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Today, it's Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division, for the following comment on the Wii in this interview on eWeek.com:

The challenge they have is that third parties aren't going to make much money on this platform because Nintendo is going to make all that money, and their ability to compete with something like a Halo or produce an experience like Madden on their system is going to be tough. They don't have the graphics horsepower that even Xbox 1 had. So it makes sort of the comparison set a little bit difficult.

Because I see that Madden '07 is available for the Wii now. I see that Madden '08 will be available for the Wii in August of this year.

Tiger Woods '07? In stock now Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam? In stock now.

For fighting games, it's a little weak, but Mortal Kombat Armageddon ain't Stick Figures on graph paper either. And I'm pretty sure that Rayman Raving Rabbids on the Wii pwns the Xbox 360 version. Ooh, throw a cow by moving a control on an Xbox controller. Whee. Damn. I simply must experience that. So that I can play Rayman like every other game plays on the Xbox 360. Wow.

Sure, the Xbox has games the Wii doesn't. Guitar Hero springs to mind. But then again, there's no Zelda or Metroid on the 360. So it all works out.

Once again, you have someone from Microsoft running a major division of that company who's either too lazy to actually be up on the competition, or too arrogant to think that anyone actually checks a fact anymore. Yo Robbie, stop assuming that all writers are as lazy as Le Scoble. Nincompoop.

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Comments

Well, Microsoft never says anything positive about their competition. The lack of class and good taste is endemic at Microsoft. Like Jobs famously said in his Cringely interview about Microsoft: "The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste, they have absolutely no taste, and what that means is - I don't mean that in a small way I mean that in a big way." He doesn't know anything about Nintendo because he doesn't want to. Doesn't care to. It is all about Microsoft.

he also misses the point about graphics. Nintendo has never made issue of the number of polygons and rendering speed in their gear. Their game designers focus on GAMEPLAY. Always have, always will. "Let the competition push the limits on graphics, while we focus on gameplay." Look at the core games in the Nintendo portfolio: They have always had "cartoonish" graphics rather than intense realism. They are playful and whimsical, not hyper-real and therefore hyper-hard on the graphics processor.

Full Disclosure: I worked for Nintendo of America, which ironically is headquartered just across the 520 freeway from Microsoft in Redmond, seventeen years ago. It was a crappy job and I didn't like it very much, so it isn't like I'm a Nintendo fanboy like you John. ;)

--chuck

Posted by: chuck goolsbee | May 8, 2007 12:37 PM

I'm a Wii fanboy more than Nintendo. I had a Gamecube for years, rarely played outside of "Godzilla: Destroy all Monsters Melee". It's the Wii itself that I like. I'd not played a Zelda iteration until Twilight Princess on the Wii, but this one, I'm really enjoying.

Posted by: John C. Welch | May 8, 2007 1:54 PM