N’Gai Croal on CNN’s “American Morning”

I’m a bit late to the party having not discovered N’Gai Croal’s writing until last year. But this guy goes beyond being a video-gaming authority to something dangerously approaching a force of nature.

That’s one reason why I was pleased to read about his recent appearance on CNN’s “American Morning,” where he talks common sense about Manhunt 2 and continues to fight the good fight against the infantilization of video gaming.

You can read his write-up on the appearance here.

Competition

Nintendo shares have hit a record high. With some reports also placing worldwide Wii sales ahead of the XBox 360 despite being a year its junior, it seems like Nintendo is poised to take and hold the lead in the current hardware iteration of console video gaming hardware. But if Nintendo is really winning, where are the games?

I’ve said before that I’m no Nintendo fanboy. I’m a well-wisher. I did my Nintendo time growing up, and some of my fondest memories are behind white/black/gray/red and white/gray/purple/super-purple controllers. I remember the jingle from the Nintendo breakfast cereal commercials. I was just as excited about Super Mario Bros. 3 as I was my first kiss. I just want to make that clear before I say that the 360 rules my household.

I really enjoyed Metroid Prime 3, but in general the Wii games just arent there. And in a holiday season that is being heralded as the greatest season for video games since 2003 (when I was still on video-gaming hiatus trying to finish my master’s), I can look forward to only two more AAA games this year: Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

On the other hand I look at the XBox 360 and I see The Orange Box. The Simpsons Game. Assassin’s Creed. Mass Effect. Rock Band. And a lot more I’m neglecting to mention. Let’s also not ignore the fact that my girlfriend has almomst totally abandoned Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree and Wii Sports in favor of the five-minute crack rock sessions of Pac-Man Championship Edition.

Now, you can ask me how profitable the games division at Microsoft is, and I’ll smile sheepishly and shrug to the tune of an 80’s sitcom jingle. But the XBox 360 is not just the gamer’s system that I believed it was prior to owning one. The casual and marketplace content is there in spades, but marketing is just telling us to “Jump in (to an FPS).” I recently asked Microsoft Group Marketing Manager Aaron Greenberg about this image discrepancy, to which he responded, “We felt it was important to satisfy our core first.” I think it’s pretty safe to say the core is now satisfied, but beyond that you’ve got the other stuff as well.

Contrast this with Nintendo. The core of the Wii user base is people that don’t game regularly or at least didn’t before the Wii. Wii Sports, Warioware: Smooth Moves, Cooking Mama and Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree have done a lot to draw these people in, but with so few titles that appeal to them (and those themselves being long in the tooth) the core audience is growing restless.

How about that other stuff? You know, hardcore games? Metroid, Mario, Smash Bros. That’s what you get (okay, maybe Guitar Hero III). I couldn’t even tell you what the next big hardcore game on the horizon is beyond December.

I’ve heard people criticizing Nintendo for months now about not bringing the equivalent of Nintendogs to the Wii — that piece of software that really shows what the system can do and others can’t. I’ve also heard that Nintendo needs to bring more hardcore franchises to market so that they don’t lose their GameCube core. I don’t think either of those are that important. Nintendo is making money hand over fist no matter how loudly we complain. But I do see one glaring difference between Wii’s AAA titles and the 360 competition: Microsoft doesn’t have to make all their own AAA titles.

It’s been said that when you’re developing for a Nintendo hardware platform, your biggest rival is Nintendo. That may be true, but Nintendo needs to at least encourage them to compete.