Seems this is already coming to pass...

Now there's some news..!

I've come to realise perhaps Nintendo should rename itself to "Mario", seeing as how they just won't let the poor chap and his crew rest (read: die)! Seems the whole developmental process at "Mario" is:

"Let's make a cricket game. Oh we'll use Mario and the gang! What an idea!!" Next we see the once threatening Bowser now in a brightly coloured cricket jersey holding a paddle. MARIO SUPER CRICKET!

"Let's make a modern warfare first-person-shooter!" Oh, we'll use mario and the gang! What an idea!!" Next we see Yoshi shooting a bubble gun at Princess Peach.. Yah-yah-yah-yah!! MARIO SUPER SHOOTERS!

"Let's make a tree hugging game. Oh, we'll use Mario and the gang! What a ****ing idea!! But we've done this already... Oh yeah, that was back on the "Mario" Gamecube. Proceed!" Next we see Mario, the mighty bowser, Luigi and Wario all holding hands and huggin' them trees while humming the original SMB theme! MARIO SUPER TREEHUGGERS!

It's just sad to see the once venerated little plumber get stretched so thin like this. Still mums and their little babies buy this rubbish and so "Mario" continues to put this out there.
Sad really. When's he gonna get back to plumbing?

I'm surprised the numbers are THAT low. This is both disturbing and sick. Namely the bit about parents and other associations purchasing the game for their young children. Clearly this game, as well as a few others in the series, should have been rated AO. Or maybe we need stronger regulations in place to keep this in check. Everyone cries "education" is the key, and that may help a bit. But until games receive ratings they actually deserve and there are enforcible regulations in place, these numbers will keep getting higher.

And why not? GTA IV and games like it DON'T NEED to be in the hands of children. An employee at GameStop is required by company policy, in a situation when a parent is attempting to purchase an M rated title for their underage child, to list the reasons why it received its rating (thus attempting to educate the clueless parent) and to wait until said clueless parent approves the sale, which they typically do anyway.

Whether it's because they couldn't care less, or they feel purchasing the game is a way to gain leverage on their unruly child, or they still pass it off as "a harmless videogame" not unlike Pac-man or Super Mario, or they feel such a game would make their child "stronger", or they use the age-old excuse: "They already see this content on TV/the news/real life/etc.", or whatever the reason, parents still buy these grossly inappropriate games for their young children. And of course when little Billy has it, he invites little Bobby over who's parents would never buy such a game, and introduces it to him. Or little Billy brags to everyone at school that he has the game, and soon more kids are pressuring their clueless parents to get the game for them as well.

If the game was rated AO as it should have been, this wouldn't be an issue. But game publishers apparently push for an M rating in order to sell more copies of their game. But who do they think their selling these "extra" copies to??? In reality this "extra market" as it were, encompasses underage children. And that's very sad. The adjudicators at the ESRB are also at fault for allowing such a rating. And let's not forget the parents buying these Mature games for their children. It's the collective miscarriage of judgment and moral responsibility that is producing the numbers that you see, as well as causing a general decline in morality among youth. And no, that's not good.

Wow, if this is all true, that's pretty heavily dutily! Seems Redmond is taking aim at the uber-successful Wii! Although improbable, this could cause the Wii to come down in price itself! But as stated, that probably will not happen. Nintendo has no problem running a brisk trade on their motion-controlled console right now. The Wii brand itself as well as general public perception that Wii is and has been the cheapest of the consoles should keep it going.

Sony, however, will certainly have some work to do. They will either have to follow suit and cut the price of their system drastically, or do a better job at overwhelmingly convincing the gaming public why their product is still the one to get. I'm afraid Blu-Ray and Home isn't exactly icing the cake anymore. Sure they may still be focused on the "three console" angle to view their successes. But they really need the PS3 to succeed, if just to keep the fledgling Blu-Ray format afloat.

Microsoft seriously needs to cut the price of their ridiculously overpriced 120GB HDD though, preferably in half! That's my main criticism right now. They have a massive installed base of Premium 360 owners out there that need to upgrade to the larger size, many of which who are waiting until such a price cut occurs. If MS really wants to court the consumer in the way that they appear to want to, this will need to happen, and soon. EDIT: After running some numbers, I figure the best MS can probably do is $129 for the 120GB HDD.

Yet I really must say (if this is price cut is really true) that MS appears to be doing EVERYTHING right at this stage of the console war! Even menacingly so! Microsoft is playing a serious game of ball here, and seems to have covered each and all of the bases (with bloodthirsty goons wielding spiked clubs who'll take your lunch money). They will have the cheapest product, they're going for the exclusives, and they've targeted the mainstream/casual market and Europe as well. I gotta hand it to MS, this is a viscous attack that aims straight for the jugular in a sudden bid for world dominance! Or something like that...