Nintendo's WFC is going to be the most interesting online service. Halo + Live is great but at $6 a month you have to play a lot to make it worthwhile. Compare this with (for example) Timesplitters 4 with strong WFC integration and an excellent map editor, along with the excellent Revolution controller. I can definitely see Revolution taking a huge chunk of the online shooter market. If Nintendo could get the Timesplitters team to make a Revolution-exclusive Goldeneye remake, they'd be set for this generation.
Also, developers would probably prefer developing for WFC over the other options. With X-Box you have to use Live if you want to support online play, and that means that only 10% of X-Box owners will actually play it. Pretty much anyone with a Revolution and an Internet connection will be using WFC, so you'd reach a lot more players.
another extension of the GBA line will be announced to sit alongside the SP and Micro models with new games consisting mainly of updated retro adventures and puzzle titles. I'd be very surprised to see another version of the GBA. The Micro has sold decently and has made a little profit, but I think that Nintendo knows that the SP is about as good as the platform is going to get. It's perfect (especially the new ones with the backlit screens). They'll probably just invest in trying to find ways to make it cheaper.
As for converting non-gamers to the Revolution, all Nintendo has to do is flood the nation's Wal-Marts with nice displays. The controller is just too cool. A fair price and perhaps a bundled game will seal the deal.
I don't see anyone but the most die-hard Banjo-Kazooie fans buying an X-Box 360 just to revisit the platformer. It was really great, but I don't think either BK was as good as Mario 64. They'd probably just wait a few months for Mario Revolution. Halo, KOTOR and the rest are going to sell the consoles. Anyone who wants to play a good platformer would probably just buy a Revolution anyway. It's going to be cheap.
Everyone here is talking about how great X Play is. Am I the only one who doesn't like it? The reviews are amazingly useless. For example, the Nintendogs review went on for about 10 minutes and featured nothing but the same "Chinese people eat dogs, lol!" joke over and over again. They concluded it with, "In the end, this game basically works. 4/5." In the time it took me to watch that I could have read useful reviews for 5 or 6 different games, from competing sources. It's pretty hard to get "deep" about video games in a TV show, but it's only acceptable if the show ends up being entertaining. These jokes are pathetic. That, and the/5 rating system is pointless and rarely corresponds with what they've actually said about the game. They basically said they'd be surprised if anyone ended up enjoying the latest RPG Maker game. Its score? 3/5. That's 60% for something that, in their opinion, is completely unplayable and has terrible graphics.
I seem to remember Totakeke (K.K. Slider) talking about this stuff in the Gamecube version, which was released three years ago. Why wasn't it an issue then?
I usually give to Child Haven International, because I've met the organizers on several occasions and they're very dedicated to helping disadvantaged children.
Later in the year I usually make a small contribution to one geeky project (last year it was mozdev), and to my progressive political party of choice.
My local grocery store carries Irn-Bru. However, it is produced at Canadian factories and contains no caffeine! Loblaws also carries Brio and other tasty-yet-elusive sodas.
A company's response to this issue could make or break a console. We already know Sony's stance. Some solutions?
Charge a monthly fee. Everyone's doing it.
Trade-ins. Mail your discs back to the publisher and get $10 off the next installment. If the disc works, sell it as a Greatest Hit. If it doesn't, toss it in the dump.
Sony-style DRM. This will lead to wide-spread modding (like this isn't already the case with Xbox and PS2), or instant console death.
Make games that people want to keep, and don't sweat it when stuff gets traded around. Try and pick up Gameboy Tetris, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Ocarina of Time, Mario 64 or even Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door or Wario Ware: Mega Party Game$. Okay, eBay, sure, but they are pretty dang hard to find.
I buy way more console games than PC games because it's just so easy to trade games around temporarily. Just find a group of friends with the same consoles, then coordinate your purchases. "Alright, you get Super Mario Strikers and I'll get Double Dash... Then you can lend me Resident Evil 4 for next month and you can borrow Viewtiful Joe." Games are being purchased, developers are making money... what's the problem?
The secret Nintendo details were so much more effective before the PS3 team went into lockdown. Every time the PS3 lost one of its promised features, Nintendo was there to announce something new about Revolution. My guess is that they'll sit on this new announcement until journalists start talking about the PS3 again.
Cablecard will happen as soon as the pay-per-show services (i.e. iTunes, the rumoured Google offering) gain more momentum. Tell people that they can get only their favourite shows commercial-free for $2/hour and cable companies will bend over backwards to claw people back. They know it's coming. That's why they're begging us to get their PVRs now - they're taking a gamble on locking us in, and when that fails they'll start slashing prices and adding features until we turn back to the all-you-can-eat model.
Who says that webcomics have to be "funny"? It's nice to see some serious, dramatic entires pulling ahead of the pack and innovat... Wait, Ctrl-Alt-Delete is...
It's supposed to be funny???
I'm not paying $3 for 5 minutes of powerfully unfunny garbage. There are some realgems out there, but CAD is... well, it's the "Joey" of the webcomics world. It's very important that this animated series venture lose buckets of money. Otherwise, webcomics might turn into American TV.
I live in Canada and I'm regularly carded at EB when I try to buy an M-rated game. This isn't due to any government demand. They just know that they could get in serious trouble in the media if a 14-year-old walked out of there with Manhunt or Mortal Kombat.
So why is it that a pair of boobies gets you closer to AO than cutting a dude in half and watching his hot entrails spill out all over the floor?
Oh, Nintendo is still making bags of money and isn't going out of business. Whew.
Okay, I'm not worried. EA, Ubisoft, Eidos, Blizzard and Rockstar can all bite the dust, for all I care. I'd like it if they spared Arenanet, though. And Nintendo can just buy Free Radical when they get cheap enough.
I am perfectly aware of the fact that I am addicted to video games. However, it doesn't interfere with my work or prevent me from getting out of the house, so I just don't care. I don't drink and I don't smoke (weed or tobacco). Everyone has their vices, right? Mine happens to be Metroid.
I think that the PS3's major obstacle will be making software development easy. Writing software that takes full advantage of the Cell processor is not exactly child's play. I'm sure they'll have some really impressive launch titles but will every 3rd party developer be willing to hire the best/most expensive coders? Short of falling back on strong support from Unreal 3...
Compare this with Xbox 360 (with MS pushing its XNA platform for combined Windows and 360 development) and Revolution (which is essentially a beefier Gamecube).
Cop: "Thanks for handing over your key. You really saved us a lot of work." You: "Don't mention it. Can I see a doctor now?" Cop: "In a minute. First tell me if you're using steganography to hide any other data." You: "I'm not, trust me. Doctor now?" Cop: "Prove it." You: "I can't prove it either way. That's kind of the point of steganography." Cop: "So you want to do it the hard way, eh? Alright. Sergeant, beat him until he tells us all about his hidden filesystems."
1. Nintendo is the most profitable of the big three, despite having the smallest share. 2. One of the reasons that the Gamecube is so dang affordable ($90 retail here in Canada) is because they left out the ability to play DVDs. Those licenses cost money. 3. The "kiddie" market is extremely lucrative, and Nintendo dominates it. Kids harass their parents constantly about toys. Parents have money. Teenagers and college students don't. Did you ever wonder why 90% of your friends' XBoxes and PS2s are modded? 4. If "Clueless Dad" walks into Wal-Mart looking for a console for his kids, he'll find that the cheapest one has about 200 E-rated games. On top of that, "Clueful Dad" will probably know that this cheap console is so durable that his kids will have to work really, really hard to wreck it before the next generation comes out. 5. Were the 'cutesy discs' really a problem? I can only think of a handful of games that needed to span two discs.
I think that Nintendo is working to convert a bit of its "kiddie" image to a "casual" image. The fact of the matter is, Gates didn't get into the console business because of Sony. He did it because he heard Nintendo had these insane 20% profit margins. Now he cries himself to sleep every night because Nintendo still has 20% profit margins and he's losing a mint.
The pay isn't great, but it's something I can do when I have free time, it carries no obligation, plus I can listen to music and chat on Skype/Wengo/TS while I do it.
As I get older, I find my tastes in games changing. When I was a kid, I'd be perfectly happy with good graphics and lots of blood (Doom). In my early teens, I favoured games with great online play and lots of mods (Quake, UT, HL). Now I'm 21 and I want games that:
load quickly
have elegant controls
have great music
can be played for an hour, then set aside for later
and are consistently fun, with low grind
My first thought when I saw the Revolution promo was, "Man, Wario Ware is going to be awesome." This is not a series that is known for fantastic graphics. So, I think Nintendo is going to be okay if they stay just behind the cutting edge in the graphics department. Especially if it lets them seriously undercut MS and Sony.
It seems like Guild Wars is the only thing I post about sometimes.:P But why doesn't GW use/need a program like The Warden? There are no cheats that I know of, apart from exploiting in-game bugs, and even those get fixed within a couple of days. Botters are reported by players, monitored by GMs and then banned. Was Guild Wars just designed better?
Guild Wars is running some really fun Halloween events. Three of the most popular cities have been overhauled for "spookiness." You can also get special Halloween items (Witch's Brew, absinthe, Ghost in a Box and 'squash serum') from the new undead collectors. Also, they're running their first post-launch world event with the return of the Mad King to Lion's Arch. That, and they kinda beat Sony to the "no monthly fees" thing.
Slashdot Mirror
Nintendo's WFC is going to be the most interesting online service. Halo + Live is great but at $6 a month you have to play a lot to make it worthwhile.
Compare this with (for example) Timesplitters 4 with strong WFC integration and an excellent map editor, along with the excellent Revolution controller. I can definitely see Revolution taking a huge chunk of the online shooter market. If Nintendo could get the Timesplitters team to make a Revolution-exclusive Goldeneye remake, they'd be set for this generation.
Also, developers would probably prefer developing for WFC over the other options. With X-Box you have to use Live if you want to support online play, and that means that only 10% of X-Box owners will actually play it. Pretty much anyone with a Revolution and an Internet connection will be using WFC, so you'd reach a lot more players.
another extension of the GBA line will be announced to sit alongside the SP and Micro models with new games consisting mainly of updated retro adventures and puzzle titles.
I'd be very surprised to see another version of the GBA. The Micro has sold decently and has made a little profit, but I think that Nintendo knows that the SP is about as good as the platform is going to get. It's perfect (especially the new ones with the backlit screens). They'll probably just invest in trying to find ways to make it cheaper.
As for converting non-gamers to the Revolution, all Nintendo has to do is flood the nation's Wal-Marts with nice displays. The controller is just too cool. A fair price and perhaps a bundled game will seal the deal.
I don't see anyone but the most die-hard Banjo-Kazooie fans buying an X-Box 360 just to revisit the platformer. It was really great, but I don't think either BK was as good as Mario 64. They'd probably just wait a few months for Mario Revolution. Halo, KOTOR and the rest are going to sell the consoles. Anyone who wants to play a good platformer would probably just buy a Revolution anyway. It's going to be cheap.
Everyone here is talking about how great X Play is. Am I the only one who doesn't like it? /5 rating system is pointless and rarely corresponds with what they've actually said about the game. They basically said they'd be surprised if anyone ended up enjoying the latest RPG Maker game. Its score? 3/5. That's 60% for something that, in their opinion, is completely unplayable and has terrible graphics.
The reviews are amazingly useless. For example, the Nintendogs review went on for about 10 minutes and featured nothing but the same "Chinese people eat dogs, lol!" joke over and over again. They concluded it with, "In the end, this game basically works. 4/5." In the time it took me to watch that I could have read useful reviews for 5 or 6 different games, from competing sources.
It's pretty hard to get "deep" about video games in a TV show, but it's only acceptable if the show ends up being entertaining. These jokes are pathetic.
That, and the
I seem to remember Totakeke (K.K. Slider) talking about this stuff in the Gamecube version, which was released three years ago.
Why wasn't it an issue then?
Conclusion: slow news day. Article = flamebait.
I usually give to Child Haven International, because I've met the organizers on several occasions and they're very dedicated to helping disadvantaged children.
Later in the year I usually make a small contribution to one geeky project (last year it was mozdev), and to my progressive political party of choice.
My local grocery store carries Irn-Bru. However, it is produced at Canadian factories and contains no caffeine!
Loblaws also carries Brio and other tasty-yet-elusive sodas.
Some solutions?
- Charge a monthly fee. Everyone's doing it.
- Trade-ins. Mail your discs back to the publisher and get $10 off the next installment. If the disc works, sell it as a Greatest Hit. If it doesn't, toss it in the dump.
- Sony-style DRM. This will lead to wide-spread modding (like this isn't already the case with Xbox and PS2), or instant console death.
- Make games that people want to keep, and don't sweat it when stuff gets traded around. Try and pick up Gameboy Tetris, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Ocarina of Time, Mario 64 or even Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door or Wario Ware: Mega Party Game$. Okay, eBay, sure, but they are pretty dang hard to find.
I buy way more console games than PC games because it's just so easy to trade games around temporarily. Just find a group of friends with the same consoles, then coordinate your purchases. "Alright, you get Super Mario Strikers and I'll get Double Dash... Then you can lend me Resident Evil 4 for next month and you can borrow Viewtiful Joe." Games are being purchased, developers are making money... what's the problem?The secret Nintendo details were so much more effective before the PS3 team went into lockdown. Every time the PS3 lost one of its promised features, Nintendo was there to announce something new about Revolution.
My guess is that they'll sit on this new announcement until journalists start talking about the PS3 again.
Cablecard will happen as soon as the pay-per-show services (i.e. iTunes, the rumoured Google offering) gain more momentum. Tell people that they can get only their favourite shows commercial-free for $2/hour and cable companies will bend over backwards to claw people back. They know it's coming. That's why they're begging us to get their PVRs now - they're taking a gamble on locking us in, and when that fails they'll start slashing prices and adding features until we turn back to the all-you-can-eat model.
Who says that webcomics have to be "funny"? It's nice to see some serious, dramatic entires pulling ahead of the pack and innovat...
Wait, Ctrl-Alt-Delete is...
It's supposed to be funny???
I'm not paying $3 for 5 minutes of powerfully unfunny garbage. There are some real gems out there, but CAD is... well, it's the "Joey" of the webcomics world. It's very important that this animated series venture lose buckets of money. Otherwise, webcomics might turn into American TV.
I live in Canada and I'm regularly carded at EB when I try to buy an M-rated game. This isn't due to any government demand. They just know that they could get in serious trouble in the media if a 14-year-old walked out of there with Manhunt or Mortal Kombat.
So why is it that a pair of boobies gets you closer to AO than cutting a dude in half and watching his hot entrails spill out all over the floor?
Hold on, hold on, let me check...
Oh, Nintendo is still making bags of money and isn't going out of business. Whew.
Okay, I'm not worried. EA, Ubisoft, Eidos, Blizzard and Rockstar can all bite the dust, for all I care. I'd like it if they spared Arenanet, though. And Nintendo can just buy Free Radical when they get cheap enough.
Anyone else here play X-Men Legends?
Perhaps they're trying to contain Magneto.
40 of those games were produced by Nintendo.. ;)
I am perfectly aware of the fact that I am addicted to video games. However, it doesn't interfere with my work or prevent me from getting out of the house, so I just don't care.
I don't drink and I don't smoke (weed or tobacco). Everyone has their vices, right? Mine happens to be Metroid.
Whatever you say, my friend.
Honourable mention (Wario is not a plumbler).
I think that the PS3's major obstacle will be making software development easy. Writing software that takes full advantage of the Cell processor is not exactly child's play. I'm sure they'll have some really impressive launch titles but will every 3rd party developer be willing to hire the best/most expensive coders?
Short of falling back on strong support from Unreal 3...
Compare this with Xbox 360 (with MS pushing its XNA platform for combined Windows and 360 development) and Revolution (which is essentially a beefier Gamecube).
Gamecube supports progressive scan on some titles. Revolution will be 480p across the board, IIRC.
Cop: "Thanks for handing over your key. You really saved us a lot of work."
You: "Don't mention it. Can I see a doctor now?"
Cop: "In a minute. First tell me if you're using steganography to hide any other data."
You: "I'm not, trust me. Doctor now?"
Cop: "Prove it."
You: "I can't prove it either way. That's kind of the point of steganography."
Cop: "So you want to do it the hard way, eh? Alright. Sergeant, beat him until he tells us all about his hidden filesystems."
Isn't this the point of CD keys? I mean, who in their right mind would buy a used copy of Half-Life, Starcraft, Guild Wars, Neverwinter Nights, etc.?
1. Nintendo is the most profitable of the big three, despite having the smallest share.
2. One of the reasons that the Gamecube is so dang affordable ($90 retail here in Canada) is because they left out the ability to play DVDs. Those licenses cost money.
3. The "kiddie" market is extremely lucrative, and Nintendo dominates it. Kids harass their parents constantly about toys. Parents have money. Teenagers and college students don't. Did you ever wonder why 90% of your friends' XBoxes and PS2s are modded?
4. If "Clueless Dad" walks into Wal-Mart looking for a console for his kids, he'll find that the cheapest one has about 200 E-rated games. On top of that, "Clueful Dad" will probably know that this cheap console is so durable that his kids will have to work really, really hard to wreck it before the next generation comes out.
5. Were the 'cutesy discs' really a problem? I can only think of a handful of games that needed to span two discs.
I think that Nintendo is working to convert a bit of its "kiddie" image to a "casual" image. The fact of the matter is, Gates didn't get into the console business because of Sony. He did it because he heard Nintendo had these insane 20% profit margins. Now he cries himself to sleep every night because Nintendo still has 20% profit margins and he's losing a mint.
The pay isn't great, but it's something I can do when I have free time, it carries no obligation, plus I can listen to music and chat on Skype/Wengo/TS while I do it.
Now I'm 21 and I want games that:
My first thought when I saw the Revolution promo was, "Man, Wario Ware is going to be awesome." This is not a series that is known for fantastic graphics.
So, I think Nintendo is going to be okay if they stay just behind the cutting edge in the graphics department. Especially if it lets them seriously undercut MS and Sony.
It seems like Guild Wars is the only thing I post about sometimes. :P
But why doesn't GW use/need a program like The Warden? There are no cheats that I know of, apart from exploiting in-game bugs, and even those get fixed within a couple of days.
Botters are reported by players, monitored by GMs and then banned.
Was Guild Wars just designed better?
Guild Wars is running some really fun Halloween events. Three of the most popular cities have been overhauled for "spookiness." You can also get special Halloween items (Witch's Brew, absinthe, Ghost in a Box and 'squash serum') from the new undead collectors.
Also, they're running their first post-launch world event with the return of the Mad King to Lion's Arch.
That, and they kinda beat Sony to the "no monthly fees" thing.