Slashdot Mirror
Nintendo Declares GCN Most Popular Console Ever
PhReaKyDMoNKeY writes "According to IGNCube, Nintendo has declared GCN the fastest selling console ever. Additionally, Nintendo claims that Luigi's Mansion is the most popular launch title in history as well. I couldn't seem to find the actual press release, but here's a related news story from Nintendo's site. I don't know how valid the claim is, since it's in their best interest to exaggerate, clearly, but it seems like the console demand in general is pretty high. " Now mind you every store in town seems to have plenty of Gamecubes in stock, but if you want an X-Box, you have to kill for it. Fortunately most people in a video game store are like 12, so I can destroy them with my mind bullets.
Of course, they could be lying.
What are these mind bullets you speak of and why do you want to destroy little children with them?
The press release is available at Planet GameCube.
Now mind you every store in town seems to have plenty of Gamecubes in stock, but if you want an X-Box, you have to kill for it.
Two reasons:
* Nintendo shipped about twice as many GameCubes to start with.
* The second shippments have already arrived in many places.
My other
Microsoft just failed to meet the demand for the XBox. Nintendo made several hundred thousand more units, so their supply is more suited for the corresponding demand. Yeah, it might be the best selling console, but that's just because there are more units out for sale.
And, if the Gamecube is a hundred bucks less, let Nintendo milk capitalism for all it's worth.
And popularity doesn't necessarily translate to how enjoyable a console is. Especially when there are a lot of 12 year olds involved who just want what all their friends have.
On their limited launch titles I assume at least 5 or 6 more games will be out by this time next year right?
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
Fortunately most people in a video game store are like 12, so I can destroy them with my mind bullets.
At least CmdrTaco has found some group of people he can compete with and beat.
X-Box games, controllers, systems and accessories on the other hand are in every single store in midtown.
How could they do any better than Playstation2 did this early? The only way they may be selling more Gamecubes than Sony sold Playstation 2s is by having more available... Playstation 2s completely sold out for a long time... I would think it would be quite some months before you could make a call like that... Since I can go to the corner K-Mart and pick up a Gamecube, I find it hard to believe that they are doing better now than Sony did last year when there were no Playstations 2s to be had moments within hitting the shelves.
Besides, the X-Box and Gamecube are only marginally better hardware-wise, if at all, yet the game selection is horrid thusfar. I predict it will be like the original Playsation all over again, first to market does better even in the face of superior consoles that follow, through sheer numbers of available titles.
But if the Gamecube truly *is* more popular, we'll have to wait until about April of next year to see for sure..
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The reason it's easier to get a Gamecube than an Xbox is because there are a whole lot more Gamecubes to be had. Nintendo has shipped hundreds of thousands more Gamecubes than XBoxes, and so there are just plain more to sell. IGN also has an interview with a Nintendo spokeswoman about the whole thing, clarifing it a bit.
Here is the original press release from yahoo
t en do_reports_record_gamecube_launch_1.html
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/cn/20011129/tc/nin
Do us all a favor and save your mind bullets for the first person to propose a bewoulf cluster of Gamecubes.
Although, now that I mention it, that would be kinda cool--think about it, a bew--*ack*
I've got a product that sold a lot of units really quickly!
Note that this is the same way SEGA started out with Dreamcast. Dreamcast destroyed the previous record for 1st day sales when it came out (9/9/99 by the way). Nintendo is saying they've done the same, basically.
Popularity in the video game market is way more than preliminary sales figures. We'll see who really has the best games about a year from now.
/me predicts Xbox. Let the flames begin.
You should never take life too seriously - You'll never get out of it alive.
Now mind you every store in town seems to have plenty of Gamecubes in stock, but if you want an X-Box, you have to kill for it.
Goldman Sachs did a survey among U.S. retailers in big cities, and so far 73% had sold out of the Xbox and 47% out of the Gamecube. Microsoft shipped an estimated 300,000 Xbox consoles around the nation, while Nintendo delivered some 700,000.
[from Shacknews]
Granted, this was a bit farther back in November, but the numbers seem plausible.
And as always: "There are lies, damn lies, and marketing!" (or somethin like that)
A friend that was visiting about two weeks ago bought one for her kids...she has lots of them, so getting 3 games and an accessory was no problem along with the console, but this bumps the total price to $500.
Still, its interesting that they're available this year at all. Remember PS2 last year? Impossible to find!
It seems to be all over the place. At least, the package for 500 dollars with three games and and an extra controller seems to be. The stripped down version is sold out in alot of places.
What really pisses me off about the XBox: You can't play DVDs without that remote. You can't just use your controller. And that remote is another 40-50 dollars. Also, you can't save games without your memory card (also another 40-50 dollars). Meanwhile... doesn't the god damn thing have a hard drive built in? To be able to get the god damn console you'll have to buy a package, and the package doesn't even contain all the good stuff. It'd cost around 600 to get my ideal set up?
No thanks.
Maybe I'll just wait to attack the 12 year olds too. The difference: I'll wait till after they buy the XBox and walk out of the store with it to attack them.
Me smarts.
Remember when a certain console that cost $199 at launch sold 410,000 units in the first week?
Look where it is now.
Not to knock it -- I love my Dreamcast, and especially now it is an incredible value.
Ian
Fortunately most people in a video game store are like 12, so I can destroy them with my mind bullets.
I hope you're not putting on the pounds, cause you're in danger of turning into the fat comic store guy from the Simpsons.
FiGZ.COM - A waste of perfectly good web space
What the hell is up with Mario and Luigi? Are they having a fight or something? When are we going to see a Super Mario Brothers game again? For this console and the last, all we've seen is them separately! Fuck that, I want multiplayer action. Not only that, I want co-op play! I want Mario and Luigi to act like they used to and be in the same game! Mario can come over to Luigi's mansion and argue over the Princess or something. Just get them back together in normal (non-kart/smash) game where they belong.
"I may not have morals, but I have standards."
You do NOT need a memory card to save games. You only need a memory card if you want to transfer your saved games to another XBox.
As below, so above and beyond, I imagine drawn beyond the lines of reason. Push the envelope. Watch it bend.
but if you want an X-Box, you have to kill for it.
...so it's not the games that cause violence, but the actual game consoles .
Founder, Americans Allied Against Alliteration
Nintendo knows they have a popular console on their hand and to meet demand, they needed product on the store shelves to buy. Microsoft also knows this, but they wanted to try and increase demand by limiting supply. This could hurt them because the purchaser might decide to buy Gamecube instead of Xbox, only because they can get their hands on it. Plus they can get 2 more games if they get NGC instead of Xbox or they can save $100. And me being my broke college self, I'd spring for the NGC anyways. Just my 2 cents...
Amigori
"The quality of life is determined by its activites."--Aristotle
Why's that? Although I know that the fact that it's selling the fastest right now doesn't mean it will be the most popular. But I don't see what's wrong with saying that the console that sold the most is the most popular, seems semantically fine to me. After all, a synonym for popular is common. I think if a console has sold more than other consoles it would be more common.
Or maybe there is something I'm missing?
FiGZ.COM - A waste of perfectly good web space
I stand corrected. I guess the bastard at EB was just trying to sell me that damn memory card. He'll go down with the 12 year olds.
However, I am quite sure of the DVD thing.
huh Well I live in Erie PA (across the state & north by a hundred miles) & we can't keep X-boxes in stock... How about you send them all our way because I know we can sell them...
we are all invisible unless we choose otherwise
The Gord's Prophesy of the GameCube
Love the Gord. Fear the Gord.
Do you maybe mean the video game market in Japan?
The population of Japan (according to the CIA World Factbook 2001) is approx. 126,771,662, whereas the population of the US (according to the same source) is about 278,058,881. So, unless these are some sort of freakishly large dwarfs i think your statement might be erroneous.
here is some info about the GameCube that you might find interesting.
--- sig moved for great justice.
Nintendo makes brilliant, well-crafted, and (above all) extremely fun games, and that makes people want to buy Nintendo consoles.
Just a thought.
Yes you do need the RF unit to plug into the game port so the DVD pasrts will work... Though It's a pretty much standard RCA remote that comes with it (retail value $14.99), so once you have the RF unit you can use any universal remote (since the kit uses a RCA remote try RCA RF signals) or any RCA DVD player remote...
I wish theyed sell a RF unit by itself & let me use my 'master of all electronics' universal 12 device remote for the box withotu paying extra for a remote I don't need...
we are all invisible unless we choose otherwise
Rumor has it that Xbox had 300k initially, whereas Gamecube sent out 700k.
Both of these, of course, pale to the 20 Million PS2 units out there.
I remember reading a news article and CmdrTaco's "mind bullet" comment makes me wonder if it was him they were talking about.
:)
Disclaimer: This post is either a parody or a bunch of opinions, whichever the author chooses it to be at any given time. It is a work of pure fiction and as such must not be taken as statements of fact, slander or libel. All persons, places or things mentioned herein are objects of the author's imagination. Any similarities to persons, places or things in the real world are coincidental and unintentional.
There are tons of GameCubes in the stores, but you'll have to kill for an Xbox, eh? Well let me tell you something: Xbox is a Microsoft product, and as such, I believe it sucks. For the uninitiated, I'm a biased, zealous, and most of all, sworn by blood oath Microsoft hater... who cares though? I got 50 Karma! Of course, this is because of some of my better posts, which ironically don't include any anti-Microsoft stuff. Well at least not excessive amounts of anti-Microsoft stuff. And I do admit that one of my computers has Windows 98 on it, but only because:
- It came preinstalled, which means I payed for it anyway. I never buy computers prebuilt but this one is a laptop. I haven't found a way to build my own laptop yet. For everything else, I first decide what purpose the thing is supposed to fulfill and then plan, buy and configure accordingly. I believe that knowing how things work, configuring them correctly, constantly increasing your knowledge and experience, improving the system, and above all, maintaining it often and properly... results in systems that work efficiently and without problems during operation. Except, of course, when running Windows. <bias off>I really, honestly do have a lot of problems with Windows locking up and crashing, when none of my other systems do. Yes, I admit that I've had problems with my other systems. They're made by humans and as such are not perfect, but when it comes down to it, I never worry about, for example, FreeBSD crashing. It just doesn't, unless I'm really pushing the system to the max and doing about 3,000 things that I really shouldn't be doing at the same time! FreeBSD has never crashed under normal circumstances by any stretch of the imagination. It really takes heavy duty abuse to bring that down. But I always worry about Windows crashing, even during "normal" operation (especially during normal operation!) and guess what? It does. Very annoying, but true.<bias on> Now where was I? Oh yeah, the reasons I actually have Windows 98 on my of my computers (and hate every time I have to boot into that defective system).
- I need to run several programs, which currently have no non-Windows replacement that I know of. Therefore, these programs run on my poor laptop... poor because it is forced to execute Microsoft code sometimes.
Luckily, I am writing this on a FreeBSD box, running Opera 5.0 for Linux, so you can't say I'm a hypocrite. And my laptop also runs FreeBSD and BeOS. Some of the hardware doesn't work under BeOS. Everything (to my knowledge) works under FreeBSD, thanks to the FreeBSD on Laptops site.) And I've established that I have no choice but to run Windows some of the time, due to programs which currently have no replacement, but this requirement is decreasing with every passing day, so that won't be a problem soon. Next time I get a laptop, I won't let them off so easy--I will pursue my refund from the manufacturer if it's the last thing I do.So where was I? Oh yeah, I was talking about how the Xbox sucks but went off on a big tangent. The Xbox sucks because it's a Microsoft product. Unless it will run Linux and NetBSD, in which case, it's quite possibly an adequate device when used as a cheap computer. Perhaps it could even serve as a good platform for graphics, as a "poor-man's SGI" (phrase shamelessly jacked--Be made that one up back in the days of their "one processor per person is not enough" days when they were still a cool company) of sorts. Anyone know how to cluster these things? (Or, even better, does anybody know how to take an Xbox, GameCube and PS2 and make one big graphics computer out of them? That would be a cool hack. Don't laugh--I know a guy who buys disposable cameras and uses the parts in real systems because it costs far less than buying the parts individually.)
Well, here I done gone off on a tangent again. Anyway, I don't quite think that I want to support Microsoft by purchasing an Xbox. It's bad enough that I sometimes cause some of their code to be executed by allowing my laptop to boot that virus.
Oh yeah, but there was an opposing viewpoint that I wish to include here, just so you folks don't say i'm a biased, zealous, and most of all, sworn by blood oath Microsoft hater, because that's what I am anyway. :-) Someone commented in another story that Microsoft actually loses money on each Xbox, in the hopes of making big bucks from video game sales. So even after everything else I said above, about not wanting to support them, etc., if it's true that they lose money, then I could buy an Xbox to run Linux and NetBSD and just not buy any games for it. Then, I'd actually unsupport them! I mean, hey, I might build a 10,000 Xbox cluster someday!!!
Now let's see, I have to say something that's actually on topic, right? Hmmm, I'm at the Karma cap, so I must be doing something right, right? Well, for anybody who might be thinking of moderating this Offtopic, here's the ontopic stuff: The GameCube looks like a great toy.
This post is Copyright 2001, rice_burners_suck. All rights reserved.
Oh well.
remote is another 40-50 dollars
Where 40-50 dollars is actually 35
memory card (also another 40-50 dollars).
Where 40-50 dollars is actually 35 again.
Or even less if you're willing to shop around a bit.
Now mind you every store in town seems to have plenty of Gamecubes in stock, but if you want an X-Box, you have to kill for it.
Totally the opposite in the Walmart electronics department where I work. Gamecubes are seen for maybe ten minutes at the most on our shelves. I can't remember the last time I sold an Xbox. My theory is that everyone who wanted a CAN$449 console and DVD player already got theirs a year ago.
Nintedo declares their new product the best thing ever?
My father declares himself to be "The emperor of california" but it dosen't make that either.
Free Techno/Jazz/DNB/MI Music by guys obsessed with monkeys!
I bought one myself too. I could NOT pass up a decent console for the cost of a typical x-box or gamecube game(50 bucks). Games under 10 bucks? Count me in!
I'm happy with mine. I wonder if Sega will get some sort of incentive to produce or at least translate more DC games from its surge of sales.
This is one of those sites that actually treats press releases as news... When will they learn?
LS
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
Don't kid yourself. There is no shortage of XBoxes. Microsoft is very carefully and deliberately manipulating the distribution and marketing of the XBox to create an astroturf-like imitation of the "Tickle-me Elmo effect." They want people to believe that XBox is so hot that you'd better run out and snatch one before they're all gone, but the reality is that everyone who wants an XBox will eventually get one. Mark my words: inventory will find its way into stores in plentiful supply two weeks before Christmas.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
No, the correct acronym is NGC (Nintendo Game Cube).
My other first post is car post.
There are four stores close by to my house that sell consoles. EB, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, and KB Toys. Only Wal-Mart and EB carried X-Boxes, but you can still find an X-Box or someone willing to book you one from a shipment in the next few weeks. All four of the store carry(ed) Game Cube, and all four stores have all their shipments untill christmas sold out. From what I understand Nintendo shiped more Cubes then X-Box...
Of course it doesn't help that the local EB has blown five (5) X-Box demo kiosks since 2 weeks before release and have finally given up and dismantled the thing. (That's five blown consoles in one store in less then a month!) I know of alot of people that canceled their preorder or decided to go with a Cube because of that.
Someday I'll own a Cube......
No, that's for games. Some games will start to take advantage of Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, especially since the standard gamer soundcards for PC have supported it since the Live! 5.1 and Hercules GameTheater. Now the newer cards all have it unless you buy a bargain basement card.
Aside from which, some of the things he mentioned are very usable for games from a visual standpoint. HD video output is naturally much better than standard A/V or even S-Video out if you have a HD screen to view it on, since standard NTSC and PAL TVs don't even show standard 640x480 or 800x600 at full quality thanks to their interlacing and weird pixels.
Personally, back when I still had an N64, I had it set up to send the RCA video to a good quality A/V switch so that when I wanted to play multiplayer I'd put it on the TV, but when I wanted to play with myself (err...) I'd press the switch button and send the N64 output to the video input on my ATI card, set the card's input to fullscreen in my OS, and play games on my 21" ColorSync monitor. Much better visual quality than on the TV--more detail, cleaner, crisper, and perfect for a PC gamer who appreciates what a monitor can offer over a TV.
Chasing Amy
(We all chase Amy...)
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws"-Tacitus
simple. they get one and wait until slashdot posts about someone hacking linux on it. screenshots, patches and all. the rest is up to nature.
tuxracer would absolutely rule on one of these...
--- sig moved for great justice.
At the conclusion of the interview (which involved searching my house to which I aqueisced) the agents told me that probably nothing would come of it, but the decision on whether to prosecute or not was up to the attorney general's office.
I'm still not entirely sure how my comment can be construed as an actual threat, but I do understand why secret service agents are a bit high strung about now.
Regards,
Lee
His argument is basically - Wellllll, the Playstation sold the most console ever sooooo that means the Gamecube will be the worst system ever.
Actually, it's more like, GameCube is a less powerful system, with few games, with less developer support, which doesn't play DVDs, didn't actually have strong opening sales, is aimed primarily at small children but with inappropriately fragile media, and is trying to enter a market which is already deliriously in love with it's competition.
Everyone who likes video games wants the PS2, and will buy the PS2 in preference to anything else. GameCube is relegated second system status in a market where few buy a second system, and then it's most commonly to correct their mistake of overenthusiastically picking up the less popular system (he backs this point up with hard numbers).
The point that it would take a couple of years for Nintendo to sell as many GameCubes as there are PS2s out there is a bit of an aside, an explanation of why the developer support is weak, since the GameCube market is going to be miniscule compared to the PS2 market for some time.
But the way he says it is entertaining.
This wouldn't surprise me, but given the fact that it's readily available in some places and less so in others, my guess is that they didn't have the marketing data to ship the right amount of units to the right areas. Some places they overshipped, others they undershipped. All in all, I'd bet you're right that there's enough supply, but I think that the supply just isn't where it needs to be at present.
I think all their crafty marketing tricks are involved in over-advertising the thing, to the degree where there are X-Box banners and fliers everywhere, but nary a gamecube one to be found. They just spent so much money that they saturated the ad space. That's what creates the illusion that they're so hot, walking in to the store and seeing big green X's everywhere will overwhelm most people.
"I may not have morals, but I have standards."
REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 20, 2001 - Young wizard Harry Potter may have worked box office magic over the weekend, but his potion of profitability actually was trumped by the powerful new NINTENDO GAMECUBE video game system. Movie industry sources put ticket receipts for the three-day opening weekend of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at $93.5 million. But combined U.S. retail revenues for NINTENDO GAMECUBE (including hardware systems, games and accessories) reached more than $98 million in just its first single day of availability on Sunday, November 18.
Found here.
One could easily say the same about Xbox, uses a PIII 750 CPU, an Nvidia chipset, yatta yatta... Nintendo, however, has been engineering video game hardware (and optimizing same) long before MS even came out with Windows 1.0...
The N64 was purely a fluke in itself, between Silicon Graphics' shakey production schedule, and fighting against what was then expensive RAM/ROM considerations (remember that in the days the N64 came out, 64 Mb ram cost around $160+, and rom in the same size range was similarly expensive, hence why it was in the best interest for Sony to base everything around CD, sacrificing load speed), they were basically going on a wait and see schedule, and gaming fans rarely if ever follow suit...
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
There are jet black GBAs, as well as spice orange ones, both made to match the black and orange Japanese GCNs like the purple GBA matches purple cubes. They'll be available soon.
You say you've got money to burn, eh? Go import some limited edition Suicune, Celebi, Hello Kitty, and Yomiuri Giants GBAs. I'm quite happy with my own LE models, particularly the Suicune model. (oooooh...shiny bluuuuue...)
< tofuhead >
It is still the dark of night.
So you are saying that selling more consoles at alunch puts Nintendo at a disadvantage? The Dreamcast was and is a cool system, the first of the next generation consoles. What killed it was the fact that everyone was all hyped up about the PS2 by Sony. That's ok though, Sony got killed by the hype of the X-Box and Gamecube. Right now the Gamecube is less expensive, more powerful (pure numbers, and the proof is in the games, they look better, way better), and has lots of good games now, with some really great games scheduled every few weeks for a while down the road. The X-Box has Halo. Madden and NFL Fever are great games, but won't sell the system because you can get Madden and NFL 2k2 for gamecube and PS2. Dead or Alive isn't making the spash I thought it would, and all the other games just aren't strong enough. The X-Box had three racing games, two snowboarding games, two footbal games, a FPS, a Fighting Game, and a Party game. They didn't need the redundancy. The Gamecube's games are original and very fun, and aren't rehash's of older stuff. They are what people want, next generation games, not old games with better graphics.
I have played Tony Hawk 3, Rogue Leader, Luigi's Mansion, Wave Race, and Super Monkey Ball and they are all fantastic. Super Smash Bros Melee is getting higher praise then the original, Extreme G is shaping up nicely, and Madden, Courtside, Fifa, Crazy Taxi, and Pikmin round things off so that everyone should have a game that they would buy the console for.
This Wiki Feeds You TV and Anime - vidwiki.org
+tax and/or shipping and it magically becomes $40+
Q.
Saying you don't like the "flavor" of current PS2 games is just about like saying the only flavor you do like is white bread and water!
Don't get me wrong, I'm definatley in the camp with GC being more powerful than the PS2 and will probably get one befoore too long. But the PS2 has quite a broad range of truly great titles - take Devil May Cry, MGS2, Frequency, SSX Tricky (GC also), Grand Theft Auto 3, ICO (amazing adventure puzzle game, light action), GT3, Rayman, Twisted Metal Black, Klonoa 2 (GREAT 2d/3d platformer), Zone Of The Enders, Herdy Gerdy (OK, not out yet but looks to be amazing). I left out a lot of decent games that while not amazing, are at least fun to play.
Granted, there's nothing like Pikimin or Luigi's Castle for the PS2 (unique games like that is a great reason to get a GC). But I have to say there's a lot of great variety out for the PS2 to satisfy just about any taste, even not considering the rather huge PlayStation library you have access to as a bonus.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Microsoft hasn't been in the game long enough to understand their market. A console doesn't sell worth shit without games to play on it. In the console world the most important thing you've got are your licensees and the franchises they control. The Playstation's early hits were the games fresh out of the arcades from Capcom and Konami. There were a bunch of arcade games the Genesis and SNES couldn't come close to touching so there was demand for a more powerful system. Then it came into its own with games you couldn't get on any other system (FF7, MGS, GT1&2, Tekken, lots more) or games that really whomped the Saturn's ass. When they launched the PS2 everyone knew the money making franchises were going to have new games for the system so there was a huge demand for it. The fact it's sold 20 million units is testament to that. Sega unfortunately didn't have that sort of demand because they just didn't have the franchises everybody wanted. Nintendo is similar to Sony, they've got franchises that are nearly 20 years old. With the GC there's a be demand because they've got everything from Metroid to Pokemon and that is really selling the system. If the XBox survives long enough to develop its own franchises Nintendo and Sony will be releasing another generation of console. I really think dispite all of the cash Microsoft can infuse into the XBox it is going to go the way of the Jaguar. The Jaguar was a badass system but it was expensive and had no franchise support from anybody. It had really awesome specs but no games so it died a sad death as did Atari.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Nintendo has a tremendous fan base from its NES/SNES days. Unlike PCs which have lots of original games and some sequels, console games are heavily about franchises and sequels. The franchise concept is an interesting one that doesn't seem as popular in the PC market.
:)
Nintendo's Mario franchise goes back to Donkey Kong. They milk this for all it is worth, and it has quite a fan base. We played Mario Kart 64 for months (still do occaisionally). It isn't a particularly amazing game, but the fact that you are playing SMB characters (complete with Stars and Turtle Shells) just makes it a little more enjoyable.
Nintendo has a family of franchises with well known characters.
As a result, Nintendo doesn't NEED to carpet bomb the media. They need to maximize their profits. They aren't subsidizing the hardware, nor do they NEED a huge initial adoption. They'll have a successful holiday season. Realize that the abysmal failure of the N64 was only a failure compared to the NES/SNES dominance. They shipped 30m units over time and made some cash. When the Pokemon craze hit, they rode that all the way to the bank.
Nintendo's MAJOR problem is that they squeezed the Third parties too hard, and they bolted for the PSX instead of the N64. While the N64 has some AMAZING games (great replay factor, Bond, Hang Time, Kart... all playable for years), the companies that were "MADE" selling NES games stayed through the SNES but left to the PSX.
The shame is, I'm mostly interested in Nintendo games. However, because of whatever business decisions Nintendo made, I may pick up a PSOne or PS2 for some games that bolted in this time that my fiancee really wants.
Microsoft has a problem, NOBODY trusts them. If you are a game maker, you have to see the shit that they pull in the PC space. Nintendo's garbage let Sony pull off a coup, they established themselves as the non-game company. As a result, game makers weren't threatened by Sony.
Sega (my brother has owned all their systems since the Master System) has LOTS of great games. Their franchises aren't as good as Nintendo's, but they innovate and create new ones all the time. However, their hardware was NEVER impressive, and they NEVER had third parties like Nintendo. You used to buy a Sega system for their games, now you can get them wherever. I still play some of my Genny games.
The problem with Microsoft is that they have their own games division. They also have shown that they will hide APIs, etc., to help their products over the competition.
If I was a game maker, I might take their subsidies to make games, but I'd be VERY nervous about cozying up too much. I would guess that the independant game makers helping XBox with games are hoping that XBox does well enough that they do well, but not too much that MS EVER has the power that Nintendo did 15 years ago.
Sony was SMART with the PSX. They didn't carpet bomb the airwaves. They let the system get a following. People slowly fell in love with the system. Sony was a new player and played it smart. They courted developers.
Microsoft seems to think that it get bully its way into the market. I'm not sold on that. Sony has a following because the Third Party companies LIKE working with them. They have GREAT game support. Nintendo has a GREAT audiance (including people over 21... most of the people I know want the new Nintendo system). Microsoft would be smart to play this cool and use their DirectX similarities to get games to the market.
If you are launching a game for the PS2 AND PC, there is little reason not to make it a three-way launch for the PS2/PC/Xbox. The Xbox's superior hardware should help it with games on the PS2 AND Xbox.
MS shouldn't be playing for this Xmas, they should be playing for next Xmas. PS2's market lead is HUGE, they need to be careful in playing catchup.
Personally, I think that the market will be a two company market, Sony and Nintendo. As long as Nintendo's franchises remain popular AND they can sell the systems at a profit/break even, there is NO reason for them to be a software only player. Sega's hardware always seemed flimsy and while their games were always fun, they don't have the nostalgia factor that Nintendo has,
The Tickle-me Elmo effect is a LOT easier to do with a doll than a game system that costs $500 with accessories...
Alex
If you didn't know, the WSC is a Japanese handheld system that was never released in the U.S. It's a largely unremarkable system, but Square has been supporting it with re-releases of their old games. I've never considered getting one, since I own all of the Famicom and Super Famicom originals anyway.
< tofuhead >
It is still the dark of night.
To an extent console releases have always relied on the 'oh my god - its sold out everywhere - it must be the most popular thing on the planet!' story to hype themselves.
Its refreshing to see Nintendo take the other tack- and talk about actual numbers.
I could release a new console, I'd call it Kylie ("just going to play with Kylie a couple of hours"), and issue a 'oh my god...' press release having sold ONE. I'm sure in a lot of territories the PS2 DIDN'T actually sell out for very long, but the common perception is that it was unavailable for MONTHS worldwide. I had no trouble buying mine!
Of course, who wants to have to experience the green screen of death in the middle of a game? The thing doesn't even have a 3 button keyboard with Ctrl-Alt-Del. As described on /. of course.
Laws affecting technology will always be bad until enough techies become lawyers.
I don't know what state you're living in, but XBox?? Damn. I was at college in Rochester, NY. Now I'm on break in Trumbull, CT, and I stopped in NY City. Major video game/electronics stores in all 3 of those locations seem to be in the same situation. GameCubes sold out on the 18th, but Nintendo shipped a whole bunch more real quick, and those are selling pretty fast. Stores that didn't have any either just sold out, have like 2, and all of them are getting more really soon. XBoxes it seems did not sell out on launch, and they have plenty of them. The XBox seems to be getting a lot more advertising, but we all know it needs it.
I'm not dissing the XBox just because it's MS. (even though I feel like I should). I'm dissing it because the only reason there is to buy it right now is DoA. And frankly I don't like that game that much.
However the XBox is a computer. A better computer than the one I have anyway. And it's only 300$!! If I could jam linux on that hard drive it would rock. Cheap servers will cool chassis for all! It may be big for a console, but it's small compared to an ATX tower.
I own a GameCube. The reason for that is, well reasons, are Mario, Luigi, Samus Aran, Smash Bros, Donkey Kong, oh yeah LINK/ZELDA woo ha!
Games for GameCube I must have = many
Games for XBox I must have = 0
Maybe Nintendo is lying about GameCube being the most popular console ever, and I wouldn't doubt it. They're probably adding up number from around the world or something. But who cares about that?
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Nintendo learned from the N64. In the beginning, the N64 was rushed out the door without stockpiling a supply, and there were mass shortages, so people just bought a Playstation for Christmas. I have a feeling they wanted to avoid that situation again. Just because there are more available GCNs does not mean the GCN is less popular than the XBox. It just means Nintendo properly anticipated the demand and shipped enough units to retailers.
Also, the GCN is $100 less than the XBox. $100 is a non-trivial price difference. Sure, the XBox has "hacking potential" but Joe Consumer doesn't even know that the XBox has a hard drive nor care. With Microsoft and Sony going for the hybrid set top box/game console, Nintendo went back to the basics and designed a game console. Kudos to them on that.
So, you base your opinion of the platform on a brief chat with - a game store employee???
GTA3 is interesting not because "you can shoot cops in the face" (which right away tells you how valuable his opinion on anything is), but because it's such an open game. You can do things the way you like.
Look at the list I provided, try renting some of those. There are some amazing games there. And not all "Racing Games" either as some OTHER posters seem to think.
As for also playing PS1 games - I don't see how that can be anything but a great advantage. Who cares if most of the titles you have and enjoy are PS1 games - it still plays them better than the PS1 itself can (at least the graphics are sharpened up a bit) and the quality of a game is not determined by its graphics alone.
Like I said, the GC looks amazing and I'll probably get one (I also had an N64 and liked it quite a bit) - but I don't think it's fair to say the platform is not diverse, even if you ONLY consider the PS2 library.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
OK, now let's at least be reasonable, and try to get our facts straight. Coming off as fanatics is not politic in today's climate, and fanatics are usually the ones who make up facts and get all upset about them without anybody bothering to check them against reality.
/. everytime a new competitor springs up in the software market. Why would we want Sony / Nintendo to just draw a line at age 12 and agree to let Sony have those above and Nintendo have those below? Why isn't it a good thing that Microsoft is climbing in over the corpse of the Dreamcast?
Wednesday night I paid $29.99 for my DVD remote kit at Target. I have been saving games since launch day on the hard drive without a memory card.
Now, start looking at your criticisms and think: Can I save PS2 games without a memory card? Will any amount of money allow my GC to play DVDs? This sort of rabid mentality adds to the ammunition of those who think the open source movement is populated only by irrational zealots.
Regarding bundling:
I bought my XBOX on the morning of the launch at a Wal-Mart with just the console, an extra controller, and one game, exchanging my TRU pre-order bundle deposit for another game, though they would have been happy to just refund my $. TRU was ecstatic that I cancelled and one clerk was dialing the next guy on the list before the first clerk had finished ringing up my game, so it was possible to do an end run around the bundles, and I don't see anything about post-launch bundling at all...where are these people shopping?
On competition:
A cheer rings out on
Dude, if they lowered the price to $50 for the console and $10 for the games, they're probably not even covering the manufacturing costs. Dreamcast is dead and buried, sorry.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
Gamecube does not support Dolby 5.1 sound at all (no digital out). Some Cube games do support Dolby Prologic II, which offers pseudo-5.1 sound, matrixed into a stereo signal (and yes, there's still a latency).
PS2 supports only pre-encoded DD5.1 sound (for cutscenes & background music), though I have heard that a new game or two manage realtime DTS 5.1 encoding, by dedicating half the graphics engine to the task.
Xbox has the only Dolby 5.1 realtime encoder, done by a dedicated DSP in its MCPX chip (nVidia's nForce PC chipset does too). This adds only ~10ms latency, less than one frame's worth. There's no special effort required by the developer to use it (a single line of code instructs the sound engine to enable the encoding, and any DirectSound3D source is automatically positioned in 3D by the realtime Dolby encoding and Sensaura HRTFs).
Using the Dolby encoder on the Xbox does not take resources from the game, whereas any realtime multichannel encoding must be done by the CPU (on the Cube), or possibly one of the vector processors (on the PS2).
And yes, from personal experience of Halo on my 5.1 system, the sound is stunning - the best feature of the Xbox, IMHO.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
Another good reason that Microsoft has not produced as many physical consoles at release than Nintendo is that Microsoft is not outfitted to manufacture anything.
Sure, they [Microsoft] could probably print money, what with the technology they flaunt in their Certificates of Authenticity, but they do not have the resources to manufacture electronics. This is where Microsoft brings in a subcontractor to make the XBoxes for them.
In this case, Microsoft has hired a company who specialize in manufacturing electronics for other people. These are the same folks that manufacture some routers for Cisco and some cellphones designed by Eriksson. For the North American XBox release, they utilized a couple of factories they have in Mexico. I am not even joking.
Microsoft sat down at a big mahogany table somewhere, slapped together components made by NVidia, Intel, et al, and then tossed the plans to this company (whose name escapes me) to manufacture it for them.
They had a very specific number of consoles they wanted at release, and gave the guys a mere several months to churn them out. With supply trucks coming and going from the factories daily, they were putting out as many consoles as they possibly could. And that's their job.
Nintendo, on the other hand, is a veteran of the video gaming console market and are perfectly well outfitted to manufacture these beasts for themselves. Also judging by how underpowered the GC is in strict technical comparison to its competitors (namely the XBox), it appears as though they solidified the specifications and design plans for this console LONG before Microsoft came into the picture, and they've probably been planning the release schedule more rigorously as well.
Naturally Nintendo would have you believe that their console is selling bigger, it's the hot ticket, everyone wants one, etc., etc. I think the fact of the matter is that Microsoft is getting into an area (hard-core supply/demand hardware manufacturing) that they are not as familiar with as Nintendo, and this is probably the reason why Nintendo was able to churn out more consoles.
I'm pretty sure that the XBox release was a very last minute rush to beat the Christmas season, and to beat Nintendo after they announced the GC release date. I read stories about MS's manufacturing company trying to overcome some last minute overheating issues (we've all seen the XBox GSOD (as in green screen of death)) due to the PC parts being jammed into a small box they were not made to operate inside of. I think that the GameCube has the potential to be a better planned out console, if not a superior one, but I'll leave the criticisms of the consoles to someone else, like Gord, that knows what he's talking about.
Personally, I bought a PS2, and I'm EXTREMELY pleased with it; I doubt I will buy either of the new consoles.
--
The Bailiwick - DESIGNHUB2005
I haven't found that to be true. Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and most of the toy stores don't even offer bundles.
Sorry, this piece is not a winner, please play again.
According to the 2000 CIA World Factbook, the population of Japan is 126,549,976, less than half the population of the US. Granted, they're far more densely packed, but their whole nation is smaller than the state of California.
I wouldn't mind seeing the above comment modded down for being clearly false.
my sig's at the bottom of the page.
I just went to a bunch of stores looking for a GameCube and finally found some at Walmart. Looked like they had just gotten a shipment in since they had about 5 in stock. There were XBox's each place I looked though.
Here in central NJ, everyone store I visited is out of gamecube stuff. Couple of friends at work who live in different areas also said that they couldn't find any gamecube stuff. When I asked staff about gamecubes, they said come back next week. Next week comes, "come back next week." Repeat.
As for the xbox, I found a few stores that have them on sale! When I asked why they were already on sale, the first response I got was in preparation for the holidays. When I pressed a little more, I got "we just can't sell these things." I couldn't get them to elaborate further.
At least in my area, no one wants the xbox and everyone wants the gamecube. Don't know why, but there it is.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Gamecube has every right to declare itself the most popular system ever because even if it weren't true (tho it is), it would win by default because Microsoft apparently did not have a television last Christmas. The demand for the PS2 was among the highest the world had ever seen for a console, Sony underestimated this, and lost HUGE when they knew that last year was when they were going to have to install their fanbase before the upcoming XBox and Gamecube were launched. They screwed up and didn't launch enough units. Now XBox has made the same mistake again, so there will be a lot of purple boxes under Christmas trees this year. What does that translate into? Well developers go for the easiest platform to create games on (already Gamecube), and now not only that, but they will have the second largest base users to sell to! Only a moronic company WOULDN'T develop for gamecube..why would you develop games for a system that only 300,000 people have versus a system that 700,000+ people have? Microsoft f'd up big this time, I fear...dare I say it...that we will soon be calling it Microsof xBOB....remember MICROSOFT BOB?!! Nintendo has learned from its mistakes and other's....it has learned very well.
Jack Valenti and the MPAA are to technology as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone
He gave his information away, same as I do. From the post, you can get to his account information, which has the URL of his home page; from his home page, you can get any information you want. It isn't that hard --- and lee is an honest geek, and wouldn't want to hide from what he said anyway.
Yes. Nothing to hide. And, unfortunately, it is exactly that attitude that furthers the 'If you have nothing to hide, why do you insist on us having a search warrant? Why not just let us in?' attitude used increasingly more often by cops everywhere.