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The State of the Game Console Wars

Posted by michael on from the no-holds-barred dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Two years after the next-gen game consoles hit the market, the verdict is in. What does the future hold for each of the Big Three? Here is a thoughtful but crude summary of the X-Box vs. GC vs. PS2 ordeal."

6 of 439 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Worst. War. Ever. by edwdig · · Score: 4, Informative

    Look at it this way:

    Nintendo is making a huge profit. Sony is making a (relatively) small profit. Microsoft is taking a loss the size of Nintendo's income (not profit). Very different picture there.

    Oh, and the SNES outsold the Genesis 2:1. Profit wise it was probably an even wider gap, although I've never seen financial figures for the two companies from back then.

  2. Re:numbers? by PipianJ · · Score: 5, Informative

    Worldwide figures are:

    1. PS2: 51.2 million worldwide (As of March)
    2. Gamecube: 9.55 million worldwide (As of March)
    3. Xbox: 9.4 million worldwide (As of July)

    US figures are:

    1. PS2: 17.7 million (As of May)
    2. Xbox: 6.2 million (As of May?)
    3. Gamecube: About 4 million? (figures not known, but estimated to be 2 million under Xbox)

  3. Re:Who cares really... by Osty · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes, I enjoyed Celda.

    I enjoyed Celda as well. Unfortunately, it's pretty much the only Gamecube game I've truly enjoyed so far (enough so that I played it entirely through). I admit that I only have a small library of Gamecube games, but that library does include Mario Sunshine and Metroid Prime, both of which were extremely disappointing to me. In fact, Metroid was extremely disappointing, considering that it was the reason I bought my Cube. Luckily, Celda made up for Metroid and made me not totally regret the purchase.


    Right now, I've been playing Mario Golf, and it's enjoyable, but it's certainly not going to hold my attention for more than another week or two (just up until Soul Calibur II hits the XBox, at which point Mario Golf will go back on the shelf with Mario Sunshine and Metroid Prime, to eventually be sold or traded away).


    For completeness, my Cube library consists of:

    • Mario Sunshine (came with the Cube)
    • Metroid Prime (disappointing)
    • Wind Waker (and the Zelda: OOT remake)
    • Rogue Squadron II (I was pretty disappointed with this one, so much so that I don't care that RS3 is coming soon)
    • Skies of Arcadia. I liked this one, but Knights of the Old Republic made me put it off to the side, and I don't see me picking it back up any time soon. Also, this was almost a straight port from the Dreamcast, so I'm not sure I'd really consider it a win for the Gamecube
    • Mario Golf. After Celda, this would be my best Cube game. It's fun to play through a round or two of golf, and I guess that's a plus because I can sit down and play for fifteen minutes or half an hour and then put it away. However, I don't anticipate it holding my attention long.

    Any suggestions on what would be some good Cube games to pick up? I don't have time to really play something like Animal Crossing (plus, I played the old Harvest Moon on the SNES, which seems to be similar in style to AC, and wasn't that enthralled), and I generally don't have enough friends over at my place to make something like Smash Brothers: Melee worth a purchase (and when I do have enough people over, we generally will play Halo on two XBoxs and TVs). And no cross-platform games, please. I'd rather play those on my XBox, though if there's a good game that's only on the Cube and PS2, I may consider picking it up for the Cube (no PS2, and no interest in a PS2).
  4. Missed the point on Xbox. by incom · · Score: 5, Informative

    The reason the Xbox isn't closer to the ps2 is that it isn't "cool" in japan, and thus the amazing console game creation prowless of the japanese isn't paying much attention to the Xbox(except for the companies that MS pays to create games). That, and the lack of good games aside from halo for the first year and a half of the Xbox's existance.

    --
    True genius is grasping a situation like a peice of fruit, and peircing it just right so that it drains dry.
  5. Discount GC too soon? by aSiTiC · · Score: 4, Informative
    I'd just like to say this article is quite ridiculous, but even if the entire article is a TROLL, I will respond.

    There are a number of GameCube releases that excite me in the future:

    Mario Kart Double Dash

    Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles

    I do not own a GameCube currently but I'm planning on buying one to play these two games...

    Still, I'm glad to have a PS2 so I can play this game:

    Final Fantasy X-2

    --

    Where the Music Matters

  6. Re:numbers? by PipianJ · · Score: 3, Informative

    To clarify for you:

    PS2 worldwide figures: Asahi Shimbun (also contains Nintendo figures)
    Xbox worldwide figures: MSFT 4th Quarter Earnings Report
    Gamecube worldwide figures: Forbes from Reuters (at the bottom of the page). There are a few other pages quoting this figure as well.

    PS2 US figures: NPDFunWorld
    Xbox US figures: Unknown. Possibly the same as above?
    Gamecube US figures: Guessed from estimate listed on AMO.NET Please note that this article does seem to be biased towards the Xbox, with multiple opinions to that effect. Nevertheless there is one good quote:

    The real truth about these sales figures and future sales opportunities is that no single gaming system fan can be trusted with anything he or she has read regarding one system selling better, or performing better than the other.