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http://www.gamespot.com/forums/topic/28503749/game-prices-20-years-ago

First link Google gave me. SMB3 was $70 Christmas 1990. Most games (from my personal recollection) ranged in the $40-$70, even in the SNES era. So how is that adjusting for inflation I'm paying less now for video games, but getting "more for less". Unless you're specifically saying that games then were better, in which case we're onto a matter of opinion and not something worth debating.

It seems that facial recognition don't recognize "dark-skinned" faces ! Remember back in 2009 : http://idle.slashdot.org/story/11/06/29/1228216/Using-Facial-Recognition-To-Find-the-Best-Bar And know the kinect : http://www.gamespot.com/news/6283514/kinect-has-problems-recognizing-dark-skinned-users So....

I think you have it all wrong, it's time to park a recycler on the vent...

(This reference even goes with the impactor theory... how quickly we forget the classics!)

What does Krusty's Super Fun House have to do with anything?

Or "Pokemon", the original name for the Zbtb7 gene until Nintendo threatened to sue anyone who would name a gene related to cancer after one of its flagship franchises.

those controllers look like they are going to cost more than the console...

The video is rendered and streamed from the console apparently.

So I'm sure that cut some corners, err I mean costs.

OK, first off, I don't count the ability to tether a portable console to a TV to be a feature. I consider that one of the dumbest features imaginable.

Funny thing is, some people demanded the feature, because they knew that the PSP's UMD video was actually stored as 720x480 on the UMD, and that other PMP's like the Archos devices had that feature.

http://www.gamespot.com/forums/topic/25667977

The extra RAM and microphone are also entirely useless. Games can't use them. They're meaningless.

There's a setting on the 2000 and 3000 models that lets games use it as cache so they don't hit the UMD as often. It also helps the web browser. The microphone CAN be used in games that have voice chat, or with Talkman.

And the PSP-3000 is on display at most "big box" stores. I've seen the screen and the artifacts it generates. It's awful. It's easily the worst screen I've ever seen. It renders the entire thing completely unplayable.

Don't judge the 3000 by those demo units, they aren't REAL PSP 3000's. I owned a 1000 model and the 3000's screen really is much better.

An article on gamespot http://www.gamespot.com/news/6312141.html says that the evidence they have is a file named "Anonymous" with the content "We are Legion". What a conclusive evidence.

P.S. The best way to boycott Sony is not buying their stuff. Buy a Wii instead. That's what I do. I won't be turning up in a Sony store tomorrow because I haven't cared about Sony for years.

Because Nintendo and Microsoft are so inclusive and accepting of crackers and users breaking their copy protection aren't they? Oh wait, no they're not different at all. Just 3 examples of many. I am not sure at all why Sony gets singled out for the hate.

Same Stardock mission of quality? http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/elementalwarofmagic/index.html?tag=result%3Btitle%3B0

LOL

Console graphics can't really rival PC graphics. Take a look at this comparison of PC vs Xbox vs PS3 in GTA4. Then consider the fact that most modern gaming PCs (i.e. quad core with a midrange GPU or better) easily run the game at 1920x1080 @60 FPS, whereas the consoles use lower resolution and get choppier frame rates.

Well, I ain't mad at them. I hear it made, like, $2 billion and they came to us and offered us a very small portion of that," explained Prince. "But I just think it's more important that kids learn how to actually play the guitar. It's a tough instrument--it's not easy. It took me a long time, and it was frustrating at first. And you just have to stick with it, and it's cool for people who don't have time to learn the chords or ain't interested in it, but to play music is one of the greatest things.

Source

You also don't have to worry about spending hundreds of dollars on upgrades in order to play the latest games. I don't know if this last point is true or not, but that perception is pretty prevalent in my experience.

That is because the price of a console is subsidized. MS, Sony & Nintendo all sell the hardware at a loss because they get a percentage of every game sold.

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6128295.html

Thats also why the more complex the console games, the shorter the view/render distance gets. And thats why you get more and more pre-rendered scenes these days.

Compare the CryEngine3 on a console to CryEngine2 on a PC. They cut corners so it would work on a console. Trees in the distance, shadows updated less frequently and area effects from explosions are all worse now. Even the cloud & water looks less realistic now.

Sony is not and was never a game company.

Know how I can tell you're an Xbox fanboy?

(Hint.)

Let's just hope that the other August_zero on the internet aren't pedophiles =P But, there are alternatives for cyberstalking. I believe one would start by your e-mail address or your alias if they knew and end up finding sites that match up like http://www.gamespot.com/users/august_zero/ Eventually you might get enough info about that person to find your FB account if you had one. Another quick google search says you have a Twitter account but I didn't click on it or know too much on how to confirm this.

In the end, no employer has the right to stalk you just like other people shouldn't be allowed to do it, and this is from being an employer myself. I respect the privacy of those working for me because they are like family. They decided to select my company as one of the places they wanted to work at and after seeing them around for a while, you KNOW that their heart is in the right place, and it would be a shame to take advantage of that and turn it all upside down. What happens outside the office is their business unless they are doing something malicious that I should be worried about (like if they get caught stealing). A company should be willing to take care of those who help it grow, and the government should be willing to do the same. I'm sure there are these old business dogs thinking that I'm insane right now =P

Actually it is. Have you played it? Probably not--thought so.

Flamebait. Yes I own it. Would you talk to your parents like that? If not, then don't talk in a tone like that. Also don't be PC and say but I don't have parents! It's a hypothetical question, i.e, what if.

Uh what? That was completely unintelligble and made no sense.

Amnesia, while an amazing game, is simply a point-and-click game.

Oversimplifying the game. Also off-topic.

No, not off-topic. Completely on-topic. Your response: "Amnesia is a casual game." My reponse: "It is a casual game." Yes, very off-topic. And yes, it really is. It has no other mechanic than looking through rooms, opening doors, experiencing a story, etc. Adventure games: identical. There is no other game mechanic found in other games like RPGs (massive amount of items, leveling,combat), strategy games (building of units, strategy, currency and resource management), shooters (different weapons, different ammo, sometimes level building, and multiplayer). You're 110% wrong here.

And again, my point exactly. Strawman arguments. You dwell on one word, the "casual" one, when my entire argument was about Linux not having a realistic business market.

Ah here we go. Finally some meat, but with something ad-hominem.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/amnesiathedarkdescent/news.html?sid=6286090 -- buy once, play everywhere.
http://www.humblebundle.com/ check the Linux graph, it's significant. Again, buy once, play everywhere.
The Unreal Tournament series were also ported to Linux, until a few years ago.
The wikipedia article on Linux games (there are many, and games like Nethack are played daily [citation: http://alt.org/nethack/perday.html, able to play locally].)

You proved my point 1000%. Did you even read what you wrote? It's the same 6-7 games Linux zealots mention *every* single time *every* single year, oh for the past how many years now?

And nethack? Are you serious? A game that's how many years old? 25

Are you listening to yourself? Because you're just proving my point so easily it's like you're just walking into it.

My point is that there ARE games that sell well, and also run on Linux, but as lots of people point out, nobody really does ports because it's not "established." A Valve establishment would be a great boon for Linux gaming.

And as your post has shown, that is 100% wrong.

Yea, totally worth the X millions devoted to development, marketing, production, art direction, distribution, etc., for Linux

Take your false cynicism and bitterness and educate yourself. The only extra cost is development: artwork, models, particles, etc. don't change. There wouldn't be a chicken and egg problem if more people did double ports to Mac and Linux instead.

Only cost? yes artwork doesn't change. Only just about *everything* else. So again, there are millions of extra dollars needed, work, resources, and man-power. But that doesn't count, right!

Actually it is. Have you played it? Probably not--thought so.

Flamebait. Yes I own it. Would you talk to your parents like that? If not, then don't talk in a tone like that. Also don't be PC and say but I don't have parents! It's a hypothetical question, i.e, what if.

Amnesia, while an amazing game, is simply a point-and-click game.

Oversimplifying the game. Also off-topic.

And again, my point exactly. Strawman arguments. You dwell on one word, the "casual" one, when my entire argument was about Linux not having a realistic business market.

Ah here we go. Finally some meat, but with something ad-hominem.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/amnesiathedarkdescent/news.html?sid=6286090 -- buy once, play everywhere.
http://www.humblebundle.com/ check the Linux graph, it's significant. Again, buy once, play everywhere.
The Unreal Tournament series were also ported to Linux, until a few years ago.
The wikipedia article on Linux games (there are many, and games like Nethack are played daily [citation: http://alt.org/nethack/perday.html, able to play locally].)
My point is that there ARE games that sell well, and also run on Linux, but as lots of people point out, nobody really does ports because it's not "established." A Valve establishment would be a great boon for Linux gaming.

Yea, totally worth the X millions devoted to development, marketing, production, art direction, distribution, etc., for Linux

Take your false cynicism and bitterness and educate yourself. The only extra cost is development: artwork, models, particles, etc. don't change. There wouldn't be a chicken and egg problem if more people did double ports to Mac and Linux instead.

It sold fine, then it became rated AO and was removed from store shelves at the time, despite the fact that the content couldn't be normally accessed. It wasn't any merits of the game itself that caused it to be removed from store shelves, but rather a pointless rating system by the ESRB.

"Hot Coffee" was accessible in both PC and console versions of the game.

Rockstar Games, the publisher of the Grand Theft Auto series, initially denied allegations that the minigame was "hidden" in the video game, stating that the Hot Coffee modification (which they claim violated the game's End User Licence Agreement) is the result of "hackers" making "significant technical modifications to and reverse engineering" the game's code. However, this claim was undermined when a hacker known as N.A.V.A.I.D G, on July 12, 2005, released an "Action Replay Power Save" for the Xbox console, and codes for the PlayStation 2 Action Replay game enhancer that allowed the scenes to be accessed in each of the console versions. These new methods of accessing "Hot Coffee" demonstrated that the controversial content was, indeed, built into the console versions as well.

The creator of the original PC mod, Patrick Wildenborg (under the Internet alias "PatrickW"), a 38-year-old modder from the Netherlands, rejects Rockstar's claim that the mod required significant technical effort, pointing out that he only changed a single bit in the installed game's "main.scm" file, and that there is absolutely no new content that he actually created--every piece of the required code was already in-game, just not available to the player. The PC mod itself is actually just an edited copy of the game script files with the bit changed. The mod was also made possible on the console versions, by changing the bit inside a user's savegame or by using a third-party modding device. ...

The possibility of enabling the minigame by changing a single bit of code shows that the sexual intercourse content is part of the game's original data, and not new content inserted into the game by the mod. However, it is not possible to access the sexual content simply by playing the game as intended by the developers, because it was fully disabled and the bit cannot be changed by normal gameplay. The oral sex animations are however clearly visible in the background of an early mission, "Cleaning the Hood", even in the re-released game. This may explain why the mini-game was not simply removed when the decision was made to cut it from the game: its assets were in use elsewhere. Hot Coffee minigame controversy

Rockstar had a history of pushing the limits of the M rated game.

Rockstar's use of inner city gangland stereotypes did not endear it to America's racial minorities or the American inner city itself. That was dangerously charged territory to tread for a developer based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Introducing a button-mashing sexual minigame into a game that implies or allows the rape or murder of a prostitute raised even more red flags. Prostitutes call for ban on GTA

There is - or can be - a meaningful distinction between handling adult sexual themes in a game and porn. The adolescence of "Hot Coffee" was absolute proof that the video game industry had a lot of growing up to do.

The one thing Rockstar could not survive was the precedent it had set for embedding AO content in an M rated game. Content which could be unlocked with a wink and a nod sometime after release.

Everquest had that feature in 2001. http://www.gamespot.com/news/2823441.html Never did much with it.

Xbox is a family friendly games and entertainment console

sure, check out the titles below. in the good ol' USA violence IS family friendly.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas--"... mission includes murder, theft, and destruction on every imaginable level. Player recovers his health by visiting prostitutes then recovers funds by beating them to death and taking their money. Player can wreak as much havoc as he likes without progressing through the game's storyline."

God of War--"Player becomes a ruthless warrior, seeking revenge against the gods who tricked him into murdering his own family. Prisoners are burned alive and player can use 'finishing moves' to kill opponents, like tearing a victim in half."

NARC--"Player can choose between two narcotics agents attempting to take a dangerous drug off the streets and shut down the KRAK cartel while being subject to temptations including drugs and money. To enhance abilities, player takes drugs including pot, Quaaludes, ecstasy, LSD, and 'Liquid Soul'--which provides the ability to kick enemies' heads off."

and more!
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/gta4/news.html?sid=6140463

They know their games don't work on consoles so they don't even try to adapt Starcraft to gamepads. And they still make money.

You never heard of Starcraft 64 for the Nintendo 64? Or Diablo or Warcraft II for the PSone? Never play any of the many Diablo clones on the PS2? Tell me that Diablo 3 doesn't look like this game: http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/championsofnorrath/video/6089192/champions-of-norrath-video-review?nonRedirectElement=1

Blizzard could release any of their games for consoles...they just simply don't do so these days.

Can we stop pushing the idea that consoles are sold at a loss? The Wii has been sold for a profit since launch (source). The Xbox 360 has been sold for a profit for four years (source). The PS3 has taken the longest to get there, but it is now sold for a profit as well (source). New consoles are often initially sold at a loss, but they do not stay at that price.

The problem with the five-year lag is that the consoles are decreasing the lag the consumer sees. Crytek's CEO claims that the current generation of consoles was holding back developers. There are some games that are PC-only, but those only appeal to a fraction of the potential market, so most developers have to go for multiple platforms and accept the limitations that the old hardware has. The consumer mostly sees cross-platform games, so it doesn't look like a five-year lag at all. If there were a hardcore PC developer pushing the envelope, it might be different, but now that Crytek has developed CryEngine 3 for all platforms, I don't think anyone could do it.

I wonder how much of this is Nintendo's fault - MS and Sony look over and see their competitor beating them with half the graphics and a bit of a lower price, and they realize that graphics have hit a point that most games won't benefit that much from nicer hardware. Of course, then they think that the magic is all in the motion controls and that they need to have something that imitates that...it's like watching iphone imitators.

The obsession with social games and simplification, they made civ revolution (for consoles) before civ 5.

See here:

Social anxiety (article @ gamesppot)

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6284524.html?tag=topslot;title;4

Search for "facebook" or "civilization"

Also see here (console version of civ)
http://www.amazon.com/Sid-Meiers-Civilization-Revolution-Xbox-360/dp/B000WMEEAI/

Note that Civ 5 was hugely stripped down and console-itis and "facebook games" is part of the problematic mentality of the game industry right now.

S.C.A.R.A.B. owned by EA
This game had great game play mechanics in general and in some cases ingenious game-play mechanics. Giving it quite addictive game play, but lacked 3 major things to make it big.
1. fairly poor graphics (it was released in 1997, so that one is pretty obvious)
2. non-standard controls (it was also before FPS controls were standardized, and the controls scheme it chose was cumbersome)
3. bandwidth (this game had a great multi-player setup, but again it was hindered by the shotty internet connections and poor server selection standardization of the 1990s)

All things instantly fixed by something like a source, unreal, or unity port. (if EA didn't hold the rights to it, I probably would have already ported it. :/ )

The video chipset has been greatly improved.

I stand corrected. Hollywood has more TEVs than Flipper. Are there any other video improvements that you can talk about?

The motherboard is entirely new.

As was the motherboard in the NES-101.

New article: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6283956.html?tag=latestheadlines%3Btitle%3B5

Apparently, it costs $56 to make a Kinect.

So,... you are saying that the guys who buy Xboxes behave like animals whereas the guys who buy PS3s and Wiis behave like human beens.

In that case my question would be... WHAT THE FUCK does people do to their Xbox 360 so that there is a 23.7% failure rate, against a 10% rate for the PS3 and a 2.7% rate of the Wii??

Just quoting microsoft: “Kinect for Xbox 360 has not been hacked–in any way–as the software and hardware that are part of Kinect for Xbox 360 have not been modified. What has happened is someone has created drivers that allow other devices to interface with the Kinect for Xbox 360. The creation of these drivers, and the use of Kinect for Xbox 360 with other devices, is unsupported. We strongly encourage customers to use Kinect for Xbox 360 with their Xbox 360 to get the best experience possible.”

Or basically "creating a driver is not what we call tampering".

source: http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/sports/thebiggestloserultimateworkout/news.html?sid=6283696

How nicely racist of you.

Haven't you heard? Some people say the Kinect is racist.

I played the PSone version of Diablo 1, and it was good. I even tried out the PC version, which was much harder on my wrists, and slightly less fun to play. Every Diablo III article we see has folks drooling over every tiny little bit of info on the game that Blizzard leaks out. But as the Rogue from Diablo 1 says when she defeats Gharbad the Weak: I am NOT impressed. Why not?

Diablo III isn't doing anything that different from the various Snowblind engine games on the PS2...years ago.

http://www.gamespot.com/video/2815532

Snowblind freely acknowledged Diablo's influence, but Blizzard never acknowledges Snowblind's influence in return. Like the rippling water that is familiar to any player of a Snowblind Engine game, to the new Health Orbs, which were in X-Men Legends II and Marvel Ultimate Alliance. I sometimes call Blizzard lazy, because if they were like Snowblind, we'd have already played Diablo IV by now and be waiting for Diablo V. Of course, as everyone knows, Blizzard got their start in console development, and then went PC only for some reason that they've never explained. And now it seems pride and arrogance is preventing them from acknowledging that Diablo III would probably work very well as a console game and going ahead with a port.

A survey of 5,000 Xbox 360 owners shows failure rate of 54.2% with over 40% reporting a *second* failure.

Another survey of 500,000 reports a failure rate of 42%.

The 65% failure number may be somewhat high, but the numbers in the two surveys I found aren't reassuring. There's no way that I would knowingly put my hard-earned money into a product that failed about half of the time. I can't believe that MS wasn't forced to recall the systems.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/driving/pod/index.html

I have to agree that while totally random can be a pain, it can also be fun. If you have ever played a PC game called Nosferatu you'd know, as the fact that BOTH the levels and enemy spawns are random (and if you save? It randomizes the spawns AGAIN, so rooms you may have cleared can bite you in the ass) really keeps you on your toes and makes you be conservative with ammo. Another good one is SWAT 3 & 4, which will randomize both the good guys and bad guys so you never know walking into a building what you are gonna face.

So I'd say done right it can really add replay value to a game, but done wrong it can be a big pile o' suck. The developer can't just throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.

They did have screen shots. Every Atari 2600 game I bought had awesome cover art on the front, and a some screenshots on the back. The Activision Anthology GBA cart reproduces the box art for each game. If you have a GBA (or DS), I highly recommend it. Great collection of classics.

This demo video says that it will be a free game.

Press Ctrl+Alt+~(Tilde) to bring up the command console,
set r_gamma 3

more at http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/doom3/hints.html

According to GameSpot:

Next up is Android. Carmack asked people in the crowd how many people had Androids (a vocal minority, he assessed), and how many had spent more than $20 in the phone's app store. He said he's been checking regularly to see how popular the phones are, and it's to the point where Carmack is starting to think about when the company will bring its products to the platform. It's probably not going to be in the next six months, he said.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6273388.html

Any clues or outright answers as to where I can download John Carmack's entire keynote? Even just audio would be acceptable. I managed to watch the rocketry talk today with him and Richard Garriott. It was fascinating.

For others, here is some pretty thorough coverage of the keynote:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6273388.html

This 15 page thread has some people who say they've had melted cards. A lot of the problems seem to be with laptops. As a corollary, people are reporting that the "fix" also helps with Alt+tab speed if anyone cares about that. http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/starcraft2/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-55785055&pid=939643&page=2 Since I haven't seen anyone else post the fix, I will: Add the following lines to your "Documents\StarCraft II\variables.txt" file: frameratecapglue=30 frameratecap=60 You can add them to the beginning, end, or wherever. The game doesn't care.

So you played Big Rigs too? It actually takes real effort to score that low. Sort of like a student playing connect-the-dots on a multi-choice quiz: somehow, this would grade below an F. In video games, 5-10 is the real range, and anything below that is... a spectacular and sometimes hilarious display of failure.

P.S.: Watch the video for extra amusement.

The numbers I'm quoting are for an individual title (most titles follow the same path, but don't get coverage). When you're looking at the possibility of developing an individual title for the PC, Those are the numbers you care about. The NPD numbers you are quoting are for every title in the industry. Those include a LOT of deep discount titles on clearance, which are more of a sign of decay than health.

Also, I try not to compare NPD numbers from different articles. They're a precise enough organization that one may include accessory sales, another may include handheld or iPhone sales, etc. But journalists tend to blur those important distinctions away and present them as just "total sales!" Sourcing with NPD, I've found, is important. Comparing across different sources of NPD numbers (or different organization's numbers) will just lead to madness.

Also, the NPD is not always right. I'd put their normal margin of error at +- %20. At least they tend to be consistent in the direction which they're off in.

Here's an NPD figure. The US retail console games market was 10 billion dollars in 2009. The retail software game market was 500 million. That pegs the retail pc market at 5% of the overall retail market. Taking into account digital download, and you're still shy of 1 billion. That's still less than %10 of the console market. Add in WoW, and you're up to %20 of the console market. But again, you'll go broke chasing WoW.

While NPD is struggling to categorize digital download sales on consoles, their estimates put retail to digital sales at 9 to 1. Numerically then, digital downloads on consoles are even bigger than digital downloads on PC's. We'll have to see if they're financially as such if those numbers are released (6 grand for a report from NPD is a little pricey to just satisfy some curiosity).

I can't get into as many hard figures as I would like, since I've been privy to figures that aren't public. But the public figures are bad enough on their own.

You can survive on the PC market with some creativity, luck, and timing. But the PC market is quickly becoming like the Arcade market in the 90's: second string.

And it wasn't always this way. Before the release of this generation of systems, PC gaming was the reputation to beat. Like Arcades, for a while nothing could touch PC gaming for visuals, flexibility, and raw power. It had been in a little decline since RTS's and FPS's had fadded away, but online was definitely driving adoption. And, of course, who wouldn't want the mature development tools of a PC? Then this swath of networked online consoles came along, and you could play games in high definition that beat out 1,000 PC's for visuals, and you could play with all of your friends. Also, people moved on from gaming friendly desktops to laptops that took a huge power hit for convenience and durability. And the 360's dev tools are pretty much based directly on PC dev tools, so there wasn't much loss there. If anything, not having to target many different configurations has made this generation of consoles actually easier to develop on than PC's, for once.

Nobody wants to see PC's fading from prominence. But for the moment, that's where things are headed.

When it's not quite enough to have a fanboy war over just your consoles... that's when it's time to bring in the fanboy and anti-fanboy wars over your source! Seriously?

I don't care about VGChartz, but what source is supposed to be more accurate? When I look at information that I quickly gathered that is either directly from the companies, or from an article citing direct information, the sales totals look to be pretty damn close to the numbers of VGCharts.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6261400.html?tag=recent_news;title;1
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2010/jan10/01-06CESKeynote.mspx
http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdataps3_sale_e.html

Are these fanboy numbers? Just who should people trust for sales numbers? I don't really care which console wins this imaginary war, but if people are making up numbers then bring in some sources to dispute then, rather than try to feel like a big boy by insulting strangers over the internet.

And who the hell cares who "wins"!? In fact, let me enlighten you a little here.

A clear winner emerging that shuts out the others is a *bad* thing for you. Competition is what drives innovation, quality, and fairness to consumers. Each of these companies brings something to the table for gamers, and each offers a choice. Without this competition, the industry would become destined for stagnation and complacency. What we have this generation are 3 consoles that all bring something to the table, and can all file a niche. This is a good thing for the industry as a whole, even if the competition isn't filling your particular niche.

Seriously, is your need to somehow have your choice in video game validated that important to you?

Everyone says (and I agree) that SC2 is one of the best PC games ever made. Unfortunately it was also one of the most pirated PC games ever made, and so the creators never really made much money from it. If any creative works could ever be considered "failures" because of piracy, I'd say 80's-90's computer games would be up there...

Then again, I don't think that means it should be called a "failure" - profitable or not, it's gotta feel nice to have made a game consistently in everyone's top 10 list. But it is one of those times you wish the creators had received a bit more financial recognition for their work.

Bordering on offtopic, but my favorite quote from Paul Reiche III (SC2 designer, hilarious writer, and currently head of Toys For Bob) in a GameSpot interview:

GS: Do you ever intend to revisit the series or do something similar?

PR: Fred and I would love to create another Star Control game, but due to the cruel realities of modern game economics, I suspect both Fred and I will need to become independently wealthy before we can tackle the project full time. Dedicated Star Control fans should not take this as a request by Fred and myself for checks in the mail -- especially large checks from rich fans. Such checks should not be sent to our offices in Novato (directly to me, Paul). Guilt over playing illegally pirated copies of the game should not be a factor in sending exceptionally generous checks.

Steamworks is coming to the PS3, as per VALVe themselves, so there's hope. And Portal 2 will be playable across platforms, meaning you can play on your PS3 and then fire it up on your PC or Mac and start right where you left off.

... truth is that a large part of any console's cost is recovered by content, and without that cash innovation will die and/or consoles will become more expensive. Nintendo always owns a part of the Wii - they paid for it...

Not true, not in this case. Unlike Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo has never sold Wii consoles at a loss, not at launch and not now.

e.g. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6157690.html

True, Apple's P/E is 20.69 versus Microsoft's 12.96 which means people are buying more into Apple's future than Microsoft. However, it's not that much either. Microsoft is about even with IBM (11.98), while Apple is about even with Oracle (19.58). If you want something that's more speculative you have for example Yahoo (27.74) or Red Hat (64.12).

I think the market is fairly right too. Microsoft is feeling the pressure on their margins from cheap low-end computers that just can't have a OS doubling the price, while Apple keeps on hitting it big in consumer electronics. Just look at the market for smart phones pre-iPhone and post-iPhone, they only have about 16-17% market share but most others only managed to sell the phone. Apple is the only one who has gotten a real application store going and it's already the dominating web browsing phone with some 70% of the market. There are some rather serious barriers to entry and Apple just steamrolled them without price dumping and is already very profitable. Unlike Microsoft which fights hard and long but still loses money on xboxes. The jury is still out on iPads but it looks like that from the iPhones they've got the beachhead of applications to create that market. They're certainly by far the best offering ever attempted in that market.

Judging from what I see now, I think Apple is building up the prerequisites for a real entertainment center. The iTunes store keeps on getting more and more TV series and movies, with the iPhone/iPad they're building a huge collection of minigames and such. Not just another software update the AppleTV, but a real hardware revamp and reboot as an "iCenter" or whatever with much more focus on applications and games as well. With a touch sensitive remote making it kinda like iPhone/iPad but you touch on the remote, look on the big screen. There's still plenty potential in Apple, Microsoft not so much.

As you said, doesn't seem notable:

http://au.gamespot.com/news/2004/07/29/news_6103712.html (from 2004)

In the interview he said, "Retailers should focus on what sells." Well, the Wii sells and it sells well, certainly better than the PS3 and Xbox 360. So what's so wrong with it?

Right, I meant the "let's have the button fly in from the left and bounce around" animation. True vector animation doesn't have a replacement yet. The canvas tag could theoretically do it, but I've heard things about it's speed and it's real drawing, not moving vector objects around like Flash so it would be much much more difficult to do.

Animated SVG should be able to do some of it, but since static SVG often doesn't work well in browsers right now, the animated version would be a pipe dream to try to use.

Most animation I see on the web on people's websites is things sliding around, pointless eye candy that showing/hiding/moving images could do. Take this VW site. A quick look makes me think quite a bit could be done with HTML, but it would be really complicated. I understand using flash for that. A few months ago a friend showed me a car company's web site (someone smaller, not one of the biggest 4 or 5) that just had an amazing video of an exploding (as in exploded diagram) car that seamlessly transitioned to let you click around to different models and they swung in and out and... I have no idea how you could do it in HTML.

But compare that with Toyota and Honda's main pages. Both have pop-up lists of cars that you can hover over to get more links. Toyota did it all with HTML, Honda used Flash. Honda has a little more animation, but nothing too fancy. So many companies just use Flash to show a little slide show of clickable images, like Gamespot does.

For these simpler uses, Flash is no longer necessary. Flash has enough abilities that it (or something like it) will always have a place. But the "we need to use Flash here" bar is much higher than browsing many popular sites would have you believe.

There may be some buggy games out there but there are also gems like this. There was a time when I would have had to look up all the cheat codes for a game and put them in. This game has them all enabled by default with no way of turning them off! You can't believe all the time you save yourself from hassling with all of those cheats. If more games followed this format you would sell a lot more games.

And what about the failure rate? Is putting out products that fail half the time harming their brand? That's a reasonable expectation.

Well cheap, high-performance hardware with a low pricetag and good warranty service generally eclipses that, as the market has shown. And a survey of 5000 gaming mag subscribers is hardly representative of the wider population.

If Boeing planes failed to stay airborne, or Toyota cars failed to operate safely less than 99.99% of the time, we'd have a serious issue with that. Somehow though Microsoft is getting away with quality control that nets 0.5 9's. How is that even possible?

Do i really have to be captain obvious and point out that there are safety concerns with the first two - not to mention mandated standards that must be met - whereas the xbox is just a basic consumer electronics device. It seems most people would rather pay a rock-bottom price and then just swap it over if something goes wrong.