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2004 Good Year for Xbox
Voodoo Extreme has details from a Microsoft release about Xbox accomplishments in 2004. From the article: "Xbox Live online gaming service has set a new standard for online gaming with more than 1.4 million members around the world."
Yes! Never before have you been able to hear teenagers get yelled at by their parents, and foul-mouthed 10 year-olds exclaim that you're a "fucking gay homo faggot" before they drop out of the middle of the game!
Now, you too can wonder in amazement how no one is playing the game you want online, because it's 6 months old and they're all playing the latest and greatest!
Truly, Xbox Live has elevated PC gaming to new heights.
It's a slight pity that a piece of marketing hype was linked to as news. However, I'd agree with the main thrust of the story. 2004 was certainly the year of the X-Box.
It's interesting to note how the perceptions of the X-Box have changed since it was launched. Originally, it was mocked, reviled and no serious gamer would touch one. Nowadays, it's only the die-hard Nintendo fanboys who cling to this view. The X-Box gets virtually all of the cross-platform console titles and the X-Box versions of these games are usually the best, due in part, although not entirely, to features such as the HDD and customisable soundtracks. It also gets most of the "big name" PC action games, although MS hasn't quite got the confidence yet to insist on pure "X-Box only" releases for games such as the Halo and KOTOR series.
The last stats I saw showed that the X-Box had out-sold the PS and the Gamecube by a considerable margin during the 2004 Christmas period. With the PS2, you don't have to look far to find the reason; it's achieved near total market saturation and there just aren't many customers left. However, the presence of big exclusives like Halo 2 and a multitude of cross-platform titles such as Burnout 3 and Silent Hill 4 has allowed it to extend a real lead over the Gamecube for the first time.
Of course, we shouldn't ignore the fact that the X-Box did take a long time to come into its own. MS certainly has a fight on its hands to carry over its current success into the next round of the console wars.