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The State of the Game Console Wars
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."
Notice how they didn't have a "What went wrong?" for the Xbox? Like say, actually having more than a single game worth buying? Sheesh.
Sorry for the following rant, but I've been in this industry long enough to know how it works.
First of all, saying the Xbox is the future is just fanboyism as the article totally lacks the journalism and the facts to support it.
In fact, even saying the Xbox is #2 is really the typical short-sighted american view of the market. The videogame industry is worldwide, and as such, you really need to view the market in total console and software sales. Xbox and GCN are actually exchanging #2 and #3 in total sales worldwide several times each quarter. But this is not actually the point, the point is that even if they were a solid #2, they are still a failure in terms of their own expectations.
Microsoft has made a lot of artificial gimmicks to support the Xbox in the market, and the lack of profits on the Xbox division should be enough for anybody to see that. They expected to be able to snatch most of the PS2 market within one generation and there is simply no sign of them being able to do that, even when spending billions in marketing and development, severely undercutting the price of the Xbox (losing upwards more than $150 per machine), sacrificing royalties and/or explicitely giving money to developers for exclusive games and features, or outright buying them.
I'm not saying which of the Xbox, GCN or PS2 are the most powerful, or has the best games, or yadda yadda. Pure and simple facts, see the Microsoft press releases regarding the Xbox before entering the market. You'll see that they completely ignore Nintendo, and regard Sony as their target and sole rival. The sad truth is, they are way far behind their own forecasts and they haven't captured but a tiny fraction of the supposedly huge market they would conquer in this generation. They are struggling with millions in revenue, but not a penny of profit, fighting for #2 with a company they chose to ignore.
And no, forecasts were not optimistic some long ago. It's annoying how anybody with Internet access can't even make a simple article without checking the facts.
This and this are some of the first news regarding Xbox, check that PS2 is the console mentioned as its target and Gamecube is quite simply ignored.
I ask... Is Xbox really "teh fu7ur3"? Seriously, had not Microsoft budgeted such a huge amount of money for this venture, the Xbox would never survive. And it's quite a waste of money not to be in #1 after all.
- Otaku no naka no otaku, otaking da!!!
When there was Sega and Nintendo nun of this big wars. nobody really played all that much is when the games were good IMO. I think the games are just 90% of the time going downhill beacuse there is no such thing as gamers that are respectful of others. so you may as well play single player. I play all kinds of multiplayer games and it just seems that either there needs to be one of these things. #1 PAYbyPLAY meaning you pay for how much time you spend online #2 Monthly pay X$ per month to play #3 Strict moderation by master servers. meaning if you are convicted of TKing on a consistant basis = killing all the time for shits and grins then be not allowed to play online simple as that. It makes the entire gameing experinces terrible but who cares about that aye mate? guess i will get a offtopic post but ohh well either that or troll sumfin i try to make good posts and i just get shit mod so do it again WOOT!
Sorry was in bad mood when made account
The PC will always be the premier gaming platform
The PC isn't going anywhere and it will always have higher specs than any console.
Game Over