogance in the video game industry is not always immediately rewarded through karma, but time and time again, we’ve seen it catch up to seemingly unstoppable companies. It happened to Nintendo and it happened to Sony. PlayStation 3 has spent years making up lost ground — a fight the company is still waging to this day.
"To expand the gaming population, it is necessary for us to make it so that any family member feel like they can pick up the controller."
– Satoru Iwata, president and CEO of Nintendo, unveiling the Wii controller for the first time (then called Revolution), September 2005
When Iwata removed a prototype Wiimote from his jacket at Tokyo Game Show 2005, the games industry literally gasped. The reactions ranged from "this could change everything" to "Nintendo has completely lost it." Most gamers fell on the latter side of the spectrum. No one had tried true physical interaction with a game on the level that Nintendo was proposing. Gamers were immediately skeptical about the gimmicky nature of the concept, something Nintendo still struggles with to this day, but Iwata’s theory was right on the money. And it was proven by the tens of millions of Wii consoles he’s sold since, all based on "last generation" hardware.
"Users don’t want online games."
– Iwata, discussing the sales of Japanese online games, July 2004
Even though Nintendo’s proven you don’t need the latest technology and fancy graphics to make a killer video game, Iwata’s theory that users aren’t interested in online games hasn’t rung very true. It’s hard to tell whether Wii and DS would be a greater success with more online functionality, but you can’t dispute the massive sales numbers pushed by Halo 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, games whose userbases are arguably more interested in what’s happening online than experiencing the single-player story the developers are telling.
“It’s depressing to have a label come and tell you that [Guitar Hero] is how kids are learning about music and experiencing music,” White said. He added that although he doesn’t try to dictate “which format people should get their music in…if you have to be in a video game to get in front of them, that’s a little sad.”
– Musicians Jack White (The White Stripes) and Jimmy Page (Led Zepplin) about the growing popularity of music video games, June 2009
We’ve heard this one before, but hopefully classy games like The Beatles: Rock Band will bring people around. Oddly, White had no problem signing off on having his music included in a music game. Guitar Hero and Rock Band do radically simplify the experience of playing music, but they’re extensions of the reason so many people started playing video games in the first place: they allow you to do something you can’t in real-life. I might be able to play the first few notes of "Blackbird," but I’ll never be able to play the whole song. Now, I can.
"There’s room for innovation here, but moving that controller around — it’s something that’s not mainstream for most games. It’s tough because sometimes you move the controller, and you don’t [mean] to fly into the ground. You just want to put the controller down. People aren’t that good at totally standing still. Even pilots actually sit in a chair when they do their flying. So there’s a lot to be learned about these controllers."
– Microsoft founder Bill Gates on motion control after announcements from Sony and Nintendo, May 2006
It’s mainstream now, Mr. Gates. Ah, the irony. When Gates made this comment, even though more and more were convinced Nintendo was truly onto something, it hadn’t been proven Wii was more than a gimmick. Sony’s rash response to the Wiimote with Sixaxis didn’t help matters. Microsoft eventually came around, though, taking the concept of increased physical interactivity even further with Project Natal, due to launch sometime in 2010. Nintendo reduced the controller to an easier to digest concept, while Project Natal ditches the controller completely.
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