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Nintendo Announces Gamecube Launch Numbers
cbirdsong64 writes: "Planet Gamecube has a story about the Gamecube launch quantities for the U.S. and Japan. Apparently, the Japanese launch will consist of 500,000 Gamecubes, all purple. Nearly 900,000 Gamecubes will be shipped this year in Japan. The North American launch will have 1.1 million (!!) units availiable, with no colors announced. The Big N plans to ship a total of four million Gamecubes worldwide by March 2002. They're doing a whole lot better than Sony did last Christmas." Maybe when the much-anticipated Gamecube ships, I can pick up a discounted PS2 and GT3 :)
I agree, plus there's the tacit assumption that Sony's "shortages" weren't part of their plan. It's my belief that they were.
This is what I consider game consoles.. and I'm not saying this as a flame or a troll or anything. But to me, they seem more aimed at the kiddies (and non computer users)... I'm a serious gamer on the PC platform.. I don't really like console games all that much, specifically because PC games can have more intuitive interfaces (such as mouselook.. can you imagine playing any FPS with a playstation controller? that has to be insanity! as if I wasn't bad enough at it already), more mind challenging games such as turn based strategiesm, sims, and even real-time strategies. (Though you can get those for some consoles.. but still, I'd want a mouse)
Anyway, I think they're aimed more at kids and non-computer types because they're less expensive than PC's so parents are more likely to buy them for their kids, since the kids generally can't afford that sort of thing, and for non-computer types, since it's easy setup, and all you do is stick the disc in and go. Instant play.
Anyway, I'm not really saying anything I haven't said before, so I'll shut up now.
If anyone moderates this up past +2, I will kill myself. And my family.
Market saturation is the exact opposite - when supply outstrips demand. Duh.
The Xbox is not even a contender. Sure, MS will probably pour zillions into marketing it in North America, but just take a look at the less than impressive title line-up for a second. The flagship product is another Abe game for christs sake, and the PC shooter Halo, which would have been impressive if it was released 2 years ago.
;).
But the real killer is that the Xbox has a mindshare of about 0 among Japanese developers (you know, the software houses that sell more copies during the opening day that any MS game ever will). The Xbox also can't seem to determine if it should be a scaled down PC or a console (Harddisk? I can't wait to PATCH my games
2) For a platform that's so well designed, with so many innovative and breathtaking titles (JSR, Skies, etc.), Dreamcast has arguably been the best console launched to date.
3) Another point is that no company has kept dominance through two continuous generations: Atari 2600 -> Nintendo Famicom -> SEGA MegaDrive -> Sony PlayStation -> SEGA Dreamcast -> ???
Oh well, onward and upward. I hope PS2 owners enjoy their "Sony Saturn". They'll never know all the fun they missed on Dreamcast.
People kept saying the GDROMs weren't cd's that they were something else and we all saw how wrong they were.
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Go to google and search on 'n64 shortage' admittedly it was a manufactured shortage and extra units showed up rather quickly, but this is what some people accuse Sony of doing anyway.
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I meant Google groups. (ie the old Deja news)
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...that anyone who pays the licensing costs to the DVD Format/Logo Licensing Corporation can make DVDs and DVD drives, then yes it is an open standard. :)
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You mean like they did with N64 in '96?
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That DVDs are proprietary. 'That word, I don't think it means what you think it means'
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Like they did with the N64 in '96?
Or maybe uf they weren't such 'fuck ups' they would have had a better selling console in the last generation.
Don't get me wrong, I own a N64, but they are a business just like Sony, prone to mistakes and really only out for one thing, your and my cash.
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Realistically bits don't matter that much. Look at the Xbox, it is a 32bit machine and in can out perform the DC and the Jaguar (both 64 bit)
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>One of the things that always pissed folks off about Nintendo was that they HAD to use proprietary formats.
No, what pissed developers off was having to fit everything on a cartridge, when CDs were bigger, and cheaper. You still had to use Sony & Sega's CD production facilities, and their formats were always proprietary, albeit variations on a standard. Consumers actually prefer cartridges, as they don't scratch and skip.
The only problem with a 1.5 Gb disc is that you won't be able to fit hours of FMV on it, but with more games using their engines for cut scenes, even that isn't a real problem anymore. Harder to pirate too.
Just not in the two other large games markets; Japan and the US.
The multiple language thing doesn't help either.
PC games tend to fall in one of three categories:
1. FPS - quake et al.
2. Simulation - sims, etc.
3. RTS - AOE, Civ, and all that
That is pretty much the market for PC games. Console games on the other hand, are MUCH more imaginative, have better game play, and their genres are much more diverse. You could say the relative stability of the hardware drives producers to make these qualities stand out more in their games (because they all roughly have the same limitations). Whatever it is, console gamers are the most serious simply because they have BETTER GAMES. The only PC game in the last year and a half that could hold my interest for more than a day or two was Black and White. Yet I've played Grandia II and Skies of Arcadia countless times on my Dreamcast. Or better yet, I just spent $40 on Final Fantasy:Chronicles so I could once again play games I had on my SNES.
Simply saying that a mouse makes you a serious gamer is pretty much a joke. Serious gamers are such because they are able to take any kind of game and master it, and with diversity of PC games on such short order I doubt many PC-only gamers can pick up anything other than an FPS quickly. Hell, what about the Dreamcast mouse and keyboard? Does that suddenly make console gamers more hardcore because they have a mouse-based interface to play with rather than just the controller?
I've been playing video games for almost 15 years now, and to this day I prefer playing them on dedicated consoles because the games are just _better_ and they are more diverse.
Just my opinion though.
The copper bosses killed you, Joe. 'I never died', said he.
--
Sorry, the main reason that I never got into the whole console craze is because of mutliplayer. Let's compare. A console in my living room with noone loval to play a majority of the time versus the PC in its room with millions of willing players just one ethernet connection away. Multiplayer is online, not in the segmented couches across the nation.
-- Grey d'Miyu, not just another pretty color.
... seriously, look;
Old Easy Bake Oven
and
Modern Easy Bake Oven. It even has the same color, purple !
I wonder if Hasbro will sue.
- sigs are for wimps.
CGN ? Isn't that backwards ???
* Nintendo requests that the proper way to name CGN is "NINTENDO GAMECUBE" (all capitols). "Nintendo Gamecube" is also acceptable, but "Nintendo GameCube" and "Nintendo Game Cube" are both incorrect.
I hope you work for Nintendo. It's pretty odd to see people telling others how corporations prefer their products to be capitalized !!!.
LOL !!!!!!!!!
- sigs are for wimps.
The super mario 2 you bought was not the super mario 2 released in Japan. The super mario 2 released in Japan is much closer to Super Mario 3 in the US/Canada.
That's what he was talking about.
32-bit: PlayStation, Nintendo 64
What? The N64 is 64-bit... hence the name.
Anyway, it could be argued that while there are usually two successful boxes, there is usually a dominant box... Sega wasn't really successful with the SMS, they just hung on to second place... which gave them the opportunity to work on the Genesis and beat Nintendo to the 16-bit era. Not that it really helped.
In the 32/64 bit era (the 3rd wave... actually, the 4th wave... you forgot the early consoles), the 64 played second to sony. Sony was the hard core gaming machine, even though it was 32 bit and the graphics couldn't compare to the 64. The 64 was the kids machine... but, the 64 never had the range of games that the PSX had... and that can be blamed on the fact that Nintendo went with carts instead of CD-ROMS and Nintendo's licensing policy.
So, in the 5th wave, we already have the PSX2 and Dreamcast... we already know the Dreamcast is out. I still haven't seen a lot with the PSX2 that impresses the heck out of me, but, with it's library of PSX games, it's going to be hard to knock down.
Nintendo has strength with the GameCube, but it has to face a number of problems:
- Nintendo's licensing -- until the GameCube is dying off, you won't see a rush of so-so games that attract a lot of sales because they are so cheap. Until then, you'll get great games, but a limited number of them, therefore, early adopters will be disappointed by the lack of games. (Anyone remember the N64 launch?)
- The XBox is based on off-the-shelf PC hardware. There is a lot of developers who know NOW how to get great performance out of this box. Plus, it should be easy to port the constant stream of games over. I don't know how Microsoft's licensing is going to be, but if it's any bit more lax than Nintendo's, there will be a ton of games for it by Christmas.
- Backwards compatibility. The PSX2 is backwards compatible to the PSX... and it plays DVDs.... this is all most families need to justify going PSX2 over the GameCube or XBox.
Sony is on the right track... they are following the same trail blazed by Nintendo in the handheld market -- get the machine out there with tons of games... when you upgrade it, make sure it still plays the old game. Too bad Nintendo didn't use the same logic with the consoles.
dennis
Wow that thing is ugly. Now--it may be small, but that may work against it. Using 3.5" CDs will definitely work against it. When the XBox and Playststion 2 are using DVDs for storage, Nintendo is using CDs with 1/10th of the size?? Are they insane?
:-)
Even if they were 3.5" DVDs (which I've never heard of), they would still only be able to hold less than 1/2 of what an Xbox or PS2 can on a single disc. So much for nice large textures on the games....
Not to mention the fact that the thing is gonna be in *cough* Pokemon colors. No thanks. Once it and the Xbox come out--I think I'm gonna buy that PS2 Gran Turismo 3 bundle for $150
-Julius X
-Julius X
remove "-whatkindofspamdoyoutakemefor-" from email to send
And, as for being a jerk in the past, IBM was the absolute worst for many years. They were the microsoft of the 60's-80's. I think they are now one of the absolute coolest companies. Competition does wonderful things to work ethics
Kinda makes you wonder if Microsoft will be "one of the absolute coolest companies" in twenty years. Heh.
-Julius X
-Julius X
remove "-whatkindofspamdoyoutakemefor-" from email to send
Gamespot also has an article about the Gamecube here...but the part where it mentions the Panasonic media unit I've shamelessly ripped:
So there you have it.
-Julius X
-Julius X
remove "-whatkindofspamdoyoutakemefor-" from email to send
you know you guys, homophobia and hatred towards gays and lesbians is often a sign of repressed sexual desire.particularly homosexual desire.
Your not very bright are you? My last name is "beaver" now, think for a moment, what do you suppose I'm into??? and besides you are off topic, the topic is about Nintendo not Playstation, and it's spelled "RULES", not "RULZ". And Nintendo is superiour to Playstation anyway,anything with a Silicon Graphics chip in it kicks ass.
Bleh. So many games that implement >2 players on consoles suck. There are a select few exceptions, and good games do bother to support the extra hardware. I'm sorry, but if you divide up the TV screen, it sucks. Gauntlet Dark Legacy and Cookie & Cream for the PS2 do a great job of multi player with a multitap. If you like the divide up the screen aproach, there are lots of those games available too. (Even with the need for a multi tap). Putting four ports on the front of the machine only makes the people who don't want >2 players (The majority if the number of >2 player games is any indication) pay for the extra ports either way. The future of multi player on consoles is network gaming anyway. As soon as broadband is widely available, you'll be plaing with hundreds of others with only one controler port. Post college you don't have a bunch of "lamely-nicknamed punks" around your house to "hand your ass to you" after work anyway, but you do have plenty of money to go out and buy games with.
And what's this crap about a PSX "vibe"? And this other crap about PC's not having good multi player? (Ever played Quake?)
This is just off the top of my head. Yes, there are many PC developers in here, but I don't think that distinction is quite as valid anymore.
This is an excellent question, and one I have wondered about myself.
There are two sides to this coin.
1) How many next-generation (PS2, Gamecube, XBox) consoles (NGCs) do we expect to be sold?
2) How many NGCs (obviously, only PS2 right now) have been sold already?
To answer these questions :
1) Roughly, this number should be at least the number of existing PS1 + DC consoles. This is not incorproating the significant increase in the overall market that we expect from first-time console owners who might be inclined to buy a console for its DVD playback ability (for instance).
I seem to find that roughly 15 - 20 million PS1 consoles were sold worldwide since its debut in 1995. And about 5 million DC consoles. This makes the total market size at least 20 - 25 million strong.
2) How many PS2 units have sold so far? I seem to find about 5 million have been shipped. It's more difficult to find out how many have been sold, but to be conservative, we can assume that all of the units shipped will sell by the Nintendo launch.
So... it seems that at most, 25% of the NGC market will have saturated by the time Nintendo enters the scene this fall. A million or two units is not going to change that number dramatically. It would appear there is a great deal more room left for growth.
HOWEVER, since one cannot overestimate the influence which a dominant technology has in the marketplace (think VHS vs. Betamax), Microsoft is going to have a very hard time taking the reins away from Sony and Nintendo this fall. I would certainly say that if they cannot make the crucial Christmas ship date, they are likely to find themselves killed before leaving the starting gate.
Bob
Science, like Nature, must also be tamed, with a view turned towards its preservation.
Thanks. Do you have a source? Most of the sources I found cited substantially lower numbers.
In any case, it would appear that the market is far from saturation.
Bob
Science, like Nature, must also be tamed, with a view turned towards its preservation.
*cough cough* PAL
bloody europeans...had to be different.
You apparently don't put the high monetary value on "envy of your friends" that I do.
-B
GT3 is the best looking game I've ever seen, hands down. The rally racing section alone is worth the price of the game. But I think the wheel is terrible. If anyone out there is thinking about dropping $105 on the wheel, try it out first. I borrowed one from a guy that hated his. If you like it, you can probably find one secondhand cheap.
-B
If I remember correctly that's what Sony said last year. Remember what happened to them? They said they'd have 1MM+ units out there by Xmas and only ended up with ~600M.
PR Departments don't let out bad news until they are forced at gunpoint
Pete
The sole purpose of the Internet is to get porn and bomb making plans into the hands of children.
Eventhough it sounds like you mixed frequencies, I would like to add that a console is running games at 640x480 (or not far, whatever NTSC is). And that's the big difference. It looks to me like ANY respectable graphic card (even the Savage IX in my laptop) would do well in these resolutions.
Your CPU is hardly used at this resolution. That's a point I'm always trying to make with my brother who's got a PS2.
Anybody care to comment on that?
I've owned a PS2 and I like it quite a bit (my latest favorite is Twisted Metal: Black - the first car combat game done well I've seen in ages).
However, even though the PS2 has a growing library of some pretty impressive titles, I really can't resist the GameCube. If nothing else the Star Wars game looks quite amazing, and games like Pikimin look pretty interesting as well. And it's a cheap enough system that it doesn't hurt too much to own a second system, with access to even more games...
I would think about an XBox, but I already own a PC and anything interesting will probably be ported to the PS2 or GameCube.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
How dare you suggest the Virtual Boy 32 was a mistake? It was a brilliant piece of technology, far ahead of its time, and I had thousands of hours of fun playing it until my neurologist ... Oh, crap, I feel a seizure coming on. Better sit down until it passes. Unnngghh ... urrkghh ... whew. That's better.
From the really big perspective, it makes existing human resources broader in scope by providing functionality where before there was none. Whether or not it will be used is another question, as is whether or not it'll be justified.
How long before there is a version of Linux for the Gamecube? Anyone have any hardware specs?
Geekizoid: The Small Shiny Things Network ©!
"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion." - Jed Babbin
You know, we have it very good with Sony as the king of the hill nowadays. How many people here remember the nintendo-dominated 80s? Nintendo with a monopoly has to be scariest thing in the world. Here are some highlights on Nintendo in 80s:
1) The whole Zelda 2 x-mas diabocle. They didn't ship nearly as many units as demanded, hence this rose the price considerably. In fact, I remember 20/20s report, where they even found a warehouse of Zelda 2 cartridges that were just gathering dust, while mobs were trying to buy the game!
2) The fact that they COMPLETELY underestimate the intellects of the US market! How many RPGs were ported to the US? (As an example, look at the FF series and the Dragon Quest/Warrior series.) Whatever came to the US was either dumbed down or censored heavily. Nintendo never felt that US market was mature enough for some of their best games. Super Mario 2 is another example, where it wasn't ported to the US, because Nintendo thought it was too hard for americans.
3) The 2+ year lag between US and Japanese releases. Nintendo NEVER wanted to release US games anytime near their Japanese release dates. I don't even know why.
4) The awful, slave-like licensing agreements. Forget about Microsoft, the Big N didn't allow anyone to even buy blank cartridges without paying them a MAJOR licensing fee (and then they'd have the nerve to call their licensing fee the "Nintendo Seal of Quality.") Remember Tengen? They reverse-engineered the NES system, made their own black cartridges (including a superior Tetris) and were almost sued out existence by Nintendo! (Nintendo also made newer NES consoles not work with their system)
5)Then there's the Game Genie. Whereas other console makers (SEGA) embraced it, Nintendo took Galoob to court and kept the Game Genie in the court system for over a year. I remember having to order mine from Canada to get it.
6) Nintendo treats their 3rd party developers like shit and always has. That's why Square left, and why there are almost NO third party apps coming from Nintendo. (and that's true... come on, what NON-NINTENDO game do you want for the gamecube?)
Those are just some highlights off the top of my head. But let me tell you, if I had to choose between Nintendo or Sony, (or even nintendo vs MS), I will NEVER EVER CHOOSE Nintendo. With Sony, we have tons of GREAT RPGs coming over very quickly, fast translations, a company that has a VERY lax licensing policy, and most importantly, a company that doesn't think their market is a bunch of idiots.
I've saturated my Pants just thinking about it.
Actually, Sony has already announced that they'll be droping the price. Unfortunately it was only like $30 bucks...
"The world only exists in your eyes. You can make it as big or as small as you want." - F Scott Fitzgerald
Has anyone heard about the Panasonic GameCube? Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) had an article that mentioned a special edition GameCube to be released by Panasonic that will play DVDs for an estimated cost of ($299). Tasty.
"The world only exists in your eyes. You can make it as big or as small as you want." - F Scott Fitzgerald
a) the Nintendo *64* is not 32-bit
b) the PlayStation 2, et al are not *64* bit (the X-Box, for instance, is 32-bit,.. P3.)
and what is the bit measure you speak of anyway? is it CPU register size? well which CPU?
you're discussing it like a 5-year old would.
...dave
Think different? I'd be happy if most people would just think...
You're thinking light, not pigment. Since you're seeing the result of reflected color (as opposed to spectral color) with the GameCube, different rules apply.
Actually, that ISN'T market saturation. Market saturation would be if the product sits on the shelves and doesn't sell... then the market is saturated, but as long as they are still selling out with unsatisfied demand, it certainly isn't saturated (at a given price, with a given product, etc, etc).
"Why should I be content to simply live in this world, when I, as a human being, can CREATE it?" - Oertel
Not to be blasphemous, and I'm sure Gamecube will have a couple of smash hit games (Dreamcast had a few...)
First of all, graphics mean a lot in today's day and age, but it's really a game's total design - playability, difficulty, sound, graphics, plot, etc. - that really has to shine. Good graphics mean crap, because I still play some pretty good games that have very shitty graphics (Marble Madness anyone?)
Second, I wouldn't say it has much better games before it even comes out. We don't know if most of the games will be duds or not. Of course, comparing it with N64 and Playstation, perhaps there will be some good games that are only outmatched by the most popular PS2 titles, or perhaps MS has a real ace up their sleeve and we'll be talking about X-Box games as the console games to have this Christmas.
But enough negative talk. Right now, there's never been a better time to be a video game enthusiast. Now if only that damn GT3 steering wheel didn't cost me a month of food...
Great RPGs... but that's about it, for the most.
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
The article didn't say this, but along with the launch codes, they released the rest of the contents of the Gamecube Football, including the Gamecube 'playbook', to be used by Nintendo's CEO in case of a decision to deploy the 'Cube and a secure SATCOM radio handset.
In releasing the launch codes, Nintendo has given mankind a powerful and terrifying weapon in the war against boredom. Let us pray these launch numbers are never needed.
I believe this has been a factor in some developers expanding their efforts on other consoles. These factors make me pretty suspicious of a claim that Sony was holding back on consoles.
No there isn't. Get ready for some aggressive discounting, big advertising campaigns and maybe even one failing within the first year a la Dreamcast. I couldn't pick which one that will be, but I don't think I will give up Gran Turismo 3 any time soon.
Sales figures released by Sony. Just what is the total market for games consoles? Not everyone will get to buy two or even three systems, a lot of kids will get the choice of only one.
s 2_ biiiiig.htm
Or if you like to DIY:
http://www.gamersutopia.com/news/playstation2/p
My point, in case you missed it, was that last Christmas Sony sold some PS2s, however as of today, Nintendo has sold precisely zero. Hence, the statement "They're doing a whole lot better than Sony did last Christmas." is bullshit.
Now some people subscribe to the idea that Sony limited production on purpose, and others believe that it was due to problems with production. Personally I'm inclined to believe Sony, but there you go.
Well at least the PS2 is "perspective correct"... Unlike you... "Tyranically abuses it's (sic) customers"... Heh.
I didn't admit to being a moron. It doesn't matter if they're a big corporation or not. I didn't say i would believe anything they ever said. What I did say is right up there for everyone to see.
OK, why do I believe them? Last Christmas you could not buy a PS2 unless you were already on a waiting list. The demand was there. They could easily have sold more. They didn't sell more because they couldn't make them fast enough. How would they win by not meeting existing demand? They could still have kept the illusion of limited supply, because sales were only through preorder, and as a customer you had no way of knowing how many consoles were available... You just stuck your name down, and you were lucky or you weren't. When a kid wants a PS2 for Christmas, it's no good letting them have one for next March. Sony must have known this. What could they possibly have gained by artificially limiting supply?
OK, I would agree with the statement "Nintendo are doing better now than Sony were at this time last year." But it is all just talk. Anything could happen between now and Christmas.
Yeah OK, Mr. Nitpick. It was a joke... I have a PS2 devkit sitting next to me, by the way. Lots of chipsets behave the same way. Which sucks.
"They're doing a whole lot better than Sony did last Christmas."
Er, well, they haven't sold any yet!
I seem to remember Sony saying they were going to have loads available too.
Wouldn't it be wise to wait until Christmas before making a comment like that?
I don't know much, but most articles that I've read point to history and say that the market can contain two successful consoles at a time. Nintendo is certain to survive, given their showing at E3, low price, and profitability (they have the best business model), not to mention the GBA. I suspect that the PS2 will be the other survivor.
And, as for being a jerk in the past, IBM was the absolute worst for many years. They were the microsoft of the 60's-80's. I think they are now one of the absolute coolest companies. Competition does wonderful things to work ethics.
and, btw, one of the reasons cited for nintendo's resurgence is that they are starting to treat their developers well, while sony is now treating theirs like, well, you know.
Rogue Squadron (Rogue Commander? Something like that) is LucasArts and is the Reason I Will Buy The Game Cube. It received excellent reviews at E3.
Jack Valenti and the MPAA are to technology as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone
Yeah, I always wonder that too ... they have a lot of smart people but have such horrible business practices :)
Jack Valenti and the MPAA are to technology as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone
I've reserved the console and that exact game. can't wait... GT3 will tide me over till then though. :)
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python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
Info:http://cube.ign.com/news/36765.html
It will be a year later than the regular gamecube.
---
python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
Sorry to be harbinger of bad news, but Marble Madness has been mentioned at least twice on slashdot. Vintage video and computer games tend to be a recurring topic. You can see mentions of your favorite game on this /. story and this one too .
.V / _` (_-<_-<
.\_/\_/\__,_/__/__/
__ __ ____ _ ______
\ V
make world, not war
My fiancee's 10yr-old. Kids have a surprising amount of patience, if they enjoy what they're doing. Also, having finished a particular game giving them a bit of kid "status" with his peers really does help.
--
Hmm well I'm 21, and I still prefer Nintendo games over anything that's out on the PS2. If i want a really good storyline, I'll read a book. If I want to play a good game, I'll play Nintendo. Good games are open to all ages.
I'd really like to have that dirt-cheap DVD player in there...
Cheapest DVD player *in Poland*: 800zl == $200
Decent DVD player *in Poland*: 1600zl == $400
Sony PS2 *in Poland*: 1600zl == $400
I wasn't too excited about it, but after seeing the info on Super Smash Brothers Melee, I am reserving one ASAP. No dorm's complete without one :)
;)
I haven't been this excited about a gaming machine in a long time.
And of course, the discounted prices on other consoles won't hurt
It's not just purple, it's atomic purple!
Seriously, though, you think the purple color is 'pansy-ish'? I dunno - I think it looks kinda cool. Something different from the standard fare beige/black routine.
But then, I'm not going to be buying it as a decorational item. I'll be buying it whether it matches my carpet or not cause I wanna play games on it!
Yes, I would say the market saturation is there. Every time a new console or highly anticipated game is released, people go rabid trying to get it. There's a reason preorders sell out so fast - there is a huge demand. If that's not market saturation, what is?
:)
People want the latest and greatest. Consoles are no exception.
Personally, I'm going to get a Cube for sure, probably a PS2, and possibly an X-Box. Just having one doesn't saturate me enough
Legend of Zelda
Metriod
SSB
THOSE are what's gonna sell the Cube. Kids can play Pokemon on their Gameboy color. There's not really much power needed for that type of game. Sure, you could get rid of the yellow rat's pointy edges, but do they care? No, they just wanna catch him. I don't think that the Pokemon franchise is based on graphics or gameplay - it's based on marketing.
Samus kicking Ridley's posterior - now that's a different matter. Link getting medieval on some moblin - now THAT's entertainment.
And if you do feel the need to blow up small electric rodents, there's always SSB.
Not all 1.1 million units are launch units. 800,000 are for the launch, while the other 300K are for the rest of the month. You can see those details at http://cube.ign.com/news/37001.html. It's nice to see that Nintendo learned from Sony's mistake last year.
"Chances of RHIC-induced Armageddon are exceedingly rare, but... you never know." - MIT Physicist Bob Jaffe
Nintendo's just been on a steady downhill slope ever since the NES. As the eminently readable Game Over and plenty of other "insider" publications can tell you, Nintendo used their position of market dominance (pull your own analogues) to bully game developers into subservience and didn't exactly win any friends in the process. They haven't forgotten, Nintendo's coming in against a powerhouse in the PS2 (are they still kicking themselves for screwing over Sony when Sony was just a SNES hardware licensee?) and a promising, overhyped XBox. Couple this with battling not only its own Game Boy Advance but the bad press it's gotten for ill-designed screen, and all I can do is mostly think anemic 3rd party support, and that's a recipe for disaster.
Granted, I own a NES, Game Boy Color and N64, but in the long run, I've got a feeling I'll be saying the same thing about the Game Cube that I do about the N64: pretty, but also a pretty small selection.
Easy does it!
Easy does it!
This comment has been submitted already, 276865 hours , 59 minutes ago. No need to try again.
Unless Sony releases ps2 linux in th states, I might just jump ship.
Even though the Dreamcast flopped, they essentially did the right thing by flooding the market with consoles last Christmas, precisely because they knew the PS2 was in short supply. More than a few parents looking for a PS2 decided to get their kids "the next best thing," I'm sure.
Also, I believe the competition has gotten so intense in the console biz that any company that doesn't sell through at least a million units in the holiday season is probably toast, anyway. Nintendo is quite confident in their in-house game franchises, and they still seem to have a very strong relationship with LucasArts. Also take into account that, if you have pre-teens in your home, Nintendo is really the only console maker that is targeting that market.
Actually, they are doing better simply because of what you said. Bony-Sony had supply problems. Nintendo apparently doesn't.
Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
Of course you'll have to get by the encryption and the proprietary 3" DVD-density disks first before you can get Linux on it.
GOOD LUCK!
Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
GameCube will be cheaper than PS2 after their price cut.
Concrete fact 2:
GameCube will kick PS2 up and down the block graphics wise
Concrete fact 3:
More developers like working on the GameCube over the PS2
Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
Is that the jist of it?
Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
Mortal Kombat II was released on the Super Nintendo a year later, and had full blood and fatalities. Mortal Kombat III followed a year after that and, surprise surprise, had all the gore too.
The original Mortal Kombat was released, blood-free, on the Super Nintendo in 1993. Do you judge everything around the happenings of 1993? The majority of people I know would actually take into account the happenings of the last eight years.
If people were judging Sony on their 1993 game performance, all they'd be remembering is a bunch of really bad SNES movie license games, the SNES's sound chip, and some CD-thingy being made with Nintendo. A lot has changed since then, huh?
"Hello? Nintendo focuses on Family entertainment."
"Well, if you're still under 18, then that's fine, but I am sure the rest of us adults prefer something non-mickey-mouse."
Nintendo stopped their 'mickey-mouse'ing a long while back, and there is stuff like Conker to show for that. True, many of Nintendo's first party games can be passed as 'Family entertainment', but, as +Newander+ pointed out so well, just because a game lacks gore doesn't make it a bad game. Someone truly mature would choose a good 'family' game over a bad violent 'mature' game.
But I doubt you can grasp the idea of Mario being mature, and that is why you are not.
Nintendo have shown one technical demo of a some Pokemon on the GameCube. They have yet to announce or show-off a Pokemon game. Sure, they'll probably make one, but it's hardly been a selling point thus far.
And besides, if you don't like Pokemon, don't buy the games. Simple. I have a Nintendo 64, and I have no Pokemon games, and I plan to have a GameCube with no Pokemon games.
Calling the GameCube 'PokeCube' is like calling x86 'Wintel'.
Are all Nintendo ROMS on the Internet Illegal?
They are saying that pirating THEIR software is illegal, which, well, it is.
And, yes, I'd prefer Yoshi to Pikachu anyday too :)
Nintendo has somewhat been forced into their anti-emulation stance with high quality emulators, such as UltraHLE, becoming available early in one of their products' (the Nintendo 64's) life cycles. However, what does their stance on emulation matter if they don't have the law behind them?
I do disagree with Nintendo's "emulators are illegal" stance, and I agree that people should be able to play the games they own on their computers. However, "playing already purchased games on a computer" doesn't justify the illegal ROM sites. Shouldn't people that own the software back it up themselves? Lack of access to the required hardware isn't exactly a fair defence; I'm not allowed to post an image of a DVD on the Internet because some guy doesn't own a DVD-ROM in his PC, so why should that be different for a cartridge?
On Nintendo's anti-commercial ROM stance, I can understand Nintendo wanting to protect their software; they are still re-releasing their older software updated on their new consoles (GBA's Super Mario Advance for example), and preventing software they own, old or not, is still within their rights.
And I don't think Nintendo held back on a non-cart console until the GameCube due to the DMCA; Nintendo are primarily a Japanese company, and (IMHO) would be more concerned with Japanese copyright laws. They just wanted to keep a tight grip on control (and would also claim they wanted quick load times).
(By the way, as well as the Game Genie ROM, a ROM of the NES game Elite was also released as freeware I believe, which is an example of a 'real' NES game going free.)
Just a point: Digimon is a clone and competition of Pokemon. Nintendo do not own it, nor do they have video games of it on their systems. Your view of Nintendo already seems clouded.
"Resident Evil, Twisted Metal, Metal Gear Solid"
The Nintendo 64 actully has Resident Evil, and there is a RE game in the works for the GameCube too.
Twisted Metal, well, there's always 4 player Mario Kart for real destructive racing fun, however the N64 also has Destruction Derby.
Metal Gear Solid, well, there's always Rare's Perfect Dark, and to a lesser extent Goldeneye.
Dragon Warrior has actully originated on the NES, and is avalable on Nintendo's Game Boy Color. I assume, however, you're refering to the 'modern' PlayStation version, and that has only been released in Japan thus far.
In fact, all the games you mentioned are third party games, and could potentially be ported to any console, including Nintendo's. The games of Nintendo's that you mention are first party. Better then Sony's first party efforts, such as Fantavision.
I'll be far more interested to hear the launch #'s in say, January 2002. :)
Consumers will choose their console based on criteria other than software (looks, brand name, controllers, extra features, etc.) as they do for PC's.
I hear that around the time the XBox and Gamecube start shipping, Sony will be cutting the price of the PS2. I'd held off buying one because of this....anyone have any concrete facts?
El riesgo vive siempre!
What's interesting is that as much as the popular press likes to talk about the X-Box being more powerful, most observers at E3 pegged GameCube as having better graphics (not to mention games, where there's no comparison).
'scuse me? When was this? From the screenshots and videos I'm seeing on the web being posted, the GameCube looks like it's somewhere between PS2 and XBox in terms of graphics. As for games: I think I'm pretty sick of Mario brothers now. And Pokemon. and WWF...
It's $100 cheaper, has much better games, it's a lot smaller, has a better controller -- what more do you want?
You've used both controllers? That's cool, how'd you do it?
That was a blatantly ignorant troll, how the hell did that get modded up so high? There is no way that comment was in any way 'Insightful'. No one knows which games are better, or which controller is better, how can you even try to judge them months before either is released?
So what you're saying is Nintendo, Sega, and Microsoft are all making 4-player consoles, but Nintendo "seems to be the only company that really gets how important multiplayer is", even though they aren't bundling ethernet with the cube?
I'm sure Zelda wasn't a bad game, but it wasn't my cup of tea. Perfect Dark? I played Goldeneye (the best N64 game, IMO) way too much to enjoy Perfect Dark.
Well, then, you're obviously not a console gamer, and you have no business calling other people ignorant.
Never called him ignorant, just the post. I'm a console gamer, I just prefer variety in my games. N64 games seem to be the same games over and over now, and it looks like Gamecube is just N64 games rehashed one more time with better graphics. The gameplay hasn't changed much if at all. Yawn...
I don't wanna game in 640x480 on my TV anymore. So that rules out the DC, PS2, and GameCube by default. Sorry.
And there are us fulltime workers who needs an hour of relaxation now and then but don't have the time to dig into a 150 hour RPG. Nintondos games are cool easy and fun.
What's interesting is that as much as the popular press likes to talk about the X-Box being more powerful, most observers at E3 pegged GameCube as having better graphics (not to mention games, where there's no comparison).
It's $100 cheaper, has much better games, it's a lot smaller, has a better controller -- what more do you want?
Gamecube all the way...
--- egomaniac
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
One of my coworkers just had surgery on his lower back and thus can't sit till the stitches heal, hence no work (I'm a web developer). I said to him, "You have a week off of just laying around on your stomach. Why not borrow my Playstation (1)? I have a bunch of games that will keep you entertained and you won't be bored just lying around". Well I packed up my psx, cords, about 20 games, fit it all into a backpack (that I got from JavaOne. Kinda small) and brought it in for him. Consoles are infinitely more portable than PCs. The Gamecube even has a handle! The new playstations are smaller and have a screen add on. They are meant to be brought from room to room, house to house.
Yeah you can lug your PC to a lan party, but consoles are great because they are small (except Xbox it looks) and they do one thing (most of the time): play games.
My $.02,
psxndc
The emacs religion: to be saved, control excess.
Conker's Bad Fur Day? Not everything that is on N64 is family entertainment. Just the majority.
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Ceci n'est pas une sig.
Anyone else feel that the cube seems a bit oversized? I remember one "geeks in space" that discussed the fact that so many console units are so kludgy in their physical design... don't fit in the entertainment centre well, controller cords, etc. This seems to be more of the same.
The description of "Cube" seems to almost fit, tho.
EveryDNS. Use it. It works.
AC's need not reply
Well, I personally like the purple. :) I'd prefer maybe a green though.
;)
At least I don't have to worry being thought of as a pansy
Christina
"Warning: incoming game."
The computer animated television show ReBoot had purple "game cubes" that landed into the Mainframe. The show's animation looked similar to the GCN demos. Is this where Nintendo got its idea?
Will I retire or break 10K?
Personally i am looking forward to the new SEGA console much better.
Sega is developing for Game Boy Advance and PlayStation 2 and is expected to sign up as a developer on the Nintendo GameCube.
The Sega Genesis's 68000 CPU was made by Motorola, who would later work with IBM on the PowerPC design. Macintosh and Amiga computers started out on 68K and ended up on PPC. GameCube has an IBM PowerPC Gekko processor. See the connection?
My biggest problem with nintendo is its policy against roms: "The only purpose of Nintendo video game emulators are to play illegal copied games from the Internet." Bullshit. Ever heard of open-source roms such as GNOME vs. KDE Bingo?
Will I retire or break 10K?
It says (at Nintendo's site): Are all Nintendo ROMS on the Internet Illegal?
The exact text of a listed question and answer:
(Emphasis added by yerricde.) Nintendo is implying that programs that emulate Nintendo game consoles can emulate only proprietary software not licensed for redistribution. For example, the 4 kilobyte Game Genie ROM is free(beer)ware, and many popular emulators can handle Game Genie format patches. (Ignore for a moment the fact that Nintendo did not authorize the Game Genie patcher.)They are saying that pirating THEIR software is illegal, which, well, it is.
According to Nintendo's legal page, Nintendo is hiding behind a mask work[?] copyright on the semiconductor ROM chips that contain game software. A mask work copyright does not permit backups except for fair-use reverse engineering, which in the NES's case requires you to be familiar with 6502 assembly language. After the ten-year term of mask work copyright expires (thank goodness Sonny Bono[?] never got to this one), a piece of software on a semiconductor becomes the same as any other piece of software, subject to the full limitations on exclusive monopolies embodied in the fair use and backup exemptions.
See my Everything writeup on 'mask work' for more information and U.S. Code citations.
Will I retire or break 10K?
They have announced that the GC will be released in only purple to start with in Japan (check http://cube.ign.com) and then will release more colors later. Most people assume they will release colors that match the Gameboy Advance...that is very important since I want my GC to match my GBA when they are hooked together!
Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
X-Box is going to be the premier machine for multiplayer.
Several others have pointed out that most 4 player games suck anyway, because there just isn't enough screen space, and they're right.
A big TV, at least 27", takes care of the screen real estate. IMO. 'Course I might be spoiled with my 36" behemoth.
The X-Box is the only console I've seen that allows you to hook several consoles together on a LAN, to either fit more players on, or to give each player more screen space.
The PS had one-on-one console linking, not all that well utilized. And while I think making ad hoc LANs is pretty cool, one TV per person takes a lot of room, generates a lot of heat, and requires a lot of tv hauling.
One last thing: I think it will be quite hard to beat the x-box controller. The psx, ps2, and n64 controllers all sucked, but the xbox controller was actually large enough to fit my hands without feeling cramped, and the buttons and joysticks were all placed perfectly.
I would rather have the xbox controller over the gamecube controller (which looks like a bad version of the playstation controllers).
That's funny, most reviewers have said that the X-box controller is a bad (and oversized) version of the Dreamcast controller. Even the ones with big hands say it's too damn big. The gamecube controller is clearly an extension of the N64 controller, which was way ahead of its time, with very clever grouping of buttons (not like the PSX's 4 identical shoulder buttons, just waiting for you to screw up), a real D-pad, and the reintroduction of the analog stick to modern gaming (way ahead of the dual shock). I like my N64 controllers better than my dreamcast controllers (too bad the VMUs weren't better utilized) so I assume I'll prefer Gamecube's to X-box's.
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SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Right now, Nintendo seems to be the only company that really gets how important multiplayer is.
Dreamcast started to get the right idea, with 4 ports, but I think they had more of a PSX vibe going on, with as many or more 2 player than 4 player games around. I think X-box might end up in a similar fashion even with 4 ports, since its PC heritage doesn't have a good multiplayer tradition either. And PS2, where you need a multitap for that? Feh. Few gamemakers are anxious to support anything but out of the box hardware.
Yes, online console gaming has a big future, but blasting 2 or 3 buddies to smithereens while talking trash, all on the couch will beat out getting your ass handed to you by faceless, lamely-nicknamed punks who spend way too many hours at this stuff.
--
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Yeah, I'd have to agree that MS will have a hard time selling themselves as leaders of fun. Let's face it, they're about as much fun as Al Gore, with all the evil and megalomania of the Republicans. I'd call that an image problem!
Wow, now if AOL made a game machine, we could have a 4-way war of the evil multi-nationals for Xmas. I'd enjoy watching that mud fight!
I just sure hope there's more colours than just purple for the NA launch. Like, I know the look shouldn't matter if the games are good, but I still don't want to look like some kind of pansy gamer buying a purple system...
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That's the cube I want, and it should be out within a couple years. PS3 is nice. Game Cube is neat. But I'm willing to wait another two years for the hardware (and games) to look like they're straight out of Shrek or the FF movie.
The last console I bought was a SNES, and since my computer can do everything the new consoles can do and a whole freakin lot more I doubt that I'll ever buy another. But as long as people have money to burn I guess it'll never stop.
Europe? Wasn't that some terrible 80's rock band?
JK. It does seem odd that Europe is traditionally an afterthought as far as console gaming is concerned. Probably has more to do with a lack of big name developers (when compared to the US and Japan anyway) than anything else.
Everyone seems content on saying that the X-Box is much faster than the Gamecube, however you must remember that the Gamecube's processor is based on PowerPC technology. PowerPC chips tend to perform better than Intel chips, even when they are clocked considerably lower.
rm -rf sig
I'm so impressed with the GameBoy Advance handheld that I'm actually considering getting the GameCube when it comes out.
:)
With the success of the GBA, and its sales pace, Nintendo is smart to ship in big numbers.
As an aside, I can't wait to see what all the different developers and games can do with a GBA as a GC controller.
I'm actually excited about console games again. First time since the original NES.
Just a minor detail BUT...
You say Gamecube is doing a lot better than PS2 did last Christmas. Keep in mind, you're basing Nintendo's planned numbers on PS2's real sales (which were kept small mainly because of supply problems).
So no, Gamecube isn't doing better numbers than PS2 did at Christmas. If we follow that rationale, I could just say my game machine will have 10,000,000 units available at Christmas, and beat everyone.
Sorry I'm a nit-picker...
The next comment I write will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
So I just got the latest issues of T3 magazine (the UK version, not the silly US one), and there's a picture of a Panasonic Gamecube - one that has a brushed aluminum body and has a DVD player! It's slated to be a 100 dollars more and to be release in 1Q 2002. Now THAT will be a box.
Maybe when the much-anticipated Gamecube ships, I can pick up a discounted PS2 and GT3 :)
Hey timothy, heard of something called Xbox which is the most-anticipated (not just "much") piece of hardware ? I dont think, if you admit that you have plans to buy an Xbox, that you would appear a lesser mortal in front of fellow slashdotters.
Sorry if this appears like a flame. But I just had to give it to this bigot.
Rapid Nirvana
I have yet to buy a PS2.
I have a DVD player, I want a GAME MACHINE. Not an entertainment center. And for pure gaming, you can't beat Nintendo. Plus with Sega developing for it, it fits right in with my DC.
And at 199$, I won't have to sell a kidney.
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Despite the color, I'm still skippin work the day it comes out to juice my brain for a while.
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
Yeah... I don't agree with the size of the discs and storage, but I'm still getting one of these babies. X-box and PS2 are all fine and dandy, but Microsoft's games don't impress me, their name is quite tarnished already, and I don't like them. PS2, well, I'll wait untill it's good and cheap so I can play the "classics."
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
with no colors
And the colour of this box has exactly *what* bearing on its function?
When did we descend into this ridiculous consumer hell?
Simple. Yes. Those that have crappy games and crappy consoles will fall and die. The video game market died in the 70's and 80s because there was only one dominant console and it was crap and had A TON of crap games. Simple as that. The market doesn't fall out when there's a saturation of decent consoles that have decent games, not even at a percentage. The NES and SNES had games that were terrible. In massive amounts. But we still remember the gems.
The Atari, the only real console to have the market fall out underneath them, had few even decent games. While we might remember Pitfall, there were atleast 20 times as many bad games. Techinical limitations, as well as bad hardware design( the coleco and other systems were available at the time and had much more advanced graphic and sound systems.). On the Nintendo consoles, there was maybe 3 or 4 times as many bad games.
Consoles have came along way. You can't saturate the market with quality games like what the DreamCast and even playstation had. While there were a lot of crappy ass games, in ratio, it wasn't so bad. For every Simpsons Wrestling for the PSX there was DDR, MGS, even Final Fantasy 7(I didn't like it but it was fun. Well, more fun than say, Custer's Revenge) was quality relative to what was seen during the Atari age. Yeah, graphics dominate, but atleast we're taking quality and fun gameplay ideas and running with them.
I'm predicting that third parties will determine which consoles survive and which don't. They'll produce the killer apps which make or break the systems.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
I think we've learned from that though. I mean, a parent might have a hard time choosing a PS game over a DC game, but atleast the sales person will be smart enough to tell and tell the parent. Although, I believe with a more saavy not to mention much more populated and more older, core consumer group. Yes, more older. Come on, Don't tell me that the number of people in thier twenties with consoles in the mid 80's compared to the number of people in thier twenties in the mid 90's/early 2000's playing games hasn't risen somewhat sharply, atleast, as far as percentages go. It'd be insane for someone in thier twenties to own a NES back in that day. But compare that to today, people in thier twenties now were the ones owning NESes then when they were children and grew up with video games. So it's not that crazy to them.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
6) Nintendo treats their 3rd party developers like shit and always has.
Apparently Nintendo has learned their lesson. One of the whole points of the Game Cube is to make it very easy to develop for it. No more buying SGI O2 workstations and ultra-expensive license just to develop. Just get some computers (I believe Macs), get a reasonably-priced license, and go for it.
Also, Nintendo made the developing itself easy. Simple memory architecture and straightforward programming, rather than the extreme hoops you have to jump through to overcome the limited and quirky memory architecture on the PS2.
Only in the CMYK (Additive color) model, is black the saturation of all colors. In the RGB color scheme (subtractive color), white is the saturation of all colors.
I've read, time and again, that Sony plans on dropping the price on Playstation 2 to $199 this Christmas shopping season to compete directly with Nintendo-- mind you, this is stuff I've READ (on places like IGN, or inside the pages of EGM), and haven't heard officially announced.
Personally, I'm not buying a Playstation 2 until Sony gets off their high horse and realizes that their system sucks (for the price) and prices it appropriately. I mean, I'd actually LIKE to buy one, but not for no fucking $300.
BEGIN RANT
The morons out there seem to think the fact that it plays DVDs makes it cost $100 more, but let's be real folks; a Pioneer DVD-116 16x/40x DVD-ROM drive is like $52-60 OEM (go to Pricewatch, search for "DVD 116" (no quotes): Playstation 2 uses some 2x/10x (I think it's 10x CD, I really don't remember) POS of a DVD-ROM drive. Now, given that most graphics chipsets have some form of built-in DVD decoding capabilities, about the only thing Sony had to do was make sure there was some software included to access and play DVD's. THIS DOES NOT COST $100.
And this brings me to my gripe against Nintendo-- their proprietary DVD-based media probably costs ever so slightly more to manufacture, as do the drives that read them, than a true-blue DVD-ROM would have. I know Nintendo trumpets the fact that their system is a gaming machine, not a multimedia centerpiece, but for the average teen with a TV in his/her room, having the added bonus of being able to watch DVD's in their gaming system makes for one less thing to buy down the road (or hook up to an already taxed collection of inputs on their TV sets).. IMHO: Nintendo kind of dropped the ball with this, but I'll still buy it simply because I KNOW there'll be some great titles for it.
END RANT
(For the freakish weirdos who are currently in a self-created console holy war/jihad, attempting to figure out which console I'm supporting or planning to buy-- it's both. I can't say for sure which order I plan to buy them in, but at some point I will have in my posession both a Nintendo GameCube and a Sony Playstation 2. About the only system not figuring into my pocketbook strategies right now is an X-Box.)
All I know about Bush is I had a good job when Clinton was president.
I hesistate to agree with calling production problems a "mistake" when the system still made it's debut in time for Christmas. If we are looking for a mistake, it would probabaly be the lackluster game selection.
:)
But anyway.. I believe you actually mean they have learned from Nintendo's mistake (if you really want to call it that), as they made it long before Sony was even a glimmer in the game console market..
Which is good, of course--it means Nintendo may have learned from their OWN "mistake", which I hear is always a good idea.
Because you're not living in the matrix.
In case anyone else is as clueless as I was -- and want to see what this thing looks like.... see here and a larger version .
peace
i'm considering the ps2 but i know for sure i'm getting a gamecube. nintendo has always been about quality while the ps was about quantity. it looks like the ps2 is working toward quality but the nintendo is definitely going to have several must-have games at launch.
and a warning to xbox fans, you're throwing away your money. it's going to flop.
Nosce te Ipsum
Here.
Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
Nintendo stuck with a standard IBM CPU (slightly customized), graphics chip, but went all-out on 1T-SRAM, which makes all the difference.
PS2 is using RamBus memory, custom CPU, vector units, etc, than in themselves are amazingly powerful, but also amazing complicated and expensive to reproduce.
It should be a fun war!
I don't know about $99 for an X-Box. That would barely pay for the hard drive, let alone the Pentium processor, SDRAM, and all the components...
PS2 at launch: $299.
PS2 in Japan right now: $249.
Will PS2 match GameCube's price this Xmas. I bet my money on it.
If Nintendo manages to pull off some sort of really distinctive packaging, I think that it WILL help them pull ahead in the console market duing the Christmas marketing-circuses. The kids will be oohing and aahing it and pointing it out to mom and dad.
And when it comes to games, who has the better known name? Nintendo, of course. Microsoft just doesn't have it*. And they won't have it* anytime soon.
*By 'it' I mean hipness and the powerful gaming image.
this is +2? This looks like -1 Flamebait/Offtopic/Troll!
What does homosexuality have to do with light?
My other car is first.
That being said, I just picked up the PS2/GT3 package, and I'm happy with it. It's amazing that even a 2 player game like GT3 can keep a crowd of 5 people staring at a TV for so long. Something Super Bombad Racing (4 players) can't do, BTW...
Nintendo Gamecube Content: :)
If they come out with a Mario Party for the Gamecube, I'm going to have to buy one. Those bastards!
Karma: Chameleon (Mostly affected by the 1980s)
It's The Games Stupid! (derivative of KISS)
Right now I own a PS2 and the only reason I don't regret buying it is cuz of the promise of MGS2. The demo rocks btw
Nintendo as a software house makes games that kids under 12 absolutly love. They aren't always the most complicated but they are easy to play which is very important. It won't be specs that win the battle it'll be the fun-factor of the games they release and I think Nintendo still knows how to do that.
BOSTON SUCKS!
Lately, the attitude from developers and the media is that the PS2 is pretty crappy but it will live thanks to its allready existing userbase and a couple of killer titles, and the XBox seems to be less impressive daily. HALO was once a killer title but changes in game design have had a less than enthusiatic response from fans. Thoughts on Gamecube tend to bounce between "kiddie machine" and "My God Rouge Squadron/Pikmin/Luigi's Mansion/Smash Brothers looks elite." Nintendo's strategy seems to be gather a majority of exclusive titles, especially in the more mature range, in addition to reinforcing the near gridlock they have on children's games. Miyamato stated with the Edge magazine that they were trying to expand their game's appeal past the cartoony play of the n64 that captured so many kids last time around.
It boils down to three things.
MS needs a giant ace up their sleeves to survive, if not a joker.
PS2 is still thought of as the place to play all the great RPGs.
Gamecube will survive at the very least thanks to Pokemon and Animal Planet (emulates NES games!), and most likely thrive with games like Eternal Darkness (the game sounds greatly based on Lovecraft), Rouge Squadron.
Think of the n64 as the NES of Polygons and the Gamecube as the SNES. Massive amounts of features enabled with the switching of a bit.
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Open Source Sysadmin
Those are all definitive console games of ALL TIME. Anyways, you do have a slight point in that we shouldn't judge games before they're available, but saying that you can't decide anything without hands on experience means a lot of renting.
And just to be a little honest, graphically, Gamecube's games so far don't compare to Dead or Alive 3. I don't know why it is, and neither does anybody who's name doesn't start with an "N" and end in "amco." I have a feeling that they look good because of talented artists, which would translate easily to another system. But nobody is going to pay three hundred dollars for and XBox and a "bouncing breasts" option. Thats what DoA 2 on DC is for ;).
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Open Source Sysadmin
As others have mentioned, the NGC will have miniDVD's- a propriety format, which should cut down on piracy. Take that how you will. DVD isnt an open standard, you have to pay the DVD consortium twenty dollars to use it. The Mashushita/Panasonic version should retail at about the same price as the XBox, but will play DVD, comes with a remote controller for the DVDs, and other high fi features. Note that the XBox won't play DVDs out of the box, but will require a 30 dollar remote control to enable it.
As far as actual storage is concerned, making two instead of one of those DVDs isnt that much more expensive. Since the NGC has built in texture compression at a nearly 5:1 ratio (average), those shouldn't be an issue. But if GT is your thing, PS2 is your thing as well.
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Open Source Sysadmin
While those photos can't really give you a perspective on it, this page helps by putting a gbc and n64 next to it for comparison.
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Open Source Sysadmin
Blaming Nintendo for not translating every game ever made to English.
Theres really no such thing as a blank cartridge. If you mean flashcarts/prototype carts, of course they're expensive. Especially back then when the parts were much rarer and less widely used. If you mean the fact that you had to pay Nintendo to make a Nintendo game, I think you're forgetting the context. Three years ago, Atari and its publishers had flooded the market with games nobody was buying. Nintendo made that move to ensure that they didn't suffer the same fate. That aspect seems to still haunt them today, in how aggressively they do things. It might not have been the best idea, but it worked well enough to keep them alive while Sega, Atari and Colecovision died. Remeber that Atari was Tengen.
There are plenty of NON-Nintendo games. I don't really want them, but they are there. EA Sports games, Team Sonic games, Acclaim, Midway, etc. Theres plenty of games in the works that marketing from various companies doesn't want to let people know about yet. Thank god for friends in the QA biz.
Zelda 64 was released in Japan a whole month before it was released in the States. The sequal saw simulatneous releases.
As far as the Zelda 2 fiasco, I can't say I recall that one, but then, I don't think my family had given in to buying one yet. If it helps, it wasn't exactly the best game around. Crystalis was much better.
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Open Source Sysadmin
I'd have to say that I love the playstation. But it costs too much. If the Nintendo is going to cost as much as the PS2, i'm sure as hell not getting it either.
BTW, gt3 rules
Sony will most likely have to drop the price of the PS2 to $199 to evencompete with the performance/price of the GameCube. a $199 DVD player/game system and a $199 Nextgen Console...hmmm Christmas is starting to look greaaaat!
There is no spork.
this thing has a modified PPC chip, exactly how modified is the question. does anybody know if it'll boot Linux yet?
"The Most Fun Possible on 4 wheels" is at SunBuggy in Las Vegas
Think the Nintendo annual report said they were slated for Christmas 2001 or so in Japan, so figure maybe July 2002 here.
When these release we should see the Pikachu Yellow Gameboy Advances come out, since they're useful as controllers for the Gamecube.
I noticed, while in France, that the GBAs came out about two weeks later than in the USA, so I'm thinking that Western Europe should see reasonable numbers of Gamecubes within a month of the North American release dates.
--- Will in Seattle - What are you doing to fight the War?
Nintendo as a software house makes games that kids under 12 absolutly love. They aren't always the most complicated but they are easy to play which is very important. It won't be specs that win the battle it'll be the fun-factor of the games they release and I think Nintendo still knows how to do that.
The only problems I can see is if the other game houses have problems writing to the Gamecube, but apparently it's not very difficult. Microsoft's betting on the xBox bigtime, but I still don't think they grok kids, no matter how they slice it, although they have an edge in older teens and young adults right now. But the kid factor that Nintendo leverages on also translates well to teen girls and women in the 25-65 age grouping, so I think market share should be quite good.
The only major question is the Japanese Yen to USD or Euro conversion - this has hurt Nintendo before, even when their North American and Euro sales were thru the roof.
[caveat - I own MSFT and NTDOY]
--- Will in Seattle - What are you doing to fight the War?
I'm wondering if they can get a reasonable (e.g. playable, girl/woman-friendly) version of the Powerpuffs for the GBA and Gamecube. If they can do this, you could sell the three girl colors like hotcakes, with mask overlays on the GBA controllers to match each girl.
This would play to their niche element, plus boys would then go and buy the other colors, just to show they like boy colors.
One hopes they don't take it too far, like Nokia did with their faceplates, which haven't been quite as successful as projected.
[caveat - I own Nokia and NTDOY]
--- Will in Seattle - What are you doing to fight the War?
Seriously, when we see these in quantity and with a six-month consumer burn-in, then I'll believe MSFT can crank that much new tech in quantity.
/. audience in game selection, but nothing really grabs the kid factor, and the girl factor is totally dead and dull.
The xBox still has a game problem - probably have an edge for
[caveat - I own NTDOY and MSFT]
--- Will in Seattle - What are you doing to fight the War?
nintendo has always been about quality while the ps was about quantity. it looks like the ps2 is working toward quality but the nintendo is definitely going to have several must-have games at launch.
I think this is where the edge is. MSFT's pretty new to the game box business, and doesn't grok that games are all that matters, not how the pretty raindrop spatters on the ground.
and a warning to xbox fans, you're throwing away your money. it's going to flop.
I'm expecting you'll be able to pick up a $299 xBox for around $99 by September 2002 at the latest, myself. Might buy one at that price, for the few titles I like on it. But overpriced over the $150 mark. Hope they can keep the bug count down on the device, but not very hopeful, too many new things thrown in.
[caveat - I own MSFT and NTDOY]
--- Will in Seattle - What are you doing to fight the War?
Super Mario 2 is another example, where it wasn't ported to the US, because Nintendo thought it was too hard for americans.
I used to have this game. I bought my NES in Canada, so I know it wasn't a Japanese import. Guess we Canadians are smarter than Americans!
Is that a real poncho? I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
In Japan the winners were NES, SNES, PS1, PS2 and all Game Boys, while TG-16 and Saturn sold decently and the rest failed.
In USA the winners were Atari 2600, NES, PS1, the PC and all Game Boys, while SNES and Genesis tied, N64 sold decently and all others failed.
In Europe, the SMS, Genesis, PS1, PC and all Game Boys sold well, the NES and SNES sold decently and all others failed.
Yeah I totally agree, a game's absolutly no fun without gore. Anyone else looking forward to the release of Bloody Tits Shooter Man? I hear it has fantastic graphics with little or no storyline at all.
Jesus saves and takes half damage.
Yeah, Nintendo really started going downhill when they started making all those Pokemon games. It's cool that they targetted the kiddies (big market there) for their market but they really went overboard and lost many of the older gamers.
I don't know what the limit for number of players playing on a GC is but it'd be great if they had more support for more players playing from the same console.. or even making it so people could hook up consoles.
The North American launch will have 1.1 million (!!) units availiable, with no colors announced.
Wow! They're gonna release invisible GameCubes? Cool! Now my mom won't find out that I stole the one Johnny got for Christmas!
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
You are saying a lot of wrong information.
1st: Nintendo is the ONE who bring FF and Dragon Quest to US market. These games were originally made by Enix and Square.
2nd: Yes, the US market WAS DUMB at that time and younger than now. Games like Mortal Kombat are not a big success in Japan. Companies like Square like to make money. They are the one who decided to not port their games to US become they thought it was too immature. Also it's not a matter of underestimate the intellects in US, it's a matter of underestimates the number of intellects in US interested in these types of games.
3rd: Despite the lag between Japan and US release, which is far less than 2 years by the way, except for games made by third parties like Final Fantasy, we had few games released in US first, like Super Mario Bros. 2 (the american version). I'm sure some Japanese are still frustrated about that...
4th: It's not because Nintendo treats their 3rd parties like shit that Square left. I fact, Square was with Nintendo during Nintendo's monopoly. Square left because Nintnedo refuse to give a special treatment to them (Sony paid FFVII publicity) and because their platform was cartridge-oriented.
Few other facts you said were true, but you're obviously not objective... In opposition with Microsoft, who made his monopoly with buggy software, Nintendo made it with great games (IMHO).
(sorry for poor english)
no doubt half of those 1.1m unit in NA are gonna get exported to us.
why does this go on eh?
oh, ive just been employed by a gamedev group, and the gamecube kit is great :] (imo)
...but as ever there is no mention of the european launch. Despite the fact europe is a very lucrative market & will undoubtadly produce some fantastic games for this platform, once again we have to wait untill last....
Look for Nintendo's GameCube to be launched on November 5, 2001. Photos show how gamers will eventually have the choice of a 56K modem or a broadband modem and 2 slots for 4-Mb Digicard flash memory cards or a 64-MB SD-Digicard adapter. The biggest change that Nintendo has made between the Nintendo 64 and the GameCube is that the GameCube will be the first Nintendo console not to use game cartridges. The GameCube will use small proprietary discs.
They are slashdotted. Here is another article about their plans.
Just my $0.04 (adjusted for inflation)
FYI: It's not 1.1 million at launch, but 1.1 million for the entire month of November. http://cube.ign.com/news/37001.html
Nintendo was once a great company and now they suck. End of story. PS2 would've did much better if they actually had enough consoles. Personally, I would've delayed the launch until I had atleast 3/4 of what would be initially demanded for.
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Just because a bunch of people believe or do something stupid, doesn't make it any less stupid.
Actually, the Japanese Super Mario 2 is closer to the original Super Mario, except with slightly different levels and ramped-up difficulty. It was released here as "the Lost Levels" In Super Mario All-Stars. The game we got(released in Japan later as Super Mario USA) was originally Doki Doki Panic, some middle-eastern game that had some sprites modified to become our Super Mario 2.
You're half-right. The CPU(Hitachi SuperH) is 64 bit, while the Graphics controller(PowerVR) is 128 bit.
I believe there already is a Sony/AOL partnership.
Shipping is one thing, selling another thing. Try stuffing 3-billions into a 32-bit integer.
Look a monkey!
Hopefully they will release some games like Castlevania for this system. I give it about 3 months before it goes back to a full Pokemon kiddie system like the N64 ended up being.
I think the best controller was the SNES one. Lightweight, small, slim, and simple. I wish they had kept that design.
It would be too complex; it's easier to play the ROM on a PC nowadays. I do prefer the original game to a remake of the game (Mario All-Stars). I dislike changes to the original, and All-Stars changed gravity settings, as well as some music. Another thing I'm disappointed in is the focus on 3D and special effects in games, as opposed to simple fun. It's sort of like a movie. Titan AE had all the eye candy in the world, but the plot sucked. Returning to the simplistic style of the early 90's would be a good thing.
"Apparently, the Japanese launch will consist of 500,000 Gamecubes, all purple."
Also, according to unofficial reports, the Gamecube will ship with a new, sophisticated game featuring Barney the Purple Dinosaur.
8 bit: NES, SMS
16-bit: Genesis, SNES (TG-16 failed)
32-bit: PlayStation, Nintendo 64 (Saturn failed)
64-bit: PlayStation 2, ??? (DreamCast failed)
So there's really only room for one more: XBox or GameCube. Given:
I think that Nintendo is going to eat Microsoft's lunch.
--Bradley
--Bradley
However; my questions reguarding BIG N's Game Cube, are these...
1. Q: Will the BIG N allow for backwards compatablity, or will you be locked into yet another BIG N system that wont run older ROMs you spent all your money on? (i.e. NES, SNES and N64)
A: No. The Game Cube ROMs are 3 inch Discs containing 1.5GB Capacity
2. Q:Will the BIG N allow for Multi-player/system use, or are you stuck with four(4) players on a single television set?
A: Yes and No. Game Cube does not incoperate "Multi-Link" systems; However, there are two options for available... One being its four(4) player port and the other being a optional Modem that can be pershased (a 56k modem and a Broadband connector that appears to to be an 8pin 10 base-T adapter).
3. Q:Will the BIG N stick us with yet another set of "kiddie" games like they have in the past, or are they going to allow the developers free rein over their products?
A:Time will tell, but here is a list of BIG N's Current line up:
FIFA 2002 Road to FIFA World Cup (EA Square
SSX Tricky [working title] (EA Square
Bomberman Generation (Hudson
Super Smash Brothers Melee (Nintendo)
Luigi's Mansion (Nintendo)
Pikmin (Nintendo)
Wave Race Blue Storm (Nintendo)
Animal Forest Plus (Nintendo)
Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet (Nintendo)
Doubutsu Bancho (Nintendo)
Eternal Darkness (Nintendo)
Virtua Striker 3 ver.2002 [working title] (Sega)
Phantasy Star Online [working title] (Sega)
Super Monkey Ball (Sega)
Rune [working title] (company name withheld
-- Sure doesn't look like much. But then again... it kinda looks like the same game titles I've seen at the game store for N64. I have personally never really been too impressed with BIG N's "quality" of graphic's, I want to game play capablities and NEW ideas. Sure alot of the older games are fun to play but hey, Bomberman? How many times can they make the same game with different graphics? And Sega? whats with that, if it didn't sell your system why push yer product off on someone else?
-- I have a closet at home filled with boxes of old ROMs and consoles ranging from Atari 2600 to Intellivision and a Sega Master System to N64... the only thing I haven't stored there is my PS2 and games for it and PSX --
There is one thing that does peak my intrests about the Game Cube and it seems to be based on an Idea Sony work on for a while in Japan... and thats connecting the 32bit GBA to your Game Cube through the controller port. Portablity.