Slashdot Mirror
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."
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.
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.
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
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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
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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...
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.
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)
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.
Slashdot is bullshit on the left, bullshit in the middle, and bullshit on the right.
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.