Square Enix CEO Downplays This Year’s E3
Says Kinect and the 3DS are not going to push the industry forward.
What impressions did you have of this year's E3? Were you impressed with motion controls like Kinect and Playstation Move? Or perhaps Nintendo's 3DS stole the show for you? Well, the CEO of Square Enix, Yoichi Wada spoke with Venturebeat (via CVG) and said none of these announcements are going to drive the industry forward.
So what does Yoichi Wada feel is actually going to move the industry over the next few years? That'd be the digital platforms on each of the consoles. He went on to say, "What's being announced are the Nintendo 3DS, the Microsoft Kinect, and the Sony Move... frankly, these are not the most essential parts of the console technology. The key parts of the console technology are Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and WiiWare." This means that Wada feels that it'll be software pushing the games industry, and not the new hardware.
He did not deny the potential impact these new announcements could make though. After looking at what the Wii was able to do with attracting such a broad audience, Microsoft and Sony's attempts must be taken seriously as well. Wada said, "I think that what they have focused on for Kinect is very interesting and I hope they will attract an even wider audience," however he remained skeptical that it would break new ground, as he stated, "I would say it is no different from just the Wii."
So that leaves me with two questions for you.
The first is, do you believe the WiiWare platform will have the content and sales to compete with PSN and the XBLA?
And the second question is, how much of a threat do you feel Kinect and Move are going to be?