Lunchtime Discussion: Local

As it’s the build up to E3 the internet is almost at bursting point with rumours right now, and a good chunk of them seem to be about Microsoft’s Natal (I know it might be called Wave now, but Natal is better) camera. Now I don’t want to talk about how in favour or not you are of the camera. We’ve talked about motion controllers, at length, in the past and I’d rather put the topic behind us. Depending on what comes out of E3 I might revisit it, but it’s not for today. No today it’s time to talk about your local multiplayer situation.

How does this relate to Natal? Well there have been some comments that Natal could work out cheaper than Move if you have four controllers for Move etc… These are often met by general ridicule at the idea of someone owning four controllers. Is it really that odd to have four controllers for a console? I don’t think my 360, or any of my older consoles, have four controllers right now, but it doesn’t seem crazy to think that if I was living in more of a family situation then I would have.

Every time I’ve played a Wii it’s been either a family console, or a shared console in a house of students. I’m fairly certain that it’s always had four controllers, because everyone wanted to get in on the action. For me this is a key feature of casual gaming, the market that both Move and Natal are going for, that it’s a big group activity. That’s why games like Buzz, Guitar Hero and SingStar took off. Their easy to play, and the whole family can play together. It’s why boardgames are still big business, even though some would say video games have ‘easily’ surpassed them, it’s a communal thing.

So does no one seriously have four controllers? Do people bring controllers with them if they play at your house? Is your console used by the whole family for gaming fun, or is it just for you?