Xbox And Gamecube's New Hardware Bundles?

Thanks to the Gaming-Age forum regulars for pointing to info on the EB Games site showing Microsoft's Xbox hardware bundle for Christmas, consisting of the online-friendly Star Wars: Clone Wars, Tetris Worlds, and 2 free months of Xbox Live, priced at $179. Meanwhile, GameInformer.com has a rumor (via unconfirmed sources) of a Zelda-related GameCube hardware bundle this Xmas, including "...a bonus disc that will include the following Zelda games and goodies: Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Zelda Documentary." While this GameCube bundle is still a rumor, new Player's Choice budget titles from Nintendo have been officially confirmed, including (from September 25th) Metroid Prime, Animal Crossing, and Super Mario Sunshine for $29.99, and Star Fox Adventures, Pikmin, and Luigi's Mansion for $19.99.

Comments

New Zelda Stuff?

[the_riaa]

I certainly hope that if this is true, that Nintendo would have the sense to also release this Zelda-packed bonus disc for sale commercially for all their loyal customers who already have made the jump and purchased a Gamecube. I applaud them for adding more titles to the Player's Choice lineup (looking forward to Star Fox Adventures for $19.99 finally), but if they screw all the current Gamecube owners over by making this Zelda anthology a holiday bundle exclusive, then I for one will not be happy. Besides, the games listed are four of my favorite games ever, and to have them in one tight package would be great. And for those wondering where Link to the Past is on that list, I suspect that's because of impending release of Zelda: Four Swords on Gamecube coupled with the already released GBA port of LttP.

But will this help move more Gamecube units? I would imagine so. Everybody likes getting good, free stuff - especially when they're ponying up the cash required for a system nowadays. I for one took advantage of the Sunshine Bundle coupled with the free Metroid Prime offer - and I felt great about it. Not only did I get two great games with my system, but I didn't have to pay extra. Last time I checked, Xbox and PS2 didn't have a lot of appealing bundles (GT3 was nice, and the GTA3/VC bundles will be nice too). Oh, and I'm sure the free Zelda:OoT bonus disc helped make Wind Waker preorder numbers soar through the roof.

Re:New Zelda Stuff?

[Guppy06]

I would imagine that, if their OoT/Master Quest disc is any indication, that this new disc will be included as a pre-sale offer with one of the new Zelda games (Tetra's Pirates or the GCN version of Four Swords) and/or will be thrown in with a Nintendo Power subscription package.

Re:New Zelda Stuff?

[WapoStyle]

Don't worry Amazon.com will have the new Zelda bonus disk for $69.99 plus shipping.

It would really suck if you have to buy a Gamecube to get this sweet new bonus disk with Zelda II. One of my favorites.

Re:New Zelda Stuff?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you haven't played StarFox Adventures I suggest you rent it before you spend *ANY* money on that turd. I was soooooo disappointed by the cut and paste nature of the game. I mean we're talking ZERO native StarFox content. It's as if they ~knew~ the game wouldn't sell if it didn't have a gimmick. I can't believe they would defile the good StarFox franchise with this lame crap.

Heh

[acxr is wasted]

I just beat Zelda II for the first time earlier this summer. That's, like, 13 years!

Hardest game ever!

I'd buy another

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd buy another freaking gamecube for that bundle. I'm impressed if it's true.

--
M

Desperation

[Drakon]

Have either of the other consoles gotten close to what the PS2 is still selling at? I look at this as an act of desperation to be profitable before 2004 numbers roll in.
See what Gord had to say when the GC was released (link on the page for Xbox stuff)
I honestly don't see Sony losing it's grip on this market. Especially since the PS3 is promised to play PS2/PSX games.

Re:Desperation

[edwdig]

Ignore Gord. A large part of his reasoning that the GameCube will bomb is because he claims Nintendo intentionally designed the system to be less powerful than the PlayStation 2. If you spend 5 minutes playing a GameCube exclusive game, you'll release the GameCube is significantly more powerful.

He was constantly misinterpreting Nintendo's statements. The above issue came from "Rather than try to go for the best possible performance, we tried to make an easy to develop system with above standard power." Translation - better than PS2 technology, but not going crazy to outdo Microsoft.

He also compared Nintendo's polygon count, which they stated was a very conservative minimum to be attainable with a full game engine running to Sony's numbers for the theoretical maximum the system could do.

Re:Desperation

[Anonymous Coward]

The GCN is profitable. It has always been profitable. Nintendo doesn't lose money on each GCN sold like Sony and MS does with their consoles. Well, at least they didn't. After they've cut the price, I'm not really sure.

Nintendo isn't desperate. They're not Sega, and they're not in debt. Honestly, MS is more of a failure in the console business than Nintendo is (internationally speaking). They sold, what, 600 units in Japan last week? Compared to the 30,000+ units that Sony and Nintendo were able to sell?

And who knows, maybe Nintendo will beat Sony next gen. They say they're going to have their console out first, and considering that the PS2 came out a full year before the GCN, PS2 owners may think it's time for a new console. If Nintendo has great launch titles, they can win. I still wonder how Sony was able to sell so many PS2s with the terrible launch line-up they had.

Bonus bonus

[August_zero]

A Majora's mask port for the cube? Sign me up!

I would pay to get that game considering how much better OOT looked in progressive scan on the cube. The other two zeldas (1 and 2) is a nice bonus too. Why on earth nintendo doesn't sell them seperately i will never know.

Zelda Bundle Probably Real

[edwdig]

Over the summer, I did a marketing research survery about video games for Nintendo. Although the woman running it wasn't allowed to say who the survery was for, when we asked, she did say "It's probably for who you think it's for."

Most of the survey was spent establishing perceptions of the 3 major consoles. Another major part was breaking into groups, and deciding what each of the 3 companies would need to do to win the next round.

The last part is where it became obvious the survey was for Nintendo. We had all mentioned how we all liked old Nintendo games, and that was one of the biggest things Nintendo had going for them (the group was all people in their early 20's). The woman asked if bundling a "Nostalagia Pack" which contained several old games would make us more likely to buy the system. Everyone agreed it would.

Finally, we were asked why Metroid Prime didn't sell big, and then why Zelda didn't sell big.

Took about an hour and a half, and I got $50 out of it. It's the second time I did one of these surveys for Nintendo. The first time was when the SNES was fairly new, and Nintendo Power was about to start their merchandice catalog. The survey was about how we liked different merchandice, and we got a free game for doing it.

Re:Zelda Bundle Probably Real

[vitaflo]

So why didn't Metroid Prime or Zelda sell big (although in my mind Zelda sold just fine)? I'd be really curious of the answers, or any of the other info gleaned from the survey. That is, if you can/want to share.

Re:Zelda Bundle Probably Real

[edwdig]

It's been a while, so I don't remember details too well.

I think the consensus on Metroid was that most people don't know about Metroid, due to the last one being during the SNES days. I don't remember anyone saying anything bad about the game.

For Wind Waker, I think the graphics turned people off initially. But if you did get people to play the game, they usually changed their mind about it. The game being too easy came up too. I know one guy who only owned an Xbox was under the impression that most GameCube games are really easy. The people who did have the game complained it was too easy. I know several of my friends watched people play it, and considered getting a Cube for it, but decided against it because the game was too easy.

That's kinda interesting..

[NanoGator]

" new Player's Choice budget titles from Nintendo have been officially confirmed, including (from September 25th) Metroid Prime, Animal Crossing, and Super Mario Sunshine for $29.99"

Two months ago I bought Metroid Prime, new, for $19.99 at Blockbuster. It was still selling for $50 elsewhere. Anybody else seen that at other Blockbusters? (I still can't figure out why I got that so cheap.)

Re:That's kinda interesting..

[Anonymous Coward]

Two months ago I bought Metroid Prime, new, for $19.99 at Blockbuster. It was still selling for $50 elsewhere. Anybody else seen that at other Blockbusters? (I still can't figure out why I got that so cheap.)

This is just a blind, stab-in-the-dark guess, but are you SURE it was new? I.e. did you break the seal on the plastic and get that satisfying 'squeak' when you turned the disc on the spindle? Being Blockbuster, it could easily be an ex-rental copy.

Also, I remember hearing about BB trying to become a video game retailer at some point. Maybe they're trying to lure you in by advertising high-profile titles at low prices. Or, maybe they've given up on that and are seeking to dump inventory. Again, blind guesses.

Re:That's kinda interesting..

[PainKilleR-CE]

Anybody else seen that at other Blockbusters? (I still can't figure out why I got that so cheap.)

I got the same thing. The lady behind the counter that sold it to me said they had a fairly large number of copies of the game and they weren't selling very well (probably because of the bundle deals). I picked up the $20 Metroid Prime and then got Zelda Wind Waker with my GameCube when I found out the GameBoy Player bundle didn't include a game.

To the anon response:
No, they weren't previously rented games or anything like that, they were definitely new. I'm also pretty sure they're still selling them for $20.

Re:That's kinda interesting..

[Anonymous Coward]

It's new, my BB's have it too. They wayyyyyyy overbought for rentals, and have been selling used/new for $20 since a week after release to get rid of them

Re:That's kinda interesting..

[ClutchUGA]

I paid 15 bucks for a used copy at Blockbuster 2 months ago... for some reason, they sell used GC games cheaper than anyone around...

What is Microsoft thinking?

[AlexMax2742]

"Thanks to the Gaming-Age forum regulars for pointing to info on the EB Games site showing Microsoft's Xbox hardware bundle for Christmas, consisting of the online-friendly Star Wars: Clone Wars, Tetris Worlds, and 2 free months of Xbox Live, priced at $179."

OK, the free Xbox Live starter kit is fine.

But Star Wars: The Clone Wars? Tetris Worlds? Even the non-live Jet Set Radio Future/GT 2002 bundle had more fun than this, and there was only one decent game on the damn thing (JSRF).

I hope they still ship the XBL demo disc (Which has the full version of Tetris Worlds, MotoGP Demo and Mechassault Demo), because the demo disc has a HELL of a lot more gamepaly than those two turkeys.

On a related note, there is some hope for MS yet. If you buy a Xbox Live Starter kit at EB now (and possibly elsewhere) you get PSO with it. You pay for PSO by the month, but it's got two months free, and at least it was entertaining for those two months...

Milking Halo for all it's worth....still

[unclethursday]

Notice that the bundle for the Xbox has Tetris Worlds (MSRP $20, also included in new Xbox Live kits), and Star Wars: Clone Wars (Not sure of the MSRP on that title).

So far, North America is the biggest territory in which Halo hasn't been bundled, ever.

Halo has been bundled, and still is bundled AFAIK, in Australia since shortly after the Xbox launch in that territory, and the Xbox sees healthy sales in Australia.

Last Chrstmas there was a bundle option in Europe that included not only the Sega GT 2002/JSRF disk, but also Splinter Cell (which had just been released) and Halo. This boosted sales in Europe as well.

Yet, even though it is the best selling Xbox game ever, Halo isn't bundled in North America (which would increase sales of the Xbox, even now), nor is Halo part of the 'Platinum Hits' titles.

Still, I suppose when you only have one consitently selling title on your console, you don't lower the price on it; but Microsoft could see more sales by putting Halo in the 'Platinum Hits' line, or by bundling it with the console.

2 years at $50 is a bit much. But, I suppose by keeping it at $50, it does lower the operational losses on the Xbox division (it does sell pretty consitently, still). Now, if people would only wake up and see that while Halo is a great game, it isn't worth $50 anymore....

Thursdae

Re:Milking Halo for all it's worth....still

[JFMulder]

You should remember that Canada is also part of North America, and we've had the Halo/Amped/Xbox bundle since February. They're still selling them at 279.99CAN$, so I'll quite a deal, since an Xbox alone is 259.99CAN$. I bought mine 3 months ago and haven't regretted since.

IIRC, FFX still hasn't seen it's price lowered either, or not much. Microsoft and Bungee are no more guilty then Sony and Square. That's one law of marketting : as long as it is selling well, there's not reason to lower the price.

Re:Milking Halo for all it's worth....still

[unclethursday]

You should remember that Canada is also part of North America, and we've had the Halo/Amped/Xbox bundle since February.

Keep your flapping heads out of this. Nobody really know what Canada is aboot anyway, ya hoser. ;-p

IIRC, FFX still hasn't seen it's price lowered either, or not much.

FFX retailed for $50 when it first came out, it is now a Greatest Hits title retailing for $20. That's a $30 price lowering, which is signifigant. Thursdae

No bundled "Link to the Past"?

[twistedemotions]

Borrowed that game and never did beat it...

Darn. Well I heard its on GBA... but i'm not really interested in handheld systems (my vision is really poor and I use a giant TV).

Re:No bundled "Link to the Past"?

[PainKilleR-CE]

It's all about the GB Player.

Other than that, it remains to be seen whether the GameCube version of Four Swords will have it or not (since Four Swords was part of the GBA Link to the Past title).

I already found the OoT disc used and picked that up (I wasn't fortunate enough to get in on the pre-order deal). I hope that if this is true, there'll be some other way to get the extra Zelda titles without buying another console.

Well, hello down there!

[Inoshiro]

"So far, North America is the biggest territory in which Halo hasn't been bundled, ever."

Do you know what an Xbox Adrenaline pack is? It's a bundle of 1 Xbox system, 1 Controller S, 1 copy of Amped, and 1 copy of Halo for an MSRP of 279.99 Canadian.

You're either ignorant that Canada has Adrenaline packs, or you willfully don't include Canada in your view North America (27 million people can be wrong! ;)). Either way, you should do research on what you post on Slashdot before posting it.

You're not ignorant of the fact that Microsoft's more than happy to keep selling Halo at a higher MSRP than most first-gen titles. I don't think you'll see Halo go Platinum Hits until Halo 2 is out -- Microsoft can't afford to have its own home-grown title that's universally well known selling at budget prices unless it has another title to back it up. Besides, as you point out, Halo still sells well at its current price. With the constant perception that the GameCube is a system only for younger people, Microsoft has to keep Halo expensive in the US so they can keep their older demographic happy.

Re:Well, hello down there!

[unclethursday]

Either way, you should do research on what you post on Slashdot before posting it.

Blasphemy if I ever heard it.

That's like RTFA before posting, it's simply not done on /.

Thursdae

Re:Well, hello down there!

[Anonymous Coward]

You are an asshole. I don't like you.

Re:Well, hello down there!

[quecojones]

With the constant perception that the GameCube is a system only for younger people, Microsoft has to keep Halo expensive in the US so they can keep their older demographic happy.

Sorry, but either you had a brain fart or I'm just not parsing this correctly. Are you saying that M$ has to keep Halo expensive (for whatever reason)?

Trust me, lowering the price of Halo may not be a finacially sound/neccessary move (if it's selling well, don't mess with the pricing), but it would sure be the thing to do to make FPS fans happy. AFAIK, M$ isn't making anyone happy (besides themselves, the publisher, and pretty much anybody who is making any money on the sale of the game) by not lowering the price.

Anyways, that's just my $0.02... I could be wrong.

Makes Sense

[Gothic_Walrus]

Think about it: for a minimum of time and money spent porting the games, Nintendo has a cheaply-made freebie that they won't lose money from and that will drive the fans crazy. It's perfect for everyone.

Probably not a rumor

[macrom]

GameInformer.com has a rumor (via unconfirmed sources)

Considering that Game Informer is owned by Gamestop.

Re:Probably not a rumor

[Anonymous Coward]

Also consider that GI is a shit rag that has gotten plenty of stuff blatantly, gratuitously wrong in the past.

Tetris Worlds?

[the_riaa]

What a stinker. Anybody else played this game? It blows my mind how you can go from such a good, simple puzzle game, and muck it up so horribly. Tetrisphere on the N64 wasn't great either, but at least it was somewhat fun. Why can't a remake of The New Tetris (N64) be remade? Now

• that

was a fun multiplayer Tetris game.

Tetris Worlds? Sorry American Xbox fans - that's such a weak pack-in. I imagine the 2 free months of XBL will bring more people in than either one of these crap titles. As much as some people hate Nintendo here, you've got to at least admit that they do both give you some choice with their bundle deals and that the best selling titles are available. And by the way, Canada's Xbox Adrenaline pack wins out as far as best bundle - but price converted to USD, the deal's not that stellar for us Stateside.

Re:Tetris Worlds?

[DaveCBio]

I play it on Live all the time and it's a lot of fun. There is this thing called preference that people have. The Adrenaline Pack works out to about $200US which is a damn good del last time I checked.

how about a Mario Disc

[Anonymous Coward]

Why can't Nintendo do this for Mario. Throw Mario 1, 2, 3, Wolrd and 64 on one disc and I'd buy that for $24.99. Why can't they even just release a Mario All-Star for GC?

Re:how about a Mario Disc

[StocDred]

How about unlocking the SMB that's still hidden in Animal Crossing?

I wonder if this rumored Zelda bundle means Nintendo won't ever bother to unlock LoZ from Animal Crossing either.

Re:how about a Mario Disc

[edwdig]

Why can't Nintendo do this for Mario. Throw Mario 1, 2, 3, Wolrd and 64 on one disc and I'd buy that for $24.99

Because they've been very successful at selling those games individually for the GBA at $35 each. Granted, they can't do that for Mario 64, but hey, maybe the next GameCube Mario game will bundle Mario 64 for free.

Re:how about a Mario Disc

[Anonymous Coward]

Mario 64 was a tech demo for the GameCube, so it exists. Actually, if you page through the GameCube instruction manual and read the memory card section, there's a screenshot containing a Mario 64 savegame.

3 New games..- Zelda?

[Metroid72]

I guess I'll be buying Luigi's Mansion, Pikmin and SF Adventures after all. I wonder if that "Legend of Zelda" will be the updated version that was released only in Japan for the Super Famicom

Re:3 New games..- Zelda?

[Anonymous Coward]

i recommnd renting star fox first. i was very disappointed; no gammeplay at all..

Re:3 New games..- Zelda?

[Anonymous Coward]

If they get rid of the weird-looking main character and replace him with a normal-looking Link, BS Zelda would be very nice to see stateside indeed.

I'd hope that, if this rumor is true, they would update Zelda 2's graphics as well. For me, it was a step backwards from the first game, especially on the overworld map.

All Star Series, maybe?

[Thedalek]

I hope that Zelda series collection disc becomes a trend over at Nintendo. A Mario series disc would be another logical choice, and so perhaps F-Zero and Star Fox discs.

One question: Shouldn't the Zelda disc also include A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, and Oracle of Seasons/Ages?

Nintendo has the distinction of being the only company from which I have bought games without owning the systems. I later get the systems, but if I see something like Metroid Prime or Pikmin for under $20, I'm not about to pass that up.

Re:All Star Series, maybe?

[edwdig]

One question: Shouldn't the Zelda disc also include A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, and Oracle of Seasons/Ages?

A Link to the Past just got released for GBA, so that's why that isn't included. The Oracle games are still available, although in limited supply. I don't know why Link's Awakening wasn't included.

Actually, scratch that reasoning. There's a much simplier reason.

Animal Crossing included a pretty good NES emulator - capable of emulating Zelda 1, and probably Zelda 2.

Ocarina of Time on the GameCube was simply emulated, so they've already got an N64 emulator there. As Majora's Mask was based on the Ocarina of Time code, it probably required little to no work on the N64 emulator to get it to run.

The only work involved in creating this disc is the menu system to pick what game you want to play, plus any little localization details they want to do (i.e. they modified Ocarina of Time so that the colors of the buttons at the top of the screen matched the GameCube controller's colors). Creating the manual and cover artwork is probably the only significant expense involved.

Re:All Star Series, maybe?

[pecosdave]

I can understand the NES emulator for the old games. It's easy that way and the games are old and simple by modern processing samples.

N64 emulator? Thats rough since the 64 was a 64 bit system and the cube is 32. A reliable 64 emulator is hard to come up with and I doubt Nintendo integrated it. Are you sure they didn't just run the Ocarina of time through the Cube compiler, maybe even a code converter then compiler? Granted they're both Nintendo systems but the 64 is just to much of a pain in the ass to emulate.

Re:All Star Series, maybe?

[edwdig]

I originally thought that Zelda was simply recompiled, but now I don't think so.

There are N64 roms of Ocarina of Time: Master Quest floating around. The rumor is that the ROM was ripped off the Bonus Disc that came with Wind Waker.

I think the easy way to test it would be to download the ROM and try it in an emulator. The action buttons at the top of the screen are colored to match the colors of the corresponding controller buttons. The bonus disc version had the colors changed to match the GameCube button colors. So the colors in the ROM should answer where it came from.

Re:All Star Series, maybe?

[Ondo]

I hope that Zelda series collection disc becomes a trend over at Nintendo. A Mario series disc would be another logical choice, and so perhaps F-Zero and Star Fox discs.

I've been hoping the next Smash Brothers title includes the original games each of it's characters came from as unlockable bonuses. It'd make sense, I think. Though translating some of the games previously only released in Japan might not be a good use of resources.

Where do you live?

[Inoshiro]

Base packages are 249.99$ CDN in all major centres, and FFX is a Greatest Hits game (29.99$ MSRP) as of early August...

Just drop the price already!

[aliens]

If nintendo dropped the price to $99 and threw in Pikmin or some other $20 game, granted they'd lose a bit more as a lost leader, but damn, I think they'd sell a buttload more systems. There are still a lot of households out there where $50($54 w/tax) makes a lot of difference.

Re:Just drop the price already!

[damiam]

I think they'd actually do better if they raised the price (okay, maybe not now, but if they'd priced it higher at launch). The fact that the Gamecube is the cheapest of the three consoles implies that it's the least powerful and valuable of them, which is very far from the truth.

What about "Link to the Past"?

[acxr is wasted]

I have to question the legitimacy of this Zelda rumor, as the supposed bundle is missing "A Link to the Past" from the SNES. Ocarina of Time borrowed much from this game, and any compilation of classic Zelda titles would have to include it. Such evolution took place between the second and third games, and subsequently from the third to "Ocarina," that gamers would be missing a critical "link" in the chain. (har, har)

Re:What about "Link to the Past"?

[Anonymous Coward]

As another poster pointed out, gameinformer is owned by Gamespot so it's probably pretty solid. (In case EB has cornered the market near you, Gamespot is just like EB.)

Re:What about "Link to the Past"?

[acxr is wasted]

Possible. I'm only aware of Gamespot's website.

On a side note, while EB does have a few locations 'round town, we have no store called "Gamespot," but we have "Gamestop." Eerie, no? :-P

KIDDIE CUBE!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

All the little boys and girls will have to start saving their allowance.

Re:Gord Schmord

[Anonymous Coward]

Troll my ass.

This guy is on the money. Mods: Ever bought a game from Gord or had a converstion with him? I've done both, and YEESH.

Hmmm...

[Andy Dodd]

I think that in ALL respects, the GC is more powerful than the N64.

The N64 was likely not truly 64-bit. Using funky techniques to decide the number of bits a system has is old hat in the console industry.

I believe one system (Atari Jaguar???) was marketed as a "128-bit" system, when in the PC world it would have been considered a 16-bit or 32-bit system.

In the PC world, the usual rule is the size of the GP registers. Anyone who makes "larger" claims is usually accused of false advartising.

AMD could easily call the Athlon a 128-bit or 256-bit CPU (Due to data bus width) if they were going by console industry rules.

I don't think the N64 was really 64-bit, at least not by the same definition used to deem the Cube as 32. Most likely both were 32-bit systems (CPUs with 32-bit-wide GPRs). The 64 may have had a 64-bit data path in the graphics subsystem (Modern standards of GPUs have 128 or 256-bit wide datapaths or more, and almost surely the Gamecube is a 128-bit or 256-bit system by the definition of bit width used to define the N64 as a 64-bit system. When both are 32-bit systems if using the PC industry definition.)

Re:Hmmm...

[pecosdave]

I agree, the Cube is more powerfully than the 64 in all respects. The N64 IS a true 64 bit console. This isn't saying that it's more powerfull than the 32 bit cube, it just means that it has to break it into chunks and reassemble, very messy. CPU emulators exsist in the PC world, they're usually used for pre-release developmental reasons (as AMD released well ahead of their first 64 bit CPUs) and for running some task that an older CPU can't handle. Since these things exsist don't expect them to be smooth.

The cube has a speed increase, though less bits. Probably good enough to handle some of the less demanding 64 games, maybe even some of the more demanding ones, but unlike in the 64 the cube would have to emulate everything previously done on chips with the 64. Sound, graphics, everything. It's theoreticaly possible, but it's one hell of a mess. A recompile would not only take care of the situation immediately, but it would also allow for better textures and models should they have chose to replace them. The hardware should automaticaly improve some of it immediately, but software tweaks can be made.

Wanna play the CPU game? The Genesis was 8 bit. Two 8 bit processors. If Atari would have "done the math" the same way Sega did they would have had a 256 or more bit system. Let's not forget "Blast Processing"

The N64 actually had a 64 bit MIPS RISC processor. Nintendo moved away from it because the software companies found it to hard to program for.

Re:Hmmm...

[Anonymous Coward]

You do know what chip is in the Gamecube right?
A PPC tech based processor with 64 bit FPU and 32 Bit for the rest.
It's a funky hybrid chip with some cool tricks, but I cant see how it's that much easier to code for.

I am very much saying that.

[Inoshiro]

"Are you saying that M$ has to keep Halo expensive (for whatever reason)?"

Until Microsoft can come up with some more first-party titles that fail to suck, they need to keep the one they do have expensive.

Nintendo has lots of great first-party titles: Smash Bros, Mario Party series, Mario Sunshine, Metroid Prime, etc, etc, etc. I can name at least 10 titles that have come and gone on the 'Cube. What awesome MS titles have you soon on the Xbox?

Halo? Yea, and maybe Mech Assault too.. Fuzion Frenzy? Blinx? Brute Force? Any XSN Sports game? Come now, those aren't even in the same league.

It's the same problem Sony has: Dark Cloud 2 is neat, as is the Getaway, but flops like Amplitude, Primal, and Downhill Domination don't cut it. Sony doesn't have a strong 1st or 2nd party presence the same as MS doesn't. The thing is that MS doesn't have really cool 3rd party exclusives like Sony does, so they can't afford to make their only cool flagship title budget priced -- despite how well it's selling -- until they bring out Halo 2.

Within a week of Halo 2 being out, Halo 1 will have an MSRP of 19.99 USD. Watch for it, kids!

Re:I am very much saying that.

[quecojones]

OK, this argument I can buy, but I guess I had (mis-)understood your previous post to be saying that they had to keep it expensive to keep a certain demographic (i.e. customers) happy... must have been a brain-fart on my end (unless that's exactly what you meant, in which case we should just forget it because then I'm totally lost). :)