At the DIEC 2005 Conference in Tokyo this week, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell slammed Sony and praised Nintendo.Bushnell also presents some interesting numbers:
In 1982, he tells us, there were 44 million gamers. Today, there are 18 million. Where-d they all go? "Complexity lost the casual gamer", he says. "Violence lost the woman gamer." He ventures into Nintendo territory, even slamming the PS2 controller.
I don't believe that there's only 18 million gamers out there. I think there's much more than that. A number of 18 million gamers would mean that 1 out of 3 gamers bought Diablo II, and that half of the gamers out there bought Final Fantasy VII.
I do however, believe in his statement that complexity has lost the casual gamer. I don't think it's the complete fault of the controller. Games have gotten more complicated, and certainly more visual, but it doesn't have anything to do with the controller -- in fact, save the addition of more buttons, the current console controller isn't all that different from the joysticks of yesteryear.
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