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Gamecube Hits US Early
semaj writes "It looks like retailers are being told they can sell them as they come in instead of waiting for the November 18 offical release date. PlanetGameCube has the story. Go!" So, anyone want to get us a review unit or two?
...of Nintendo, in the attempt to get a jump on the xbox.
Of course, they might have been planning this all along.
I wonder what other interesting marketing tricks msft and nintendo have in store for each other.
The games are from $5 to $25 on Ebay.
I called Wal-mart, KayBee Toys, Media Play, and K-Mart, and they're all sticking to the November 18 date. Some retailers don't even know about the "early release" part.
:P
Shall we slashdot the stores that have them, in meatspace? Post one here and start a rush!
-- http://frobnosticate.com
It has much better features
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Moderator's essentials
Please people - remember be kind to your local software/electronics store employees. This is likely to be a long week for quite a few of them with unaware management.
:^)
Ryan Fenton
I just don't understand the appeal of these dinguses
The appeal is simple. It's a dedicated box that you don't have to worry about drivers or hardware conflicts with. True Plug and Play, just set it up and go. Load times are usually much less, and errors are not tolerated. So, when you get a console game, you expect it to work right the first time, no tweaks needed. Great for the non-technically inclined who doesn't understand how all the components in a computer work. Plus, if you have a PC already, you don't have to worry about a gamer monopolizing the computer when you have work to do.
Electronic Frontier Foundation for online civil rights information
I called all around, and not a single retailer had any idea what I was talking about. They all planned to stick to the 18th, and found it amusing that I was even asking if they would be selling early.
This seems to be the case pretty much everywhere, as I've been surfing Usenet and various message boards trying to find out where these alleged stores are. As far as I can tell, they don't exist -- not one person has posted credible information about a store selling GameCubes *anywhere*. Not one.
I have a feeling the date will get broken, but it hasn't been so far. I would love to be proven wrong -- if anybody knows of a store in the SF Bay Area which is selling GameCubes, speak up!
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
Simple:
1. I run linux on all my computers. There aren't a lot of games availible for linux (although I do play a bit of the Loki Quake 3 port from time to time).
2. No hardware incompatibilies or driver problems. A console is a fixed hardware platform, so you never have problems endemic to PC systems
3. Games come out finished. No downloading a huge patch of bugfixes after a game is releaed. It just works, the first time.
4. I can play on my big TV. (well, with TV out on most video cards, this isn't as much of an issue anymore)
5. The games are different. I like Japanese created RPGS. None are avilible for PC (unless they're ports of console games). This is mainly a matter of taste - If I was into FPS games, I'd definitely choose a PC.
BBK
I went to a cube club and played a few. My favorite was Star Wars, I'm a big fan of the movies and the game was just unbeleivable. I also like the Madden Football series, and as expected Madden 2002 kicks ass. All of the games look really good, I didn't play the others all that much. There was a huge line for Luigi's Mansion and SSBM. All in all, this thing rocks.
~ now you know
PC's are still too complicated for games. To run most games on PC's, you still have to use a DOS-based OS, (Win 95/98/ME) and deal with all of the headaches that that brings. If I want to play a game, I want to have FUN. Configuring memory access or video drivers, etc. i snot my idea of fun. I like the idea of putting a CD/DVD in the game box, and pressing one buttton. It works first time, every time.
Also, game boxes are MUCH cheaper. I paid $300 for a PS/2. To get the same quality games on a PC, I'd have to buy a P3 something, an expensive video card, a large monitor, a joystick, etc.
And, even better, the new consoles are also DVD players, so with one box in your living room, you can play games, watch movies, and listen to music, and none of the boxes are more complicated than having a "power" and a "reset" button.
Sure, I may get one of these newer consoles eventually. But who can deny the coolness of the Dreamcast. There is so much outside development going on for the little machine (emulation, linux, BSD, etc.) that there is still a lot going on for it. Before I buy any new consoles, I need to finish playing my 50+ Dreamcast games. Retail stores are closing out on Dreamcast software. Some of it is so/so, but most of it is great. There is something out there for all gamers and the prices are just right. It's too bad that little box didn't last, as the hardware abd games are still awesome. It's time for me to pick up a second machine for my computer desk.
C'mon, they haven't even announced any console ports of quake IV yet; how can you be worried about sales figures?
I wish I could mod you up instead.
This is exactly the path we'll be adopting. We bought a Nintendo 64 which my wife is perfectly happy with (when she gets the time to play it anyway). I would have to talk her into buying a new console. But, why the hell would I buy one? The PC *is* a better gaming platform (expecially with my Athlon 1.2Ghz + GeForce 2 GTS rig + CABLE connection + ad nauseum). So that means I don't want a new console, my wife isn't ready for one, and our children are too young still to even care (if they ever do).
I love the look of Halo and other games coming out, but they're just not worth the $$$ of new hardware. Also, it seems wasteful to buy yet another console while we've still got a perfectly good and under-utilized one already. Combine that with a decent PC and no console for us.
Also - Is is just me, or are there just too many damn games coming out (PC and otherwise)???!!! I mean, I barely have time to finish the games I already have. I can ill afford the time spent on new ones. Maybe I should just crawl under a rock until I finish the ones I have. When I come out again, there should be a whole new lineup about 2 generations in quality further along.
Now, if Halo comes out in regular PC format, I may just jump at that. But that's the last one. Really..
I'm serious.
Really.
Please mod this post only if you think others should/n't read this. I have enough ego^H^H^Hkarma. Thanks!
Great for the non-technically inclined who doesn't understand how all the components in a computer work.
That's not how I look at it at all. I program computers for a living, and I still prefer console games to PC games.
Reason #1: Controls
The main issue is the controller. PC gamepads are inferior to console controllers and very few people have them in the first place. So, PC games can all be played with the keyboard/mouse. A game like Mario 64 simply doesn't translate to the keyboard, so game manufacturers just don't make games like that for the PC -- most people wouldn't have a suitable controller.
Reason #2: Gameplay
This is a correllary to Reason #1. Console games have controllers more suited to action gaming, and therefore end up with more action games. If you like action games (as opposed to FPS games or RTS games, which are easier to control on the PC), you'll do better on a console. If you like FPSs or strategy games, stick to the PC.
Reason #3: Audience
Consoles are cheap and easy to use. PCs aren't. Because of that, there are at least ten times as many console gamers as PC gamers, and therefore console games tend to be higher budget and have higher production values. Only a few PC game companies, like Blizzard, have a large enough audience to justify multi-million-dollar budgets. Tons of console games have budgets that big.
Reason #4: Graphics
Console games look better, despite the fact that PCs are more powerful. This is due to the fact that developers know the exact capabilities of the console, and can tweak and optimize to their heart's content, while in PC gaming they have to run on everything from a PII-400 to a P4-2000, with every video card you can think of as well. You usually end up with better-looking console games as a result. Console games also tend to be smoother -- even high-end PCs stutter now and then, and anything running Windows is more infinitely more likely to crash than a console.
Reason #5: Experience
My PC is up in my office. My consoles are down in my living room, hooked up to my entertainment center. This is the case for everybody else I know, as well. Given the choice, I'd rather kick back on my couch and let the surround sound wash over me while watching the action on my TV than sit at my keyboard.
Reason #6: Party Gaming
The PC rules the online world, no question. However, many of us find multiplayer gaming a lot more fun when your friends are in the same room, because trash talking and beer passing are a lot easier. Having four people hooked up to a GameCube, all playing the same game, doesn't sound at all weird. The only PC equivalent is a LAN party, but those are a very niche gathering.
It's not just about tech savvyness, folks -- consoles have a lot of advantages over PCs.
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
- Even if the hardware is good :
- you don't know if the development will be good (remember the first PS2 games),
- you don't know if its presence on the market will be sufficient to have a good game offer
I'd rather prefer to wait some weeks after its diffusion to know if it's good enough to spend my money in (of course if everybody is doing like that it will never happenMaybe I'm paranoid or "geeky-minded" enough, but at least I'm really happy with my choices doing it this way.
The word at EB is that if we break street date on ANY new product (not just GCN, but MGS2, X-Box, or the like) we (the company, and most likely the individual store) get fined $100K. The reason for this is that when you spend millions on an ad crusade fixated on one date and the (game/machine/widget) comes out early, the campaign is immediately wasted. (Nintendo/Microsoft/Konami) doesn't want their entire ad budget to go down the toilet all at once, so they impose these fines. It may be strongarm tactics, but hell, it's not like it's price fixing or something worse. I say if they want to build suspense-- and that's exactly the reason for street dates-- then let them.
Besides, it's not like there're really going to be any left for walk-in sales anyway...
"Why Subscribe?" Good question...
Its all about the games. The GameCube is a TV Game - it says so on the box. Its built to enable Nintendo style games to be written easily. This - to me - makes it a thousand times more attractive than the PS2 or Xbox, both of which are pretty much PCs with bits missing. CPU speed etc doesn't come into it - give it 6 months and the PS2 / Xbox 'numbers' will be laughable compared to a £800 PC from PC World - the GameCube will still rock! Why?
Ah - the warm feeling looking forward to Mario Kart Cubed! Show me a PC game that comes CLOSE to the purity of Mario Kart and I'll sell my Nintendo shares - until that far distant day there'll be a nintendo cluttering up my living room floor!
- You can now hook up a USB ethernet/modem device to a PS2 and play Tony Hawk 3 online.
o duct.asp?pf_id=210436
- Sony's official modem/ethernet accessory and 40 GB hard drive are both out in Japan.
- You can get a Zip Drive for PS2
http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/categories/products/pr
Men believe what they want. - Caesar
Try playing PowerStone 2 on your PC. You can't because:
1. The game will never be available for the PC.
2. Virtually no PC game allows head-to-head play without everyone owning their own PC and then networking them together.
3. Even if all of the above were satisfied you can't crowd 6 people around a 17" monitor.
4. Even if you could, most people don't have couches and tables around their computer for spectators to watch them game.
The PC may have more titles but consoles have different titles. When are you going to see Gran Turismo 3 on a PC? How about Shen Mue? Crazy Taxi? Dead or Alive 3? Devil May Cry? Metal Gear Solid 2? Mario Party 3?
Most of those games don't have any comparable counterpart on the PC platform.
You buy a console because you want to play the kinds of games that come out for consoles. Just like I don't buy a console because I want to play a good RPG...those are usually only available on a PC.
From employees in two different chains in Salem, NH: They are not allowed to sell early. in fact, Nintendo has a special hotline set up to report stores that are selling early, and the sales reps for those stores will get fired if the thing is sold early.
Dunno if this is out-of-date bullshit or up-to-the-minute rumor-quashing... doesn't mean I won't check the stores at my local mall when I get home.
Here's how I look at it:
Games on the PC are easy to make - anyone with a graphics toolkit and a few thousand dollars can make one, and just because you have big names behind it (John Romero) doesn't mean it'll be any good (Daikatana).
Games on PC are also repetetive, for the most part. Once I'm bored of Quake III (which I never liked anyway), I can move on to Unreal Tournament, and then Wolfenstein 3D, and then..... But it's all the same! Sure, they're fun, but sometimes I want something different.
Games on Nintendo systems usually tend to be two things: well done, and fun. Maybe the graphics aren't killer (usually they're great if not awesome though), and maybe it's not eye candy, but at least it's not ONLY eye candy. Most of the other systems I've seen have awesome looking games that suck. The controls (game-side) are often totally pathetic, the games are repetetive, and they're just plain boring.
Nintendo is FUN. Mario Kart is FUN, Mario Brothers is FUN, Smash Brothers is FUN. And most of all, with a TV system, you can crowd people around and everyone can play/watch. You can have parties and people will play the GameCube, because it's a group activity. As another poster mentioned, you can't crowd 10 people around a 17" monitor, or a 21" for that matter.
Computers are a one-person thing. Two people is sometimes possible, but usually a stretch. Three is often nearly impossible. With a TV, this is no problem. Party entertainment, family entertainment, it all works.
And best of all, you won't have to buy $250 in new hardware every year and waste your time fixing driver installations just to keep the latest games playable.
That's how I see it, anyway.
--Dan
No, it's going to be settled by parents looking to buy a new video game system for their kids.
The Gamecube is almost half the price, has Mario, Pokemon, Zelda, and all the other standard kid's games. It's also brightly coloured. Believe it or not, parents have mentioned to me how "cute" the thing looks. I work in electronics at Walmart, so I know a teeny tiny bit about what parents are really looking for.
The X-box is almost double the price of the Gamecube and has absolutely no kid's games.Apparently, it also looks "ugly".
If you were a parent looking for a big christmas gift, which one would you get for your kids? Later on, maybe other factors will come into play, but the first round in this war will be won by parents looking to placate their kids. And if the Gamecube crushes the Xbox early on, which one do you think developers will flock to?
First off, let me tell you that I am biased, I have a PS2 and about 15 games (and about 30 or so PS1 games). That said, I am not looking to buy either a X-Box or Gamecube.
Ok, now that I have that off my chest, I would like to declare the current state of affairs in the gaming world:
The lineup.
- PS2 has already won among those 16+ (adult gamers).
- Nintendo will always win with kids under 16 because it's their parents who buy it for them. Nintendo is going to trounce X-Box in X-mas sales.
- MS has a place, but it's a shame that for now it's going to be last. X-box reminds me of Nader, because you know he's not going to win, but he's going to take votes away from someone else. in this case, taking sales away from PS2. X-Box is the other console geared at 16+ crowds.
For the sake of brevity, I'm going to leave Gamecube out of the rest of this discussion, Nintendo knows their target audience and how to market to them, bravo for them, they aren't going out of business anytime soon. X-Box however has a LONG road to travel, uphill, in snow. The PS2 is already beginning to release 2nd generation titles and is slated to release additional hardware/mods to their console soon (I believe it was Q1 2002, if anyone knows the exact timing, let me know). X-Box has still yet to prove itself as a worthy contendor to any console.
Christmas shoppers and Terrorists.
Another blow to the X-Box is also their strong selling point, games geared towards adults. Well, a year ago, many parents might have turned a blind eye to video game violence that their kids ingested, but now we have evil terrorists and we have to protect the children. Chalk that round up to Gamecube and their family oriented games.
The conclusion.
Gamecube will take the sales lead this season, with *gasp* X-Box right behind them. Sales of games for PS2 will be astronomical though as many buyers are now asking for titles instead of units.
Hammer of Truth
Holy shit. If we all lived in the bourgeois luxury that you do, sure consoles would be better, and we'd buy a new system every freakin' year. However, even though computers are getting faster all the time, generally computers, and computer games last a lot longer than console games...so those that can afford to have a computer go with computer games instead of burning money for a whole new console system they'll throw away in a year.
Man, I just can't believe some techies out there. WTF do you do to have such disposable incomes? Or are you still burning through some foolish VCs wad?
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
For Windows 2000, you can try the following:
10. COMPATIBILITY MODE: Service Pack 2 (SP2) includeS a compatibility mode that lets programs run as if they were on a Windows NT 4.0 SP5 or Windows 95 machine. To enable this interface, perform the following steps:
Start a Run box (Start, Run).
Enter the following command: "regsvr32 %systemroot%\apppatch\slayerui.dll"
Click OK.
Click OK to the confirmation.
Now if you right-click a shortcut and select Properties, you'll see a Compatibility tab that lets you select whether the program target should run under an NT 4.0 SP5 or Win95 compatibility layer.
I'm assuming it is similar to XP's emulation
For example, the CPU in the Playstation2 is 300mhz and the graphics chip ~150mhz. The internal bus (inside the two processors) is 4096bits. The problem is that the overall PS2 bus is only 128bits, so you have a bottleneck which restricts performance. Dispite this, creative programming has shown that the PS2 is still very powerful and quite capable of delivering high-quality graphcs with only 4megs of video ram.
The Xbox CPU (which is a tweaked Pentium3 733) is faster than its 128bit counterpart (namely the GameCube's 128bit 485Mhz Gekko CPU) due to one factor: BRUTE FORCE.
One cpu is Risc and the other Cisc. While the P3's Cisc archetecture isn't nearly as efficient as the Gekko's Risc, it's been so heavily optimized over the last 20 years that it still performs quite well.
Also keep in mind that the Xbox has a 233mhz GeForce graphics chip.. while the GameCube has a 162mhz ATI "Flipper" chip (which is similar to the ATI Radeon). Benchmarks and software have proven that the GeForce is superior is most every way to the Radeon.
Thus one could surmise that the Xbox is indeed more powerful than the GameCube. However, the same could be said that both are more powerful than the PS2, yet PS2 games continue to get more and more impressive as the programmers push the hardware.
My feeling is this... we're going to see the performance limitations of the Xbox and GameCube much sooner in their lifespans than the PS2. Yes, the GC and Xbox will show their superiority (over PS2) in a year or so.. but I feel that you aren't going to see the big improvements from first, to second, to third generation software on GC and Xbox that has been witnessed on PS2.
In the end, however, all the benchmarks and numbers don't mean jack if the games suck.
Don't judge each console soely on numbers.. buy the one that has the games you like most.
Loki didn't port Quake3, they only distribute it. ID Software did the linux port.
;)
Games on console don't always come out as finished as you may think. They are certainly playable, but there are sometimes games with bugfixes and revisions of games you are just not aware of.. of course they are not patchable, you need to purchase a new copy. If you look on rom/emulation pages you may notice that some games have 4-5 versions due to bug fixes or additional features.
TV big, XGA screen better. Televisions suck, they may be big.. but it is very difficult to stare at.
It isn't the computer's fault that there aren't more RPGs for them
Please explain to us how violence makes a game "adult" or mature. Seriously, I truly want to know. I suppose that if you're with the MPAA or ESRB, then violence makes a work of entertainment mature, but otherwise I don't get it. To me, the "adult gamer" brand of bloodthirstiness is a mark of the kind of "maturity" that begins and ends at age 14.
-jacob
PS2 has some incredible graphic, violent, adult games
A have always thought the concept of graphic violence as an "adult" theme way laughable. That seems more like a concept teenage boys would like. If you really are mature, do you *actually* play video games rated "M for mature"?
I (as an adult) enjoy the flavor of Nintendo games as inoffensive escapism. Mario and Zelda are safe enough that me, my mom, and my kids can play together. Software shouldn't have to contain copious amounts of blood and nudity to escape the "just a kids game" label.
The PC makes a great platform
Speaking as a game programmer, I have a great sympathy for people who buy a PC for home use and want to play games on it. It's tough just to figure out which games will work on your machine, then you have to deal with patches, video driver updates, video bios updates, and so on. And even then you can end up with a game with serious graphic glitches. Tech support responds with "Do you have the latest video drivers?" but you already do. It turns out that there's only a problem with a certain video/sound/motherboard combo which your PC happens to have. And this is _typical_. Then six months later a game comes out that you have to upgrade your video card for, but when you do some of your old games stop working.
I don't know how people deal with this, I really don't.
I dunno. Maybe it's just me. Maybe it's because I'm older than 12. But do gorwn adults actually enjoy playing all of the damned Mario/Luigi, and Pokemon games that are produced for Nintendo? It seems like all of the games are designed for little kids.
Well duh. That's Nintendo's market, and it always has been. More specifically, Nintendo's market is everyone *except* for teenagers going through the "I don't want none of that kiddie stuff; I want dark and edgy with lots of gore" phase. It is always amusing to hear kids who spent years playing Nintendo games suddely start berating them when they turn 14. Then when they hit 25 or so they realize "Hey, those games really *were* pretty fun after all."
To them, XBox might look "cool" rather than "ugly", and the games are certainly more oriented their way. Have you seen the recent ads for Dead or Alive 3?
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
IIRC, Sega began selling its ill-fated Saturn in a surprise, early release before the PlayStation debuted in the U.S. They did this at least in selected markets, because I bought one in Philadelphia the day they went on sale (I really liked Virtua Fighter). It could be argued that Sega, then a reigning home-system champ with the Genesis, was nervous about a newcomer and wanted to grab a market foothold.
Seems like Nintendo is now the nervous incumbent, trying to grab the bucks of people dying for a next-gen system and willing to buy the first one that comes out, and who will be unable to afford to buy a competitor's subsequently-released system.
~Philly