Define "weak". I don't play them, but it's where the market is right now, like it or not. And by casual game standards, they look pretty strong to me, price aside.

Still not going to play them though.

Probably the Move. Casuals win again!

What does that have to do with anything? It's a press conference. This is what Microsoft is working on. This is there next big push. What else would they show? A bunch of stuff they're NOT working on? To not hype their "next big thing" would be suicidal ...

Honestly, I don't know that much about Move. It just screams "Wii wannabe" to me from the few videos I've seen. I'm open to being corrected on that.

I see the whole point of the 'casual' entry point is to attract non-gamers, which the wii has shown to be a big earner. You can see this by the move from the 'no-frills' interface of the original 360 to the 3D and Avatar based system and now onto the 360 slim with wireless.

Once you have a captive market with the novelty games you then move onto the 'proper' games.

Microsoft have always been embrace and extend, never to innovate.

This entire post brought to you by Kool-Aid™.

Pricing wise for motion control, Kinect Wins ($150 for four players), Wii is second (Wii mote+plus $50 + Nunchuck $20 per player, so $70. Buying a new system only requires 3 more controllers sets) and the expected price for a complete Move thing for one player is $150... Not sure how much of that is the Eye, but if you just buy a PS3 now...

You know, the PS3 is for folk with money to burn. 360 only gets close because of the paid online service (which I think I hear PS3 is offering too, but what you have now is still free, you can just get more demos (or get them sooner) and discount on the store)

My choice of gaming makes both 360 and PS3 not worth the money to me. The games I want are normally either on the PC and/or Wii anyway.

Portal 2 looks wonderful. A little disappointed we didn't see more from Valve (I was holding out for a Half-Life 2: Episode 3 announcement), though.

Can someone explain to me why they feel the need to market this new display technology as "3d"? It's just confusing. It bothers me to the point where I've made it my agenda to intentionally confuse any mention of it with references to conventional 3d graphics in general, and make mocking and sarcastic comments about how they've finally gotten past Wolfenstein 3d.

I was actually expectant of any news regarding Sonic 4. ^_^ Sega at least decided to actually delay this game for improving it!

EDIT: Anyone saw anything about MK9 other than the trailer?

Why are they advertising Shovelware for Kinetic? If they had shown it being used in something like Halo or GOW as an alternate control, it would've had a much better reception. It's not like "casual" audience are a synonym for crappy family games. Many "casual" people prefer playing games like GTA IV.

Prices from Best Buy at this post time.

Let's see how much the hardware for playing consoles are. The targets are dumb cheap parents (*A*) who know nothing about games, so they'll buy the system, and if they need to, a game, then maybe get their kids a game at the times they would get their kids gifts.
The other is a gamer (*B*) who is cheap, and wants to avoid spending too much money.

So we'll start with both not having anything, and just want something to get started. In both cases, they may have to stick with the game they chose for a year, even if it's crappy. In the long run, they intend to buy everything needed to enjoy 4 players in all the ways you control the system. Price of games will not be included in the factor at all, as both targets would just buy from the $20 bin when they get a new game.

360: (with two games)

• Arcade $150

• Elite $250 if they want the hard drive and not have to worry about buying it later.^[1]

PS3: $300 + Game (Dumb cheap parents will not consider this option... Ever)
Wii: $200 (with 1.5 games)

A sees 360 Arcade as the best deal. B May know enough about the 360 to know the arcade is missing the HD, and the Elite is the perferred way to buy the 360. Money wise, he'll go with the Wii. The PS3 is out for the fact the cheapest system is the highest of the three, and doesn't come with a game.

Okay, so let's say, both targets wants to include all the stuff for four players locally. Let's see the extra prices (and the total they have to spend off the bat)

(Note: No 3rd party. We'll assume both have knowledge the 3rd controllers may not be as good as the 1st party ones)
360: +$40*3 = $120, +$50*3 = $150 wireless

• Arcade Total $270/$300

• Elite Total $370/$400

PS3: +$55*3 = $165, $465 total
Wii: WiiMote w/Plus +$50*3 = $150, Nuncuk +$20*3 = $60, $410 total

360 is a bit complex all of a sudden. 360 has both the wired and wireless option for more price points (4!).

360 is still winning. With the wireless (that only B will consider actually, because of where he might setup the system at may cause too many issues with wires) 360 Elite ALMOST match the Wii's price. A now has a reason to consider the 360 all of a sudden.

Now, for having all the ways to control the system now (Two sets of points, without the online 'only' stuff, and all, both 1 and 4 player pricing, online 'only' being 1 person only, also ignoring games require special controllers, like Rock Band for example)
360:

• Media Remote: $20

• Play and Charge: $20 (*4 = $80)

• Messenger Kit (online): $30 (Note: can't seem to get keypad alone...)

PS3:

• Remote: $25

• Eye: $40

• Bluetooth headset (online): $40

• Keypad (online): $40

Wii:

• Classic Controller: $20 (*4 = 80)

• Wii Speak (online): $30

360: (1p/online|4p/online)

• Arcade wired: $(310/340|370/400)

• Arcade wireless: $(340/370|400/430)

• Elite wired: $(410/440|470/500)

• Elite wireless: $(440/470|500/530)

PS3: $(530/610)
Wii: $(430/460|490/520)

... 360! DAMN YOU! (Damn you A.CC for scrolling this text window to the top of the post window when I inserted the smiley)
PS3 is really getting too high. NOTE: It doesn't add anything that requires the 4 player vs 1 player price point. But, it's lowest is 360's highest! Damn.
For B is suddenly the Wii is winning... Err... But like the last stage, it's close... For A, 360 still wins...

Let's clean this mess up. We'll take the highest price point, and add the stuff that's coming soon, using pricing we know about (bam as my source for PS3 stuff):

360: +$150 for Kinect (wired/wireless controllers)

• Arcade: ($550/$580)

• Elite: ($650/$680)

PS3: $50 for main controller, $30 for nav controller (1p/4p)
Eye now: ($690/$930)
Eye with Move ($100 bundle): ($700/$940)

Wii has NOTHING new for this stage. It wins. With the move Bundle, to be fair, even though it costs more, it DOES come with a game you would have to pay extra for without it. Actually, considering you have to pay extra for a game UNTIL the move bundle comes out, the PS3 is not for people who are cheap.

Note, there are factors I have left out that could swing the price in favor for some of the systems. A may end up getting the 3rd party controller for the 360 to knock that price down. Oh, and let's not talk about 3D TV's with the PS3.

console wars on a.cc. They're all good. Pay for what you like, no one is shoving it down your throat and forcing you to buy it.

Someone asked about the new Mortal Kombat: some footage is floating around from ScrewAttack of the fatalities in the game, I've seen it, and damn they made me cringe, they're going as realistic as possible, unlike the last few MK games. Each character has their own individually modeled internal organs and skeletons which are actually present inside the characters during the fight, - and they can be broken/destroyed before the fight is even over. There are also some interviews with Ed Boon discussing the gameplay and such.

Yea, seriously. It looks to me like a cheap gimmick, not an actual revolution in gameplay (like they make it out to be). It's just going to make you look goofy and feel silly.