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."

Comments

Meh... / Xbox 360 launch

[Fred Or Alive]

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.

---

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.

Re:Meh... / Xbox 360 launch

[macshit]

Is it just me, or are most of the scores pretty arbitary? The entire article is pretty contentless,

Yup.

1up.com seems to be pretty awful in general though, so I suppose it's par for the course; the real question is why do they get referred to so often on Slashdot?

Re:Meh... / Xbox 360 launch

[badasscat]

Is it just me, or are most of the scores pretty arbitary?

Completely, and most of them are utter bullshit.

I truly believe that, like films or music or a lot of other things, you need the passage of time to judge the quality of any console launch. True, part of the equation is the excitement generated at the time, and the organization of the logistics, marketing and promotion, but the whole purpose of a launch is to start selling a system (duh) and often the particular strategy being used takes some time to play out. To at least some extent, it's pretty meaningless if you have a launch that generates a lot of hype but not much in the way of sales (i.e. Dreamcast).

So, there's that. But some of these scores are also completely ridiculous on their face. The DS landed with a "thud"? It sold as many units its first week as the PSP! The PSP's the one that only sold half the units produced.

Anyway, you can't take any article like this too seriously because they're specifically written to generate discussion like this - controversy is the goal. But this list does seem particularly ridiculous.

Re:Meh... / Xbox 360 launch

[Fred Or Alive]

I don't get most of this Zonk-hate either. Hell, unlike most of the editors he seems to actually do stuff like post news he found himself (rather than rely on the submissions queue all the time), and actually write games reviews.

Sure he posts lots of drivel, but this is Slashdot. That's Situation Normal.

What the hell

[el_munkie]

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.

More opinion than fact.

[MeanderingMind]

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.

Re:More opinion than fact.

[SetupWeasel]

1up loaths Nintendo. I don't know why, but they almost never have a good thing to say about the company.

Re:More opinion than fact.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bribes too small, perhaps?

Come on, surely nobody seriously believes that the scores a system or game gets from the mainstream press reflect anything but what they've been paid to promote it, do they?

Um wait

[FidelCatsro]

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 .

Re:Um wait

[DeadScreenSky]

Journalists have been already playing the launch games for a while now. Because of this 1up presumably has a very good idea of the what their quality and variety will be. The launch is only about a week away.

Re:Console Releases...

[Dehumanizer]

Agree with most of it, except for the last part: Nintendo doesn't target "kids". It targets "everyone".

People still make the mistake that "if it hasn't got sex or violence, it must be for kids". But games aren't like those toys that say "ages 3-6", which a 10-year old will probably find too simple and boring.

This guy said it better than I probably could.

So...

[bitwiseNomad]

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?

The best company with the worst console botch...

[Funkyness1]

... 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.