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Nolan Bushnell Disappointed With PS3
An anonymous reader writes "Atari founder Nolan Bushnell points out that PS and PS2 got lucky with their release, 'It wasn't anything brilliant that they did. With the PS and PS2 it was timing. They had the right pricing at the right time [and were] almost the accidental winner.' But he sees things differently this time around. 'It would not surprise me if a year from now they'll be struggling to sell 1 million units.'" I find that kind of hard to believe, but he raises some more salient points in the other parts of the article.
First post !
They have almost half of that sold in pre-orders/campers already...
Is this guy like the Dvorak of video games or something?
FanFictionRecs.net
Funny coming from a guy that works at one of the biggest failures in console hardware
In a world of acronyms, the words are the real victims.
I think the ps3 will do fine, its going be a good system, the others out there are just too, well "uncool" the Wii is well just lame, the Xbox360 is from M$ nuff said, Thats just my view tho
Not sure if I'd trust a person whose company was responsible for multiple failed consoles (Jaguar, 5200, ET the game, to name a few). Then again, the founder of a company with so many failures might know how to spot a potential failure from experience with failing so many times.
"who gives a shit" and "don't give a rats ass."
Any console that costs more than 300 is not worth getting. It's a fucking toy, nothing more. If I wanted a souped up gaming box I'd buy another PC and dedicate it to gaming...
That said, I don't really care what some random asshat says about a yet-to-be-released console. What? Will slashdot start posting articles about my opinions?
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
The SNES was 200 when it first came out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNES
No, he's the guy who founded Atari, and single-handedly created the Video Game industry.
Depends, did you invent the Video Game Industry? No? Then STFU.
Busnell was responsible for Atari's early arcade games, their Pong machines, and the Atari 2600. Save for the poor showing of the Space War arcade game, none of those were abject failures.
Bushnell left Atari in 1978, partly because of a disagreement over the 5200 strategy. Warner wanted to branch out into computers (the Atari 400/800) while Bushnell wanted to keep the 8-bit technology for the next game console. Warner effectively pushed him out of the company, at which point he went on to dedicate his energies to the highly successful Pizza Time restaurant. (Known today as "Chuck E. Cheeses".)
Warner continued with their 8-bit computer plans, while developing new technology for the next console. Unfortunately, the technology for the next console failed to work out, causing Atari to repackage an 8-Bit computer as a game console. (The 5200.) At that point, however, the 5200 was late to the market, overbuilt for being a game console, and had these poor analog controllers which failed within hours of use. It was absolutely nothing like the original vision for the console, and failed from a combination of consumer pushback and Atari's own failure to support it.
E.T. was a rush job to get an E.T. licensed game out for Christmas 1982. That was another Warner/Atari failure. The video game crash caused the company to be sold to Jack Tramiel (of Commodore fame) who gutted the company. Tramiel's legacy was the poorly supported Atari 7800, the Atari Lynx, and the Atari Jaguar.
*sigh*
Bushnell Leaves Atari: 1978
Atari Releases 5200: 1982
Warner sells Atari: 1984
Jaguar Released: 1993
Hallelujah! Someone who actually got it right!
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I'd rather use consoles to play games, thanks. And with the Wii coming up, it might even beat the old keyboard+mouse combo for some games. As for "PC games", well, there's the Xbox 360.
RIP Slashdot. I used to love you. dead account - but slashdot wont let me delete it.
>And buying a more expensive PC simply to play games on it is better how? Not to mention all the usual Windows problems that goes with it? Service Pack 2 or not, there's always new holes being discovered and you'll never been 100% safe (or, in the case of Windows, even 50% safe I guess). Very few people buy a PC "simply to play games on." In fact, almost every household that has a recent game console also has a PC. So it's not so much a matter of buying a PC or a game console. It's a matter of buying a game console in addition to your PC, or saving your money and just playing games on what you already have. And yes, for most people the cheap wimpy computer they use to do their email and web-browsing is also good enough to play the games they want to play. And regardless, when you upgrade your PC and spend more money on it, you get just that many more functions that a console can't do. >I'd rather use consoles to play games, thanks. And with the Wii coming up, it might even beat the old keyboard+mouse combo for some games. As for "PC games", well, there's the Xbox 360. That's great. For some games, I'd rather play them on a console too. And I'm really excited about the Wii. But consoles are not a replacement for PCs, and no console controller will ever beat a keyboard+mouse for games that keyboard+mouse have always been better at. They might come close for FPS games, but that's still a ways off. For RTS games, not a chance. The huge amount of keys and keyboard shortcuts used by good RTS players completely excludes console controllers from ever coming close to being as useful. And why play stripped-down versions of PC games on a console when you can play the real version?
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
Best known for founding .... the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant chain -- which brought kids, pizza and video games together...
... In fact, why haven't any of the online services done this already?
Maybe he could pair up with Sony's On-line Service to make a pizza ordering service you can use while you're playing?
Even with the invective. Spot on.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Ugh... when will /. catch up with 1999 and give us an effing EDIT button?
>And buying a more expensive PC simply to play games on it is better how? Not to mention all the usual Windows problems that goes with it? Service Pack 2 or not, there's always new holes being discovered and you'll never been 100% safe (or, in the case of Windows, even 50% safe I guess).
Very few people buy a PC "simply to play games on." In fact, almost every household that has a recent game console also has a PC. So it's not so much a matter of buying a PC or a game console. It's a matter of buying a game console in addition to your PC, or saving your money and just playing games on what you already have. And yes, for most people the cheap wimpy computer they use to do their email and web-browsing is also good enough to play the games they want to play. And regardless, when you upgrade your PC and spend more money on it, you get just that many more functions that a console can't do.
>I'd rather use consoles to play games, thanks. And with the Wii coming up, it might even beat the old keyboard+mouse combo for some games. As for "PC games", well, there's the Xbox 360.
That's great. For some games, I'd rather play them on a console too. And I'm really excited about the Wii. But consoles are not a replacement for PCs, and no console controller will ever beat a keyboard+mouse for games that keyboard+mouse have always been better at. They might come close for FPS games, but that's still a ways off. For RTS games, not a chance. The huge amount of keys and keyboard shortcuts used by good RTS players completely excludes console controllers from ever coming close to being as useful. And why play stripped-down versions of PC games on a console when you can play the real version?
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
I find that kind of hard to believe, but he raises some more salient points in the other parts of the article. No he doesn't. Not about the PS3 at least, which is the ostensible topic which the submitter claims gets more treatment in the article. This submission is based on his answers to the LAST TWO questions, the only questions about anything but Bushnell's new gamer bistros. WTF, this isn't a submission, it's agit-prop.
Actually, it's more than just the N64.
Atari 7800
SNES
Dreamcast
Gamecube
I'd say it was more of a majority of them were more than $300 in today's dollars.
Of worthy note is that the Genesis ALMOST makes it into that club (~$306) and the
PSX is bumped out of it by $48 in today's values...
Right now, Sony's making the NeoGeo play (In terms of the then dollars, it was about
the same price and had a vast leg-up over the other consoles in terms of power and
display capabilities, etc...)- and we all know how well that worked for SNK;
while they stayed afloat, it was more due to the Arcade unit sales than the
console ones...
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Not to mention, I used to spend $500-$300 on JUST upgrading my graphics card .. every other year ..
A decent gaming PC will run you $2500 minimum, maybe less if you can swap the mobo, have decent RAM already, and you monitor isn't a junker. A high-end gaming system is upwards of $4000 out of the box.
OR .. I could spend $400 on my 360, $1700 on a 42-Inch HDTV (with a VGA input for my computer), and have a machine that I never have to fiddle with drivers or rebooting to do anything, and there's that whole video-on-demand and HD-DVD for another $200 on Friday ..
Yea .. it's not worth getting at all. Granted, it's a 'toy' .. but now I can watch the shows I capture to my Media PC on my home theatre through a Cat-5 .. (used to have a DTS encoder, DVI-HDMI, wireless keyboard + mouse, 25' USB cable/hub, all hooked up to my 6-fan PC under the entertainment center), play awesome games (I never got Farcry to work with my graphics card, and Quake 3 looks fantastic) @ 720p/1080i x 42" .. and downloadable TV shows/HD movies by the end of the month .. probably one of the best investments in 'Toys' I've ever made.
Not to mention that the visualization tool + my 50GB MP3 library is a fantastic DJ for parties. Oh yea .. 'just a toy' .. forgot.
Excuse me, but teenage slash-dorks aside, can anyone really tell me they'd put a black chip on ol' Nolan's foresight here?
;)
Reading the Wiki someone referred me to, it seems that he's had more success in food service software. Almost nothing I find here game-wise seems creatively challenging or notably popular. Name that Tune? Can I get a witness on this?
Speaking as a casual geek, Nolan comments do seem a little out of touch, as can be expected with mostly managing a pizza restaurant with Skee-Ball since selling a failing toy company.
His new restaurant wants to lure in gamers by making this obliquely "hip" cafe wall to wall terminals with what his comments allure to being 'simple' games. I can't remember the last time the promise of Tetris sold me a chicken sandwich. I'm pushing 30. Arcades are kiddy-bait, or haven't you been to a Dave and Busters, forgotten it was 'bring the sprouts Friday' and left immediately?
Finally, completely aside, uWink's website implies that you'll order food through a machine at your table. This concept has proven a nearly universal failure for a chain.
In other news Uwe Boll said that the Halo movie would probably fail. (True) Consider the weight of that opinion, (remembering that he's referring to box-office sales.
From reading the article, Bushnell is forecasting that Sony will not do well with the PS3. He's not dissing the machine itself, he's dissing Sony's marketing scheme and price point. No mention of him being "disappointed" by the PS3 at all.
Julie Moult is an idiot.
This spin is pretty silly - Nolan said he didn't think Sony's pricing or timing on the PS3 were as good, he didn't say anything about not liking the PS3 itself.
His claim they are going to have trouble selling a million within a year ignores the early preorder prices systems are going for on eBay. They could sell a million by Christmas if they had them - in the US they should have around 600k-800k by the end of the year, and people will be snapping those up.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A decent gaming PC will run you $2500 minimum, maybe less if you can swap the mobo, have decent RAM already, and you monitor isn't a junker. What exactly do you mean by decent? Lets see. By ballpark figures: CPU - $300 Mobo - $80 Graphics - $300 Case - $60 PSU - $100 HD - $100 Memory - $250 OS - $150 Monitor - $300 Sound - $100 That would get you a VERY decent gaming rig by my book for $1740, if you salvage networking/keyboard/mouse from your current computer. Of course it's still more than twice the price of a PS3....
You could also use [blockquote]blablabla[/blockquote], it prevents newline messes.
Did you even bother to read what you linked to?
uWink *is* the "upscale Dave n Busters clone" that you don't think exists.
1. Oblivion (the PC version is modable)
2. Star Trek Legacy (the PC version is modable)
3. Neverwinter Nights 2 (well, when they patch it, but consoles get patched too)
4. Spore
5. Nearly any RTS game: galactic civilizations II for example
6. Tycoon games: just picked up railroad tycoon 3 for $9 and had a blast
The console wins in sports and racing games, which in my opinion are fun too. However, the recent version of madden sucked, and the 360 version of burnout takedown isnt that much different than the xbox version, so I really have no reason to go next generation at this point. Consoles also have more j-rpgs but I'm sort of out of that phase. The Wii may be a blast, but I'm taking a wait and see approach. I figure after 2 years they will release a version with more precise controls and then most of the Wii games will be $10-20. And before you discount modding, the mods for oblivion have made the game so much better IMO, from improving the interface to the textures.
One thing alot of people don't realize is that there is a reason PS2 consoles still sell. It's because it's around 1/5 the size of an original PS2. The new ones are amazingly small. Both Nindendo and Sony improved on thier technology. They don't just throw it away like MS. The DS market is only booming because of the DS Lite. And in another coulple of years there will be another version of the DS. Nintendo is still improving on thier original gameboy. In 5 years the PS3 will be as small as the current PS2 and will still be selling well. The Xenon will still be the same xenon. And it will be thrown out the door just like the Xbox was when MS pushes the next generation of technology onto the market to early.
SNES didn't come out in 2006. It was released in 1991, so it cost $200 in 1991 dollars. That isn't the same as $200 in 2006 dollars.
"To lead the people, you must walk behind them"
BTW - The reason why the PS2 still sells well is because it's cheap, and there are a ton of great games on that platform. Of course, this holiday season is going to be the last time we see good games launched for the PS2, as more and more development becomes focused on the next-gen consoles.
-- jchenx
Even better, we're hiring. Lots of opportunities are available (and that's just for Xbox, not including PC games). Oh wait, nevermind, according to you, we don't exist.
-- jchenx
This signature carefully hand-crafted from recycled electrons.
Whoops! Fair enough. I didn't even know the pictures I linked were of mock-ups (I figured since it was September, that the PS3 was retail, I guess not).
Now I'm curious, how large is the PS3 compared to the original Xbox? And more importantly, does size even matter? The claim as to why the original Xbox didn't do well in Japan was because it was too big. If the PS3 is close to the same size, yet still does well in Japan, then it blows that theory out of the water. (Personally, the reason why any console bombs is not due to silly things like size, but mostly due to the games available)
-- jchenx