Amazon's Double-Helix Acquisition Hints At Gaming Console

Nerval's Lobster writes "A more prominent role in video-game development could prove the latest territory on Amazon's 'attempt to conquer' list. Yes, there's already Amazon Game Studios, which produces smaller games such as Air Patriots (a tower-defense title), but that evidently wasn't enough — Amazon has acquired Double Helix, most notably the developer behind Killer Instinct and other big-action games for PCs and consoles. Amazon confirmed the deal to multiple media outlets, suggesting that it would use Double Helix's developers and intellectual property 'as part of our ongoing commitment to build innovative games for customers.' Why would Amazon want to bulk out its game-creation abilities? Rumors have floated for the past couple weeks (hat tip to Gamespot) that the company is hard at work on an Android-based gaming console that will retail for below $300. Over the past year, it's also hired gaming luminaries such as Halo author Eric Nylund, which it probably wouldn't have done without something big — or at least interesting — in the works. Amazon would doubtlessly position such a device (if it actually becomes a reality) as the low-cost alternative to Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4. But even the cheapest console won't sell without some killer games to attract customers — and that's where Double Helix might come in. ... With Nintendo flagging, there's potentially an opening for a third console ecosystem to take hold."

Comments

So, about Beta

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck it

Re:So, about Beta

[dmbasso]

<blink>FUCK BETA</blink>

Where's the blink tag when we need it...

For those building slashdot alternatives, I suggest the name "backlashdot".
No slash in the name, but the logo can be \.

Re:So, about Beta

[JustinOpinion]

Actually, Slashdot alternatives should avoid having a name too closely tied to "Slashdot", so as to avoid trademark disputes down the road.

In fact, Slashdot has actually used the "backslash" brand. If I recall correctly, the original idea was for that site-section to house various 'about slashdot' material, but currently there seems to be nothing there. The tag "Slashback" has also been used on Slashdot and so should be avoided.

FYI, there is burgoning effort to build a replacement at AltSlashdot.org (final name pending a community vote). If you're interested in having a replacement exist, then consider contributing to one of these efforts.

Re:So, about Beta

[Guppy]

For those building slashdot alternatives

Might I remind my fellow posters, that the last time a mass user-base fork occurred, we ended up with Kuro5hin?

Ewww...

Re:So, about Beta

[dmbasso]

In fact, Slashdot has actually used the "backslash" brand.

Note that I said "backlash" (appropriate for the context) instead of "backslash".

FYI, there is burgoning effort to build a replacement at AltSlashdot.org (final name pending a community vote). If you're interested in having a replacement exist, then consider contributing to one of these efforts.

Yep, I'm aware. Feel free to add my suggestion there.

Re:So, about Beta

[genkernel]

Do be aware that some similar sites may already exist, or in the case of technocrat.net, have already existed.

Dice have already written off Slashdot

[2phar]

"Slashdot Media was acquired to provide content and services that are important to technology professionals in their everyday work lives and to leverage that reach into the global technology community benefiting user engagement on the Dice.com site. The expected benefits have started to be realized at Dice.com. However, advertising revenue has declined over the past year and there is no improvement expected in the future financial performance of Slashdot Media's underlying advertising business. Therefore, $7.2 million of intangible assets and $6.3 million of goodwill related to Slashdot Media were reduced to zero."

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[dmbasso]

So instead of turning off the lights, they're burning down the house?

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[Trepidity]

My guess is it's a combination of:

1. Belief that the current Slashdot will provide declining and not that meaningful revenue in the future; and

2. Gamble that the "Slashdot brand" can be resurrected as a vaguely tech-oriented blog/news site positioned as something more like Valleywag or Gawker.

The problem seems to be that category #2 is making a ton more money than Slashdot at the moment, so a redesign to look like those shitty sites, even if a gamble, might have positive expected returns. Even if it alienates the existing community, if the existing community just isn't making them much money, some bean-counters might not care about razing it and just repurposing the Slashdot brand for something else.

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[OzPeter]

1. Belief that the current Slashdot will provide declining and not that meaningful revenue in the future; and

Well its a big question as to whether slashdot is worth more $$$ to Dice Holdings as a success or as a failure. Wiping that $13 or so million off the books will have an effect on their end of year financials

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[evilRhino]

I sure am glad these conglomerates are in the position to buy out these companies and make them more successful by using proven business tactics. Let's give them another round of tax-cuts for creating jobs!

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[Baloroth]

Ars Technica generally covers a lot of the same material that Slashdot does, except with proper editing and writing. News-wise they're quite a lot better than Slashdot, IMO (I only really come here for the comments, since Slashdot's moderation system and sheer quantity of comments means you can often find some real gems).

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[TWiTfan]

Ooh, looks like the Slashdot editors are running in here with limitless mod points trying to put out the fire. I guess they finally got out of their weekly circle-jerk, cleaned the spooge off Timothy's shirt, and noticed what was going on.

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[JustinOpinion]

This is probably right. We are all looking at the beta redesign as an obvious failure. But the people in power may well believe that overall the loss of the community of commenters will be "worth it" to transform the site into a higher-traffic (and thus higher-profit) news aggregator. On some level this makes sense: the active community of Slashdot commentors is far smaller than the size of the people who just visit the site. So if one can piss off the commentors but increase web traffic overall, then it's worth it.

The problem with this logic is that all of those visitors only come to the site to read (if not engage in) the commenting that goes on. Really the (relatively high-quality) comments are the only thing that differentiate Slashdot from any other website. Once you make commenting/discussion more cumbersome, it will go away, and all you will be left with is the Slashdot "brand". But does that brand really have any weight? It only does with the small community of tech-enthusiasts that you just drove away from your site. It's not like the average person is going to see a "friendlier jazzier Slashdot" and immediately think "Wow, finally a Slashdot I can enjoy!".

If you look into the financial details, it appears that Dice considers Slashdot a loser:

... advertising revenue has declined over the past year and there is no improvement expected in the future financial performance of Slashdot.

Note that this isn't saying that Slashdot's ad revenue isn't enough to pay for operating Slashdot; merely saying that the ad revenue is falling with time. They are no doubt desperate to increase profits. It's actually quite possible that Slashdot's ad revenue is undervalued (because it isn't taking into account that many Slashdot users hold key positions where they influence what tech is purchased by companies, friends come to them for tech advice, etc.). But overall the idea that they can increase ad revenue by revamping the entire site is a bad gamble: the community will disappear in a flash, and ad revenue will drop to zero.

Ultimately, Dice management appears willing to take the gamble. It is one they will most likely lose, and we will lose Slashdot in the process. But they won't care much, since Slashdot as-is just isn't pulling in that much money. It's a sad reality that even a community as big and stable as Slashdot (generating constant ad revenue) is still too small/niche to satisfy their money-lost. Our last hope may lie in efforts to build a new site that we can migrate to (e.g. AltSlashdot.org).

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[JWW]

If /. dies, for me, it will mark the end of an era.

I don't participate massively in comments here, but there is no other site where the level of my commenting even comes close to here.

Also, there is IMHO no other site where the comments aren't immensely crappy in comparison to this site.

If the beta goes through, its the end of an era. Youtube style web commenting will have won.

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[Trepidity]

It's a sad reality that even a community as big and stable as Slashdot (generating constant ad revenue) is still too small/niche to satisfy their money-lost.

Kind of a pitfall of the corporate ownership structure I guess. It's interesting to compare Kuro5hin, which once had considerable community overlap with Slashdot, but more or less withered until the point where good new content completely stopped appearing. Yet oddly from a purely formal perspective the site actually works, its archives are readable, and it will probably continue to work for a while. It makes enough ad revenue to pay for its upkeep, and since it's owned by just one guy who doesn't need to send quarterly reports to shareholders, there's no particular reason to kill even a modest revenue source that's on autopilot. Meanwhile a more successful site seems desperate to revamp itself...

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[LordLimecat]

Half of the existing community is vocally ignorant of most of the things they post on.

Its very possible that the existing community ISNT that valuable. For every truly insightful post out there, there are 5 ignorant posts that were modded insightful. Many of them are factually wrong, and some reek of idealism (like the folks who worship communism and praise Cuba's government or wonder why we need a 5th amendment), but most are just hysterical off-topic comments on whatever the news-of-the-month is (see: constant posts trying to bring the NSA into any and every article). Even the submitted articles are usually not that great; a lot of submissions have headlines that straight up contradict the summary and / or story.

I do still like to come here because there are a lot of oldtimers who periodically surface and provide actual content-- but increasingly thats drowned out by the hysterics and the nonsense of all the newer users. Im strongly considering jumping ship for reddit-- they have a ton of nonsense too, but at least they tend to be pretty solid at filtering out the off-topic crap.

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[geminidomino]

Good luck with that one. I've looked; it's a ghost town.

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[Githaron]

The relatively high quality comments/discussion are definitely the reason why I visit Slashdot. I actually find myself irritated when I go to a news site and either find crappy comments or worse, no commenting system at all.

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[NoImNotNineVolt]

Many of them are factually wrong, and some reek of idealism (like the folks who worship communism and praise Cuba's government

By making this comment, are you not guilty of this yourself? Is there something inherently wrong with a state's population owning the means of production, or are you simply parroting a talking point from the cold war era? Are you being totally honest when you're critical of Castro's government without mentioning how it served most Cuban people better the Batista government it replaced? Or is it only idealism when "they" are the ones adhering to it?

Oh, and fuck beta.

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[NoImNotNineVolt]

It has failed and continues to fail everywhere its tried.

Show me one country that actually tried communism, where the means of production were owned by the people. Not a shithole under the yoke of some dictator or despot with "socialist" or "communist" in its official name. We don't use "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" or "Democratic Republic of the Congo" as examples of democratic republics because, well, there's more to it than just a name. The same holds for the SSRs, which were never even close to implementing anything that would be better described as communism than despotism.

Curiously, you bring up Vietnam, which wikipedia tells me something about: "Since 2000, Vietnam's economic growth rate has been among the highest in the world, and in 2011 it had the highest Global Growth Generators Index among 11 major economies." Hardly the bleak picture you were trying to paint. Regardless, you're talking about Vietnam, a country that adopted "communism" under Ho Chi Minh, the same guy who had countless Trotskyists purged and killed (just like Stalin, another great "communist" figure). Please, point out at which point Mr. Ho was able to ensure that the means of production in Vietnam were owned by the Vietnamese people as a whole, and explain why it looks to the rest of the world as though that never actually happened.

You'd be right to say I'm committing the "No True Scotsman" fallacy, except that my definition for communism is consistent and static. Show me one country where the means of production are owned (or were owned in the past) by the population as a whole, and then we can talk about the efficacy of communism in the real world. Until then, you're not being honest with yourself when you say that communism has failed or continues to fail. The only failure of communism is that it has failed to be implemented anywhere.

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[westlake]

Ooh, looks like the Slashdot editors are running in here with limitless mod points trying to put out the fire.

Or maybe adolescent rants about the beta are pissing off other readers.

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[LordLimecat]

You'd be right to say I'm committing the "No True Scotsman" fallacy, except that my definition for communism is consistent and static

The real issue is that the pure communism youre suggesting has never been tried because it is not possible to do so in practice.

Lets flip it around: Show me one country that has tried to be communist and succeeded. Ive shown you several that tried to be communist, failed to be communist, and then utterly failed as a result of their attempt.

How many times do you need to see it attempted before you say "yea, its not working"?

Vietnam is piss poor in actual economic terms. Growing 200% when you per-capita GDP is like $4,000 isnt terribly impressive. That still puts you at roughly the 50% mark, along with a lot of other poor countries. Currently they are below that.

point out at which point Mr. Ho was able to ensure that the means of production in Vietnam were owned by the Vietnamese people as a whole

Please point out anyone who did so. I seem to recall a bloke in Cambodia who gave it a shot-- can you remind me how that went?

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[NoImNotNineVolt]

You claim that Ho Chi Minh and Pol Pot tried to implement communism, that they gave it a shot. What evidence do you have of this claim, other than the proclamations of these despots themselves? Did they take any actions that could inarguably be seen as efforts to provide the population with ownership of the means of production?

My claim is that no, they didn't try to implement communism. Sure, they said they were trying. But they weren't. What they were doing was trying to subdue the increasingly angry constituency with populist rhetoric. "No need to be angry with the government, proles. We're working to give you everything! Don't be angry with us, be angry with the capitalists!" And for a time, it worked. It worked in many places, for quite a while. Eventually, the people in these countries got tired of the empty promises and realized that they weren't living under communism; they were living under despotism. They realized that their patience ought to be at an end, that waiting further would do no good, as communism wasn't on its way. They weren't living under a temporary transitional system, they were experiencing the desired end goal. Not communism, but despotism.

In response to your question, I can't point out a single country that tried to be communist and succeeded. However, I can't point out a single country that tried to be communist. That's no condemnation of communism, except perhaps as an indication of its lack of appeal. That nobody has tried to implement communism in earnest only means that nobody is really interested in implementing communism. It says nothing about the efficacy of communism, only about its perceived efficacy (if that).

Additionally, I say this all as a political refugee from "communist" Poland (granted political asylum by the USA in 1984), if that means anything to you. Sure, there were some vaguely "communist" features to placate the masses (and to mitigate the effects of a failed economy), like universal government-provided housing. However, I don't remember the capital that controls the economy being in the hands of the population. To me, it seemed like everything was in the hands of a select few at the head of the Party. That's not communism, and we both know that.

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[LordLimecat]

That's not communism, and we both know that.

Its what every attempt at communism ALWAYS ends up as. You can cry that they werent sincere attempts all day long, I just wonder how many times youll allow the leaders of a revolution to give it a shot. Who knows, maybe youll get lucky some day.

Till then, no thanks, I like my country run without the mass killings, political repression, and widespread poverty.

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[NoImNotNineVolt]

Its what every attempt at communism ALWAYS ends up as.

You've got that backwards. Would you consider for a minute that it's possible that it is not communism that ends up as despotism, but that communism is what every reach for despotism is disguised as? That this is likely due to the populist appeal of communism? You won't see a despot rise to power promising heavy yokes and starvation for the proles. It just doesn't have the same ring as communism. Can you think of a platform with greater populist appeal than communism? Would it not makes sense, then, that aspiring assholes would overwhelming rally around communism as their great lie?

Of course, putting this thread in context:
"Half of the existing community is vocally ignorant of most of the things they post on." -- LordLimecat
"For every truly insightful post out there, there are 5 ignorant posts that were modded insightful. Many of them are factually wrong, and some reek of idealism" -- LordLimecat

Now, here you are, arguing communism with an expat from communist Poland. Granted, coming from a communist state doesn't make me an authority on the subject. However, in the context of claimed ignorance, I'd have to ask if you have any unique qualifications regarding this subject.

Of course, the discussion has also degenerated to a subjective battle of ideologies. It doesn't seem that you are seriously considering any of the things I say, since you don't even address the points I bring up. You don't appear interested in having your opinion swayed, and isn't this the very sort of idealism that you were claiming to be offended by?

Re:Dice have already written off Slashdot

[LordLimecat]

To sum it up, it has never in history actually occurred to anyone from Cuba to Russia to China to Vietnam to Cambodia to NK to actually try to implement Communism. Instead, from the get-go, the people's revolutions were actually headed up by Stalin (for example), hiding in the background waiting to grab power.

Thats an interesting take on history, but its

However, in the context of claimed ignorance, I'd have to ask if you have any unique qualifications regarding this subject.

Not unique, not that anyone who's taken history wouldnt have. Id ask whether you have any that the majority of history teachers / poly sci academics lack, since your assessment that communism is viable disagrees with the majority of them. Its certainly not arguable that the vast majority of opinion (both academic and otherwise) is that communism doesnt work, so if youre claiming it can that would require some pretty special justification.

Being a polish expat almost certainly gives you unique experiences, but it doesnt make you any more qualified than anyone else to talk about the viability of political systems that, by your own admission, have never been successfully implemented.

You don't appear interested in having your opinion swayed,

If you want to sway my opinion, show me a successful people's revolution. You complain that I ignore your points (which I am not trying to do), but you havent addressed my point-- the difficulty in trusting any future people's revolution not to become a murderous regime. To put it another way, it would be some kind of madness to watch another people's uprising and expect anything other than what has happened every other time-- regardless of why you seem to think it happened every other time.

And at the root of it, youre basically saying that it hasnt worked for the same reason that I say it cant work: communism tends to be abused by Bad People who break it. You just seem to hold out hope that a pure group of Good People will get a hold of it and make it work, while I dont think such a group exists. Of course, if it did, maybe political systems would be irrelevant regardless.

I can't think of how to tie this into Beta

[TheNastyInThePasty]

So here we go: BETA SUCKS!

Re:I can't think of how to tie this into Beta

[TWiTfan]

Speaking of Amazon, has anyone seen that new Amazon show "Betas"?

They're designing Amazon Beta

[Antipater]

Amazon's redesigning their site. They're removing the whole shopping functionality. beta.amazon.com will simply show you pictures of things you might want to buy, one at a time with blinding whitespace surrounding all the pictures. You can't actually buy them, though.

Original story link

[2phar]

http://www.twst.com/update/388...

Slashdot BETA

[mrpacmanjel]

For the time being you can do this: www.slashdot.org?nobeta=1

Make you voice heard here:
http://beta.slashdot.org/fireh...

To quote Steve Jobs (rip) - "..and one more thing.."

"..FUCK BETA..."

Re:Slashdot BETA

[Trepidity]

There's also a link in the footer (for now) to "classic" Slashdot.

Slashdot Beta hints at losing users

[east coast]

Gollum: I hates the Slashdot Beta, fat hobitses!!!

Who the hell wrote this?

[Piata]

Nothing Amazon can do in the near future will ever measure up to Nintendo or take that covetted third place in the console ecosystem. They'll be lucky if they pull of an Ouya by the time they're done.

Re:Who the hell wrote this?

[jellomizer]

In the fight for third place, all will happen is killing off the other guys who are trying to get to third place.
Leaving the current 3rd place holder in a stronger position.

Re:Who the hell wrote this?

[93 Escort Wagon]

Thank you for posting a comment that's actually relevant to the story. It's nice to see there's at least one other adult attempting to read the site.

Re:Who the hell wrote this?

[Wookact]

If amazon comes out with a game console it will probably be about as popular as beta.

Beta Sucks

[aardvarkjoe]

By now, a professional organization would have at least acknowledged the complaints. Slashdot hasn't yet, and I'm willing to bet they never do. For a site that posts so many stories complaining about what other people do, they're remarkably slow to admit when they make a mistake.

Continue to turn the comments threads into a trash heap to drive people away. And don't forget to turn on your ad blocker. Do what you can to get their attention until they publically acknowledge that this is a mistake -- because they're not going to pay attention otherwise.

Re:Beta Sucks

[aardvarkjoe]

People hated the 2006 redesign, too, and yet they are still here. Why would they acknowledge a problem that by all past indication will disappear within a couple of weeks/months?

The classic interface continued to be available. That's what I've been using. The big difference now is that they want to remove the old interface.

Re:Beta Sucks

[MozeeToby]

Every single time they change even a single goddamned thing on the website, these crybabies come out of the woodwork to do what they do best (read: do the only thing they know how to do), and that's cry.

Previous revisions were awkward but usable, the Beta simply isn't. It's missing features, other features are broken, it wastes literally 50% of the horizontal space, and by far the worst of all it makes comments an afterthought.

They know nobody's going to leave.

I think you'll be surprised.

Slashdot outlived the former, and given nobody's actually leaving the site over this in lieu of keeping up a constant whiny din of comments, it will most likely outlive the latter

Right now it's optional with it being required on the horizon so people speak up and say the future is not acceptable. When it becomes the only way to view the site, people will leave. I can only hope a single viable alternative pops up rather than a half dozen that destroys the commenting community completely.

Re:Beta Sucks

[Teckla]

By now, a professional organization would have at least acknowledged the complaints. Slashdot hasn't yet, and I'm willing to bet they never do. For a site that posts so many stories complaining about what other people do, they're remarkably slow to admit when they make a mistake.

Continue to turn the comments threads into a trash heap to drive people away. And don't forget to turn on your ad blocker. Do what you can to get their attention until they publically acknowledge that this is a mistake -- because they're not going to pay attention otherwise.

I can't even get them to give us an option to turn off fucking autorefresh. It seems rather hopeless. :(

Re:Beta Sucks

[imidan]

Oh, they've acknowledged the complaints. They say there's been "a lot of griping." Which is, of course, just their way of trivializing the complaints so that they can ignore them and go on with their plan anyway.

Fuck Beta.

Not another Android console...

[Nightbrood]

All Amazon needs to do is look at Ouya. It basically targeted the same space. Perhaps Amazon thinks their marketing and distribution engines will make it successful where Ouya has struggled but I doubt it. The problem with these "consoles" is that they target casual gamers and casual gamers are more than happy with their cell phones and tablets. Up selling them to an Android console would be an interesting sales job.

Almost forgot... fuck beta.

Re:Not another Android console...

[ZombieBraintrust]

At $300 it is not the same space at all.

Re:Not another Android console...

[tepples]

A Kindle Fire with a directional pad and discrete trigger buttons might be a better idea.

QOD right now is prescient!

[OzPeter]

It is now pitch dark. If you proceed, you will likely fall into a pit.

Re:I am Slashdot

[GoodNewsJimDotCom]

They want to do DIGG route. It is all a corporate exec's perverted fantasy,"Look at how many people watch our content. Imagine how much ad revenue we'd get if we replaced all the content with 100% advertising." They don't realize if they lose all their users, they'll have no more revenue.

Re:I'm switching to Lynx.

[sunderland56]

From a productivity standpoint,

If you're interested in productivity, you won't visit slashdot, beta or classic.

So isn't Slashdot.org code open source?

[GoodNewsJimDotCom]

What is stopping someone from reopening Slashdot on another site under another name?

Re:So isn't Slashdot.org code open source?

[Koen Lefever]

What is stopping someone from reopening Slashdot on another site under another name?

Check out AltSlashdot.

Re:So isn't Slashdot.org code open source?

[sexconker]

Or maybe Sourceforge is broken, I don't know

The fact that we can't tell when Sourceforge is broken is proof enough that it is always broken. Every god damned project has a different series of links to follow and incantations to perform just to get to the fucking files I want to download.

Still better than Slashdot Beta, though.

Oh, so that explains it.

[moogla]

I was wondering why they were trying so hard to make this site an unusable mess.

1984

[bluefoxlucid]

I can't help but think of 1984. Steam Console, Pandora, iPhone and Android phones and tablets--phones are probably safe--all over the place, Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, and now Amazon? Another video game bubble, gearing up for another video game crash? With Nintendo floundering, Microsoft and Sony being all talk, and iPhone and Android developers being essentially Gateway prospectors, I'm wondering if the collapse isn't already starting.

Is that the new modus operandi? American consumers are so fucking stupid that the bubble is already collapsing while it's just starting to grow, and people keep getting on the dumbshit bandwagon because there are still idiots to soak while others are falling off the wagon having lost the spotlight and gotten caught in the crash? It's like if the housing bubble popped in 2005, house prices started to drop, and people kept buying houses like crazy because "they're gonna be worth a ton of money!" right up to 2009--buying demand that should fuel a bubble, right in the middle of an ongoing burst, because they're too stupid to see that the sky really is falling all around them.

Re:1984

[kamapuaa]

You're really straining to try to make a point. iPads/tablets aren't primarily game machines. Sure you can play games on them, but I'm guessing people play games on computer even more, and sales of computers have been going down.

Also, video games aren't just an American thing. Nintendo and PS4, for instance...

And consoles aren't investments in the future. They're just something you play video games on. If you enjoy video games, no harm done. The video game crash of '84 was bad for the companies, but it's not like consumers got burned by their Atari suddenly becoming worthless.

Re:1984

[bluefoxlucid]

Uh, if you spend $600 on an XBox and two $50 games come out on it that are worth playing, you got burned. Should have spent $250 on a Wii and got Mario, Zelda, Metroid, plenty of VC games, some third-party stuff, and another pile. It's not $150,000 burned, but it's burned.

And my point is that we have everybody in the fucking world building consoles now, selling consoles now, it looks like we're going to have a big 15 instead of a big 3 soon. That's a mindset that people are going to rush out and buy consoles like crazy, it's a big market, get in on the bubble. But at the same time, profits are floundering: the console makers are seeing reduced profits, the market as a whole is dying off, yet consumers are still buying into it. The replacement market--tablet games--is sucking sales away from consoles, handhelds, and PC games, but not making anyone any money. Everyone's jumping in on this WHILE IT'S COLLAPSING!

In this case, the investors aren't consumers who bought a console that produced only shit and thus was a wasted half-a-grand; the investments here are ventures into the console and gaming market, both into building a new console and into producing shittons of Android and iOS apps. And all those investors are going to get burned. And American consumers are probably going to gobble up some of it as it fails, then get stuck with useless machines that they can't play any good games on.

Re:I'm switching to Lynx.

[Somebody Is Using My]

There are NO "beta addicts"

The community has universally spoken against the new look. I have not seen one post that has been in favor of it. In over twenty years of being on the Internet, that is a first for me.

The only people who seem interested in the beta seem to be the people at Dice pushing it down at us. There are numerous speculations as to why this is (an earnest belief it improves the site, somebody's reputation on the line, or an attempt to orient the brand at a new demographic). Dice's continued silence on the matter is quite telling, however; it is obvious they are not concerned with what the community thinks about the matter.

At the moment, I am still coming back to Slashdot because the circus and uproar about the beta is just too much fun to miss out on, but like many here I expect that - barring a reversal of intent on Dice's behalf - I eventually will migrate to some other website.

Already some suggestions have been made:

Ars Technica
Alt Slashdot (currently in development)
Subreddit /r/Slashdot
kuro5hin

I am on the lookout for more.

Is there really this much market share?

[arctus]

From my understanding, even with Nintendo and Microsoft selling less consoles, any open market share is being cornered by the pending Steam OS console and a flourishing PS4. This new Amazon based Android console wouldn't seem viable in the same market space. Android gaming is niche' to the say the least. Do you really need 4+ fully fledged consoles each with around 8% exclusive software titles (90% for Nintendo) plus the usual casual fair like Android/iOS games on smartphones and an ever present PC MasterRace? I don't think the market will take this kind of fragmentation. Fanboys aside, the platform that offers the best commodity services (3rd party apps, software store, online service) in addition to the greatest number of quality software titles, at the lowest cost of ownership/cost of entry should hold the most market share ( cough* PS3/4 cough*). And that doesn't seem to be the mentality of these new comer consoles that seem to be targeting Nintendo style niche marketing. So my question is, will Nintendo pull a Sega?

Re:Is there really this much market share?

[tepples]

an ever present PC MasterRace?

There's one thing the PC Master Race hasn't mastered: how to market living-room PCs to customers who aren't hardcore geeks. Really what consoles are good for is ease of use and single-screen multiplayer. If PCs catch up in those respects, we won't need consoles anymore.

Re:Is there really this much market share?

[arctus]

I think you're absolutely right, ease of use is especially huge. It's more likely to me that consoles evolve into PCs than PCs evolve (or devolve depending on your perspective) into consoles....just based on the apparent flow of the physical universe.

Fuck Beta, Fork Alpha.Time to resurrect slashcode?

[seandiggity]

http://www.slashcode.com/www.slashcode.com/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/slashcode/

food for thought: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?SlashDot

I don't think that's lockdown

[tepples]

Google is locking down Android by close-sourcing most of the apps

Bundling proprietary applications with a free operating system is not "locking down" any more than Windows 7 or Windows XP or OS X is "locked down". Removing the "Unknown sources" and "Enable USB debugging" checkboxes and charging a substantial fee to restore it, as Apple and the major console makers do, would be "locking down".

I'm confused, what is going on?

[patric91]

But what does this article have to do with the Beta?

Not the way to pick up Nintendo customers

[damn_registrars]

If they are trying to make more FPS and fighting games, they shouldn't expect existing Nintendo customers to flock to their system. There are already too many of those titles on the Sony and Microsoft systems, and they have established software and user bases. Say what you will about Nintendo hardware but the list of top selling titles for the Wii and Wii U consoles looks nothing at all like the list for the playstation and xbox consoles.

Fuck Beta

[sexconker]

The day I lose access to the classic version of Slashdot is the day I block slashdot.org at the border.
Your move, Dice.

NO to Beta

[mccotter]

Do not make beta mandatory. Keep classic.

Re:Boycott

[Koen Lefever]

The slashdot editors are mass-downmodding the Beta comments.

We post these things because we care. Our overlords are trying to stop making us care.

For posteriority: most these "-1 offtopic" and "0 offtopic" posts that you see in this thread were at one point "+5 interesting", "+5 insightful" or "+5 funny". That was the opinion of the people with mod points, what you see now is what the editors were told to do by Dice management.

Re:I'm switching to Lynx.

[cfulton]

Who here was ever saying Slashdot Beta is superior? It SUCKS.

Re:I'm switching to Lynx.

[MachineShedFred]

It pains me to see that this classic Slashdot flame has been used, and nobody even recognized it.

There's more than just Beta ruining this site, unfortunately.

Sadness of beta site for me today and how long

[oRCAD Monkey]

I try twice maybe work If not I will have MUCH MUCH more sadness today and for long time. Maybe beta not beta soon to make me happy. If beta beta sadness will be extremley sad sad sad sad sad sad to me. sad beta beta me sad. HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY NO BETA!!! HI. I posted this to see what it would look like on the beta website.. If they call it beta isn't it supposed to be working? maybe they will fix Slashdot Beta and everyone will be happy again. Can you see this? I can't. What is wrong? Is this why they call it beta? I hope someone will be able to fix this because I am not happy it is not working. Maybe after the beta test is over it will work. It sure doesn't work now. I am getting even sadder. It seems to work on the old site but the beta site is not very good and is making me sad. sad sad sad. I am not very happy when Slashdot makes me very sad. What will happen to me when classic is GONE!!! I will try posting this on YouTube PLEASE HELP ME!!!!! A little history of Slashdot courtesy of Wikipedia. What it was before It was destroyed by Beta. I tried posting this before but could not see it with beta. What am I doing wrong? I guess I will have to keep on trying until I can read it. Maybe that is why they call it beta. I am sure they will fix everything and everyone will be happy again. Tell me if you can read this. I am really upset that I can not see my own posts Maybe that is why they call it beta. I am sure they will fix everything and everyone will be happy again. Can you see this? I can't. What is wrong? Is this why they call it beta? I hope someone will be able to fix this because I am not happy it is not working. Maybe after the beta test is over it will work. It sure doesn't work now. I am getting even sadder.PLEASE HELP ME!!!!! The origins of the site now known as Slashdot date back to July 1997 when Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda started a personal website called Chips & Dips, which featured a single "rant" each day about something that interested him – typically something to do with Linux or open-source software. At the time, Malda was a student at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, majoring in computer science. The site became Slashdot in September 1997 under the slogan "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters," and quickly became a hotspot on the Web for news and information of interest to computer geeks.[4] The name "Slashdot" came from a somewhat "obnoxious parody of a URL" – when Malda registered the domain, he desired to make a name that was "silly and unpronounceable" – try pronouncing out, "h-t-t-p-colon-slash-slash-slashdot-dot-org".[5] By June 1998 the site was seeing as many as 100,000 page views per day and advertisers began to take notice.[4] By December 1998, Slashdot had net revenues of $18,000, yet its Internet profile was higher, and revenues were expected to increase. On June 29, 1999, the site was sold to Linux megasite Andover.net for $1.5 million in cash and $7 million in Andover stock at the IPO price. Part of the deal was contingent upon the continued employment of Rob Malda and Jeff Bates and on "the achievement of certain milestones". With the acquisition of Slashdot, Andover.net could now advertise itself as "the leading Linux/Open Source destination on the Internet".[6][7] Andover.net eventually merged with VA Linux on February 3, 2000,[8] which changed its name to SourceForge, Inc. on May 24, 2007, and became Geeknet, Inc. on November 4, 2009.[9] Slashdot's 10,000th article was posted after two and a half years on February 24, 2000,[10] and the 100,000th article was posted on December 11, 2009 after 12 years online.[11] During the first 12 years, the most active story with the most responses posted was the post-2004 US Presidential Election article "Kerry Concedes Election To Bush" with 5,687 posts. This followed the creation of a new article section, politics.slashdot.org, created at the start of the 2004 election on September 7, 2004.[12] Many of the most popular stories are political, with "Strike on Iraq" (March 19, 2003) the second-most-active article and "Barack