Remember when Sega and Nintendo were flipping each other the bird with campaigns like "Nintendon't?" Well, if you don't, trust us,it happened.And it's happening again.
For a while, theconsole war went cold. Aside from occasional snide quips, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have spent the last two generations advertising their strengths andcapitalizing on the markets their competitors haveneglected. That's all over, andthe war is heating up again. With all three plunging into the marketing-driven motion control pool, they've got to differentiate themselves.
Sony's fictional marketing character, Kevin Butler, is seen in a new video describing Move as the future of gaming - something which offers total control as opposed to waggle, and has buttons for the "millions of people who enjoy playing... anything that doesn't involve catching a big red ball."
Buh-urn! And that's not theonly swipe Sony has taken lately. At the Final Fantasy XIII launch party, a Sony spokesperson who walked on stage immediately after a Microsoft spokesperson made the moment awkward by emphasizing that FFXIII is a PlayStation franchise and isbetter on the PS3. Way to make Square Enix's achievement about you, Sony.
But Nintendo isn't holding punches either. Inan interview with Kotakulast week, Reggie Fils-Aime, president andCEO of Nintendo of America, said that he would be "embarrassed" to do what Microsoft and Sony are doing, and that Nintendo strives to innovate. He added, "Stop copying me! Stoooop it!I'm telling the ESRB!"
Microsofthas been quiet, but shouldn't have any difficulty poking fun at either Sony or Nintendo, especially considering that Moveis a big ball... stuck to a Wiimote.ThoughMS might play it cool and let Natal make its mark on its own...without doing like Sony andcopying Nintendo's marketing strategy exactlywhile mocking it.
But if Microsoftdoes chooseto enter the fray, we have one idea...
Not that we're any more optimistic about Natal than we are Move.
Mar 17, 2010
