G4's Pereira weighs in on console war

Kevin Pereira is host of G4's Attack of the Show as well as being an all-around video game expert.

So, naturally, when I had the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to interview him for a piece about the then upcoming launch of the Wii and the Playstation 3 and the latest generation of console wars, I jumped right into it and asked him, if he had to pick, which system should gamers spend their hard-earned money on..

"It's a tough question, it's like picking a favorite son, but I...it's gonna be the Nintendo Wii, and that's not to say the Playstation 3 is not an amazing console and that in a year's time it won't be the greatest console ever created or put in anyone's living room, but as of right now the scale clearly tips towards the Nintendo Wii for me," Pereira Said.

Possibly a major component in the potential success of the Wii stems from its relatively low price. At $249.99, the Wii comes in significantly cheaper than the Playstation 3 with its steep price tag of $499.99 for the basic system or $599.99 for a system with a bigger hard drive and more features.

"To actually get your hands on a Playstation 3, because there's only gonna be a few hundred thousand launched in North America, you're going to probably be forced into buying a bundle, and early reports on these bundles from Wal-Mart, Target and Fry's is that they're over a thousand dollars. After you factor in the cost of one extra controller and maybe the two or three games that they're going to force you to buy. So...it's not just a price difference, in the end, of a couple hundred dollars. It could be almost a thousand dollar price difference in the consoles," Pereira said.

The Xbox 360, the third contender in this generation's console war, which came out last year, weighs in at $299.99 for the core system and $399.99 for a version with a 20 Gigabyte hard drive.

Apparently, Nintendo, after years of hurting for third party support has finally managed to get some developers on board with the Wii. "In talking with developers and looking at third party game developers, I think they're excited and sort of re-energized about the possibility of creating games for the Nintendo Wii. You know, the control scheme is incredibly innovative, and the kind of games they can't make on the 360 or the Playstation 3 are the kind of games they'll want to make for the Wii," Pereira said.

The control scheme Kevin was referring to is the Wii Remote, Nintendo's innovative new controller that utilizes motion sensing technology to allow players to control games in new and different ways, and it may very well be the life or death of the Wii's games.

"You know, a title that sells on the Nintendo Wii that does not take advantage of the Wiimote's functionality will not sell, period." Pereira said. "They know they can't just make a sloppy port of a game, throw it on the Wii, and expect it to sell."

But Sony and Microsoft are far from down and out in this fight. In terms of sheer hardware power, both the 360 and the PS3 are firmly ahead of Nintendo, and by all accounts, the graphics on either system far outstrip those of the Wii, but apparently, that's not the battlefield that Nintendo has chosen to compete on. "People are buying this console for innovative game play. They want something new, they want something different. If they wanted the same experience they could have on the 360 or the Playstation 3 they would go get one of those consoles, because the graphics would be far superior, and Nintendo wouldn't deny that," Pereira said.

Also, with Sony's then expected now quite real supply problems with the Playstation 3, Microsoft and Nintendo are in a position to take a lot of what might otherwise have been Sony's customers.

"Another level that makes this the most

interesting console launch ever is that what's going to happen when gamers go into the store: they want a Paystation 3. They can't get it because the consoles just aren't available and they see the Wii. Right next to that they've got the 360 running 'Gears of War' which looks heads and shoulders better than anything that's available on the Playstation 3 right now," Pereira said.

But even with price and availability issues with the Playstation 3, Sony is still very much in the game.

In fact, all three systems are looking so competitive that there is no generally agreed "winner" expected for this generation, and Pereira was unwilling to predict a loser.

"I think it's going to be incredibly close and as such there's not going to be a loser. I think it's gonna take another generation of shakeout before we see who is really going to win between Microsoft and Sony," Pereira said.

So, with all three systems looking strong and no clear loser or winner in sight, the next couple of years are looking to be particularly interesting for those with an interest in console gaming.