Chris Taylor talks about next-gen, new-gen consoles

As a second part of the Games Industry interview with the industry’s comedian-slash-developer Chris Taylor, we’re going to particularly highlight the conversation Games Industry had with Taylor regarding the next-gen and new-gen consoles.

Since Gas Powered Games is expanding their development expertise to the console platforms, wouldn’t it be interesting to hear what the CEO has to say about them?

Now the biggest topic on-hand in the games industry, aside from censorship and “sex and violence” issues, is the console wars. Like some developers before him, he believes Nintendo is definitely picking up the pace. Even if it was only second to launch, it already looks like it’s on the home stretch.

Taylor agreed, saying, “A month ago, I would have said second to the [Xbox 360], but in the past four weeks I think the tide is really shifting in Wii’s favour. It’s mind-boggling.” But he stressed that the Wii currently only overtakes the Xbox 360 by “mind share.” Even though this came from the same guy who also eyes bleeding edge tech (which the Wii doesn’t cater), we’re not surprised.

Click on Full Article to find out why we aren’t surprised.

As a second part of the Games Industry interview with the industry’s comedian-slash-developer Chris Taylor, we’re going to particularly highlight the conversation Games Industry had with him regarding the next-gen and new-gen consoles.

Since Gas Powered Games is expanding their development expertise to the console platforms, wouldn’t it be interesting to hear what the CEO has to say about them?

Now the biggest topic on-hand in the games industry, aside from censorship and “sex and violence” issues, is the console wars. Like some developers before him, he believes Nintendo is definitely picking up the pace. Even if it was only second to launch, it already looks like it’s on the home stretch.

Taylor agreed, saying, “A month ago, I would have said second to the [Xbox 360], but in the past four weeks I think the tide is really shifting in Wii’s favour. It’s mind-boggling.” But he stressed that the Wii currently only overtakes the Xbox 360 by “mind share.” Even though this came from the same guy who also eyes bleeding edge tech (which the Wii doesn’t cater), we’re not surprised.

In fact, because this same industry “rock star” also preached “art over cash” at the last DICE summit, we believe he already sees why Nintendo is already in the lead. Defending his stand, he said:

The success of the [Wii’s] controller and the [Wii’s] retail price point, combined, are really capturing people. Nintendo is a games company, they believe in games. I’ve been at the Nintendo offices, they’re all about games, through and through. The rest of the industry, business and making money is a much bigger part of what it’s all about. You don’t get that sense with Nintendo – obviously money’s important, but it’s like games come first. You just can’t get around that, how it translates to the end customer; they can feel it.

But there are the core of gamers who also love games that look good and perform really, really good, so he believes that it differs on a per user basis. He owns one of each console at home, although he sent his PlayStation 3 to the office so other people can get to try it. Currently, it’s his Xbox 360 and Wii that sit “side by side.”

But more significantly, he believes the PlayStation 3 could have had more success without (yes, without) the Blu-Ray drive. It’s because he believes that the there is no way that a consumer doesn’t even think about the price points and costs. Additionally, he said:

We can’t fool ourselves into thinking that money doesn’t matter, to a consumer, what they have to spend to get into these things. If Blu-ray was not in the PS3, for example, it would probably go a long, long way to helping the PS3. It’s just that extra cost is putting it a little bit over the top and just out of the range of making it a whimsical purchase. It’s just a little too much. In theory, if you sat around with a bunch of people and said, ‘You know, really would it matter? $400, $500, $600?”, you would think it wouldn’t matter. But it does. At some level it really does, and I’m blown away by that.

Via Games Industry