Hmmm... Gamespot disagrees with you: "In the time before E3, many analysts were saying that, as a result of its $149 price drop, the Xbox had begun to outsell the PlayStation 2 in the US American Technology Research analyst P.J. McNealy told CBS Marketwatch that Microsoft's console sold 270,000 units during the month, compared to 200,000 PS2s and 100,000 Nintendo GameCubes." And, guees what? They're looking at the NPD, too.
And frankly, if you don't believe there aren't dev kits out yet, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. This isn't uncommon. To be frank: do you think there aren't Nintendo Revolution dev kits running around at this point. I bet there are.
Think about it this way: Why would Sony show its hand before it has to? I think most of us agree that, at this point, if they don't come up with something truly compelling, MS is going to shoot itself in the foot.
Sony will just let MS continue fumbling its way around in the dark.
I deal with novice users all the time... to them, MS is akin to the embarassing uncle who comes over for Thanksgiving dinner, tells a couple of stupid fart jokes, then unzips his pants and naps on the couch while everyone else cleans up.
It is becoming a joke. Very few people actually respect MS at all.
I do not have a CIO standing over my shoulder telling me what my help desk is to support. I do not have to appease an accountant's driving desire to use something as piss-poor as Access. I don't have to make sure my unit at home is compatible with the one at work. And I don't have to appease anyone's budget or interest other than my own.
C'mon, MS can't even run an ISP or a PVR service and make money - how can you possibly expect them to succeed here?
You're not even comparing apples and oranges - you're comparing apples and humpback whales...
Trust me: if you think there are no PS3 dev kits out there, you are mistaken. Sony's not the new kid on the block... we just have yet to hear of the dev kits. We all know that there are at least kits in-house at Sony and, frankly, I would be shocked if there weren't kits already at Square Enix and Rockstar. Granted, the mom-and-pop developer hasn't heard one thing about development kits, but launch titles have to come from somewhere. And, when you take into account that the PS3 is backwards compatible with the PS2, a developer can get a headstart by developing the bones of the game on the PS2 and then porting it to the PS3 architecture.
And the Xbox sold 70,000 units more than the PS2 in April, not over 100,000.
Remember: NEC tried this sort of thing with the TurboGrafx (add the CD drive to the TurboGrafx CD), Sega tried it with the SegaCD and the things bombed. Are upgrades for an upgradable console something people go after (think the PS2 HDD and the Network Adaptor)? Is it better business just to create a new console?
If a console has no compelling exclusive games, people will not buy it. In terms of the TurboGrafx, it wasn't just compelling software, but also a question of mascots... and Bonk (the caveman) vs. Mario, Link, etc. (on the Nintendo side) vs. Sonic (on the Sega side of things) meant bad things for NEC.
MS is in the same boat as NEC was. No, they don't need a mascot for the console - the PlayStation and PlayStation2 proved that wrong. Nowadays you need compelling franchises, and the Xbox only can build off of Halo and KOTOR right now... and both of those are available in other ways. Whereas you'll have to completely undress to count on your fingers, toes and nether regions to add up all of the compelling franchises the PS2 has on its platform.
SO, using that as the argument's basis: an upgradable platform is nice, it's cool, all of us at/, would humbly approach it and fawn over it and its capability. But if it doesn't have the games that people buy, only the guys interesting in modding it are going to buy it.
Just remember whose father stated he wanted a New World Order back in the early 90's... and that the son has infringed further on our rights than the father ever would have...
No, if we were headed towards communism you would see a movement towards making utilities, etc., public entities.
We are swinging towards the other end of the spectrum: fascism. Many of the things we are fighting now are reminiscent of Germany, Italy and Spain in the 1930's. I laughed off a friend who thought that Newt Gingrich's "Republican revolution" was akin to the Nazi party's election in 1930's Germany... but now, watching what is going on in Washington, I'm not so sure I disagree with him any longer.
Then, I would argue, you have the responsibility (all of us who agree with you, actually, have that responsibility) to inform people. Point them to the article and discuss it.
And, as corny as it sounds, write your elected officials. They are less likely to do something stupid like this if people speak up and let said official know he or she is being watched by a voter. If you don't tell them this is important then they don't care about it at all. But, if you play the "write a letter card" you can play off of two things: 1) hopefully you have an official who actually gives a shit what you think; or, and most likely, 2) their sense of self-preservation and their need to not aggravate voters (especially in election years).
Sunbird has gotten much better recently. The university I am working for is beginning to discuss movements towards Mozilla because Sunbird has gotten so much better in recent months. I suggest you check out a recent build.
I think he's looking for resource management, too. Arguably, Myth II takes a better step in that direction, and it has oodles of mods and player maps out there that have, in some cases, made it a completely different game. However, I still don't think Myth II would fit what this fellow is looking for.
My guess is WarCraft/StarCraft is too simplistic... but it would be cool to see Blizzard create a massive wargame for those franchises.
I'm a tech geek who plays games. I have since I got my Atari 2600 so many years ago. That's why I'm here - I enjoy conversing with people who have a common interest.
However, it strikes me that, since you don't have the firsthand experience of the items we are discussing, you are still trolling. It would be akin to me posting on the Linux sections of/.: I use Mac OS X and other Unix-based systems, so I have some peripheral contact with the subject, but I would still be trolling.
We have pets (three cats and a beagle). Working on the kids thing. Never got into smoking.
Anyhow: That is my point exactly. Why are people so careless with their stuff? I know my GameCube costs half as much now as when I bought it at launch, but, to me, that is still a $200 (plus the value of 22 games) investment. I know I can pick up an Atari 2600 for dirt cheap (unless I want a spiffy, hacked s-video one for $100), but I still make sure that it stays clean.
The Xbox outsold the PS2 for one month in one country, and that was in the country that the Xbox is designed to appeal to. A whole extra 70k worth of units. At that rate, MS should catch up with Sony some time in... 2007 or 2008, or so.
MS should really hope that Sony does hold back on the PS3 launch, huh?
My brother-in-law got his on the day the PS2 launched in the US. My wife and I now own it - and it works just fine. The only enhancement has been the addition of the HDD to play FFXI.
I frankly, don't know what people do to their video game consoles that they break so easily. For chrissakes - my Atari 2600 still works, as does my LaserActive, TubroGrafx, DC, N64...
Clearly, I just have a knack of picking special, non-problematic units.
Now I know what I want for Christmas. I can't read kanji, but the PSX is a nice machine. Slick interface, nice styling. These shots up above are nice...
I can read a book with one hand. Not my preference, but it does work and it really isn't that hard to do. You hold the book with the base of its spine in the palm of your hand (imagine Hamlet holding Yorick's skull) and use your thumb to flip pages.
Oh, be honest: this is sloppy coding. Nintendo has had this card on the table since the GC launch in 2001 - people knew it was coming. Considering there are over 200 games for the GC, and these are the only ones with issues, and the card has been in the console's specs for a while, this is not Nintendo's fault.
Nintendo also plans an SD card adapter for the GC and, again, has been clear about this from the beginning. If something breaks on that one are you going to blame Nintendo again?
And considering that you are speaking out of your ass when it comes to the memory card slots for the PSone, I have to assume one thing: You have no damn clue about the topic we are discussing. Return to lurking under your bridge.
Wait... I use my mother's AOL account for troubleshooting things at my help desk. I can state, most assuredly, that the Mac OS X AOL software works just fine on a broadband connect.
Slashdot Mirror
And frankly, if you don't believe there aren't dev kits out yet, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. This isn't uncommon. To be frank: do you think there aren't Nintendo Revolution dev kits running around at this point. I bet there are.
Think about it this way: Why would Sony show its hand before it has to? I think most of us agree that, at this point, if they don't come up with something truly compelling, MS is going to shoot itself in the foot.
Sony will just let MS continue fumbling its way around in the dark.
It is becoming a joke. Very few people actually respect MS at all.
I do not have a CIO standing over my shoulder telling me what my help desk is to support. I do not have to appease an accountant's driving desire to use something as piss-poor as Access. I don't have to make sure my unit at home is compatible with the one at work. And I don't have to appease anyone's budget or interest other than my own.
C'mon, MS can't even run an ISP or a PVR service and make money - how can you possibly expect them to succeed here?
You're not even comparing apples and oranges - you're comparing apples and humpback whales...
The DC could play Audio CDs, too! :p
Frankly, I think my toaster can play Audio CDs... not such a great feature, now that I think of it...
And the Xbox sold 70,000 units more than the PS2 in April, not over 100,000.
If a console has no compelling exclusive games, people will not buy it. In terms of the TurboGrafx, it wasn't just compelling software, but also a question of mascots... and Bonk (the caveman) vs. Mario, Link, etc. (on the Nintendo side) vs. Sonic (on the Sega side of things) meant bad things for NEC.
MS is in the same boat as NEC was. No, they don't need a mascot for the console - the PlayStation and PlayStation2 proved that wrong. Nowadays you need compelling franchises, and the Xbox only can build off of Halo and KOTOR right now... and both of those are available in other ways. Whereas you'll have to completely undress to count on your fingers, toes and nether regions to add up all of the compelling franchises the PS2 has on its platform.
SO, using that as the argument's basis: an upgradable platform is nice, it's cool, all of us at /, would humbly approach it and fawn over it and its capability. But if it doesn't have the games that people buy, only the guys interesting in modding it are going to buy it.
Just remember whose father stated he wanted a New World Order back in the early 90's... and that the son has infringed further on our rights than the father ever would have...
We are swinging towards the other end of the spectrum: fascism. Many of the things we are fighting now are reminiscent of Germany, Italy and Spain in the 1930's. I laughed off a friend who thought that Newt Gingrich's "Republican revolution" was akin to the Nazi party's election in 1930's Germany... but now, watching what is going on in Washington, I'm not so sure I disagree with him any longer.
And, as corny as it sounds, write your elected officials. They are less likely to do something stupid like this if people speak up and let said official know he or she is being watched by a voter. If you don't tell them this is important then they don't care about it at all. But, if you play the "write a letter card" you can play off of two things: 1) hopefully you have an official who actually gives a shit what you think; or, and most likely, 2) their sense of self-preservation and their need to not aggravate voters (especially in election years).
Utah. He's from Utah.
Click around on the site listed above, though - Commodore is actually making MP3 players. One of them is called the eVic!
Sunbird has gotten much better recently. The university I am working for is beginning to discuss movements towards Mozilla because Sunbird has gotten so much better in recent months. I suggest you check out a recent build.
My guess is WarCraft/StarCraft is too simplistic... but it would be cool to see Blizzard create a massive wargame for those franchises.
Oh, well. There's always Civilization. :)
I'm a tech geek who plays games. I have since I got my Atari 2600 so many years ago. That's why I'm here - I enjoy conversing with people who have a common interest.
However, it strikes me that, since you don't have the firsthand experience of the items we are discussing, you are still trolling. It would be akin to me posting on the Linux sections of /.: I use Mac OS X and other Unix-based systems, so I have some peripheral contact with the subject, but I would still be trolling.
Anyhow: That is my point exactly. Why are people so careless with their stuff? I know my GameCube costs half as much now as when I bought it at launch, but, to me, that is still a $200 (plus the value of 22 games) investment. I know I can pick up an Atari 2600 for dirt cheap (unless I want a spiffy, hacked s-video one for $100), but I still make sure that it stays clean.
Dunno. Maybe it's just me.
Then why are you trolling through the games section? Hmmm?
MS should really hope that Sony does hold back on the PS3 launch, huh?
I frankly, don't know what people do to their video game consoles that they break so easily. For chrissakes - my Atari 2600 still works, as does my LaserActive, TubroGrafx, DC, N64...
Clearly, I just have a knack of picking special, non-problematic units.
Now I know what I want for Christmas. I can't read kanji, but the PSX is a nice machine. Slick interface, nice styling. These shots up above are nice...
Bah. Time to donate some sperm, I guess.
So, you were saying?
And thanks for the link to the SD card adapter - I didn't know it had finally come out (well, okay, out in Japan).
Nintendo also plans an SD card adapter for the GC and, again, has been clear about this from the beginning. If something breaks on that one are you going to blame Nintendo again?
And considering that you are speaking out of your ass when it comes to the memory card slots for the PSone, I have to assume one thing: You have no damn clue about the topic we are discussing. Return to lurking under your bridge.
Read into it what you will, but I assumed he meant (cough)wiping(cough)...
Wait... I use my mother's AOL account for troubleshooting things at my help desk. I can state, most assuredly, that the Mac OS X AOL software works just fine on a broadband connect.
Plus, to be frank, I have way the hell too much karma not to burn right now...