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Xbox for $99? Xbox 2 in 2005?
TimeForGuinness writes "CNN is reporting that Microsoft's Xbox may be on the verge of a substantial price cut, falling from $179 to $99 by Labor Day, and Microsoft will launch its next generation console in late 2005 - a year earlier than has been previously rumored. That would put the Xbox 2 on store shelves up to a full year before Sony's PlayStation 3."
Now I can finally set up my media server!
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Weren't microsoft selling these at a loss already?
Xbox - what's that all about? Is it good, or is it wack?
$99? For a hackable XBox? Oh my. I'd seriously go against my better judgement and consider getting one if it dropped that low. MythTV would be so nice on one.
Objects in the blog are closer then they ap
Modded X2's in early 2006?
S
This seems familiar, when saga lowered their dreamcast to 99 it spelled the end could this be the same for microsoft? They announce the Xbox2 but i dont believe it will come out. Microsoft does a good job they just need to make more secure operating systems and forget about hardware IMO
My first thought upon reading this was, "That's gonna hurt Nintendo, big time."
Nintendo, at least from what I can see, got their big sales kick this season from slashing down the price so that consumers would see it as the most affordable of the third generation consoles. However, that value proposition is going to be dead if the X-Box goes to the $100, or $120 range. I don't think most people have an issue with kicking in an extra $20 for DVD-playing, a hard drive, and a broadband adapter.
Hell, for that price, _I_ might get one.
-Erwos
Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
I've never seen an Xbox. That thing looks hideously uncomfortable.
Maybe I am just a luddite, I am still playing games on the SNES and I just got a Playstation 1 for Giftmas last year.
My Webcomic: Asylum on 5th Street
With these cheap 99 Xboxes going around, it makes more sense to try and get Linux on them. Currently the cheapest commercially availbe pcs are $169, this is a whole $70 cheaper!
found here
CNN is reporting that Microsoft's Xbox may be on the verge of a substantial price cut, falling from $179 to $99 by Labor Day.
I'm sorry, but given that I just got back from trudging through the snow, and practically getting frostbite on my face, I don't see how we're on the "verge" of labor day. On a day like this, it doesn't seem like we're even on the verge of spring, let alone the end of summer.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
Yeah so I can get an XBox for 99, the good games are still 50$......
So Long and Thanks for all the Fish.
The Xbox will be out ahead of schedule just like Longhorn is going to be right on time. Oh, wait....
Ninety-nine bucks?! What kind of cheap crap are they using to make this thing?
--- I'm Green Hornet's sidekick not Inspector Clouseau's!
I personally hope the XBox 2 is fully backwards compatible, including XBox Live functionality.
I use my GBA and PS2 to play old games all the time. If the Gamecube let me, I'd be playing old N64 and Super Nintendo games, too.
$99 is widely known to be the magic number when it comes to the casual consumer and an impulse buy. Nintendo already beat them to that punch last year and during the Christmas season the GameCube sales numbers skyrocketed because of it. If Microsoft can accomplish the same thing, they'll make all the money they need to off of the additional software that they sell.
"Chances of RHIC-induced Armageddon are exceedingly rare, but... you never know." - MIT Physicist Bob Jaffe
Would CNN also be so kind to announce that I *may be* on the verge of receiving a very large raise?
:)
I could really use the dough.
A Microsoft product, coming out EARLY?
Inconcievable!
Technoli
I'll get an Xbox when the Xbox2 comes out and the Xbox2 when the Xbox3 comes out. I'll get it dirt cheap and heck.. a game is a game.. A few hours of fun. I don't feel a pressing need to have the latest and greatest games. Games that are a few years old are cheap (and if they are PC games, they perform well on average hardware).
So whatever you do, don't bet on Xbox dropping to $99 or seeing Xbox Next/2 in 2005. And don't complain that Microsoft lied to you when neither of these things happen.
This just speculation.
Schnapple
That would put the Xbox 2 on store shelves up to a full year before Sony's PlayStation 3.
And we all know that being the first next-gen console to market virtually guarantees success.
You probably shouldn't click this.
Given that the Xbox is based on hardware that is just a supped-up PC with mostly off the shelf components and Sony's is more custom, it's not big surprise that MS would be able to make it to market much faster. Wasn't the Xbox based on a 733 MHz P3 with a semi-custom Nvidia graphics chip? And I think the PS2 was a semi custom 128-bit DSP that handled pretty much everything (graphics + logic).
So far the Playstation 2 has made a tour of duty above and beyond any expectations any of us have for it. While the graphics on the xbox seem to be on launch date level, the Playstation 2 always seem to reach into the guts of the machine and pick up some more power.
So far, the best application I have seen for the xbox was a distributed multilevel map zoom system. The inventors bought several xboxes at Elkjop and eventually sold one system til the Pentagon.
xbox linux project
There are others too. Just do a search on google. But thats a good start. Not sure about NetBSD.
"That would put the Xbox 2 on store shelves up to a full year before Sony's PlayStation 3"
Perhaps being first to market isn't the best idea. These consoles have a shelf life of 3 - 5 years and if the PS2 comes out later, it will probably be a more powerful machine, and hence for the remaining 4 years they are both alive in the market the PS2 will have the technical edge over the Xbox2.
Mind you, if current generation conoles are any guide, technical superiority is no match for a strong (and well funded) marketing department!
That's the PSX - it's got a PS2 inside and basically a high capacity TiVO and a DVD recorder. A few other nice things.
--Moo.
So what if X2 comes out a year early? MS will still be losing money and will accelerate that loss with the cut of price for the Xbox.
Yea, yea, yea, it's not as if they can't afford it. I just don't understand the business plan here. I doubt that they'll make any money on X2 when it comes out, and with the majority of Xbox games being crappy, they can't be making money there, either. So what the hell is the purpose of making a product line that will do nothing but cost you money? To get more name recognition? Like who hasn't fricking heard of Microsoft?
I'm waiting for them to come free with a happy meal.
If they could be easily hacked into running Linux, it might be worth contacting Virginia Tech. Make the mac heads eat their words! 3rd biggest suppercomputer in the world for $108,900!
Ahh, here we go:NetBSD on xbox
They should just give them away with a game purchase. MS doesn't care what they lose on the consol, its all about preparing for the next gen release. Its definelty an uphill battle against the PS2 for the XBOX, but if they keep beating them on hardware, its only a matter of time before XBOX has just as good if not better game base than the PS2. And thats when they will start dominating.
:D
Another thing I get really pissed off about is people in the USA hate MS and the XBOX just because they are MS. Well I don't agree with a lot that MS does and doesn't do, but people WAKE UP, it's far better to line the pockets of Bill G than some Japanese fat cat, so buy and support XBOX, not PS2
I seem to have heard a similar rumor about the price of the iPod mini being $99, and look how that turned out.
Microsoft is already selling consoles at a rather hefty loss, and there's only so much to be gained by selling them at an even bigger loss. Even Microsoft doesn't have bottomless pockets, and the problem with selling a product as a loss-leader is that the more you sell the worse your short-term financial hit is. Selling a product as a loss-leader assumes that the people who buy that product will buy additional services at a higher markup later.
The problem with moving the cost of an X-Box to $99 is that you're hitting a market demographic that's far less likely to spend the $$$ to get something like XBox Live or a large number of additional profit-gaining accessories.
Now, if Microsoft came out with some deal that you could buy an XBox for $99 if you commit to 6 months or a year of XBox Live, that might work. Elsewise don't be lining up at the store to get your $99 XBox...
P3 733
GF graphics card somewhere between GF3 and GF4 power.
64mb DDR ram.
A mod Chip is required to bypass the normal startup routine and allows you to install a custom version of Linux
on your Xbox, most of them will play XBox games, along with allowing you to place and play most types of media on your Xbox. Often even including the ability to ftp files up to your Xbox via ethernet connection.
The bad part is you can't play XBox live with a mod chip running. (unless you enjoy being banned from MS severs...)
Wait, so if the X-box 2 is scheduled to come out sooner, like in 2005, and Halo 2 was supposed to come out late 2004, does this mean that Halo 2 might be pushed back to be released on the X-Box 2? I mean, I'm all for the new technology, but I want my Halo! Sooner the better I think.
Although Microsoft has money, I seriously doubt they'll try to do what Sega did. Primarily because it is a huge risk, and that seems to be the tone of the article. Pretty much, if they pulled an early release stunt it would either make them or break them. First off, with their next console they have to try and ensure that they are not in the red like they are with the xbox.
lower the xbox's price down to $99 will not necessarily make people go out and buy one. That's still $100, and the holiday season is over with.
Sega may not have been in as strong a financial situation as Microsoft, but the dreamcast was a great console. The only thing that really ruined it was the fact that it did not have solid piracy protection. Who's going to make games on a system that everybody can steal? Before that, we saw lots of great games on the Dreamcast.
The xbox's buzzfactor, I think is as high as it can go. While observing Microsoft's moves, I've noted that they've done PC like stuff for the console. So basically they did things such as gamespatches that had never been done before by companies such as Nintendo. Think about that 20 years 1988-2004, no patching games, and then Microsoft comes along and starts patching games that have major bugs (granted, online games don't count, but think morrowind...etc.)
was the article worth reading? sorta, its all speculation, and it states the obvious. Basically, if the rumors are true, and Microsoft releases early, then this could hurt them. Like i said before, the article is pessimistic on the idea of M$ releasing early.
IMHO, Microsoft will probably release around the same day and time as Sony to be safe. By putting their cards on the table early, it will give Sony plenty of time to respond. If they release around the same time, it will be more like a game of rock,paper, scissors (just hope they both choose scissors).
I say this for a simple reason...
Larger scale adoption of Linux.
Ok... So how does buying an XBox help Linux become more widely adopted.
Let's look at what motivate 99% of Computer hardware changes and upgrades.... games. No one needs a hardcore graphics card with an overclocked, liquid cooled CPU to run Word. The primary purpose for upgrading one's computer (OS and Hardware) tends to be for games. Linux simply does not have the same game base as Windows does (yes I know that this is changing... but there still is not enough).
Microsoft really wants to win with the XBox and the more money that we all sink into the XBox, vendors will have less motivation for targeting PCs for game development. Comparitivly, porting is the easy part (budget wise)... it's testing that kills your budget. With the PC platform, you have to take into account the wide range of systems out there, tech support for those different systems, etc. With the XBox, they have to worry about 1 platform and only 1.
The widespread adaptation of console games could be really good for Linux. IMHO, there would be less motivation to deal with Windows as it appears as though games are a big selling point of Windows. If Microsoft has tunnel vision with the XBox (most large companies tend to suffer from this), it will probably be too late before they realize that the XBox is cutting into their OS market share. Though games could be a bigger marketshare for MS.
So buy up those XBoxen and encourage MS in it's game console venture.
I think you might qualify as Amish!
---- It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again. It does this whenever it's told.
For $230, to $250, you can get a really good media computer. It can play all kinds of great games that look as good as they would on a $1500 PC, as well as play downloaded video in just about every format. Plus it will have a decent hard drive for storing downloaded video, games or for use as a file server as well.
XBOX $100
120 gig hard drive $100
Modchip $30 to $50 (depends if it is solderless or not, also you do NOT need that DVD playback kit)
Total $250
That would be worth getting in that case, since im not a gamer i cant comment on its 'intended' market.
I assume the 99 dollar special will still be 'modable'
---- Booth was a patriot ----
$99 worth of hardware doesn't mean crap when there aren't any good games. I mean the HALO coolfactor wore off long ago, HALO 2 is still a moving target, the majority of Xbox games suck, and the rest of the games either play on PC or one of the other two consoles. I enjoy my GC and PS2 far much more than my Xbox.
Upcoming Xbox2 Linux Project seeking sponser to front prize money...
I can count to 1023 on my hands. Ask me about #132.
Err... 2001 to 2005. Four year turn around. I've been buying a new console every year/two years, with only one gap of 5 years between my NES and my Sega Genesis, which was broken by buying no less than five system in two years.
I'm still waiting for the flying cars. I was promised flying cars. Where the hell are my flying cars!
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
I just hope Sony doesn't make the same mistakes IBM made with OS/2 when Windows 95 was promised at the begining of '95. To beat Microsoft to Market, they released a product that wasn't ready for primetime and Wnidows 95 was late and the PC 32-bit OS fell to Microsoft.
Isn't the Microsoft rule, 'get it right the third time'?
If they can get it out to stores BEFORE the PS2, and have some quality games, Sony may become a distant memory. Also, none of this 'multiplayer online support coming in a year or so' mumbo-jumbo.
I think Microsoft should BUY Nintendo.
Why?
Compare the design of the GameCube to that of the X(tra-large)Box.
Nintendo also brings to the table, IP like Mario, StarFox, Donkey Kong, Zelda, Pokemon...
Microsoft can have the console for the 'advanced mature adult', and at the same time capture the kiddy market.
Technically, the PlayStation I and II are junk. Technically, they shouldn't have survived. Just like even though DOS/Windows were'nt the BEST OS (by far) they dominated. Marketing and other things led to this.
High Friggin Definition!
---- It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again. It does this whenever it's told.
Don't forget that in order to get linux on there you need to install a modchip, which typically runs you about $50.
Sure, you could get someone else with a modchip to flash your TSOP, meaning you wouldn't need a modchip, but that's risky. If anything goes wrong, you have a big black paperweight.
That sweet compile farm I always wanted to build could seriously be worth it pretty soon. DistCC and 4 modded xboxes for around 500 bucks? That sounds Funtastic!
I can if you write it phonetically.
I guess it will soon come to the point where one would get a console free upon signing up a 2-year Xbox Live contract. Remember the time you had to fork out two hundred bucks to get a cell phone?
"In other news, following the purchace of an Xbox console by Patrick Whitlock, Microsoft has announced that it will now begin selling the units at damn near half the price that Patrick has paid for his. When asked for a comment Mr. Whitlock only said, " this sucks""
I see double trouble with that as there's a company in Michigan called "The Linux Box" which does Linux consulting services.
Seriously, though, that is dirt cheap. I already have PS2 and GC but I would pick one up just to hack it up for fun and profit.
My prediction: No it won't.
One of two thing will happen: either MS is on their usual scare tactics of promissing soon, releasing late, or Sony will just have to release PS3 sooner.
From what I've heard, the development on Playstation 3 is coming along just fine, the reason they don't want to release it sooner is because the PS2 is still selling like hotcakes.
And here I just bought a used Xbox for $139 last weekend.
Nah, I'll wait til I see it at BigLots. Thats when we know for sure that this endeavour is circling the shark tank (to merge two phrases meant to describe utter failure: circling the drain and jumping the shark tank) Thats where I got my Bonefone!!
Mainly, the issue as to whether or not it will be a "big deal" if the Xbox 2 or Gamecube 2 (N5, whatever) is released before the PS3 is.
There are two scenarios:
1. No backwards compatitiliby. Remember, this really came along with the PS2 and the Game Boy systems, but most consoles have not been backwards compatible.
If you believe the rumors that the Xbox 2 will be a PowerPC chip (perhaps even a slimmed down version of the PPC 970 aka "G5" chip), then the odds of backwards compatibility lies in the realm of the possible, but not likely in my book.
So that means an Xbox 2 might ship without backwards compatibility, which leaves it in the current market problem is has now: powerful system, but not as many games as the PS2, and not as many good "first person games" as the Gamecube. Right now, the only advantage the Xbox has going for it is Xbox Live (though I'm honest curious to know if this is a money making segment of the Xbox division or not).
2. Backwards compatible. Suppose that MS uses its recently purchased Virtual PC technology or some hardware based solution to emulate Xbox 1 titles, that might give it a leg up in the future. Rather than releasing a system and starting from scratch again, they would have the current library (especially Halo), and whatever Xbox Online subscribers would be making the jump.
But even if they do make the jump, will it still be enough? Japanese support started halfway decently, dropped, and now it seems some developers (Konami, Sammy, and a few others) are giving it another chance.
As things stand, the Xbox and the Gamecube are neck-in-neck in sales, with the latter actually being profitable by itself while the Xbox, from most of the financial reports seen, is still a major loss leader for MS.
A cheaper Xbox *will* drive sales of the consoles, but the best thing MS can do is get some better first-party games out, and do *something* to bring in more Japanese gamers. Their biggest fear should be that Sony finally gets their online game in order, because once that does, the wealth of PS2 titles that could be brought online would quickly bury the Xbox Live segment in total users.
Time will tell. I'm pretty patient either way, though I wish I could get my kids to bed earlier so I could play more of "Fatal Frame 2". (Man that game is creeping me out.)
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
it's all about making us wait to see if it will be 99$, in case we'd be thinking about buying a different console which would cost less.
Yeah, I believe Nintendo and Sony have a 5 year guarantee - they will keep supporting a console for up to 5 years after its launch.
I wonder how well the Xbox will be supported when the Xbox2 comes out.
If Microsoft starts the hardware rush game, I am hoping Nintendo and Sony will not play along. I doubt Nintendo would (look at how long they took to make the N64 compared to when Saturn came out), but Sony might fall for it
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't a cheap hardrive and cheap ram get you pretty close to 99$.
This is an example of the power of a monopoly trying to break into another market. There is NO way that a company could start out and keep losing tons of money like they're doing on the xbox. That's what's wrong with monopolies. They get so much income from selling windows xp pro (full version 449$CAN at futureshop.ca) and office Pro full (sells for 650$CAN at futureshop.ca) that they can keep losing until they make competition in an area go bankrupt. Then you start paying.
The xbox doesn't seem cheap when you realize you're paying for it when you buy software from Microsoft's monopoly areas. Same goes for IE, media player and all the little utilities included in the OS that used to be made by various companies. It's never free, you just pay elsewhere.
...are some decent games. It's been years since anything original or even slightly interesting's been released in any electronic format. I've seen lots of "awesome graffix!!!", though.
-----
Sorry, I'm only a 1336 h4x0r.
"Count on Microsoft to fuck that up."
Nintendo: NES, Super NES, Nintendo 64, Game Cube
Sega: Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast
Sony: PS1, PS2
MS: Xbox
You're right!!! Bastards!!
If(XBOX == $99) XBOX2 = backward compatible;
... They want to gain users. Sell the systems at a huge loss, to pump up the number of games sold. That's always been their strategy.
... all of their old games still work. Past ownership of games ... plus a percentage of users that are tied to their "XBOX Live" accounts will encourage this transition. By dropping the XBOX price to $99, they'll be signing up a legion of future potential customers that are more likely to buy the XBOX2 than the PS3. Anyway, that's my speculation.
Here's my logic
Now, Sell the XBOX2 with backward compatibility so the barrier to entry for new users isn't that large
...in fact the PS1 did the same thing, if you recall. It didn't have impressive statistics but somehow programmers "reached into its guts" as you so eloquently said it and produced good games. Like FF8 vs FF7, looked so much better and on the same platform. MGS1... I've no clue how the pulled those graphics out of such meager hardware.
The PS2 gives people a lot of canvas to paint on, and an excellent set of brushes. Everything from variable-pressure-sensitive buttons on the controllers, to a graphics pipe that is highly hackable for all kinds of graphics effects. People can really get creative with the PS2's offerings and deliver great games.
Dreamcast and XBox give the programmers little PCs in a box so designers fall into the patterns and expectations they are used to.
Now I'm going to have to sell my Apex DVD player!!!
C'mon 99$USD for an Xbox?? Most of my movies are in divx/xvid and only playable on a computer so this will be heavenly.
Candle burns its brightest in the dark
I doubt that Microsoft would be willing to cut the cost of the XBox to $99 dollars since they have already lost around $800 million the last fiscal year on XBox related costs.
They are competing very well with Nintendo on a worldwide basis (number of units sold) so why would they lose even more money to what would only amount to a few percentage points gain in market share. If a price drop was going to occur it probably would have happened around Christmas so that they could've countered Nintendo's drop to $99.
Perhaps if they cut the cost in Japan it would help them there because they are getting destroyed over there, but with their lack of Japanese software titles it probably wouldn't help very much.
Too bad it would be a huge waste of electricity to power all of the needless components... (video, sound, etc...) and you have a cheapo CPU
Sigs? We don't need no stinking sigs!
Except that I think a majority of people in the console-buying demographic already have a hard drive (with a PC connected to it) and a DVD player (seeing as they can be had for $29 on their own now). Finally, the broadband adapter, good only for the console and requiring a separate connection, really isn't for the impulse-buy crowd. The features the XBox has don't really seem to be all that impressive anymore, and because the normal impulse buyer won't mod their XBox into a Linux media player and already have a DVD player, I don't see much of an advantage in getting an XBox for those features.
Like always with game consoles, it just comes down to the games- I want to play a lot of Gamecube games, but I don't really want to play many XBox games. Gamecube at $99 is a steal because you have things like Viewtiful Joe, Zelda, Metroid, Mario (Kart), etc...Honestly, somebody correct me if I am missing something, but I haven't seen even one must-buy game for the XBox since Panzer Dragoon Orta.
Yup, it would be very cheap. If I had more money I'd buy a bunch and install clusterLinux on them. Then I'd bring the whole thing to Dreamhack Summer in Sweden next summer and just let all the other geeks have a look of it before I wasted them all in distributed computing with my supercomputer.
Xboxes were pretty cheap here in Denmark around fall 2002. An Xbox costed 1199 DKR (link is in danish), around 160 USD at the time.
The two chains that were competing about selling both PS2 and Xboxes at the lowest price, Bilka and ElGiganten admitted that they lost around 800 DKR on each PS2 sold (link is in danish). The loss on Xboxes was probably the same...
A proud member of the Onion-in-Hand alliance
The comparisson leads me to believe the xbox is the way to go because for an already decent price at 160.00 you get the fastest cpu for consoles, a good sized hard drive, dvd player, and it can be hackz0red to do more stuff...
damn, now I have the urge to splurge...
"What we do in life echoes in eternity." Maximus Decimus Meridius
$99 is an attractive price, but lets not forget that to play games online with the Xbox, you must pay a fee ($6/month or $50/year).
As long as PS is free to play online, I'll stick with it.
This deserves a MOD UP, (imho)
wanted: one clever sig,apply within
Sony doesn't loose money on the consoles. They break even in the begining and then start seeing a small profit as they slowly improve the process.
Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
we'll throw in a wireless router to turn your $99 xbox into an apache server. ^_^
-Kids in the back seat causes accidents.- -Accidents in the back seat causes kids.-
Ya forgot Sega: Mastersystem. A fine console for it's time, that just got it's ass handed to it by Nintendo's NES
--Less Thinkin', More Drinkin'...
...wait until the price drops, then go to second-hand places (who will likely have to drop prices as well) and get one there.
Use the built in networking for an interface and if you really feel like it, you can just plug it into a tv and use it that way.
After that, it's just a quick Stage 3 from GentooX, and I am on my way to the cheapest server I have ever built. (~$60)
I wouldn't buy much of anything from Microsoft, but I could justify a second-hand purchase for these kinds of savings.
Cameron King
Yep. You come from the clueless club.
I know out of the 3 games I got, NONE of them can be considered "geared toward kids", and one of them is questionable if it should even be sold to minors. I know *I* didnt buy the only games out there like this. See: Zelda Game Pak Gauntlet Dark Legacy Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Yeah and we're gonna need you to come in on Sunday too. Need to play a little catch-up. Thanks.
... if music be fruit of love, play on
Also if XBox couldn't beat the PS2 with a 2-year technical advantage and huge losses, how do they expect to beat the PS3 being 1 year behind? When the PS3 comes out, it will be faster, have more games and be cheaper than XBox2.
Also MS made the mistake of choosing PC-components which is the reason why XBox will always have a worse price/performance ratio than the Playstation. Of course as long as Microsoft is willing to lose 1 billion/year on XBox, you don't see the price in the stores...
XBox2 seems to me an even bigger moneypit than XBox1. Also XBox faces the constant danger of being discontinued when the Office and Windows profits no longer grow, it is a product that cannot survive on it's own merit, it needs constant and huge flow of cash, which isn't really a good long-term strategy.
I don't believe the hard drive has been wasted. Between additional level downloads and custom music tracks almost every game worth playing has made use of the hard drive in a way that the memory cards would have been too small for.
I've owned a console of one type or another since we picked up a Pong set back in '79. While the XBox isn't the revolutionary device the Atari 2600 was, it isn't an Intellivision either.
In other news, Ed McMahon announces that frennzy may have already won $10,000,000!
One of the theorized reasons for the GC price drop to $100 was just to hurt MS and Sony. Not just because more people would buy Gamecubes, but because MS and Sony would feel obligated, eventually, to price drop their consoles to reciprocate.
A price drop is something that Nintendo could afford, since they were making a profit on the Gamecube-- and they still are. Sony meanwhile is having financial difficulties and the XBox is losing obscene amounts of money.
The logic goes though that by forcing everyone into a price war, Nintendo is hurt little, Sony is hurt, and Microsoft goes from pissing away huge amounts of money with the XBox to pissing away massive amounts of money with the XBox. I'm not sure MS cares, but it's possible that this is what Nintendo had in mind.
I just wonder if at some point people are going to go from "the XBox has a marginally larger installed base in the US, the XBox is winning" to "Nintendo is making sizeable profits and the MS Games division is losing money like a huge gaping gut wound and looks to continue to do so for the concievable future, Nintendo is winning"...
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
I complained bitterly to Microsoft after I purchased the Remote control to play DVDs (for $50CDN) only to find that it does not have a POWER ON/OFF switch on the remote.
I'd even settle for just an OFF switch. Sometimes when I'm on the verge of falling asleep, I prefer not to get up and wake up all the way. I would leave it turned on, but it's just too damn noisy.
Even the cheapest of TVs, DVD players and recorders are able to pretend they are powering down, mostly by shutting off fans and motors, because they are often still warm or powered.
Even slowing down the fan substantially would help.
It would be the way to go except: The playstation has/had the games I wanted. Pretty much every game I wanted to play on the X-Box was available for the PS2 (the exception being KOTOR, and that's now on PC). The playstation on the other hand has the GTA series, Gran Turismo 3/4, Final Fantasy, SOCOM, and EA online. All things being equal the X-Box would be my choice. However, based on the games available and price I'd like my PS2 best, and if I wanted a second console it would be a Gamecube.
Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
PSO3 will probably follow its brothers and be ported to XBox, but Metal Gear Solid is being developed by a Wholly-Owned Nintendo Studio (Silicon Knights). Nintendo has no interest whatsoever in porting to a different console, so unless they are existing the manufacturing biz, I don't think the MGS remake will ever show up on a non-Nintendo console.
I agree with you on the Xbox Exclusives for this year, many of them could make the Xbox the system of 2004, but they might not as well. (Witness Metroid:Prime's relatively tame reception on GameCube).
Splinter Cell:Pandora's Tomorrow and Starcraft:Ghost will be hitting all 3 consoles at the exact same time, and both will be identical on all consoles, except for perhaps minor graphical and sound issues, including online functionality.
This is quite different from last year, when the SC-'exclusivenesss' was a major selling point for the Xbox.
In conclusion, I'm personally happy that owners of any console will be able to enjoy great games this year!
Why bother? The last thing I'm going to do is let Microsoft dominate my living room and my office.
"Politicians find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the people."
Personally the price of the consoles is not the issue, its the quality of games for the consoles that I look at. I don't care what the price of the console is if the games suck then I won't buy it. When it comes to game quality I think the xbox has them all beat. Halo2,DoomIII,Fable,Ninja Gaiden, this is what I would look at if I were in the market to buy a console. Others don't even have the power to play these games.
Perhaps they've got a big stockpile of XBoxe(n?) to move, and they're simply trying to get rid of the excess to make room for the XBox2 when it comes out.
There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
MS just loves to accelerate the hardware upgrade cycle, don't they?
I played my Atari 2600 from 1981, when I got it, until 1988, when I finally got an NES. And in 1981, the console was already several years on the market. It finally quit working in 1990-91. I bet, if I still had it today, that I could probably repair it, too. Damn that was a solid machine.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
I'd chalk it up to getting buyers to have to purchase yet more stuff, which can only be obatained from Microsoft or a partner. Same old proprietary crap everyone else has pulled at one time or another with video game machines. Remember, the box is a loss leader, anything they get you to buy to go with it is where they make their money, not limited to games.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
For 5 Million we can have a 50500 node beowulf cluster.
fire
He also forgot Sega CD and Sega 32x, the lucky bastard.
-W
All unfair meta-mods are now being meta-meta-modded as retarded.
Totally. If the games you want are not available on the xbox then you won't be happy no matter what kind of geek goodness you can get from the hardware. But I am primarily a computer gamer and have not really done much console gaming since I bought my Playstation. I am in the market for a console and a dvd player and the xbox will let me do both. My wife and I are both avid PC gamers, both are the founding members of our online gaming clan, and I can see us sitting side by side on the couch headsets and controllers locked and loaded using xbox live to game with our fellow clan members when on "Console night". But our primary gaming experience will still come from IRC and RTCW, E. Terrirtory, NWN, etc etc.So for us a console that can serve as our dvd system too really seems like pure goodness.
"What we do in life echoes in eternity." Maximus Decimus Meridius
A free XBox with every happy meal? How low will they go to elbow their way into the market?
"For a successful technology, honesty must take precedence over public relations for nature cannot be fooled." -Feynman
And knowing MS it probably is this is bad news for all of us who bought the console at full price.. but great news for those who dont have it yet..
And with Ninja Gaiden, DOA online and Doom 3 aproaching this is the best time to get one.
I just wish I had a way to look into the future so I could wait for six months before buying... oh well.
Anyway Im expecting Sony to do the same with the ps2 (monkey sees, monkey does) they dont want to lose their first place in market after all.
Nintendo would drop their price at $50 due to this? thats an interesting question.
Go ahead MOD my day!
More opinions here
Remember, the Sega Saturn jumped its initial launch date to try to get the edge on the Sony Playstation. In the end the jump hurt them more than helped. Hopefully Microsoft got the developers of launch titles to agree to an aggressive schedule, or they'll be playing second fiddle to the PS3.
Gah how long are they going to Milk Halo its not that great of a game. "OH MY GOD HALO!" um dude its just a FPS with vehicles on a console.
From this article where they claimed victory over the Xbox, Nintendo's PR person Perrin slipped that "I would say that our losses are really negligible. It's such a small amount." She backs this up with "Plus with the amount of software that's being sold we're still definitely in a solid profit situation. We're not in the position that I know that Microsoft has been in with the loss Xbox hardware."
The key point is this, though, Nintendo is losing money on GameCubes now (if only just a little).
not quite the fastest CPU, the on in the GC pumps out 10.5 gflops. The dvd is a plus, but really, when you can pick up a decent dvd for your tv for $40 then it becomes less of an issue. Why not just buy a regular dvd and get a remote for it? ;-)
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
I really dont see the need for another generation of consoles yet so soon. Could they have really made that many mistakes on the xbox1 that warrants a complete new system??
Come on, get serious. Lets see them concentrate on making good games rather than cramming the games full of high end 3D graphics.
A good game doesnt need to rely on quality of graphics to be good. I still play the various mario series (for snes/nes) and I think they are alot better than most of the junk thats come out recently.
I thought that Microsoft was selling their consoles below cost anyways. Why would it be profitable for them to get another system (which will probably be sold at cost as well) when have just finished getting the xbox1 out there?
At $99, the temptation to buy an XBox becomes pretty strong, but I still couldn't bring myself to spend the dough.
Nintendo, by dropping their price to $99, filled the second-cosole niche early on [and quite nicely]. Besides, I already have a Windows PC dedicated to gaming. Even at $100, I just can't get that worked up about another gaming platform.
I'll take my $100 and buy a couple games.
Just how much money does Microsoft have to lose on every unit, and for how many years, before they run afoul of anti-dumping laws?
Seriously, is it legal for a monopoly to spend their monopoly profits to buy their way into a related market that they're unable to win fairly? Cheap introductory pricing is one thing, but a business model based on losing money indefinitely on the off chance that Sony might someday come up with something that renders *some* PC's unnecessary?
Is it only dumping when a foreign company does it?
Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
Looks like I'll finally get to delve into Hacking the Xbox. I'm not willing to potentially compromise my main gaming box for a developing set of skills and competencies that I could acquire from this book. Not while the Xbox is at the $200 level. But at the $100 level I am. It seems like a really nice guide to reverse engineering other low-level stuff that could also possibly help me get more out of this book now that it's finally in print.
Quod scripsi, scripsi.
I already have two DVD players (not counting the playstation, my pc, or the mac) so That's not really much of an issue. The X-Box live stuff does fascinate me, but the most fun online games I've played on the console are sports games. The best sports games are EA. And EA games are only on line via the PS2. The only thing that could make the playstation 2 perfect for me would be if there was an online fighting game. My GF doesn't like VirtuaFighter, and I am quickly tired of beating the computer.
Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
Truth is that most people do not expect Microsoft to go to $99 dollars. In fact, a price drop to $129 would keep sales on par with 2003. But hey, $99 is a sexy number that Chris Morris wants to base his entire article on. Remember these are the same analysts that predicted a price drop on both the PS2 and the X-Box at Christmas. Neither one happened.
Microsoft, certainly, is in a much stronger position than Sega (in reference to the early Dreamcast launch). The Xbox's buzz factor is on the rise - and will soar higher if the company opts for a $99 price tag.
FINANCIALLY Microsoft is in stronger position then Sega was, otherwise not really. From a support and development perspective Sega had a lot of large third party companies (particularly Japanese third parties) supporting the Dreamcast. Additionally, the Xbox buzz factor isn't that "hot" either. The system is in a tight race in the US and Europe with Nintendo over second place in those markets (while a distant third worldwide) and is for all intents and purposes dead in the all important Japanese market. Microsoft is also taking a signficant loss on every Xbox system they sell which has not been recouped by game and licensed peripheral sales.
There are also questions around the gaming industry on the retail side of the industry about potentially inflated sales numbers already from Microsofts camp. Microsoft refurbishes their own used systems and resells them to retailers such as EBgames, Gamestop and GameCrazy. This differs from Nintendo and Sony's approach in which "refurbished" systems are handled by the companies that distribute them, not by the manufacturer. Former Microsoft reps have leaked the word out that Microsoft was counting refurb systems sales as new sales until recently, meaning that many Xbox systems were listed as being sold twice.
There are also questions about inflated Xbox live numbers as many of the Xbox live subscribers are on free subscriptions that come with software rather then paying subscribers.
With regards to the Xbox 2/next coming out in 2005, I believe that is in fact a possibility. But the Xbox being dropped to 99.99 in the imminent future (or before Sony does so) seems highly unlikely. Microsoft is already taking a much bigger loss on their hardware then Sony. It's hard to imagine them running up an even deeper deficeit merely to move into a distant second place in the US and Europe.
Winnipeg MB
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99$ is great, I just picked up xbox #2 for 170. I have a Box running my fave PVR program stashed in a corner. I am working on populating each room in my house with Modded Xboxs running Xbox Media Center http://www.xboxmediacenter.com to access those recorded shows on a networked share. With the DVD remote thrown in the mix, it's a beauty of a setup. And that's not including the full Mame, N64, SNES, and genesis roms. Hate MS all you want, but xbox has been a great machine.
If they lose money on it, then you can make them lose MORE money by buying it, not less.
Take it as a Limit Problem
The limit of the amount of $$ lost by MS as Sales of XBoxes approaches infinity is infinity!
Therefore, to bankrupt them you would simply buy all the xboxes (and never buy games, XBox Live, etc).
Yes, the amount they would lose on each one would decrease as they lowered costs due to the marginal costs of producing each xbox, but overall, the hardware will always cost more than $99.
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them. Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992)
Yesh, wot you say is quite right. BUT STILL *child showing through* this seems FUN!!! I have that impulse urge. Luckily I won't be able to act on it right now as tomorrow I am going out with my wife to get her a new computer system. We are going to pop for a sony vaio desktop with lots of warranty I think. I want her to have a kick ass system. You know my life is very very blessed having a kick ass gamerz0r wife who is rocking with her gamevoice headset on shouting "cum get sum biotch!!! gib this n00b!" /etc ;D
anyhow, its a console, its a dvd system, its hackable, and its not too pricey...that is why I am considering an xbox.
"What we do in life echoes in eternity." Maximus Decimus Meridius
I'd rather not get a piece of hardware and software that is equally prone to receiving viruses and not to mention security holes, as the current line of MS products.
Until MS can demonstrate their abilities to secure their products from beeing attacked at all time, a new XBOX with "home multimedia theater" capabilities is scary. I can see all the script kiddies and virus writers attack the box in full force. Esp. since most of them probably will be hooked up to the Internet for on-line game playing, music downloads, movie downloads etc...
Come to think of it, maybe now is the time to buy shares in security companies?
If you mod me down, I *will* introduce you to my sister!
700mhz 32 bit P3 Xboxes ... or 2ghz dual processor 64 bit G5s with faster ram faster network cards.
You'd need a LOT of Xboxes, to say the least.
I feel sorry for the poor saps who get stuck putting mod chips in those stupid things. ( pictures the giant pile of xboxes destroyed by soldering mistakes)
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
I'm actually surprised MS is delaying xbox2 release. I half expected them to release xbox2 in early March, and require users to buy it in order to play halo 2. On the other hand it is feasible that once the xbox2 is released MS can release new versions of halo/halo 2 with improved graphics as an incentive to upgrade to xbox2 (otherwise I don't see why people would upgrade).
Doesn't seem like anything's changing here folks....
:
:
:
:
Nintendo
NES : 1985
SuperNES : 1991
N64 : 1996
Game Cube : 2001
Avg Time Bet Releases : 5.3 years.
Sega
Master System : 1986
Genesis : 1989
Saturn : 1995
Dreamcast : 1998
Avg Time Bet. Releases : 4 years
Sony
PS1 : 1995
PS2 : 2000
PS3 : 2006 (projected)
Avg Time Bet. Releases : ~5 years
MS
XBox : 2001
XBox 2 : 2005 (projected)
Avg Time Bet. Releases : 4 years
Let me get this straight, are you seriously suggesting that being first to market now is a disadvantage? That coming out first is being 1 year behind?
It's counterintutitive, but it does make anecdotal sense. Think about the Dreamcast, first to market, less sophisticated than (at least, poorer graphics than) the PS2, GC, or XBox, and ultimately, the first to go.
Really sad, since the Dreamcast was relatively DRM-less, and it can not only run Linux "out of the box" (by the way, someone should port Knoppix to...), but even after Sega has dropped support for the console, it supports a healthy homebrew community. I use it for MAME, etc. on my TV with actual game controllers. (Also, you can pick a used Dreamcast up at Electronic Botique for $19.99 these days...)
Carthago delenda est!
I don't think so. Microsoft is just going to copy Sony's moves, the co is already losing tons of money each xbox anyway, especially because they are not vertically integrated like Sony. What are this guys sources anyway?
Best Community for Gaming and Gadgets!
Not true, DC had a braod band add on toward the end of it's life. Unfortunately very few games supported it.
Does anyone have any difinitive evidence (facts figures eye witness accounts) that the XBox 2 will be out in 2005? Other things Xbox owners are interested in are backwards compatibility, and info on chip suppliers (For the stock market inclined).
I've used MSDOS, MS win3.0, MS win3.1, MS win95, MS win98, MS win2k. All junks by any standards.
Funny... I've used all of these things too, and when I think of how much I've accomplished over the years using this junk I can't help but be happy it was available to me.
I'm sure if I sat down and figured out some sort of ratio that compares actual work done against the amount of time I spent working on the OS, linux would be the poor, poor loser.
well in that case what about this! ;-)
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
It isn't illegal because the gaming market isn't a monopoly. MS is trying to break into the market, not keep people out.
Now then, if Sony dropped their prices way below MS and the Nintendo, that may be a different story.
Also, no company ever has a business model based on losing money. Never. Ever. When a company expands into a new market, it is expected that the market will not be profitable for X number of years. Even when Sony and Nintendo started out, they lost money in the beginning. There is a lot of over-head related to starting a new division / company / market.
The strategy is always that you reduce your losses every year to meet your goal of being profitable in the future. That being said, if you loose too much money, it is better to get out, though when you're MS that is a mute point.
In my experience it is general practice to take big losses to begin with so you can establish a customer base. Ya know, get some loyalty. Then once you have a market you are able to run with it.
-Mark
Dovie'andi se tovya sagain.
ooooooooooo! Nice! /me reads
Bookmarked, will read more and give this real thought...
much appreciated!
"What we do in life echoes in eternity." Maximus Decimus Meridius
DOH!
About as funny as a heart attack... not at all.
Oh well. Thanks for pointing out my lack of quality assurance. Can you tell I'm a software developer? I'd jump on a glory hole if it looked like a solution.
Difficult to establish that fact seeings as they've only released one console, genius.
That might have to do with the fact that programming well for the PS2 is such a complex and difficult task. The architecture is completely custom and proprietary, and you need all kinds of tricks and workarounds to "reach into the guts of the machine", as you put it.
Oh, I was wondering why all of the XBox games look the same while PS2 games tend to have a more unique style to them (as in different from other games).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
What I do not understand that the XBOX has the ability to be a perfectly good PVR, just like any Tivo out there: Fast enough processor, RAM, & video, etc... So why can't they put out a new version with a 120 GB HD and the software to use Tivo's subscription service. This sounds dumb to me. You would have people buying them for $300 without blinking which is better than the Tivo with and 80 GB drive. I am curious whey Tivo isn't biting on this one.
- Kill Yourself, spare us all! -
I find myself wondering why this is being taken so seriously. Looking at the URL and the article itself makes it more than obvious this is an Opinion Article. Nothing more than a commentary from a writer who has shown his own lack of understanding on how the vide game market works. His only evidence for this immense price-drop comes from an analyst. Last time I checked analysts are not Gods and seem to be more often wrong then right. But of course, anyone who is in the business of predicting an unpredictable future could you expect anything less? This goes back to the old adage, just 'cause it's posted online don't make it anymore true. Of course, I don't know any better it could happen. But this is hardly much to go on.
Something intelligent here.
If you are going to call the n64 a system you should also list the Master system the Sega Cd sega 32x. I think MSoft could dominate the hand held market. It's a joke. There are PDa's with 800mhz chips full screen kick ass out there and GBA is still a 2d crapfest.
the dreamcast wasn't too bad at the time, but sega's saturn also suffered the similar fate of crashing out of the market before the other players did.
..and, as if that wasn't enough, you also have to write another set of model conversion tools that work with quads... and, if you want performance, you have to get your graphic artist to design models that make use of a lot of quads too - truly horrendous with the tools of the day (3dstudio/etc)
it wasn't technically superior, although it had a fair amount of power to compete with the other consoles at the time - but inside it was technically all wrong for the time....
what caused the programmers headaches with the saturn was the fact that it's 3d engine/hw all worked in quads (and not tris).
this meant that you had to develop a radically different 3d engine to all the other platforms at the time (ie: pc, psx - and if you didn't mind *seriously* limited texture memory, the n64 (..but at least it rendered tris)).
not only that, but the engine would have to undergo different optimisation to a tri-poly engine (aside from any other platform specific differences like texure memory management, etc)
also, the compiler's backed produced some awful code. not only was the a lot of stuff that was truly sub-optimal, but plenty of it was actually redundant (you should see what a mess it made of compiling our cross platform fixed-n-float maths library - and don't even think about using most of the nice oo features in c++, coz it just made the code lots worst)
an interesting challenge, but plenty of developers soon decided it was the 'black sheep' of the consoles, requiring too much of its own kind of voodoo to be a commercially viable platform to develop for at the time -- the project manager's soon realised that the saturn was proving to be the awkward one of the bunch, and then during the next project, it was left in the corner with all the other junk hardware, allowing everyone to concentrate on working together more easily.
i don't know what developers thought of the dreamcast, but it certainly wasn't adopted as quickly as the psx2 was - maybe this was simply a hangover from the saturn legacy? maybe the compiler was still not as good as those on the other platforms (that alone can make coding into a nightmare issue or two)
whatever happens to the current xbox, i think it likely that the next xbox will simply be another pc-alike-in-a-box [yawn for the gamers, but eventually good for us hacker-geeks]
microsoft know they are on to a winner if they stick with what (games+/etc) developers already know.
[technical aside]
of course, if you've got quads, you can always make a triangle by putting two verts at the same coordinate - which is fine if you've not got a fancy texture on the quad (coz otherwise the non-perspective correct texture mapping would skew it to bits) and you don't mind incurring the cost of using quads for tris (extra maths on a redundant vert) - a lot of games used minimal textures and shading to compensate for all the triangularly-skewed-quads.
['scuse the ramble]
Why doesn't Microsoft just give the Xbox away? If all they are after is market-share, that's a sure way to guarantee the number one spot in the console wars. Sure they'll lose more money, but they've been losing money on this console since it's launch.
Could the cost of MS cert courses & exams be the next price cut?
"Obviously, I'm not an IBM computer any more than I'm an ashtray" (Bob Dylan)
This is horrible for us not-so-rich gamers. I still havent' been able to get enough money together to get an xbox and MS is already threatening to release an Xbox2. The life of a game console must be a lot longer than this if you want to get your money out of it. Games for the Xbox1 haven't even began to use all of the potential of the console. It takes the game-making industry years to get to where they can quickly produce great games that use all of the potential of a console. If PS2 would have been released like this, so soon after PS1, hundreds and thousands of great PS1 games would never had existed. MS needs to give game makers A LOT more time and more resources to produce Xbox games before they try to release a new version. That is unless Xbox2 is very similar and game makers can use all of their Xbox1 knowledge for building Xbox2 games and that the Xbox is backwards compatible with the Xbox1. In this case an Xbox2 wouldn't suck. But, its Microsoft. They don't know what the hell gaming is.
I never really was impressed by the X-box until I played PGR2 on X-box live at my neighbor's place. Everything you've said, I agree with.
My neighbor is currently working at a pawn shop. They regularly sell used X-boxes there for $99. So if you don't mind a used one, you might want to check out a local pawn shop--that's where he got his. Works perfectly.
Nintendo Gameboy 1989
Nintendo Gameboy Advance 2001
Avg Time Bet. Releases : 11 years
(Granted, I'm leaving out Virtual Boy, which hardly counts, and Gameboy Color, which was essentially a mod to the old Gameboy)
Sega Gamegear 1991
Sega Nomad 1995
Avg Time Bet. Releases : 4 years
Also worthy of note, the Nintendo system released most quickly after it's predicessor (N64) is also the most maligned. Sega did fine with the Genesis, then spiralled into obscurity with Sega CD, Sega 32x, Sega Saturn, all in a short period.
Sure, you might have the biggest supercomputer. But honestly, do you think all those people renting time on it are doing work?
I mean, can you say LAN Party!
Right on man. I have never liked CNN, and think their news is all bloated "hollywood-style." Since when does a CNN commentary deserve slashdot status? And with a story made on speculation, at that!?
Scott
Speculation: Sony's PS2 is already holding over half of the overall market share. Nintendo's GC has been grabbing more market share, close to passing Microsoft's Xbox. Xbox has no chance to catch Sony, so this $99 price is a step in positioning their console as a direct competitor with GC rather than the more expensive PS2.
One question: if a guy now goes and buys an Xbox for $99 (not to mention paying for Xbox Live), is he going to buy an Xbox2 soon after release? Unlikely, unless new and much better games come out for the Xbox2 right away. Otherwise, why bother outlaying a whopping 3-4X his initial investment in the Xbox to buy the Xbox2?
Second question: How many owners of the Xbox are so satisfied with the console and the titles that they would buy an Xbox2 in its first year? (Remember the PS2? Unable to deliver enough to satisfy demand for months - around 500,000 in the first few weeks if I remember correctly.)
I was taking one day at a time, but then several days got together and ambushed me. (from a Rhymes with Orange comic)
This is nothing new and it certantly not something that Microsoft started.
This sort of thing has been going on for ages.
Dolemite
____________________
Save the World! Use a Quote!
The X-Box may drop to $99, but my Gamecube will still have much better, and more fun in-house and platform exclusive games.
F Zero GX, Viewtiful Joe, Zelda Wind Waker, Super Monkey Ball, Pikmin, Heck - even Luigi's Mansion are all a *lot* more playable than anything I've played that the X-Box has to offer, and my gf manages a branch of EB, so believe me, I've seen a *lot* of games lately...
Sunday you're Thinking Different, Monday you're a huge tool, paying too much and waiting to think like everyone else.
I have one and it is the most amazing damn thing I have ever had. I can play all my internet movies, music files and copy all my games to it making carting my Xboxen easy to cart around. I need to write up an article about it. Maybe this weekend.
Str8Dog
using System.Darkside; public
Could you give more info on the autosensing switchbox (ie. brand, inputs, etc)? Most of the ones I've seen look pretty cheap so I question their actual usefulness.
Thanks!
------
Objects in Mirror are Losing!
Boy o boy. I can run linux without a PC now.
;D
You didn't actually think I would purchase a xbox for xbox games did you?
But I just frickn' bought an XBox! Of for crying out loud... Stupid Crimson Skies and it's making me finally want an XBox...
Great, guess that's what I get for holding out, but just not long enough. Stupid Microsoft...
A PPC Xbox - The new era?
Mod chips do not interfere with copyright laws.
This is correct. When sellers of modchips get busted (under U.S. law, anyway) it's because they were including or otherwise supplying hacked version of the Microsoft BIOS for the Xbox with the chips, not because modifying your hardware is illegal.
-insert a witty something-
'There are PDa's with 800mhz chips full screen kick ass out there"
For less than $200? Walmart?
"Well, it took an hour to write, I thought it would take an hour to read."
How do you figure that? It was a new piece of hardware you had to buy in order to play new games. It happened to be backwards compatible with the old games. But how is this any different than ps vs. ps2, other than maybe how it was marketed?
I'd rather be lucky than good.
Does the average person have a TV that displays more resolution than NTSC yet? How much more powerful can the XBOX 2 system be without people upgrading their TV's and sound systems to take advantage of it?
Other than new games, how can they justify to the consumer that this new system is better?
Is anyone else getting "$100 mini iPod" flashbacks?
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
So they're just going to rush it to market. Alright, it's not the same as their software exactly, in this case it's hardware, but their same philosophy nonetheless. Probably what'll happen is their system will have a lot of bugs and the game developers will have the job of work arounds for their games. Since for a year microsoft could have playstation 3 beat until it comes out, they could just say to the game developers to deal with it if they want to sell their games on XBox. I mean last I checked, the xbox wasn't set up to automatically check for updates on xboxupdates.microsoft.com
..this depends.
If MS produces another X-box to send to the store to replace the one you purchased? They've lost money.
If they don't, they've gained.
That Jesus Christ guy is getting some terrible lag... it took him 3 days to respawn! -NJ CoolBreeze
Silicon chip can be made significantly cheaper over time. But one thing that a lot of people don't consider is the costs of manufacturing a hard drive. Did you notice that you can never buy a "New" hard drive from any retailer for under $50 bucks? They're a very good reason for that. No matter how streamlined or efficient a company gets they still have fixed costs.
A 10 gig hard drive will cost the same to manufacture as a 20 gig or 30 gig once the plant has been setup. Complications like this and the nvidia bitterness will not allow ms to break even at $99 dollars in a half a year. I'll be surprised if they come close to breaking even to the current price they have now with such a number of components in their system.
Hmmm... Pie...
The price looks interesting but by buying one you will just make what M$ expects : increase their market shares. More consoles sold means they can use those numbers to drag game makers to this platform. Even if you buy one to run Linux on it (a quite stupid idea given what you have to bear to run it) it will help Microsft, and don't even tell me about the urban legend saying that M$ looses money on each console sold, if you're naive enough to believe it then yeah you deserve to get screwed by Microsoft, go ahead and get one, loser ! ;)
"Naughty, naughty, naughty, you filthy old soomka !"
That is a least 2 hours (otherwise it is not plural).
I just don't believe you, unless you are sleeping only 4 or 5 hours every day, work from home, and have no other hobby.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
The games are overpriced and the game companies stop retailers trying to offer best price by forcing them to sell at the same price.
If the games would cost 10 or 15 GBP I would buy some, as things stand 35 or 40 GBP for a game is completely irrational.
I but all my games second hand. It is legal, legitimate and sends the message nicely.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I hope you invite all the neighborhood kids over to play all those consoles in your, no doubt, House of Wonders...
hehe...just messin with ya
FUNK!
.... I was of by only 1/2 hour (only 5:30 hours sleep!).
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
and I would get it.
Well provided that the games were worth $49.50 each.
Hmm... Well i know Xbox 2 will definately come out before PS3 over here in australia. It's not slated for release here until early 2007 fo sum reason.
The world would be a better place if...
The GB was also forwards-compatible for a number of games. Granted, there were a few that would only play on the GBC and not GB, but I can't say any of those games really grabbed my attention.