The Digital Home

The Wii is sending you to the ER?

(Credit: Nintendo)

According to researchers at Leeds Teaching Hospital in the United Kingdom, a new injury called "Wii knee" has been identified, which is most often seen in parents hurting themselves while trying to do too much when playing a game with their kids.

But that's not all. The British Society for Surgery of the Hand said it has also witnessed an increase in the number of injuries after gamers have spent too much time with the Wii.

"We treated a patient this week who had injured herself using a Wii," Richard Milner of the BSSH told The Daily Telegraph. "She was playing tennis with a partner and fractured one of the bones in her finger when he hit the back of her hand with the control."

Where are all these people who have experienced such pain and anguish from playing a video game? These kinds of reports have been floating around ever since the Wii was released, and so far, I've yet to meet one person who was forced to rush to their local emergency room to seek help. I've heard about sore muscles, but all these "injuries" have somehow escaped my grasp. Wii knee? What a joke.

Maybe injuries are on the rise, and I'm sure some (a very small number, most likely) can be attributed to the Wii, but in the end, I simply don't believe that the Wii should be implicated in the injuries of gamers. In fact, I think we should blame it on the fact that people don't exercise and get way too excited when playing Wii Tennis.

The Wii doesn't hurt people; people hurt people.

The Mature Wii

(Credit: Nintendo of America)

Take-Two Interactive Software, the video game developer behind Bioshock and the Grand Theft Auto series, posted a quarterly loss Wednesday and forecast less than ideal performance, going forward. But the real shocker came from the company's CEO, Ben Feder, who had some interesting things to say about Nintendo's Wii console and Mature-rated games.

Speaking to shareholders, Feder said that although he believes his company's "M-rated content...is much more appropriate for the PlayStation 3 or 360," he thinks it's incumbent upon Take-Two to "look at the Wii as a viable platform content across all" the company's titles. According to Feder, "you can't ignore the (Wii's) install base. You just can't."

If that's true, then why have the vast majority of developers "ignored" that install base? As Nintendo of America President, Reggie Fils-Aime, pointed out recently in a Forbes interview, "I will be able to say our licensees 'get it' when their very best content is on our platform. And with very few exceptions today, that's not the case."

So far, most developers have left the Wii out in the cold when it comes to Mature-rated titles. A quick search of Gamestop's entire catalog of 392 available Wii games reveals that only 13 of those titles are rated Mature. Compare that to the Xbox 360's 154 Mature-rated games, and the Playstation 3's 60, and it's clear that developers have little faith in the Wii as a "mature" platform.

You can't argue with the logic: so far this year, not one Mature-rated Wii game made NPD's top-selling list, even though mature games yield the most revenue.

Although video game revenue is at its highest level in history, most researchers believe the industry is "recession-proof," and there are more gamers across the globe than ever before, not everything is so blissful for the video game industry.

According to the Electronic Entertainment Design and Research institute, just 4 percent of games that go into production will turn a profit and only 20 percent of titles that make it to store shelves will achieve profitability.

That shouldn't surprise us. When I look at the video game industry and the countless number of titles that I fire up on my consoles, it's not hard to see why the industry is struggling to develop profitable games: too many titles are the same basic game in a different box with different characters.

How many first-person shooters and sports games need to flop before the industry realizes that although shooters are the highest-grossing titles and sports games perform well thanks to EA, it's time they stop wasting their time with more of the same and start moving towards better titles that offer something unique?

Resistance 2 is here and I take a look at it in my latest Digital Home video.

Even better news: you can now subscribe to this show. Just add it up right here!

And as always, drop me a line or follow me on Twitter!

Electronic Arts posted a major loss on Thursday. According to the company, it realized a $310 million loss and will be forced to lay off 6 percent of its staff due to worsening financial conditions and bleak outlooks.

Of course, EA, as a public company, blames its results on economic factors and just about everything else, besides what it should really blame: itself. But the problem facing the video game industry isn't unique to EA. Each company in the market is facing the same problems, and they're all forced to blame it on ludicrous reasons.

But as anyone who follows the industry knows, the real reason behind poor performance is the general lack of innovation coming out of developer studios lately.

I don't think there's any debating the fact that innovation in the video game industry is practically nonexistent. Every time I turn around, there's another crappy first-person shooter hitting store shelves with the same basic mechanics and control scheme. Even better, there's always a new sports title out there to whet your appetite. But whatever you do, look past the same player models, and derivative gameplay, and look at the new enhancements made to this year's stadiums!

What a joke.

In a recent interview with Videogamer.com, Sony managing director Ray Maguire told the publication that although the company is feeling pressure to reduce prices, it shouldn't be forgotten that Sony "has a business to run" and needs to "do the right thing" for its shareholders.

Maguire is obviously right on both fronts and makes two points that should be enough to make pundits and consumers satisfied. But then again, Maguire's comments smack of desperation and are a ludicrous departure from the gravity of the situation his company finds itself in.

I think consumers realize that Sony execs have a business to run and they need to do the right thing to ensure the company can stay profitable, but doesn't Maguire and the rest of the execs at Sony realize that doing the right thing isn't always keeping the price on the PlayStation 3 so high? Or doesn't Maguire and the rest realize that in order to do the right thing for its shareholders, Sony has a responsibility to be far more competitive and attempt to take control of the video game industry again?

Most consumers realize that's what needs to be done and I'm willing to bet that shareholders realize that too. Sony's responsibility as a public company isn't to "do the right thing." Sony's responsibility as a public company is to maximize shareholder value and a part of that requires the company to make the right decisions. So far, Sony hasn't made the right decisions with the PlayStation 3.

Sony is in deep trouble. The company has been forced to slash its earnings forecast by 57 percent amid deteriorating economic conditions and its inability to compete more effectively in markets throughout the world.

Of course, Sony will still post a profit--most analysts claim that it'll be about $500 million--but the downturn speaks to Sony's issues and the fact that this once-dominant company has been downgraded to an also-ran in the industry.

Remember the days of Sony dominance? It was a time when the Walkman was on the minds of tech lovers around the world and the PlayStation moniker was held in the highest regard. Sony TVs were everywhere, and the company's ability to capitalize on any market was truly astounding.

But since then, Sony has lost its way. It's no longer a company that can rely on its name to beat other companies to a pulp, and with more competitors realizing how to beat Sony, it has quickly become irrelevant in many markets.

Sony's presence in the digital-camera sector is suspect, and its gaming business, once one of the most profitable departments at the company, has become an embarrassment of epic proportions. Although its PlayStation Portable is expected to beat forecasts, the Playstation 3 has proven to be one of the biggest blunders the company has ever committed.

One of the key components in the Playstation 3 won't be in the Playstation 4 if Sony plays its cards right. And which component is that?

Its Blu-ray drive.

I know Sony zealots will probably scoff at the very thought of Blu-ray not being included in the Playstation 4 because of their belief that so much of Sony's future is tied to Blu-ray, but I'm not willing to sip the Kool-Aid.

To me, Blu-ray is the LaserDisc of its time. It's not nearly as useful as the DVD that it's trying to supplant, and the future is coming on so quickly that it may not have the time to cement itself in the industry before HD downloads become the next big thing in the space.

To make matters worse, I simply don't see how we can categorically say that Blu-ray was such a major part of Sony's success this year with the Playstation 3. Let's be honest--is the average mainstream user who isn't tech-savvy at all, really buying a Playstation 3 to watch the same movies they have on DVD already?

But the fact that the Playstation 4 won't feature Blu-ray goes far beyond the fact that it's not as coveted in the Playstation 3 as some want to believe. In reality, it's more likely that the Playstation 4 won't have Blu-ray than you may think.

For a while, I've said that Microsoft needs to find a way to attract more customers and bring more people on board. The first step, I said, was to lower the price of the Xbox 360 all over the world to increase its value to consumers and finally make it an ideal solution for customers.

Just one day after writing that here on The Digital Home, Microsoft did just that. And according to its own internal figures, Xbox 360 sales over the weekend subsequent to its announcement of the price cut were six times higher than sales over the previous weekend. Granted, these are internal Microsoft numbers and we'll need to wait another month to see what the impact will be when NPD releases its official numbers, but I don't doubt Microsoft's sales numbers at all.

Xbox 360

(Credit: CNET Networks)

From the beginning, the Xbox 360 had the kind of potential the other consoles simply didn't. Sure, the Wii is selling well and there's no sign of it slowing down, and finally the Playstation 3 is catching up to the rest of the pack, but Microsoft has an advantage aside from online gameplay now that it has taken the pricing lead from Nintendo.

The biggest barrier to entry for many consumers in the video game space is price. Because of that, millions of consumers needed to decide which console they prefer based on their budget. Since the Wii was released, those choosing with their wallets picked the Wii. But now, they can pick up the more powerful console at even more affordable price.

There are two ways to be successful in business: product differentiation or pricing differentiation. The way I see it, Microsoft has the advantage on both counts.