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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."
Basically, it depends what kind of games you like to play. Although, those lines are getting a bit blurry too.
Personally, I am a gamecube person. I have always been a fan of nintendos first-party games, and they are the only non-PC games I usually find an urge to play.
Yes, I enjoyed Celda.
I can enjoy the sort of tongue-in-cheek humor this article has, but I wish I could rate this as "-1, Redundant" for the front page. Honestly, it's pointless. This current generation of consoles has had their fates sealed for a year now. Anyone who would take the time to read the article would already be aware of everything presented. None of what is explained in this story qualifies as "news."
"Come on, let's go drink till we can't feel feelings anymore."
There really is no sense to this "console war" thing. PC vs. Mac is a viable religious debate, because Macs cost thousands upon thousands of dollars unless you want a low-end eMac. But with game consoles costing $129 and $149 (OMG TOO AMERICAN-CENTRIC) is it really a big deal anymore to own all three? You can buy all of them with one week's paycheck, if you make a good salary. If you play enough games on each to justify the initial cost of the console, it really shouldn't be a big deal.
..about the current state of gaming. Something like,
;)
I like to play games on:
My PS2
My XBox
My GameCube
My N64
My Computer
2+ of Above Choices
CowboyNeal's couch
Seriously, excluding the obCowboyNealReference, I'm really interested in a breakdown. I used to be terribly addicted to console games, starting with an Atari 2600, then moving to the NES and the SuperNES. Once I discovered computers, console gaming lost all its magic to me and although I've played on friends' PS, PS2, and even a 3DO, I never really got into consoles again.
Would be cool to see a survey of how many people still use console games nowadays, vs those who game only on their computer, vs those who don't care about games at all (except in the toxic waste dump that is CowboyNeal's couch
--
Rate Naked People at Fuck Meter! (not work-safe)
This is nothing more than a person's personal opinion on the state of the console gaming market today, and you would be crazy to site it in any research paper or anything of that sort.
Microsoft and Nintento are scrapping it out for second place. Does that really constitute a 'war'?
Sega and Nintendo, that was a console war. This is... not.
Take a look at the hardware requirements for Jedi Knight II:
Operating System: Windows 95 OSR2/98/ME/2000/XP
Computer: 100% DirectX-compatible computer required.
CPU: Pentium II or Athlon class 350 MHz or faster CPU required.
Memory: 64 MB required. 128 MB required for Windows 2000 and XP.
Graphics card: 16MB OpenGL-compatible PCI or AGP 3D Hardware Accelerator required.
Sound card: 16-bit DirectX 8.x-compatible sound card required.
CD-ROM: Quad-Speed IDE or SCSI CD-ROM drive required.
Input device: Keyboard or mouse required. Joystick supported.
DirectX: Microsoft DirectX 8.0a is included on this CD.
Installation: 665 MB of free hard drive space required. Additional free space required after game installation for Windows swap file and save games.
By comparison, here's the hardware requirements for Halo:
Xbox.
That indicates that they know it's a joke.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Can anyone answer the following questions:
... right now the thing is big and ugly ...
1. How many PS2 consols have sold to date
2. How many Xbox consols have sold to date
3. How many Gamecubes have sold to date
I would also like to know when M$ is planning on making the XBOX smaller
I fail to see how an opininated piece of rubbish that lays out predictions, nay, edicts for what game console is the l3373S7 without describing the details of how the conclusions were drawn can be reffered to as thoughtful.
btw: I think that infographic was already published in USA today.
I turn to slashdot for informative tech news, not something I could find with a search engine by typing in video games +boobies
ôó
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.
The PS2 and the Xbox are the two hottest selling consoles on the market right now. These two consoles in some ways redefined gaming by including a way to connect the console to other players around the world via the internet. The next generation of game consoles will obviously be better. They will be faster. They will have bigger hard drives. The will have better graphics. In short they will almost be as powerful as a desktop computer. Can Sony, Microsft, and Nintendo sell these next generation consoles for less than $300 conoles and still make a profit. The console that wins the pricing war will likely win the "console war."
when game companies were game companies. I hate Sony for releasing the Playstation, and I despise M$ for the XBox (and other obvious reasons). I think it's awful that those two compainies are not dependent for survival on the quality of the product.
Call me sentimental, but I feel as though the PS? and XBox have no substance, no charm, no soul. Nintendo and Sega have all those things for me. It's something that cannot be explained by logic or statistics.
Also, I know I can't be the only one who thinks that first-person shooters do not belong on consoles.
Oh yeah, here's the requirements for homemade lasagna, courtesy of Emeril Legasse:
2 cups fresh ricotta cheese
8 ounces grated Provolone cheese
8 ounces grated Mozzarella cheese
8 ounces grated Romano cheese
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon chiffonade of fresh basil
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 recipe of Emeril's Meat Sauce, recipe follows
1/2 pound grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 package of dried lasagna noodles
By comparison, here's the requirements for frozen lasagna
porp
But with game consoles costing $129 and $149 (OMG TOO AMERICAN-CENTRIC) is it really a big deal anymore to own all three? You can buy all of them with one week's paycheck, if you make a good salary.
The PS2 and xbox are normally priced at $179. And how many households make a good salary? Some don't have a salary at all, any more, and a second console certainly isn't a priority.
Also consider that some gamers are (gasp) underage, and as such have limited resources to spend on gaming. Let's say you're a kid with a PS2 and $240 burning a hole in your pocket. Would you prefer to buy an xbox, second controller, memory card and one (1) platinum hit game, or twelve (12) greatest hits games for the console you already own?
that everyone else here thinks this article is downright asinine. Since when did some penis-fetishist's *opinion* on the state of the console war start to matter? If this works so well, I'm going to write an article on how I think alien invasion is the cause of the East coast power outages, and see if I can get it posted. Sheesh...
Um, maybe I'm a little out of things considering that I took the MCAT yesterday and have been more or less drunk since it concluded, but why was that article posted? Are the admins off this weekend?
Don't get me wrong, the subject matter could have been an interesting read, but My cat has buried things in his sand box that had more journalistic merit than that "article" did.
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
Finally, an acknowledgement that flaccid US Gamecube sales are due to the majority of American gamers being insecure in their manhood.
The format of the article underscores this point beautifully.
Although the article is informative in the fact that it names the three major consoles, there isn't any other usefull content there. I do wonder if the writer truly is clever in their textbook depiction of a completely stereotypical trailer park reject wrestling fanatic with a breast obsession. It couldn't be the writer's real perosnality because this person obviously knows how to use a computer.
Deltron 3030 - Virus (music video)
Did Michael even bother to read what he linked to? This "article", and I use that term loosely, reads as bad as last months Stuff magazine - like a 9 year old boy who can use MSPaint and should be on Ritalin.
There is nothing "thoughtful" about this article.
"Tread softly because you tread on my dreams"
I'd like to see a source for this market-share figure, because I'm not entirely buying it. My skepticism is attributed to the sales of games like Halo, Grand Theft Auto 3/Vice City and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Yes, I am aware that two of the three games mentioned do/will have PC ports.
And to address your second point, that's simply not the case: I'd hardly refer to someone without extensive computer experience as an "idiot." Many people I've spoken to have no idea what's in their computer. I work in technical support and have a good deal of experience speaking with these people. They don't know, and certainly don't care, what "DirectX" is. What's a "32 Emm Bee video card"? What the hell is AGP? These kind of things do realistically put people off somewhat. And though many modern computers are more gaming-oriented as costs of hardware is being driven down, and people are becoming more comfortable with this sort of thing, "casual" gamers are probably not going to play PC games. Besides, a PS2 costs a bit less than a new mid-end video card (retail, these people don't scope Pricewatch), and it takes no technical expertise to install; just hook it up to your television.
I will make one concession to you: The PC's chances in this market are getting better and better, as many of the young'uns become more experienced with computers and the terminology relating to them, as well as many computer-related skills. However, some people would argue that PCs are becoming more of a commodity product as many features are being transferred to other devices (cell phones that can check email and send instant messages, and the like). I prefer to centralize, everything's done on my PC, but others may differ greatly in their ways of getting things done. What do you think the desktop PC will look like in 10 years? I'm curious to hear what other people think.
And you know what? I bet 19 out of 20 people make the frozen lasagna instead.
Hmmm. Last I checked, Starcraft: Ghost was still a multi-console release. Interesting article, though slightly misguided.
There they were, sitting in the van with all those dials, and the cat was dead. -V. Marchetti, CIA
They knew that.
They just don't seem to have known that it's not funny.
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
Collect them all!
Hack them!
Trade them with your friends!
i think the Indrema box will win the console wars!
/been under a rock...
i wish i was but oh well
I think people should stop complaining. It was a quite humorous editorial piece on the status of the console industry. I stopped taking it seriously when I saw the image of the fake testicles attached to the Game Cube. If you take it as a light-hearted editorial- it's actually a good read.
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.
whats an "Xbox" is that like the new master system?
Does it run on minix?
Until there's a consistent third-party reporting on all three companies the various sales figures, while perhaps having some value taken on their own, become meaningless when compared to one another.
On Linux: The idea that Microsoft should be supportive of Linux on their machine is at best naive. Why should they offer more legitimacy [than they have to] to a competitor? Further, why should they support such a feature that would inevitably cause increased sales of a product that isn't a revenue generator while probably minimizing the attach rate of the software, on which they DO make money?
Perspective: If people buy one Xbox to run Microsoft-approved Linux, that's not too bad for Microsoft. After all, it's very likely that the buyer will purchase one or more games for the system (even if they're not a fan of Xbox exclusives, they could go for Xbox versions of multi-console titles that might be better on X).
On the other hand, if people buy one or more EXTRA Xboxen to run Microsoft-approved Linux then any chances of profit (slim in this generation, anyway) off the additional machines go up in smoke since a multiple-Xbox buyer is unlikely to buy multiple copies of each game.
Even in the PR area, it's at best a wash to support Xbox Linux since the people whose minds they would want to change about their company wouldn't be satisfied with just that one thing. They would simply move on to all the other things they hate about Microsoft and Windows while playing with their LinuXboxen.
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
Until there's a consistent third-party reporting on all three companies the various sales figures, while perhaps having some value taken on their own, become meaningless when compared to one another.
This is quite true, and I won't dispute it. But it's hard to get worldwide figures other than from the companies themselves. They're all going to inflate their own figures and deflate the others... (Why do you think she claimed Xbox was in second place worldwide? Certainly not because she trusted Nintendo's sales figures.)
The idea that Microsoft should be supportive of Linux on their machine is at best naive. Why should they offer more legitimacy [than they have to] to a competitor? Further, why should they support such a feature that would inevitably cause increased sales of a product that isn't a revenue generator while probably minimizing the attach rate of the software, on which they DO make money?
A very good point that I won't dispute. After all, this is Microsoft, and they really have no interest in Linux anyways (aside from killing it). It's just rather interesting that she evaded the whole question rather than giving it more straightly to a person who clearly knew more about what was going on than other questioners.
Ultimately Linux on the Xbox will be thanks to the people trying to get it on, with no help from MS (not even from those hackers who tried to "bargain" with MS to not release the font exploit on the 4th of July). Not through bargains or anything else. I knew that the question was loaded, and I understood the majority of the true reasons behind not letting it on when I asked the question.
And that is market momentum. Nintendo is still on the mind of the ones among us who are in their early 20s. We remember lusting after those Donkey Kong handhelds and NEOGEO games that seemed to define video games after Atari. Even after GameCube, I'm still open to give Nintendo a chance but I'll be wary. Younger ones will not remember the glory days of nintendo and have already associated the image of nintendo with crap.
Enter Playstationa and both 1 and 2 were huge successes. They have whipped up a market momentum ( PS2 would not be such a success without the success of the PS1) that will benefit them much. Seriously which console are we all looking forward to most? Playstation3 of course.
And we all know the XBOX is really a celeron computer with a TV output and a different BIOS. That does much harm to its image as a sleek game box, as much as its sales performance so far. Microsoft has also garnered up a bad image just like AOL for internet connection, with its BSOD and Outlook worms conquering the world.
Given all three consoles come out at the same time with the same pricetag, everyone will buy the PS3 first without checking reviews and specs whether or not it is the winner.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
Talk abounds concerning another round of price drops in the near future. Speculation says that Gamecube will fall to $129 while PS2 and Xbox will be priced at a modest $149. I had assumed the prices had already fallen. Silly me, they'll cut it in time for the holiday season like last year.
I realize that many gamers are underage, but I take the position of assuming that the article's writer (while he doesn't show it) is over the age of 18, and most likely, so are you and the rest of Slashdot's readers. This comment, being posted on Slashdot, was designed to cater specifically to Slashdot readers rather than, of course, to people who will never read the comment.
You do have a point about the Greatest Hits games, but chances are that there aren't 12 Greatest Hits games worth buying (which there almost certainly aren't) and you'll be suckered into buying more new games at $50-55 apiece. This is, of course, assuming that you don't already own the originals of Grand Theft Auto 3 and Final Fantasy X. When I was younger, I owned about 35 Playstation games. The only Greatest Hits title I owned was Crash Bandicoot, and it was given to me as a gift. I would go so far as to make the assumption that most people don't wait a long enough time for the low-price Greatest Hits release to actually buy it. If they want it, they'll probably get it when it's new. So, essentially, it boils down to 3 full-price games vs. one new console. Though, you do have me on one point -- I hadn't bothered to factor in the costs of memory cards, controllers, and other peripherals.
But the inverse may actually be true -- for many people, it may actually be more likely that you will buy more "Greatest Hits" titles for the new console that you just got -- so, if it comes down to 5 full-price games for PS2 that you've never played (since you own the originals of the Greatest Hits games), or 5 Platinum Hit games for Xbox that you've never played, you're only spending a marginal amount more on the Xbox games including the console.
I could be entirely wrong, but it sure makes sense to me.
Don't take it personally; sometimes the moderators have the sense of Christopher Lowell on a bad batch of crystal meth.
Nyquil = Nectar of the devil
Slashdot is bullshit on the left, bullshit in the middle, and bullshit on the right.
ACTUALLY, according to this link, Nintendo is going to be dropping the US price of the Gamecube to $99 by the end of September. Unfortunately, the only other place I found the info was here and there's no linkage in that "viewer mail" section to get more details. Nintendo's website was similarly not helpful at all.
Assuming the above is true, it was probably at the end of last week's news cycle and we'll probably hear more tomorrow.
Perhaps I'm wrong here, but I got this strange impression that the article was aiming for humour rather than a true in-depth look at the future of the video games industry. There were a few little things that gave it away. The graph of penis sizes. The suggestion that Microsoft will be the future because of changes in federal law and death threats to major developers.
Oh, and that wasn't really a picture of a Sony engineer testing out Cell.
++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
...mentioned in the article- XBox, Gamecube, and PS2. Of the three, I find myself enjoying the Gamecube the most, followed closely by the XBox, with the PS2 as a distant third.
I find the XBox and the Gamecube to have much nicer/smoother graphics than the PS2 games. Also, I like the fact that they each have four controller ports- four-player simultaneous games are a blast. Yeah, I know you can buy a multi-tap for the PS2, but nobody I know has a multitap and there isn't much game support for them. Nintendo has the best controllers ever, IMHO, followed by the XBox S-Controllers. The PS2 controllers are... adequate.
I also like the small, cute appearance of the Gamecube. Yeah- call me weird, but something appeals to me about a system that squeezes that much power out of so little hardware. Maybe it's some sort of innate engineer's sense, I don't know. By contrast, the XBox seems to have slighly nicer graphics but is many times more massive.
People complain about the game libraries on the XBox and GC, compared to the PS2's. It's true that the PS2 has hundreds as times as many games as the other two systems. But I think that's only really an issue if you play hundreds of games. If you take the best 5, 10, or 15 games or so from any system's software library, I think the three consoles are pretty even.
Even though it made this point in a "funny" way - that article was SERIOUSLY RIGHT about one thing- the "kiddie"/"girly" image of Nintendo is KILLING it. Nintendo has to re-establish itself as a system for "real men". Like it or not, the reality is that a large portion of the game-buying public just doesn't want to be seen buying something like the Gamecube, and would rather go with the more-manly XBox or PS2.
OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
I'll answer both questions technically:
Q: Why does Microsoft refuse to give Linux a legitimate license for use?
A: The XBox is a game console which is sold as a loss leader, so that the money can be made back in licensing fees from Microsoft and 3rd party software for the platform. Running Linux on it gains no licensing fees, damages the reputation among gamers that it is a game console and NOT a computer, opens the console to a market of people who aren't profitable (the people who buy games), and if Microsoft has had _any_ legal claim (Patent, trade secret, etc) to _any_ form of IP infringed on by Linux, selling Linux would nullify Microsoft's rights. Sony's PS/2 Linux is an example of a console implementation of Linux failing to produce anything of value to Sony. Microsoft doesn't need to repeat Sony's mistakes to learn from them.
Q: What does Microsoft plan to do about the fact that they are in third place worldwide?
A: Microsoft will study its competition and determine what it needs to do to compete in the long term. Being 3rd place selling over 10 Million units after 2 years of a V1 product from Microsoft is actually quite a success, and you can bet that Ms. Fryer is busy working out deals to acquire whatever advanced technologies she can to make the division more profitable, and in general turning around the revenue stream from being a losing money proposition in the short term to a profitable enterprise in the long term.
Which technologies she's getting into she probably won't tell you, but I'm guessing that you will be able to do video chat at some point using the XBox 2, or maybe even the XBox. Do they really need all that horsepower (733MHz P3) as it is? The XBox is more powerful than my main computer throughout my 4 years of college!
This year, a 3.06 GHz P4 with hyperthreading and 6 USB 2 ports is $1000. Imagine what kinds of things software on this device will be able to do in a box under your TV next year. You had an opportunity to ask someone who produces cool advanced technologies about what they thought was coming in 5 to 10 years, and maybe even influence her, and all you could do is rant to boost your "proud 17-year-old ego". This is exactly the kind of mentality that brings down /., and here it is with a score of 5, Interesting.
I don't think MS are ever betting on making loads of dosh from the hardware. What is going on between Sony and MS at the moment is nothing less than a war for control of the living room. The current generation of consoles have already changed from being straight gaming machines to being able to play DVD's (I'm leaving the big N out of this cause they always marketed the GC as a pure gaming experience). And both of the big console makers have started to dip their toes in the waters of online gaming, and whats the betting that the next consoles will allow access to the internet as well as other online services.
Who knows what these boxes will be doing for us in a decades time, I predict that we will we will see all the modern media devices (dvd, dvr, games, hi fi) converge into one box in the center of the living room.
Really!
Sony's profits are down 98%.
Microsoft's game division is down 42 percent.
Nintendo posts a 11.5 billion yen profit for the quarter. That's about $1 MILLION A DAY or $12 a second.
Who's the loser here? Console sales aren't instant profit. Games are what matters, and with Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire selling 9.5 Million worldwide(Who said it was dead?), Nintendo can afford to make the games they want without having to copy anyone else to make a quick buck.
"Microsoft, however, is not made up of a bunch of stupid fuckheads as everyone assumes."
That's true, Microsoft's products are only BOUGHT by stupid fuckheads. We work with MS sometimes and find them quite a bright bunch, we don't use their awful products though.
That was classic intercourse!
"Nintendo is kiddie!!!1"
"Teh Xbox is big!!!1"
"Sony liek hype!!!1"
A shame they didn't think of evaluating the ACTUAL GAMES available for each of the machines, or how they've performed commercially in the three main territories. Or failing that, tried to be funny.
At least the domain name was accurate.
Preferences > Homepage > Customize stories on homepage > Authors > Zonk > Uncheck
Yeah, the PC is a great gaming console, as long as you don't mind spending about 10 times as much money as you need to be to get working, non-laggy games. I also hope you don't mind the fact that the game still doesn't look as good as most of the console games out there, because it has to be designed for the lowest common denominator so that those of us who aren't Bill Gates can actually afford a system capable of playing it. Oh, and don't forget the total lack of stability, the annoying and often faulty software activation process, and the amount of space it's wasting on your hard disk.
Sounds fun to me!