Despite the advances in console graphics/playability, arcade games are *still* the leaders in graphics/sound. A $10,000 machine dedicated to a single game knocks the socks off a PS2/XBox any day.
I don't know... My DC version of Soul Caliber is WAAAAAAY better looking than any arcade version I have played. The sound seems about the same, but definitely not the graphics.
But you don't have to pay extra to receive television commercials. If you use an ISP, that ISP has to pay for it's bandwidth usage, which raises the costs for the consumer. The advertisers are making you pay more for your internet acces, there is no doubt of that.
Exactly, they would ruin the graphics quality at the same price. I think Nintendo should offer, and probably will offer, a separate unit with backlight.. and maybe room for 2 more batteries. Look at there past record, whenever the GB sales drop, they come out with a new version.. Pocket, Light, etc....
I believe all Universal DVDs have this "feature". I was trying to watch some old Clint Eastwood westerns and they all popped up a message that said they would not play on my player.
Yeah, but I'm pretty sure laws were passed saying these mass market retailers couldn't lower their prices beyond a certain level. Because it would put the regular record stores out of business.
I'm not sure if I'm remebering it right, but the stores don't offer the same prices they used to, I know that for sure.
A lot of 18-20 year old kids who get signed to these deals don't really understand the business enough to know they are getting screwed. They just think "Wow, they like us!". Some guys from my town got a deal with MCA, got locked into all sorts of crazy contracts, etc, etc... For them it didn't really matter, because they all decided they hated each other after the first tour anyway, but if they had decided to go on as a band, they would be locked in to a 3 or 5 album contract. And probably still owe money.
Actually, the way it works is this: The record companies give you an advance AGAINST YOUR FUTURE ROYALTIES. Then they record your album, produce it, etc, and all the cost of this go against your royalties. When you tour, they bill you for your van, your tshirt production, etc, all against your royalties. All advertising and promotion they do for you, they charge you for, again, against your future royalties. They even charge you legal fees for contracts signed, accounting fees for keping track opf record sales, fees for having your records shipped to the music stores, etc.
This way, they are guaranteed money for their services if your album sells at all, since they have already charged you for most of it. And you will most likely receive an insanely small portion of the proceeds from your album. Most "one-hit wonder" bands, bands who sell hundreds of thousands of CDs at $17 bucks a pop, on the books probably still OWE the label.
Not to say they are tortured, starving people.. no, they got a nice advance, got to go on tour, be in a video, have sex with groupies, have fun. BUT, the record label has made far more off their work than they did themselves. Doesn't seem fair to me. Especially when, if the band isn't doing as well, they are kept from going out on their own because a label will demand the band pays them all this money (and records) the band owes them before allowing them to even self-distribute a record.
Manufacturing is not the only cost, my friend. Some artists may take a year (or more!) to make an album. Granted, that's not all hardcore 40 hours a week work.
And yet, the artists probably only recieve 1% of the money from their album... if that (unless they are a megastar who has the power to renegotiate their contracts).
However, the U.S. government did (at least if I remeber corectly) pass legislation to make mass market retailers (Wal-Mart, Circuit City) unable to sell CDs for the low,low prices they once did... Because the music industry and regular record shops didn't want the public getting used to those low, low prices.
Right now, in my state at least, I do not know about the rest of the US, is trying to pass similar laws so that Sam's and other retailers can't undercut regular gas stations.
I remeber this being big news a few years ago... It's sucks too, because you used to be able to get CDs at Circuit City for $9.99 that were $15.99 elsewhere... No longer.
But they do have to do with consoles. If you had read all of the above posts, you'd see they were responding to a recommendation that they just go out and buy a Japanese PSX. Which would be difficult, since Japan is NTSC and the UK is PAL.
This will be popular with the same people JAZ is popular with... Graphic/Video/Music design studios... and the companies who print/copy/press their output. If they think the average user wants this, they are dead wrong.
Hey, I don't think my computer is powerful enough, either and I use Windows (and Linux). It won't be until I can filter, crop and/or rotate 100mb+ Photoshop files in real time.
Hey, from what I recall of Sonic, it's only the racing levels that are limited to a track... and thats because they are there for fans of the original sonic games.
$199, not $400. And that's at the time of release. The DC dropped to $149, then $99. A good deal for a great game system... I personally never buy more than eight or so games for any console anyway, so I don't really care if they are not making new games. All I _really_ need for any system is : one fighting game, one racing game, one shooter, one space game, one simple, multiplayer "party" game.
The key is at first they take a loss. NOW, after several years, they sell the N64 for a profit. Sony also makes a profit on it's PSOne... Probably especially now that they redesigned it to make it cheaper, smaller and simpler to build. Plus the chips they use for the concoles get obsolete, thus cheaper, as the concole gets older.
Bullshit. I've got a copy of MacConnection right here. The cost for Word 2001 (in 2001 dollars) is $360. Gee, that's $10 more than the price you named, not even counting 6 years of inflation. Excel 2001 is also $360. Office 2001 for Mac (which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage) is $449. I'm quite sure the PC prices are just as high.
I just checked Pricewatch... Full PC versions of Office 2001 are listed for around $300, and thats full in box, not OEM copies. Never heard of the vendors, though.
Mac OS X.. which only runs on Mac hardware (unless I have missed big news). The poster should have said "there aren't any x86 platform vendors cheaper".
that but Microsoft is having a small problem of signing Gaming teams on board
I don't know where you got this info.. MS has a crap load of teams on board.. even Capcom. And the only one that really matters is EA. If a console has Madden, it will do at least OK. The lack of EA killed Sega, pretty much.
Playstation isn't all that handsome of a price right now but by then you will expect major price cuts (more then the expected $50 - $100 expected at E3 Conference this week)
You think that in 6 months, they will drop the PS2 from $299 to less than $199?! Not bloody likely! $249 at MOST.
I will buy a Gamecube just for Mario Kart Cube, if they make it. It will go nice next to my N64 and my only N64 game, Mario Kart 64. That game is crack.
There are lots of multiplayer games that _don't_ focus on either. Alpha Centauri, FreeCiv, Rainbow Six... I'd even say Counter Strike has little to do with luck. Luck might come in to play, as with any game, but if you sit down and play for an hour, the players and team with skill will rise to the top. That and you actually are rewarded for using tactics in CS, as opposed to regular ol' deathmatch.
Slashdot Mirror
Despite the advances in console graphics/playability, arcade games are *still* the leaders in graphics/sound. A $10,000 machine dedicated to a single game knocks the socks off a PS2/XBox any day.
I don't know... My DC version of Soul Caliber is WAAAAAAY better looking than any arcade version I have played. The sound seems about the same, but definitely not the graphics.
Josh S.
But you don't have to pay extra to receive television commercials. If you use an ISP, that ISP has to pay for it's bandwidth usage, which raises the costs for the consumer. The advertisers are making you pay more for your internet acces, there is no doubt of that.
Josh Sisk
Sorry, I meant to say a separate unit that is at a higher price.
Exactly, they would ruin the graphics quality at the same price. I think Nintendo should offer, and probably will offer, a separate unit with backlight.. and maybe room for 2 more batteries. Look at there past record, whenever the GB sales drop, they come out with a new version.. Pocket, Light, etc....
I believe all Universal DVDs have this "feature". I was trying to watch some old Clint Eastwood westerns and they all popped up a message that said they would not play on my player.
Yeah, but I'm pretty sure laws were passed saying these mass market retailers couldn't lower their prices beyond a certain level. Because it would put the regular record stores out of business.
I'm not sure if I'm remebering it right, but the stores don't offer the same prices they used to, I know that for sure.
A lot of 18-20 year old kids who get signed to these deals don't really understand the business enough to know they are getting screwed. They just think "Wow, they like us!". Some guys from my town got a deal with MCA, got locked into all sorts of crazy contracts, etc, etc... For them it didn't really matter, because they all decided they hated each other after the first tour anyway, but if they had decided to go on as a band, they would be locked in to a 3 or 5 album contract. And probably still owe money.
Josh Sisk
I think the whole point of the guys post is that he _didn't_ want to buy a new TV.
Actually, the way it works is this: The record companies give you an advance AGAINST YOUR FUTURE ROYALTIES. Then they record your album, produce it, etc, and all the cost of this go against your royalties. When you tour, they bill you for your van, your tshirt production, etc, all against your royalties. All advertising and promotion they do for you, they charge you for, again, against your future royalties. They even charge you legal fees for contracts signed, accounting fees for keping track opf record sales, fees for having your records shipped to the music stores, etc.
This way, they are guaranteed money for their services if your album sells at all, since they have already charged you for most of it. And you will most likely receive an insanely small portion of the proceeds from your album. Most "one-hit wonder" bands, bands who sell hundreds of thousands of CDs at $17 bucks a pop, on the books probably still OWE the label.
Not to say they are tortured, starving people.. no, they got a nice advance, got to go on tour, be in a video, have sex with groupies, have fun. BUT, the record label has made far more off their work than they did themselves. Doesn't seem fair to me. Especially when, if the band isn't doing as well, they are kept from going out on their own because a label will demand the band pays them all this money (and records) the band owes them before allowing them to even self-distribute a record.
I think that's true, but I wonder how much they could really cut the cost of CDs. Everyone knows that CDs are cheaper to manufacture than cassettes
There you go. Cassettes cost like $8.99 and they are profitable. CDs cost less to make, but cost nearly twice as much? There's a problem there.
Manufacturing is not the only cost, my friend. Some artists may take a year (or more!) to make an album. Granted, that's not all hardcore 40 hours a week work.
And yet, the artists probably only recieve 1% of the money from their album... if that (unless they are a megastar who has the power to renegotiate their contracts).
However, the U.S. government did (at least if I remeber corectly) pass legislation to make mass market retailers (Wal-Mart, Circuit City) unable to sell CDs for the low,low prices they once did... Because the music industry and regular record shops didn't want the public getting used to those low, low prices.
Right now, in my state at least, I do not know about the rest of the US, is trying to pass similar laws so that Sam's and other retailers can't undercut regular gas stations.
I remeber this being big news a few years ago... It's sucks too, because you used to be able to get CDs at Circuit City for $9.99 that were $15.99 elsewhere... No longer.
But they do have to do with consoles. If you had read all of the above posts, you'd see they were responding to a recommendation that they just go out and buy a Japanese PSX. Which would be difficult, since Japan is NTSC and the UK is PAL.
This will be popular with the same people JAZ is popular with... Graphic/Video/Music design studios... and the companies who print/copy/press their output. If they think the average user wants this, they are dead wrong.
Josh Sisk
Hey, I don't think my computer is powerful enough, either and I use Windows (and Linux). It won't be until I can filter, crop and/or rotate 100mb+ Photoshop files in real time.
Hey, from what I recall of Sonic, it's only the racing levels that are limited to a track... and thats because they are there for fans of the original sonic games.
$199, not $400. And that's at the time of release. The DC dropped to $149, then $99. A good deal for a great game system... I personally never buy more than eight or so games for any console anyway, so I don't really care if they are not making new games. All I _really_ need for any system is : one fighting game, one racing game, one shooter, one space game, one simple, multiplayer "party" game.
The PS2 has a fan, or something... Mine "whirrs", even when there is no disc in the drive. However, it is pretty quiet.
Huh, I thought that was already out, for some reason... Don't really keep up with handhelds as much.
Josh Sisk
The key is at first they take a loss. NOW, after several years, they sell the N64 for a profit. Sony also makes a profit on it's PSOne... Probably especially now that they redesigned it to make it cheaper, smaller and simpler to build. Plus the chips they use for the concoles get obsolete, thus cheaper, as the concole gets older.
Josh Sisk
Bullshit. I've got a copy of MacConnection right here. The cost for Word 2001 (in 2001 dollars) is $360. Gee, that's $10 more than the price you named, not even counting 6 years of inflation. Excel 2001 is also $360. Office 2001 for Mac (which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage) is $449. I'm quite sure the PC prices are just as high.
I just checked Pricewatch... Full PC versions of Office 2001 are listed for around $300, and thats full in box, not OEM copies. Never heard of the vendors, though.
Josh Sisk
Mac OS X.. which only runs on Mac hardware (unless I have missed big news). The poster should have said "there aren't any x86 platform vendors cheaper".
Josh Sisk
X-Box is saying it will have only twenty games
That is a record, I believe
that but Microsoft is having a small problem of signing Gaming teams on board
I don't know where you got this info.. MS has a crap load of teams on board.. even Capcom. And the only one that really matters is EA. If a console has Madden, it will do at least OK. The lack of EA killed Sega, pretty much.
Playstation isn't all that handsome of a price right now but by then you will expect major price cuts (more then the expected $50 - $100 expected at E3 Conference this week)
You think that in 6 months, they will drop the PS2 from $299 to less than $199?! Not bloody likely! $249 at MOST.
Josh Sisk
I will buy a Gamecube just for Mario Kart Cube, if they make it. It will go nice next to my N64 and my only N64 game, Mario Kart 64. That game is crack.
There are lots of multiplayer games that _don't_ focus on either. Alpha Centauri, FreeCiv, Rainbow Six... I'd even say Counter Strike has little to do with luck. Luck might come in to play, as with any game, but if you sit down and play for an hour, the players and team with skill will rise to the top. That and you actually are rewarded for using tactics in CS, as opposed to regular ol' deathmatch.
Josh Sisk