Gamesindustry.biz: Sony’s Sixaxis controller and Viva Piñata for Xbox 360 are both failed attempts to capture the traditional Nintendo customer, according to Nintendo’s George Harrison.
He believes that the two rival companies lack the “DNA” to understand a market that wants more from a gaming experience than just the next version of Halo or Grand Theft Auto.
“So far they haven’t spent a lot of time focused on us. Now that we’re having some success, they probably will,” commented Harrison to Wired.
“We can already see some of the things they’ve tried. For last year’s E3, at the last minute, Sony rushed out their Sixaxis controller as an effort to respond to the Wii remote. We saw Microsoft roll out Viva Piñata as their killer app for the Pokemon set. And neither of those worked really well.”
“Part of this is, I think it’s not in their DNA. They’re really good at reaching a certain customer, and have a real difficulty understanding how we succeed with the customers that we have,” said the senior vice president of marketing and communications.
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