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The new Myst MMO is supposed to be different. Its going to focus more on world creation and exploration. It could be an interesting concept. This interview was posted this morning:
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/28/joystiq-intervie ws-rand-miller-of-cyan-worlds/

The Ubisoft "Leak" and the 360-exclusive titles are bad PR and bad marketing.

If you want your customers to pay attention, a normal press release will do just fine. If you want your customers to buy your product, either the 360 or Splinter Cell, normal marketing techniques work just fine. Microsoft's Vendor Lock-In (TM) ends up destroying their profits. It's really simple, though I can see why they miss this point: the same tech market that propelled Microsoft to its current size so quickly has the power to reinvent them too. Why aren't there more Microsofts around? Because the other companies that are successful do not engage in anti-competitive tactics.

Look at the Xbox. Without Halo, Xbox sales would probably be only half what they are. So, a Halo exclusive license will only limit Xbox sales. People buy the Xbox to play Halo, get it? Not the other way around.

Oh, and I already know Sony does the same console-exclusive licensing and attempts to achieve vendor lock-in. But I don't consider Sony a serious monopolist. They may try, but they'll never get to where Microsoft is. And I don't think Microsoft should have a monopoly, either.

Aren't you supposed to "work more hours" to enjoy the PS3?

Nintendo is allegedly selling their console at a profit, so they don't really have any reason for the controllers to be out of line with the WaveBird

Oh great, here we go again.

Assuming that the Wiimote + nunchuk costs about the same as the WaveBird to produce

Maybe there's something a bit different about these controllers that make them more expensive. Something else that they can do. What could it be?

If the government had ANY, I repeat ANY sense at all, they'd look into this, and support or fund, to stem the apparent obesity epidemic the media is reporting on among America's youth. Is there? Really?

If you're interested in following this issue, let me humbly recommend my blog.

Disclaimer: yeah, that was a blatant plug.

You're right. This all or nothing idea is stupid. The Japanese market for the next gen consoles is practically handed to Nintendo, the only concern for them is how they do in the states. As I've said before, Nintendo is still making money off their console no matter how they do; whether they dominate the entire market isn't an issue.

Nintendo is shooting for a market beyond what Sony and MS are shooting for. A market of causual game players not interested in spending alot of money for the latest and greatest in technology. Hardcore gamers will probably buy one or two consoles anyway. Most likely one of them will be a Wii, even if it is for novelty, as it will be some thing different.

Sometimes i wonder if people who casts opinions about consoles on the net are retarded (Exibit A, with a very nice comment by the Penny Arcade guys).

    People, this is Nintendo. The company that has been making profit on every single console they sold since the NES days, even with the "flop" the N64 was. They've consistently been in the spotlight of console gaming while other companies appeared and dissapeared, and, to this day, have a virtual monopoly in the portable gaming market. And most important, they are the only company with a product in the works that has people geniunely interested in, instead being more of the same with flashier graphics. I don't like consoles, and i'm genuinely considering getting a Wii, specially at the price it has been announced.

Read the complete article. Billy Berghammer fairly clearly defines what he means as a flop: third-party developer support never really materialized.

If you read through the article, it's fairly clear that he's a Nintendo fanboi. His concerns are essentially that the Wii will fail to gain developer support, and essentially float by on only Nintendo games.

With the new control scheme, there's a very real risk that third-party developer support will never materialize and the Wii will suffer the GameCube's fate of not having enough games to really push it forward. If you're looking at one new Nintendo game every couple of months, that's not the most compelling reason to buy a console.

His concern isn't that Nintendo won't make a profit, they almost certainly will. (It's Vladimir Cole who says we shouldn't buy the Wii because Nintendo makes a profit. Seriously.)

Berghammer's concern is that developer support will fail to materialize and the Wii will be stuck with a small game library while most of the games are on one of the other consoles.

Well, apparently some Nintendo US spokesman says it's region locked. And therefore, if I get a Revolution, I'll be importing it from the US to avoid Nintendo's traditional policy of screwing Europe.

4800 JPY = about 41 USD.

All false guys! http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/14/nintendo-japan-c onference-not-so-liveblogging/ Check it out.

I'm watching the semi-live blog at Joystiq.com, and it seems that what has been announced in Japan negates what this article states. They are saying a launch date of December 2nd, price of 25,000 yen (includes tax), and no Wii Sports pack-in. Is this the same Nintendo event that 1UP.com was talking about a few weeks ago?

The Wii will NOT come with Wii Sports. It will be sold separately for 4800 yen (probably around $40).

This is the press release (in Japanese) showing what comes with the Wii. No Wii Sports.

Now, I'm seeing 25,000 yen and a December 2nd launch date
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/14/nintendo-japan-c onference-not-so-liveblogging/

See also:

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/14/nintendo-japan-c onference-not-so-liveblogging/
http://www.famitsu.com/blog/express/
http://gemaga.sbcr.jp/
http://www.irwebcasting.com/060914/01/
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6157572.html?tag=brea king_news;link
http://gonintendo.com/?p=5583

Joystiq has the closest I can find to live english coverage. There's also a live stream of the conferance, however it's just coming up 403 for me. Perhaps they're only letting .jp IPs through?

Ala Nintendo Wii. http://ps3.joystiq.com/2006/09/13/psa-nintendos-in ternational-press-event-schedules/

I believe it is instructive to understand Kojima and Ebert's viewpoints. Ebert says that: "...I did indeed consider video games inherently inferior to film and literature. There is a structural reason for that: Video games by their nature require player choices, which is the opposite of the strategy of serious film and literature, which requires authorial control...[T]he nature of the medium prevents it from moving beyond craftsmanship [however elegant or sophisticated] to the stature of art. To my knowledge, no one in or out of the field has ever been able to cite a game worthy of comparison with the great dramatists, poets, filmmakers, novelists and composers... for most gamers, video games represent a loss of those precious hours we have available to make ourselves more cultured, civilized and empathetic."

In typical Japanese fashion, Kojima is rather elliptical in his reply: "...art is something that radiates the artist, the person who creates that piece of art. If 100 people walk by and a single person is captivated by whatever that piece radiates, it's art. But videogames aren't trying to capture one person. A videogame should make sure that all 100 people that play that game should enjoy the service provided by that videogame. It's something of a service. It's not art. But I guess the way of providing service with that videogame is an artistic style, a form of art."

Ebert's argument falls under the assertion of "authorial control." Regardless, his definition falls down all over the place. Yes, books and movies do walk the experiencer through a narrative that the author controls. But try applying this narrow definition to poetry, or even worse, to a painting. A painter may have a certain feeling that he wants to convey, but the affect of all art exists in this tenuous, liminal space between the experiencer, the work, and the artist. In any given work, the reader's own mind exerts dramatic control over their final experience of the work. Whether this happens based on overt choices on the part of the player or simply on how they mull a work over internally is immaterial. The viewer is always an integral part of constructing the final artistic experience. Ebert simply points out how games differ from film and literature, but that doesn't mean that one is art and the other isn't.

Ebert would do well to examine what fellow film critic, Pauline Kael had to say about that other old chestnut of what's appropriate to film versus what's appropriate to stage performance: "What movies share with other arts is perhaps more important than what they may, or may not, have exclusively." I assert, the same can be said of games.

Although I feel that Kojima's thesis differs in significant ways from Ebert's, they share a notion that art is an expression of an individual: an "artist." And that the intention of this expression is intrinsic to the definition of "art." It is unstated, but implied that the artist intends for his or her expression to be rather singular in intent and interpretation. Kojima's thesis seems to argue in part, that since he is trying to make a popular work, it cannot express his authorial vision, and therefore is not art. But Ebert offers the additional claim that the act of playing games holds no inherent value.

Frankly, neither thesis even begins to make sense. Shakespeare wrote plays that needed to be popular, but that in no way means they

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/11/report-us-july-s ales-up-22-ds-and-ea-top-sellers/

US Sales figures for July this year. In short: PS2>360>Cube>Xbox

I wouldn't really call the 360 or the original Xbox widly sucessfully. The xbox did very well for a new entrant to the market, but didn't get near sucess on the level of the PS2. The 360 isn't really doing any better, although when you consider that it's an expensive system with expensive games and a subscription fee for online play on top of that it has respectable numbers. Aside from in Japan, obviously.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/18/japanese-hardwar e-sales-7-august-13-august-fake-comments-edi/

360 sales: ~5000 per month. Xbox sales: ~0

Still, you're right overall, market sucess in unpredictable. But, since it's a fun game and getting it wrong costs nothing we might as well play! I put 80 funhouse dollars on Wii to take 40% global home console market share in 2007. :)

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/11/report-us-july-s ales-up-22-ds-and-ea-top-sellers/

US Sales figures for July this year. In short: PS2>360>Cube>Xbox

I wouldn't really call the 360 or the original Xbox widly sucessfully. The xbox did very well for a new entrant to the market, but didn't get near sucess on the level of the PS2. The 360 isn't really doing any better, although when you consider that it's an expensive system with expensive games and a subscription fee for online play on top of that it has respectable numbers. Aside from in Japan, obviously.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/18/japanese-hardwar e-sales-7-august-13-august-fake-comments-edi/

360 sales: ~5000 per month. Xbox sales: ~0

Still, you're right overall, market sucess in unpredictable. But, since it's a fun game and getting it wrong costs nothing we might as well play! I put 80 funhouse dollars on Wii to take 40% global home console market share in 2007. :)

It's selling just fine here in the US, and (at the moment) it's the best thing out there.

I know it's sorta dumb to link to a news story promising a news story in the future, but...

Joystiq is promising some "major" next-gen console news tonight at 12:01AM EST on their site.

Lets hope for some Wii info...

Some other links of the same video.... YouTube, Gametrailers hosted on another site

You mean an attachment like the GPS system and the camera Sony just released for the PSP?
link.
Headphones are an attachment too, if a bit smaller.

I take your point that it wouldn't be as convenient as the PS1 upgrade, but I don't think it's all that crazy.

Good assessment:

Casual players won't pick up a 600 dollar console. Fanboys will have read Sony's interviews about them and will have lost respect for it.

No one has ever held onto the top spot for three console generations. They get too blinded by success, too afraid to take risks, and they lose it. I wish Sony the best of luck, as they have some great people working there, but I too will be on the sidelines until a game so great that it justifies the price comes along.

You just hjave to tighten up the graphics.

They did cut him a check for $10,000.

While Bioshock may be the spiritual successor to SS2, EA is supposedly working on SS3, according to PC Gamer UK at least.

Have been waiting for Bioshock for a while now, looks to be great, hopefully it can hold the feel of the SS's.

And if EA doesn't f it up (yes, I know, little chance of that), we'll have another SS followup.

(Side note: the linked article keeps changing. Could've sworn I saw a reference to Syndicate in there. And if there's one game franchise other than SS I want to see revived, it's Syndicate.)

On the shitcan of history, like the unreadable choice of default font on Slashdot, the Star Wars Galaxies NGE, the changes to Yahoo's stock message boards, and two recent changes to Google Maps, one of which has made broke printing impossible (users are now reduced to taking goddamn screen captures and printing those!), and and another one that auto zooms and recenters, instead of merely re-centering the map, on double-click, making navigation a time-consuming process of setting a desired zoom level, clicking to recenter, slowly loading a bunch of tiles you don't need, then unzooming back out, and loading yet another set of tiles.

In each of these cases, user feedback was nearly universally negative, and yet the "improvements" remain in place.

If this is UI innovation for Web 2.0, give me Web 1.0 back.

Okay, so you've conceded one part of my previous two points -- the PSP isn't that good of a movie platform. (that in itself means I'm not as full of it as you'd seem to like to believe...)

Now, for games... there's nothing all that inventive or novel about the PSP. Sure, there are some very playable games, but that doesn't make it a great gaming platform -- far from it... and here are two examples: First, compare the input options on the DS vs the PSP (for the record, I own neither of the systems) The multi-screen/touch screen plus the conventional d-pad and buttons, plus even a microphone input allows completely new gaming experiences. Next load times -- two or three minutes in some cases. My point isn't to say that the PSP sucks -- it doesn't, but it's not amazing either.. in short, it doesn't prove itself to be an amazing or groundbreaking gaming platform. From a design standpoint, the DS is a much more interesting platform -- though realize that the point isn't that the DS is better than the PSP, but rather that the PSP isn't as good as a gaming platform could be and that was the second part of my previous point... so please, put your fanboy ire away and relax, I'm not like I'm trying to personally insult you or your tastes -- if you have fun, great, keep playing your PSP.

But, okay, I expect you'll still be upset with this response... so, then, I've got one more question... why isn't the PSP being adopted as widely as many initially expected it would be? If I'm wrong and it's not less than ideal at all that it does, please, enlighten us as to why it's not complete blowing its competition away.

Here's the numbers you mentioned:

* DS Lite: 262,453
* PSP: 35,938
* PS2: 22,288
* DS: 6,344
* GBA SP: 2,953
* Xbox 360: 1,472
* Game Boy Micro: 1,410
* Gamecube: 1,076
* GBA: 20
* Xbox: 0

And a link (which in turn links to the original source):
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/07/28/japanese-hardwar e-sales-17-july-23-july-bad-comparison-week

The DS debuted in North America in November 2004.

The DS debuted in Japan in December 2004.

The DS Lite debuted in North America in June 2006.

The DS Lite debuted in Japan in March 2006.

The 21 million sold Includes all versions (including lite, and multiple colors) from Every region from the earliest launch (USA) until July 24, 2006.

10 million of the 21 million were sold in JAPAN alone. Japan's Population is about 128 million people meaning about 8% of the population (of Japan) has one.

Any questions?

I am just the messenger here. I am only speaking on behalf of a lot of inside journalist and key-note speakers. Here are a few different sites speaking about the "intel has killed gaming" idea. 1. http://www.joystiq.com/2006/07/12/epics-mark-rein- intel-is-killing-pc-gaming/ 2. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/archives/20 06/07/12/is_intel_killing_pc_gaming.html 3. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060712-7247 .html

Xbox has not been successful at making a profit. I don't doubt Microsoft's ability to lose money. Here's an April 28, 2006 story I found through a quick Google search: 3.2 million Xbox 360s shipped, $388 million in losses

If you sell fewer than 10 systems across the country for a week they should post the people's names that bought them too.

Why link to that blog, which just copies the info from another place? How much did they pay?

Actually, as someone else linked there are 3 billboards. Nice pics too.

It's about time you got your head out of your ass and looked at the other two images.

What about the other two images? Do they bother you as well? If not, you're a reverse racist.

They did have something like that.

It wasn't racist at all. Here's why:

Sony had three ads - one where a white woman was holding a black woman by the chin, one wherre the black woman was overpowering the white one, and one that looked more neutral. Of course, everyone screamed "racist", spread the news about the first one, but not the other two. It just took me five minutes to find a site that had the other images. If you go to Google News and search for "sony racist ad" you'll overwhelmingly see only the first image.

Are you aware that the PS3 is going to be bigger than even the original Xbox?

From the article:

PlayStation 3 - 8726.9 cm^3
Xbox - 7727.4 cm^3
Xbox 360 - 6616.9 cm^3
PlayStation 2 - 4179.1 cm^3
Gamecube - 2656.5 cm^3
Mac mini - 1384.7 cm^3
PStwo - 978.9 cm^3
Wii - 955.5 cm^3

Those of us who read more than just /. especially aren't surprised. I first heard about it waaaay back on June 26th. Ouch.

No matter what you xbox d00dz say about sales figures and marketshare, one fact remains: the Xbox is costing Microsoft billions of dollars . I've read articles that claim the premium 360 package costs something like $526 to make. Another says it costs $715. That's a hell of a lot of money to make back through licensing.

No matter what you xbox d00dz say about sales figures and marketshare, one fact remains: the Xbox is costing Microsoft billions of dollars . I've read articles that claim the premium 360 package costs something like $526 to make. Another says it costs $715. That's a hell of a lot of money to make back through licensing.

Here's a mugshot of the evidence.

That is NOT a mugshot of the evidence. That is the orginal "super-fuggin'-ugly" style Nintendo DS. This story is about the Nintendo DS Lite which looks more like this.

Here is a comparison for those that have trouble telling the difference between the two models.

Just look at what the wonders of in game ads do to an old classic. I'm getting hungry just looking a the glock.

http://joystiq.com/2006/01/11/in-game-ads-infiltra te-counter-strike/

Actually, the actual SEC filing says dollar amounts are listed in thousands, so their figure of $4,250 is off by a factor of 1000. It should be $42,500,000. Update the post Zonk!

Gamespot made the mistake, slashdot quoted, joystiq quoted, BUT joystiq updated and fixed the error.
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/06/10/500-000-offered- to-finish-duke-nukem-forever-this-year/

but Nintendo has gone to the "Mario" well a bit too much lately and the poor sales of the cube shows it.

Check the Japanese sales charts. In the last two weeks, New Mario Brothers for the DS has sold ~1,000,000, one of the (if not THE) fastest selling games ever. The demand for (good) games with Nintendo characters is there. Look at the Best Buy and Amazon.com US sales ranks for some more evidence... (NMB is currently the top selling console game on Amazon.com, and #2 at Best Buy).

Mario's (and other Nintendo properties) over- or under- exposure isn't what hurt the gamecube. The console is neck and neck with the Xbox 1 for global sales (it vastly outsells it in Japan), and that is primarily based on Nintendo 1st party games (Mario, Zelda, etc). What hurt the cube was a lack of any games BUT the Nintendo games (with a few exceptions like RE4. People that love Nintendo games bought the cube. But to compete with the PS2, they needed people who like GTA, Tekken, Elder Scrolls, etc... That's where they failed with the cube.

As far as them exiting the hardware business, they have already stated they will not do that. And why would they? They came out of the last generation with tons of profits - both on the cube and the GBA. Again, the Cube is worldwide neck and neck with the Xbox - and they made a profit on every console sold, unlike MS. If they only do just as well this time, they will still be making profit (and it looks like they might do a lot better than last time).

Right now, they consistantly dominate Japanese sales charts with the DS and DS games - DS games regularly occupy 50% or more of the games charts, and the DS outsells every other console or handheld handily. This is giving them a massive war chest, not to mention a lot of fans of the DS who may be easy to sway over to the Wii... On the flip side, if the weird controller scheme is bad, it will hurt them. And if they don't get 3rd party games, that will hurt them too.

Either way, though, Nintendo isn't going anywhere.

but Nintendo has gone to the "Mario" well a bit too much lately and the poor sales of the cube shows it.

Check the Japanese sales charts. In the last two weeks, New Mario Brothers for the DS has sold ~1,000,000, one of the (if not THE) fastest selling games ever. The demand for (good) games with Nintendo characters is there. Look at the Best Buy and Amazon.com US sales ranks for some more evidence... (NMB is currently the top selling console game on Amazon.com, and #2 at Best Buy).

Mario's (and other Nintendo properties) over- or under- exposure isn't what hurt the gamecube. The console is neck and neck with the Xbox 1 for global sales (it vastly outsells it in Japan), and that is primarily based on Nintendo 1st party games (Mario, Zelda, etc). What hurt the cube was a lack of any games BUT the Nintendo games (with a few exceptions like RE4. People that love Nintendo games bought the cube. But to compete with the PS2, they needed people who like GTA, Tekken, Elder Scrolls, etc... That's where they failed with the cube.

As far as them exiting the hardware business, they have already stated they will not do that. And why would they? They came out of the last generation with tons of profits - both on the cube and the GBA. Again, the Cube is worldwide neck and neck with the Xbox - and they made a profit on every console sold, unlike MS. If they only do just as well this time, they will still be making profit (and it looks like they might do a lot better than last time).

Right now, they consistantly dominate Japanese sales charts with the DS and DS games - DS games regularly occupy 50% or more of the games charts, and the DS outsells every other console or handheld handily. This is giving them a massive war chest, not to mention a lot of fans of the DS who may be easy to sway over to the Wii... On the flip side, if the weird controller scheme is bad, it will hurt them. And if they don't get 3rd party games, that will hurt them too.

Either way, though, Nintendo isn't going anywhere.