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Xbox Coming to Arcades
Stanl writes "The San Jose Mercury News reports that Microsoft will be taking Xbox technology into arcades, including a statement that, 'arcade titles influence the kind of console games that fans buy.' That is an interesting unattributed observation."
What arcades?
Of the 5 malls in my neck of the woods only one has an arcade (Sega City). There's one nightclub with a gameroom, and a handful of putt-putt golf courses. Oh, and a Chuck E Cheese, which hasn't gotten a new video game in well over 3 years.
Midway just got out of the biz altogether.
Or does Microsoft just want to be the next Sega?
Arcades were the thing during the 80's when the newest technology really needed to fit in something the size of a refrigerator but kids barely go to arcades anymore. Nearly all the ones in my area have gone way under and I think microsoft is living in a dream world.
If religous zealots don't believe in Evolution, then why are they so worried about bird flu?
This is probably going to be more effective than any other form of advertising, and all for a price of a monitor and a few plywood panels painted in bright colors. If they're smart, they'll give these owners at low prices, just to get good positioning.
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I think I remember hearing that the home console had killed the video arcade.
No, it's worse than that. They're putting X-Boxes in the arcade - instead of the machines being dead, they're just going to "die" on the player at unexpected intervals.
"Alright, seventy-hit combo! A new high-scor---"
"The application TEKKEN~1.EXE has performed an illegal function and will be shut down. Press LOW PUNCH, LOW KICK and COIN RETURN to continue."
"Goddamnit."
...you must agree to the game's EULA-- after you put the quarter in!
~Philly
... when the "good" games were .50 to start and .25 to continue, and the really really good games were .75 to start. Nowadays games are .75 (average) and not really any different/more enjoyable than the run of the mill PC/console game.
I used to spend alot of time (and money) going to arcades, but now I'd rather spend 40-50 bucks and buy a game than 1.00 to play one for 3 minutes.
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
...I can see why they thought of it.
It is black-letter fact, the arcade is dead. Has been dead, in fact, for a long time. From the article itself:
Eddie Adlum, publisher of arcade magazine RePlay, said arcades have been in decline ever since the rise of console gaming. About a decade ago, he estimates there were 10,000 arcades, but that number has since dropped to about 3,000. Hit games such as ``Ms. Pacman'' once sold 100,000 machines, but today, typical hits sell maybe 4,000 to 6,000 units, Adlum said.
However, there is something very similar to the arcade which is growing moderatealy well both in the U.S. and especially in Asia. It's a kind of mutation of the "internet cafe." It seems, while kids won't plunk down dollars to play conventional arcade games, they will go out and "rent" a PC to play Counterstrike or Starcraft for an hour or three. Multiplayer games, it seems, still have draw. And thus the article goes on...
Lately, the rise of online gaming, especially in Asia, has transformed many arcades from stand-alone machines to networks of connected computers where players can play against each other or anyone else over the Internet. That transition plays to the Xbox's strength, since it is primed for broadband gaming, and it also plays to Microsoft's strong relationship with Sega, which is a big supporter of online gaming.
So they think they will somehow tap into this growing phenomenon, instead of merely blowing 50 million or so producing expensive collectors items. I'm not holding my breath, but anything is possible, I guess.
Want to Know How to Cheat the GPL? Read On!
Microsoft announced today that XBox technology would be a federal requirement for all licensed preschools. FCC Chairman Michael Powell explained that this was a good decision, a consensus decision and had no political component to it whatsoever. After everyone stopped laughing, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer explained that exposing preschoolers to the technology now ensured a steady revenue stream for Microsoft. Ballmer then announced that the first game available will be "Dancing Monkeyboy". Players will jump around trying to collect developers. If they sweat too much, have a coronary or get hit with the dreaded "Monopolist" tag, they lose.
Can anyone confirm this?
They know they have to make money in new places.
But they don't. Windows and Office are still the cash cows at Microsoft - and always have been. They have consistently failed to dominate other markets:
a) They tried to 'kill' AOL with MSN, and failed dismally. Now dial-up is yesterdays market.
b) They tried to 'kill' Palm and dominate the handheld market, and failed. The handheld market is now also becoming yesterday's news.
c) Mobiles is where the action is at, and Microsoft is really struggling to make any impact at all there.
It is a fallacy to say that Microsoft is good at making money in new markets. They are actually very good at wasting huge sums trying to dominate new markets, and failing.
Bill Gates did the clever stuff over a decade ago, recognising the importance of the PC OS and Office markets, and fighting like mad to dominate it. That has generated vast amounts of money. But their efforts elsewhere haven't been so successful.
It's only recently that they've started to take on Sony. Sony is Godzilla to Microsoft's King Kong. In the past, the giant gorilla has had an easy time swatting less powerful foes. Taking on Godzilla is a whole new ballgame. My money is on Godzilla.
The implication here is that the Xbox crashes and freezes to a degree similar to MS Windows.
In fact, it does not. I've played the hell out of mine for 15 months, and it flows like buttah. I'm no MS apologist, and their PC operating systems have nearly made me Elvis my monitors on a number of occasions. But their XBox? Technical problems on an un-modded unit? Unheard of.
Somebody mod this ignorant buffoon down.
The article states that Sony and Nintendo are also working on arcade versions of their systems. Is anyone crying doom and gloom over this and claiming that Sony and Nintendo are idiots who must be desperate? No? Okay, why is (almost) everyoine saying that about Microsoft?
Do I need to even ask? No. I don't. It's the typical unthinking knee-jerk "M$ is a bunch of stupid poopy-heads and Bill Gate$ eats babies!" panty twsiting that goes on here every time a article about Microsoft gets posted.
Is the arcade scene dead? In the USA it pretty much is. But it's alive and well in Japan, the one market where the XBox is not doing well at all. The arcade scene is good enough in Japan that Sony and Nintendo also think it's an idea worth looking into.
I'm not a pro-Microsoft nutjob. They do lots of things that piss me off (XP is a disgrace, Media Player 9 is evil beyond compare, MS Bob was a joke, I dislike their embrace and extend policy) but this automatic anti-MS spew is laughable at best and sadly pathetic at worste.
By now most of you mods have decided to mod me down as a troll. But take a momet to think about this. Are we doing ourselves any favors by acting like jackasses every time Microsoft does something?
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.