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Console Launches Good And Bad
Another interesting feature from 1up: rundowns and scores for console launches from the last twenty years. From the article: "The DS, on the other hand, is hardly the system one would have expected from its launch. The system's U.S. debut was a dull thud, with the one truly notable title being a port of Super Mario 64 with compromised control and jaggier graphics. (It also popularized the lamentable concept of "launch windows.") Chalk this up to the fact the developers only learned about the system's existence half a year before its debut. Fortunately for early adopters, the system has gone on to accumulate a killer lineup."
Next time set the article link to the first page (pager.offset=0), will ya?
oh snap
Is it just me, or are most of the scores pretty arbitary? The entire article is pretty contentless, if this were a magazine it would probably be a sidebar to a proper article on console launches or something.
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Anyway, I think the Xbox 360 launch is very impressive, in that as someone living in the UK we're getting at about the same time as everyone else, and not six months (or more) after the first area to get it. Of course Microsoft doing this does seem to mean that the 360 will be in such short supply just about everywhere, as they've got three big launches simulatenously, with the possible bonus of new technology teething troubles. (I don't buy the "It's all marketing" stuff, the rumours make it sound like Microsoft are having problems getting enough of they systems together in time to me, it just sounds too bad).
The lack of much info on what the launch software lineup is going to be is rather disturbing, although as the article points out, few console launchs actually have that many games, especially for the first launch (remember that North America and Europe usually get the consoles after Japan, so a few more games will be ready compared to the Japanese launch). Although of course, some of this is from Microsoft's rush to get the console out of the door. I guess the lack of announcement about launch games is Microsoft trying to get as much time as possible for games to be completed, but I think with about a week to go it may be getting to the point where it's impossible to actually manufacture and distribute a game in time for the launch.
10 PRINT "LOOK AROUND YOU ";
20 GOTO 10
is a "launch window"? I enjoyed Mario 64 DS quite a bit, mostly because I regard Mario 64 as the best 3D platformer ever made. The graphics seemed on par with the N64 version, so I don't see what they're griping about.
I sat there with my C64 playing William Wobbler and said "hah! like it'll ever get this good!"
Task Mangler
The article is interesting at best. While reviewing all the previous major console launches is a good idea, the result here is about 70% opinion and 30% fact. Instead of presenting us with much in the way of information, we have some vague statements about hype and retail shipments, followed by arbitrary statements as to how well the launch went, and how the system fared thereafter.
Anyone who ever tries to call any console a success or any other console a failure (beyond being immediately branded a fanboy) will ignite whatever medium used into arguments about how Nintendo profited on the Gamecube, Microsoft didn't even want to with the Xbox, and how Sony dominated.
I can already hear the weapons being armed.
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
how can the ps2 get only 3 stars for launch. i made ove 3000 dollars selling ps2's on ebay. no other console has matched that hype since or previously.
I've seen every console launch in the US going all the way back to the 2600. I've seen good and bad.
I can say without out any hesitation that the 360 launch is the Worst Console Launch In The History Of The Console Market.
There is really nothing that even comes close. I will say that I don't think we will ever see a launch go as badly as the 360 In Our Lifetimes. Sure there is the usual list former failed consoles like the Dreamcast, Saturn, and 3DO - but none of those come close to the Scope And Magnitude of the year long disaster Microsoft has brought forth.
It is amazing to see the hardcore Xbox owners desperately covering their eyes and ears "screaming lalalalalala I'm not listening" as each new 360 disaster unfolds. It is like watching those old movies from the turn of the century of those ridiculous flying machines nose diving off hills and buildings.
How can the Xbox 360 launch get 4 stars and a 1up .. It hasn't been launched yet . Talk about jumping the gun a little , it is still pre-hype .
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
Maybe in other parts of the world, but here in germany, from what I gather, it was largely recognized as a stillbirth. Pretty much noone even knew about the thing and even those of my gamer friends who own PS, PS2, XBox & GameCube all never bothered to have a look at the Dreamcast when it was released. They got interested later, when good games started to appear on it ("Skies of Arcadia" and "Resident Evil: Code Veronica", for example), but it remained an insider's tip.
PSP gets 4 stars but PS2 gets 3 stars? I call shennanigans on this article. I remember people camping out for the PS2 and in the Washington,D.C. area alone people were getting mugged for them. The PSP was a little more of a whimper. People were like "it looks cool but I'm not blowing 250 bucks on it." Also within the first day there was reports of crappy hardware production on the PSP. Remember the dead pixel issue? The arthur of this article is just pulling stuff out of his ass.
-Dipster
Here are my scores for console releases:
NES - (4 Stars)
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) came about not long after the bottom fell out of the US gaming market. Atari, Colecovision, Intellevision, and even Commodore were flooding the market with subpar game titles because in their minds quantity = profit, but today we know that quantity is no where nearly as important as "quality". The NES gave us quality games that were better than some of the title on many of the exisiting, and extinct gaming platforms.
Gameboy - (2 Stars)
When it first appeared most people weren't all that certain about the Gameboy. The green/blue LCD screen was very hard to see, and its initial release wasn't too spectacular. As more and more games were released and the handheld became more and more popular that is when the system really took off, but it wasn't until it had been on the market for a few years.
Turbografx-16 - (2 Stars)
Its sad but I have to give the launch of the TG-16 a small score. The TG-16 known also as the PC-Engine in Japan, during its day was the #1 Top Selling system in Japan. It had a vast and innovative library of cartridge and CD-ROM based games, but mismanagement and lackluster marketing on the part of NEC eventaully killed the system before it even had a chance to make an impact in the US. The TG-16 is technologically superior to the NES and the PC-Engine had a library of truely spectacular games, but NEC failed to bring many of the more innovative titles to the US. They should have, could have, done much better.
Sega Genesis - (3 Stars)
The Sega Genesis was an overall success for Sega, by far it was their most successful console in the company's history. It wasn't all that technologicall superior to systems like the TG-16 and later the SNES, but during its day the system did well. The launch of the Genesis saw a lot of activity, but some of the first generation games for the console were subpar. It wasn't until a year later that some really impressive games started appearing. The Genesis was also the first console to offer games that broke the 8 megabit barrier.
SNES - (4 Stars)
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System was almost as big a success as the NES but it fell slightly short. Their saving grace was the inclusion of Super Mario World which incorporated nearly every special effects feature the hardware could do and wasn't all that bad a game either. We also have the SNES to thank for the existance of the Playstation. Nintendo first made a deal with Sony to develop a CD-ROM addon for the SNES, but the deal fell through and Nintendo got in bed with Phillips and their CD-I technology. That also failed to show anyting, but in the meantime Sony was hard at work using what they learned from being burned by Nintendo to develop the Playstation. The SNES provided us with the first true 3D graphics games like StarFox, FX Traks, and Doom which used the SuperFX chip. The SNES not only had great graphics but its Sony designed sound chip forever changed the world of console game music. I still load up a SNES emulator to listen to the soundtrack of Final Fantasy II (Final Fantasy IV in Japan).
Sega Saturn - (1 Star)
This console had problems from the get go. Sega didn't have all of the developer support they needed to keep a steady stream of new games coming to the market, and their development tools were also lacking. Many game developers found the dual processor architecture of the system too difficult to work with. It wasn't until the system had been out for two years that really great games start to appear, but it was too little too late to save the system.
Nintendo 64 - (4 Stars)
Critics blasted Nintendo for not using the popular CD-ROM format for the N64, but they followed SGI's recommendation that CD-ROMs would be too slow for the system. That would later come to haunt Nintendo as one of their most important developers, Squaresoft, jumped ship and began work on a game for the Playstation. That game was Final Fantasy VII, a
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
thezorch@gmail.com
http://thezorch.googlepages.com/home
They are discussing the launch lineup of games on the linked page. Nothing more.
Who'd have guessed?
Rob
Albeit 4 months old, can be found at:1 0257&filter=
http://biz.gamedaily.com/features.asp?article_id=
where it can be seen that the DS and PSP are damn close in terms of US sales, and the DS is miles ahead for Japanese sales.
My Journal
This article CLEARLY conforms to the "Ratings of Console Launches Standards And Measures Act of 1897 APDX C49a." No really, what would you expect a "best and worst" article to be other than subjective?
"NEC TurboGrafx-16 - Anybody remember the launch hype for this platform? No? That's because NEC couldn't market their way out of a paper bag. (Well, at least not in North America.)"
Is that why this post gave it a 5/5?
I'd say you're more likely to be right since the TG16 didn't fare so well, but I do remember being pretty interested in it -- until I heard about the SNES.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Gameboy (5 stars) : Launched with Tetris, singlehandedly sealing the Gameboy in the realm of gaming history and handheld dominance. The sheer number of Tetris clones will attest to that. On top of that, this was back when black and white TVs was still the norm for the average citizen having a monochrome screen in a HANDHELD was frikin amazing.
Playstation 1 (1 star) : The PS1's launch games were either overhyped, completely uninspired, ugly, and/or just plain bad after coming from the SNES/Genesis war. While the N64 was amazing gamers with Super Mario 64, an analog stick and the Z-trigger; the PS1 had a SNES ripped off controller design, buttons with shapes instead of letters, symmetrical button sizes and shapes, and the now imfamously remembered "Loading" screen. While future games proved to outdo the N64 despite hardware weakness, the poor decision to do nothing to resolve the loading screen in the PS2 has hurt Sony. (The Gamecube avoids this with their mini-discs and the Xbox has the hard drive.)
Playstation 2 (-1 star) : Hmm, where to start? First there was the last minute cut of shipments from 1 million units to half a million units before launch (sound familiar?), then there were the stories of people getting mugged for their PS2 units and then there was the now legendary price markups on eBay going high into the thousands in some cases. Then there were the subpar games with SSX, a snowboarding game of all genres, being the 'best' out of the crowd, the fact that the loading issues hadn't been resolved and the controller being nothing more than a repainted version of the PS1's Dual Shock controller.
Sony PSP (3 stars) : Thanks to a marketing blitz rivaled only by the Xbox and Xbox360's, the PSP has made some serious headway against Nintendo's entrenched handheld monopoly (Some estimates place the PSP around 10% in handheld marketshare.) However, its library of both games and movies were rivaled in their lack of variety only by one another, its Wi-Fi abilities were and remain largely unused and the additional costs of having to buy a memory stick in addition to the PSP unit turned many gamers away as estimates of total costs commonly reached above $500 USD.
Nintendo DS (2 stars) : Nintendo nearly dropped the ball even harder here than they did with Luigi's Mansion. With the best launch game being a N64 port, many PSP fans were quick to claim that this was one of Nintendo's worst launches. Hardware features that went largely unused in its first generation, a touch screen no one knew how to implement, a voice recognition system that most people simply forgot and Wi-Fi thats only NOW being put into effect about hurt Nintendo during the first generation of games.
What you mean to say is that if Sony is lagging behind in number of units shipped, then we should use gross revenue as the metric for market domination, but if Sony is lagging behind in total videogame profits (re: GC vs. PS2), then we should use number of units moved as the metric for market domination.
Do I have that right?
Light is filtering down from above. Would you like to use DIVE?
I think that the 360 launch will be kind of a dud. They really do not seem to be offering anything new. Sure, maybe the HD bleeding edge people will have a field day, but that is not a very large audience. Hell, my 24 inch CRT television is not able to fully exploit the graphical capabilities of the XBox. I do not think that the holiday season will help either because the HD'ers mentioned above would buy this for themselves no matter the season and it is too expensive for most parents to buy for their kids. Maybe I am wrong, but that is how I see it.
... had to be Nintendo with there Nintendo 64. I was so looking forward to Nintendo dominating the next gen during the SNES era, as it was such a golden age of video gaming for me during the SNES era. But then Nintendo shot themselves in the foot by alienating devs and making a cartridge only based system. I hated having to defect to the playstation but you just couldn't make games like FF7 for the N64 because of the dumbass choice to go with cartridge storage. That is the system that totally killed Nintendo's video game image completely and made them into a "kiddy company" or "Nintendo is for kids", what BS, before that Nintendo was for gamers of all stripes, for both the NES and the SNES, it had mortal kombat, street fighter 2, etc.
Which took all their major 3rd party franchises off their system completely because making all those cool arcade games available on home consoles took way more space available then could be done on a cart. I always imagine just how amazing ocarina of time or majora's mask *could have been* if only they had given the Nintendo 64 CD-ROM storage.
Instead we got sony and they killed Nintendo completely as all the developers of all the best games abandoned ship for the Playstation 1.
To this day I wonder how many oldschool games would still be alive and profiting if it wasn't for the prejudice against anything other then 3D games.
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That is the system that totally killed Nintendo's video game image completely and made them into a "kiddy company" or "Nintendo is for kids", what BS, before that Nintendo was for gamers of all stripes, for both the NES and the SNES, it had mortal kombat, street fighter 2, etc.
:)
Nah, you're remembering things wrong. Sega and Nintendo already fought the "kiddy vs adult" console wars, back in the early 90s. The Genesis was the "mature" console, and the SNES was "just for kids". Remember, while the SNES had MK, it didn't have blood. Ergo, it was a "kiddy" console. Hell, this is the very reasoning people use today to call the Gamecube a "kiddy" console - lack of gore.
Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only person on the planet who actually preferred the N64 to the PS1. In a BIG way. Analog controller, FAR superior graphics, and FAST load times. I found more than enough games to keep me happy, not being a Final Fantasy fan.
Most of the time I'd visit friends with a Playstation, and marvel at just how long it took them to load their games - only to find lower quality graphics, with a ton of FMV cutscenes. Personally, I'll take faster load times over excess content any day. I find this same issue with the Gamecube vs say an Xbox even today. CD-audio was nice, I'll give them that - but many N64 games had amazing music considering. Then again, I find some NES music to still be enjoyable
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
"Most of the time I'd visit friends with a Playstation, and marvel at just how long it took them to load their games - only to find lower quality graphics, with a ton of FMV cutscenes. Personally, I'll take faster load times over excess content any day."
Yeah well the other 90 million people that owned playstation one compared to N64's mere 30 million disagree'd with you. Before the N64 Nintendo had alost the entire video game market, the NES sold over 60 million units world wide, and the super nintendo was not far behind with 54 million, in ONE CONSOLE GENERATION, Nintendo went from 54 million units to less then 30 million (that's 24 million lost market share), notice how with each console generation their market size was *cut in half* because they lacked the games people wanted to play on them. Nintendo made the biggest mistake in console history by releasing the N64 without CD-ROM media when the time was ripe for it. They would be #1 or neck and neck for #1 right now if they hadn't weighted the N64 down with carts.
As for your comments on the graphics, you have to be kidding! Go play final fantasy 7 and then go back to ocarina of time and compare the real-time rendered summons and spells to *anything* on the N64.
Also where was street fighter and soul calibur on the n64? Those *big 2D arcade games* wouldn't fit on cartridges without compromising the graphics. I have the ISO's of these games and they are GIGANTIC, over 400-500 megs respectively, there is no way they could be fit on a tiny 256megabit cart, most N64 games were less then 128Megabytes, most PS one games or saturn games were filling one or more 650MB CD's. Final fantasy 7 was 3 CD-ROMS to jog your foggy memory, many playstation RPG's were multi-CDROM behemohts. It's no wonder nintendo got it's ass kicked.
Nintendo doesn't understand the value of technology and hasn't for a while now, notice lots of games that could come on one DVD 4.3 GB or 8.5 GB dual layer dvd took two or more 1.5GB gamecube discs, this is a MAJOR hassle for multiplatform games or big RPG's like final fantasy that take up the entire 8.5 GByte DVD.
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