The End of the Original Xbox

Via eToyChest, a sobering look at the not so distant end of the Xbox. The article at 'Dubious Quality' also discusses the current/next-gen boundary for Sony, Nintendo, and the PC. From the article: "While there are already 40 Xbox 360 titles earmarked for release in 2007, the original Xbox has exactly zero titles currently scheduled with the retail chain. What does this mean exactly? Not much on its own, as company's could have things planned that are simply not in the system yet, but it sure does not paint a very rosy picture for the gigantic console that gave us so many fond memories."

Comments

Forcing Next Gen.

[the dark hero]

Without real backwards compatability on the 360 and little to no new games on the Xbox M$ might be trying to force us into buying the 360.

Re:Forcing Next Gen.

[Osty]

Sega did that at least twice. Look where it got their hardware business.

And Nintendo did that at least three times (NES to SNES, SNES to N64, N64 to Gamecube), but they're still alive and kicking.

Re:Forcing Next Gen.

[__aaclcg7560]

Microsoft will do the same thing when they pressure game developers to stop supporting Windows XP in favor of Windows Vista to force the general gaming community to upgrade to the latest and greatest. That was the case for the Windows 98 to Windows XP transition. Windows Vista is going to hit gamers harder since it may require a hefty hardware upgrade.

Re:Forcing Next Gen.

[Jace of Fuse!]

Actually since I worked retail between the NES and SNES phases I can tell you that Nintendo not only moved NES units after the SNES was released, but actually released new titles for the NES for at least a year after the release of the SNES. Between the SNES and the N64 things become a little harder to say for sure, but then I believe the Gameboy Color had taken up a larger space on the shelf than the previous gameboy line had ever had, and the rest of the space was dominated by PS1 and Saturn, so it's possible that the decline of the SNES popularity by that time was determined by factors outside of Nintendo's control. (By this time I was no longer working retail).

From the N64 to the Gamecube, it certainly was possible to still get an N64, but lack of 3rd party titles had long before already become a problem, and the only units I remember being available at retail in my area were those silly green and orange colored units.

Looking at modern times, let's not forget that there are still Gamecube games due out soon even into the release of the Wii. I do believe Twilight Princess is still a Gamecube game with Wii features added. There is also the new 2D Mario Adventure for the cube coming out.

The Gameboy Advance is still alive and kicking even though there is a huge shift from third parties to support the DS. Nintendo has repeatedly said that the DS has not replaced the GBA and that the GBA is still alive and moving in large numbers.

On the Sony side of things, the PS1 still had fresh titles for at least a year after the release of the PS2, and you can expect at least that kind of support for the PS2 after the release of the PS3. I say this because there are still several titles due out for the PS2 over the next year.

So, in reality, Microsoft dropping the XBox so soon after the 360 is a move that ISN'T the norm in the gaming industry. Some might say Sega did this, but Sega seems to have had a history of dropping support for a system the moment it's popularity declines beyond a certain level. Some people think they should have stuck it out with the Dreamcast even though we all know they had to think of their investors first.

Overall though, don't kid yourself. The XBox didn't do that well. Most of it's titles were available on either the PS2 or the Gamecube, if not both. The rest were available on the PC if not at the same time then shortly after. It only marginally had 2nd place over Nintendo and Nintendo's top selling titles at any time period were moving in far greater numbers than all but a very few of the highest rated Xbox games, and the rest of the titles that were available were losing sales to the PS2 version (and in some cases even the Gamecube version!)

Xbox Live! was the only thing that kept the XBox popular and that's the only thing pushing the 360.

Microsoft dropping the XBox might seem like it's coming pretty quickly by the gaming industry standards, but considering the losses the XBox has generously given the company it is wise on their part to ditch it now and focus their resources on the 360 which actually has some chance of success.

The XBox was not a success. It was a dismal failure. It's just a failure with a lot of fans. Kind of like the Dreamcast, though I sometimes think the Dreamcast has more fans now than it did while it was still alive.

Re:Forcing Next Gen.

[slack-fu]

Speaking of modded Xbox's...I slapped a chip in, added a custom faceplate with an LCD screen on the front, and put a 250 gig hard drive in my Xbox. With XBMC I have (in my opinion) the ultimate media center. I have over 60 games installed and about 2 dozen movies with plenty of room for new stuff all accessible without having to change a disc. It also streams 500 Shoutcast radio stations, has one of the best visualizers for partys, can stream movies or music over the wirelass network, AND tells me the weather outside. Xbox might have been a technically financial failure for Microsoft, but screw them, my Xbox is better than a 360.

Re:Forcing Next Gen.

[KDR_11k]

Unlike the Gamecube, it actually had games that adults wanted to play and could feel good doing it.

Last time I checked all of them were available to someone who has a GC, PS2 and gaming PC.

Re:Forcing Next Gen.

[Phisbut]

The Xbox was far from a failure. Unlike the Gamecube, it actually had games that adults wanted to play and could feel good doing it.

Why should an adult not want to play a Mario game and feel good doing it? Does every game one plays need to involve shooting at stuff and lots and lots of violence in order for him to enjoy them?

People who can enjoy simple games like Wario Ware, Mario Party and Mario Kart are probably more psychologically and socially stable than people needing violent games to satisfy their impulses. Because a game is rated "M for Mature" doesn't mean the person playing it is mature.

XBMC forevar

[Smack]

It's still very good at being a media center.

Fond Memories?

[tgpo]

"but it sure does not paint a very rosy picture for the gigantic console that gave us so many fond memories." Not quite. I'm still playing the ole' N64. I figured then that all games on newer systems were nothing more than remakes with "Better graphics". I don't care about graphics, I want gameplay!

Not a memory maker for me

[CrazyJim1]

Only game I liked on Xbox was Halo 2 because it had good online features. Halo 1 was somewhat fun, but it lacked the depth that an online ladder game has. I guess I look for a lot in a system nowadays, mostly online multiplayer ladder, or massive multiplayer. I for one won't be looking back at the Xbox as nostalgic as Nintendo or Atari 2600. There were better games on PS2 or on the PC during the Xbox era for me to give it a crown in my memories.

Change happens, people!

[cinnamoninja]

Is this shocking to anyone?

... abandoning a console is something that is going to make people angry, no matter how it's handled.

Who gets angry that their console is outgrown? Of course, plenty of people might choose not to buy the newer system immediately. Most who make that choice are happy with the amount of games they already have to play, and are willing to wait for the newer generation to come down in price.

The article has a table of future game release dates. Apparently, the Xbox has 31 new games scheduled to come out, compared to 85 for the 360. Given that the 360 has been out for half a year, I'm surprised to hear that many new titles in the works for an older system.

Of course...

[Scorpion265]

I mean, would you really want to develop for a system that is now considered obsolete? The same thing happened to the Saturn when the dreamcast came out, n64 to gamecube. There might be a month of two of overlap, but thats the way the console market is run. We really shouldn't be surprised by this, in fact, this is common sense here.

It was (is) a good system

[Nightspirit]

I'm not really a fanboy (I have both a xbox & ps2, will be getting the Wii), but the xbox did pretty decent overall. Sure, it lost 4 gazillion dollars, but they got decent marketshare in an area already saturated IMO.

Sony and nintendo were pretty indifferent about online (I'm sure someone could quote something to prove me wrong here), and who knows where they would be now if xbox live wasn't introduced, and the evolution of live into the 360 is pretty sweet IMO.

The ps2 had more exclusives (the only reason I bought a ps2 was for the romance of the three kingdoms series, and dragon warrior), but those tended to be japanese RPGs and similar games, which don't interest everyone. Cross-platform games tended to look better on the xbox because of the hardware, and the xbox controller was better than the ps2s IMO. The xbox had some decent exclusives as well (jade empire was better than most recent final fantasies IMO).

Where the xbox mainly failed was in Japan, hence the lack of japanese development, and it looks like the 360 is doing, if anything, worse in this aspect.

Also, the custom development for hacked xboxes is impressive. XBMC is (honestly) the best open source program I have seen. I don't know anything about software but even I could get XBMC to play the way I wanted. Not to mention emulators exist for nearly any non-recent game system (no dreamcast, gamecube, ps2, etc).

This Isn't a Big Surprise

[Mitaphane]

MS themselves have said before that they're no longer going to make any new software for the console. And it's been said they're soon going to halt production of the original XBox. It's no surprise that other 3rd parties are following suit as they prepare for the very pricy next-gen change.

I imagine MS is much more eager than other console makers to jump to the next-gen because they know the original XBox has hacked wide open. They've done their research with the 360 and they know it's going to long while before someone really cracks the 360 open.

As for me, I'm quite content with the original XBox. It isn't a great game box, but it's a fantastic media player/emulation box.

Ah yes the fond memories

[Trogre]

1. Buy XBox
2. Modchip
3. Linux
4. OSS Media Center!

I'm not sure what they are talking about....

[guspasho]

I predict many happy years to come for millions of Xbox users, with their Xboxes hacked to be a media center device.