If sony plays this right, esp. with future support from EA's sports line.
You must've misread something: Sony's service and EA's service are totally seperate. Even though the PS2 is the only console EA is supporting, the service Sony is launching is only for their 980 sports line, and won't support EA's games.
EA won't farm out their multiplayer to any other company unless they can get a lot of customer data at a lower cost than they have when hosting it themselves, so you're not likely to see them working with anyone else's service any time soon. The fact that MS requires anyone offering online play to use Live just means that EA's games will never be online on the XBox (because MS won't give EA customer data, and if you see EA games on Live at some point in the future, it means that MS gave in and gave them this data, or EA's had a complete change of heart somewhere about selling customer information).
One of the points you seem to have missed, though, is the difference in the amounts he's dealing with. You buy in bulk you get a better price, but first you have to afford to buy in bulk (and store the bulk, which really isn't much of a problem with virtual goods). Additionally, the point made on buying characters and then selling their items, because a character's price may increase due to the items they have, but will never match what you can get for the items individually from individual buyers (or you can use the items in tandem with other items or in bulk to trade up to more profitable items).
Even at a lower level, where I was not making any real money, it was fairly easy in Diablo 2 to take a character up to about lvl 30 and horde gems and skulls then trade pskulls and chips for high level items that are worth far more to me than the pskulls or chips were, then the high level items could also be traded up if they were specific items in high demand. The other key is that someone in it for the trade rather than for buffing their characters will often be more willing to sell at a lower-than-average (though not too much lower) price, which means you can turn things around fairly quickly while still making a profit. One of the things that helped me greatly in Diablo 2 trading was the fact that I tend to build my characters in a different manner from most of the people trading items (or putting high demand on certain items) so that although certain high-level/demand items are important to me, many of them are not, but can easily bring in large numbers of items that are worth more to me (or that can be traded for items that are worth more to me).
Of course, in Diablo 2 anyway, you can spend a great deal of time dealing with traders and not getting exactly what you're looking for, which is why E-Bay and such probably do pretty well for people willing to put out real money for this stuff.
The only FF game I've ever played on PC without emulation, FFVII was a terrible port. The game looked and felt far better on PSX. People with more advanced graphics cards often got truly bizarre video behavior, making it clear that no attempt whatsoever was made to use direct3d in a compliant fashion.
That's because there was no attempt to use Direct3D at all in the original port of FFVII. Until 3dfx was pretty much dead, it was glide only. The game looked much better on a 3dfx card than it ever did on a PS1. That being said, it was a terrible port in that it was very limited on what hardware it worked with well.
Amusingly the game shipped with a wordperfect-esque cardboard template meant to go around your number pad to show you which gamepad functions were carried out by which buttons.
I don't remember that, but I do remember having several of those things at the time, as they came with a lot of games back in the mid-/late- 90s.
Anyone know when the Xbox Controller HID Driver for Windows is supposed to support the Controller S? I have TWO controller Ses now, and none of the originals. I have large hands and want one of the old ones, but I have NEVER seen one used and I visit used video game stores fairly frequently looking for them. I just got an Xbox Controller S used from a thrift store for $9.50 (ouch) and it turned out to have a broken cable (OUCH) which I fixed. It was also missing the pigtail but I got a couple of those for a buck a piece a while back. One of them is now my Xbox -> USB pigtail, which does me no good because the homebrew HID drivers don't support Controller S.
I wasn't aware of the HID drivers, but since I don't use the Controller S, I don't have to worry about that anyway, Guess it's time for me to look for that driver. I'm guessing you won't see too many used original controllers because they've been shipping the console with the S for a while now, and most people that bought the original controller did so because they didn't want to use the S.
My question is, does anyone know if the Logitech wireless controller is worth buying? It seems like a hell of a lot of money for a controller that could only, at best, live up to the Wavebird's flawless operation, and the Wavebird cost half as much (hence I have 3 Wavebirds and no wireless XBox controllers, though admittedly I don't really need a wireless XBox controller, whereas I couldn't use the controller for the GC without sitting on the floor). Any good wireless controllers for the PS2?
1974 Entered coin-operated videogame market through acquisition of Atari (Japan) Corp. from Atari Corp. of the U.S.
1990
Namco America Inc. began direct sales of coin-operated games in the U.S. and acquired Atari Operations Inc. to commence amusement arcade operations in the U.S. Established Namco Hometek Inc. as a U.S. distribution base for home videogame software.
They didn't buy the name afaik, but they definitely bought assets that were needed to become a major US arcade operator (since they had no previous US arcade operations).
Yeah, I'm sure it did, and I wish I had known about it at the time, because I would've loved to get my hands on one of those bonus discs. Unfortunately, I got Zelda quite a bit after it was released, when I bought my gamecube. I got Metroid about a month beforehand because I found it new for $20 and had planned to wait for the GB Player release (until I found out that you give up the free game for the free GB Player, and Zelda still hasn't come down in price at most stores).
I'm not really sure what Namco does in this group at all, and I'm pretty much indifferent to them. Don't remember ever playing one of their games
Most recently they've been doing fighting games, Tekken and Soul Calibur are Namco franchises. Namco goes pretty far back, though, buying Atari (Japan) from Atari US back in the 70's and releasing arcade games such as Galaga, Galaxian, Pac-Man, Pole Position, and Xevious (Namco didn't sell coin-op arcade machines directly in the US until the 90's, so most of these games aren't normally associated with them here, Pac-Man, for instance, was distributed by Midway in the US). During the 90's they acquired Atari's arcade division and Aladdin's Castle Inc., which made them the largest arcade operator in the US.
Also made Ridge Racer for the PS1, and Ridge Racer V for the PS2. They're also currently working with Nintendo on a couple of titles (Donkey Kong Racer and Star Fox), and they were rumoured to have been involved with Square and Enix before the SquareEnix merger.
http://www.namco.co.jp/eg/history.html has most of the above and a bit more (like the information on their various Japanese amusement parks).
However, if its of any worth, my own experience still holds--that magazines and fans seemed if not hostile, at least skeptical, which, though entirely unquantifiable, probably had an adverse effect and turned its ultimate success down a few notches.
Oh, I have no doubt about that. It's quite possible that they could have sold half as many copies of Zelda as they have GameCubes, or maybe even more (as it is they've sold maybe one copy of Zelda for every 9 GCs, or maybe 1 in 8). Unfortunately, some people (myself included) don't like the cel-shaded graphics. Some people (again myself included) get over it and either like the game or don't based on gameplay. Others just don't bother even giving it a try.
I also wouldn't be surprised if the long term sales weren't as good as the pre-sales promised. After all, the presales were ~600,000 units, which is about half of their total sales. Still, I think in the longer term they'll continue to do well, even if not as well as the Pokemon titles on the GBA.
and cartoons in the US are mostly made for kids. The difference is that the Japanese are not afraid to make anime with adult themes without toning it down just because it's animated, whereas in the US if a cartoon goes even just a little overboard, people freak out.
Then again, I saw an interview with one manga artist who said the reason he drew tentacle porn was because his art wouldn't have been published if the women/girls were having sex with humans.
No, unfortunately, I have to go on what a good friend tells me. The only way I could go to Japan at the moment would be if work sent me, which would mean I'd spend most of my time working, rather than watching Japanese television... He, on the other hand, goes with his girlfriend to see her family on a fairly regular basis.
Actually, the statement you quoted makes it pretty clear what's going on.
Rare isn't developing Nintendo games any more. Nintendo owns the rights to most of the titles/characters/etc that were used in games Rare made for the Nintendo systems. Nintendo is now working on games internally and has other companies working on games in those series which Rare previously developed.
But the cynical kiddy outlook probably did its damage and stopped most from even giving it a chance, since I heard it hasn't sold well.
heh, I hope that was a joke, since they've sold over a million of them in the US alone, and topped the sales charts in Japan, the US, and the UK within a week of release. Not to mention breaking the record for pre-orders set by Vice City.
But you have a point. Its amusing how the Western "violence and power over people is macho" is perceived by many people as mature - see most films, hip hop/rap music etc. Its all about attempting to force `respect` via violence/threats, rather than earning it. I guess its an instant-gratification thing, like the quest for fat-reduction pills and surgery, rather than eating the right food and excercising.
Regardless of your feelings for anime, at least you admitted he has a point. Look at it this way: even though the Japanese tend to have a much more open atmosphere as far as allowing their children to be exposed to sex and violence, most anime isn't intended for children in Japan, and it is often on prime time or late nite television.
I think another point is that even though the ratings on both video games and movies were put in place to 'protect children' or inform their parents in regards to content, over time the movie ratings have been interpreted by some people as what is proper for those age ranges rather than just being guidelines. Many children, once they reach the latter part of their pre-teen years, want to be viewed as more mature, and therefore gravitate towards games, movies, and music that is considered more mature by their peers, in other words, they like it because someone thinks they shouldn't be listening/watching/playing it, rather than because it's actually good.
Then again, what do I know? According to the TV Daredevil's the must-see DVD of the summer.
ok, under this new rule I declare the affinity for GTA as cool as childish, as is Beavis & Butthead, and South Park.
Doesn't mean I don't like the above-mentioned items, just that they appeal to me in a childish manner, and appeal equally to my girl-friend's 9 year-old half-brother because they're 'cool' and he's not supposed to play/watch them.
I think the real problem is that the biggest market for games tends to be the teen-to-early-20s, where a lot of people are more worried about appearance than reality. Hell, I had a 9 year old looking down at a good portion of my game collection because it was either 'for kids' or 'boring' (the latter being the large number of RPGs, the former being the Nintendo titles he already has and played through at least once). All he wanted to play was GTA because that's what kids think is cool.
I have a PS2 for RPGs and Tekken primarily, and bought GTA3 and Vice City because I occasionally enjoy them. I also bought GT3 for it because it's simply the best racing game I've played to date. I have an XBox primarily for Halo and have bought a handful of titles for it, both exclusives and multi-console titles, and find that the multi-console titles are usually best on it, so I'm not disappointed (and I'll probably buy KOTOR this weekend, as it seems to be the 2nd must-have title for the XBox, and given that it's both Star Wars and the 1st well-received exclusive (until it comes out on PC) RPG on the system, it obviously appeals to me). The GC is simply the system I've bought the most games for recently, and that I've played the most since I bought it. Part of that is because I bought it recently, and am playing catchup buying older titles, but another part of it seems to be that the games are just fun without having to put a lot of time into them, which means I can play a game without having to have a lot of spare time (ie all of those RPGs on the PS2 that I usually play on the weekends and often don't touch all week). Also, it helps that I haven't had a Nintendo console since the NES, and there's a good amount of nostalgia involved with Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc. without having gone through it all with the 2 systems between then and now. Oh, and that Game Boy Player with Wario Ware and Castlevania.
In 2001 the average age of a PS2 gamer was 22/23, whereas the average age of a PS1 gamer in 2000 was 17. The age difference is mostly attributed to the price difference between the two consoles. So, if you factor in PC gamers, where the cost most definitely increases, you could very well end up with an average age of 29, though given that car sims aren't very popular on the PC, this is probably a bad idea to figure it in. However, GT and GT2 are both in the top 10 on the PS1 (Lifetime sales), and GT3 is in the top 10 on the PS2. The only other series with titles on both lists are Tony Hawk and Final Fantasy. Still, the average ages of the consoles where GT sells the best are old enough to drive in the US, so it still makes sense. I bought my first car when I was 20, and still own it today (5 years later, almost paid off), but I've never played a game that I feel accurately models the car, so maybe they're just generally hoping that their cars are modelled favourably (mine is not).
Intuitiveness # Of, relating to, or arising from intuition. # Known or perceived through intuition. See Synonyms at instinctive. # Possessing or demonstrating intuition
The intuitiveness of that particular operating system interface is fairly low.
unclethursday pretty much handled the second part well enough, so I won't repeat what's already been said.
You aren't too good with hardware since it was pretty easy to use the network adaptor with PSO for Dreamcast.
I wouldn't know, because I have never seen the network adapter for the DreamCast available in a store and did not buy PSO for the DC. I'm simply repeating what I had heard, which may very well have been incorrect (and I even prefaced it with 'I had heard').
I believe that buying the network adapters for the other systems would at least increase the number of users that own the adapters by 1, which would at least show that there's 1 more person out there that wants to play online or LAN games. If it only influences Nintendo and Sony to continue selling them as add-ons, then I've made the wrong choice, but then there really is no right choice. The XBox, on the other hand, already has a network adapter, so it's really just a matter of when I want to start a subscription, which will only happen when I have a number of games that I want to play online (and which have the capability of being played online). It doesn't matter how many online titles there are for a console, if I do not own a single title that can be used online. Charging me a subscription simply means that I will make sure I have enough titles to justify that subscription before paying it.
All of that being said, I know plenty of people that are actively using XBox Live, and enjoy it a great deal. That means I have no shortage of people I know to play games with online, but then my game choices don't really overlap with their choices.
Dictionary of computers, multimedia, and the internet;) Found through onelook.com
In other words, immersive was made up pretty much for describing computer use, by people that probably wanted a word that didn't sound as bad as some of the alternatives that come up when looking up immersion, or something that better described what they wanted to portray than engrossing or absorbing.
Intuitivity, on the other hand, I've never heard before. It reminds me of people that use orientated a lot when oriented makes as much sense.
A gamecube adapter is quite a bit cheaper than XBox Live, and if I buy Live today and don't use it then I have to renew the subscription later if I do have games I want to play on it.
On the other hand, if I buy an adapter for the GC and PS2, the only way it costs me anything in the future is if the game I want to play has a subscription cost.
Stop putting words in my mouth, I said there are no games I want to play on Live, I said nothing about games on the GC. A $15-20 adapter doesn't mean much compared to a $50 subscription, especially when I already paid $50 less for the GameCube than I did for the XBox.
I'm such a friggin fanboy, I didn't even own the GameCube until a couple months ago, and have a DC, XBox, and PS2 on top of that. Hell, I own more PS2 games than games for any of the other 3 consoles (though I own more PS1 games than PS2 games, and the DC and GC come close to the PS2).
No one has many (if any) online games that I want to play. The subscription on the XBox means that I won't buy in until I have a number of games I want to play. The PS2 and GC just don't have any (again, that I want to play) at the moment, but I'd like to at least have the hardware when (if) they come along.
PSO really interested me when it came out for the DC, but then I heard that it didn't support the network adapter, and I couldn't buy the network adapter anyway, so I've never played the game. If I were to buy PSO, though, I'd probably follow nearly the same formula I follow for every other multi-console game I've bought in the last 7 months: look at it on all systems and buy on XBox unless there was a compelling reason to buy it elsewhere. In fact, this is the only reason I own anywhere near as many XBox games as I do games for any other system.
The only reason I don't have XBox Live is because I have no games I wish to play on it, and since it's a subscription-based system, I won't buy it until I will use it.
The only reason I don't have the PS2 network adapter is because I have trouble finding it without buying a whole new PS2 (I see plenty of the bundled ones, though).
The only reason I don't have the Gamecube network adapter is because I can't find one in a store near me (I have seen the dial-up adapter, though).
That being said, neither the PS2 nor the GameCube has any more games that I want to play online than the XBox (or at least, games that can play online that I want to play, there're plenty of games I'd like to play online that just don't have online capability).
And you only mentioned the RAM aspect. I was looking at the overall. You lose ROM with the Gamecube disc. Good-bye assets. And how is the backup data storage doing?
I only mentioned the RAM aspect because ROM isn't even remotely an issue when it comes to developing a game. At best, there would be complaints about the higher cost of developing a 2-disc title, when in reality there's already a higher cost involved in developing the content to fill more than 1.8 GB of space. How many of the titles on XBox and PS2 actually use the full space of the DVD? GT3 wasn't even a launch title in Japan, yet it was the first PS2 game to even use DVD at all (the previous titles as well as many of the US launch titles used CDs). As time progressed, most have moved to using DVD, but it has hardly been a necessity to go over the size of a GameCube disc for the vast majority of titles, even with large amounts of pre-rendered video and full CD-quality soundtracks.
Its a fact, some third parties are dropping support for the Gamecube (see Sega Sports as one example) because it is harder to work with and returns less in $. They couldn't ship any of the 2k3 series without crashes due mostly to hardware limitations, then announced its not worth it. No 2k4 for you.
If it was the most powerful you wouldn't hear these complaints.
Can you cite any press releases stating the GameCube being less powerful is the reason they (or anyone else) have dropped the GameCube? The reason I've usually seen stated is that the titles don't sell as well on the GameCube. In fact, when Sega announced they were dropping the Sega Sports line from the GameCube, they pledged to continue support with their entertainment titles (Sonic, Super Monkey Ball, etc) which do quite well on the cube. http://www.gamepro.com/nintendo/gamecube/ga mes/new s/28463.shtml (EA pledges 20 games for the Cube over the next year) http://www.gamepro.com/gamepro/financial/ga mes/new s/28287.shtml (THQ axes 20 externally developed titles, 1/3rd of which were cube games) http://www.gamepro.com/nintendo/gamecube/g ames/new s/28146.shtml (Sega drops Sega Sports from Cube, pledges 'entertainment' titles) http://www.gamerfeed.com/index.php?story= 3636 (Acclaim drops Cube, but maintains all currently in-development Cube titles)
The only way you would lose any of that with a GameCube port of a game that's been released on the PS2 is if the developer crammed the PS2's non-video RAM full of data and code. The 4MB of video RAM in the PS2 is certainly not going to require either of the other systems to cut back on the textures (and the throughput on the PS2 isn't high enough to make a difference in graphics quality either).
The XBox can do higher quality graphics if you have a higher resolution display (ie HDTV), but at the basic television resolution you're not likely to see much difference on a well ported game (until you get to the PS2 version, which will look worse than either unless it was a quick port from the PS2 to the other 2 consoles).
And, while RE and RE0 sold well, Eternal Darkness didn't. Which is unfortunate, as it's a great game
I just picked up Eternal Darkness last week for $14, new.
I'm waiting to see if they're going to release the full RE pack (all of the titles in one set) like they did in Japan before I pick up any RE titles on the GC. I figure if I can pick up that, Soul Calibur 2, and a couple of other titles, I might be able to put my DreamCast away.
Additionally, DVD currently has 70% of the video market, meaning that most people that want a DVD player already have one. I don't want to watch DVDs on my PS2, hell, at this point I don't even want to play PS1 games on the thing, because from all accounts the PS2 could die on me next week and I'd be completely SOL for all 3 uses. Time to pick up a PSOne and another DVD player to make sure the PS2 will last long enough for the next price drop.
but the point is that even if it's slightly misleading, Nintendo would've gotten credit for higher sales in a previous quarter if stores were holding a lot of stock that they weren't selling, and only needed 80,000 more units. Somewhere along the line it all evens out, until the cubes stop selling, at which point Nintendo ends up having to pick up the overstock or slash the prices and refund retailers (who might slash the prices on their own to dump overstock otherwise).
Slashdot Mirror
If sony plays this right, esp. with future support from EA's sports line.
You must've misread something:
Sony's service and EA's service are totally seperate. Even though the PS2 is the only console EA is supporting, the service Sony is launching is only for their 980 sports line, and won't support EA's games.
EA won't farm out their multiplayer to any other company unless they can get a lot of customer data at a lower cost than they have when hosting it themselves, so you're not likely to see them working with anyone else's service any time soon. The fact that MS requires anyone offering online play to use Live just means that EA's games will never be online on the XBox (because MS won't give EA customer data, and if you see EA games on Live at some point in the future, it means that MS gave in and gave them this data, or EA's had a complete change of heart somewhere about selling customer information).
One of the points you seem to have missed, though, is the difference in the amounts he's dealing with. You buy in bulk you get a better price, but first you have to afford to buy in bulk (and store the bulk, which really isn't much of a problem with virtual goods). Additionally, the point made on buying characters and then selling their items, because a character's price may increase due to the items they have, but will never match what you can get for the items individually from individual buyers (or you can use the items in tandem with other items or in bulk to trade up to more profitable items).
Even at a lower level, where I was not making any real money, it was fairly easy in Diablo 2 to take a character up to about lvl 30 and horde gems and skulls then trade pskulls and chips for high level items that are worth far more to me than the pskulls or chips were, then the high level items could also be traded up if they were specific items in high demand. The other key is that someone in it for the trade rather than for buffing their characters will often be more willing to sell at a lower-than-average (though not too much lower) price, which means you can turn things around fairly quickly while still making a profit. One of the things that helped me greatly in Diablo 2 trading was the fact that I tend to build my characters in a different manner from most of the people trading items (or putting high demand on certain items) so that although certain high-level/demand items are important to me, many of them are not, but can easily bring in large numbers of items that are worth more to me (or that can be traded for items that are worth more to me).
Of course, in Diablo 2 anyway, you can spend a great deal of time dealing with traders and not getting exactly what you're looking for, which is why E-Bay and such probably do pretty well for people willing to put out real money for this stuff.
The only FF game I've ever played on PC without emulation, FFVII was a terrible port. The game looked and felt far better on PSX. People with more advanced graphics cards often got truly bizarre video behavior, making it clear that no attempt whatsoever was made to use direct3d in a compliant fashion.
That's because there was no attempt to use Direct3D at all in the original port of FFVII. Until 3dfx was pretty much dead, it was glide only. The game looked much better on a 3dfx card than it ever did on a PS1. That being said, it was a terrible port in that it was very limited on what hardware it worked with well.
Amusingly the game shipped with a wordperfect-esque cardboard template meant to go around your number pad to show you which gamepad functions were carried out by which buttons.
I don't remember that, but I do remember having several of those things at the time, as they came with a lot of games back in the mid-/late- 90s.
Anyone know when the Xbox Controller HID Driver for Windows is supposed to support the Controller S? I have TWO controller Ses now, and none of the originals. I have large hands and want one of the old ones, but I have NEVER seen one used and I visit used video game stores fairly frequently looking for them. I just got an Xbox Controller S used from a thrift store for $9.50 (ouch) and it turned out to have a broken cable (OUCH) which I fixed. It was also missing the pigtail but I got a couple of those for a buck a piece a while back. One of them is now my Xbox -> USB pigtail, which does me no good because the homebrew HID drivers don't support Controller S.
I wasn't aware of the HID drivers, but since I don't use the Controller S, I don't have to worry about that anyway, Guess it's time for me to look for that driver. I'm guessing you won't see too many used original controllers because they've been shipping the console with the S for a while now, and most people that bought the original controller did so because they didn't want to use the S.
My question is, does anyone know if the Logitech wireless controller is worth buying? It seems like a hell of a lot of money for a controller that could only, at best, live up to the Wavebird's flawless operation, and the Wavebird cost half as much (hence I have 3 Wavebirds and no wireless XBox controllers, though admittedly I don't really need a wireless XBox controller, whereas I couldn't use the controller for the GC without sitting on the floor). Any good wireless controllers for the PS2?
From the site I referenced in my previous post:
1974 Entered coin-operated videogame market through acquisition of Atari (Japan) Corp. from Atari Corp. of the U.S.
1990
Namco America Inc. began direct sales of coin-operated games in the U.S. and acquired Atari Operations Inc. to commence amusement arcade operations in the U.S. Established Namco Hometek Inc. as a U.S. distribution base for home videogame software.
They didn't buy the name afaik, but they definitely bought assets that were needed to become a major US arcade operator (since they had no previous US arcade operations).
Yeah, I'm sure it did, and I wish I had known about it at the time, because I would've loved to get my hands on one of those bonus discs. Unfortunately, I got Zelda quite a bit after it was released, when I bought my gamecube. I got Metroid about a month beforehand because I found it new for $20 and had planned to wait for the GB Player release (until I found out that you give up the free game for the free GB Player, and Zelda still hasn't come down in price at most stores).
I'm not really sure what Namco does in this group at all, and I'm pretty much indifferent to them. Don't remember ever playing one of their games
Most recently they've been doing fighting games, Tekken and Soul Calibur are Namco franchises. Namco goes pretty far back, though, buying Atari (Japan) from Atari US back in the 70's and releasing arcade games such as Galaga, Galaxian, Pac-Man, Pole Position, and Xevious (Namco didn't sell coin-op arcade machines directly in the US until the 90's, so most of these games aren't normally associated with them here, Pac-Man, for instance, was distributed by Midway in the US). During the 90's they acquired Atari's arcade division and Aladdin's Castle Inc., which made them the largest arcade operator in the US.
Also made Ridge Racer for the PS1, and Ridge Racer V for the PS2. They're also currently working with Nintendo on a couple of titles (Donkey Kong Racer and Star Fox), and they were rumoured to have been involved with Square and Enix before the SquareEnix merger.
http://www.namco.co.jp/eg/history.html
has most of the above and a bit more (like the information on their various Japanese amusement parks).
However, if its of any worth, my own experience still holds--that magazines and fans seemed if not hostile, at least skeptical, which, though entirely unquantifiable, probably had an adverse effect and turned its ultimate success down a few notches.
Oh, I have no doubt about that. It's quite possible that they could have sold half as many copies of Zelda as they have GameCubes, or maybe even more (as it is they've sold maybe one copy of Zelda for every 9 GCs, or maybe 1 in 8). Unfortunately, some people (myself included) don't like the cel-shaded graphics. Some people (again myself included) get over it and either like the game or don't based on gameplay. Others just don't bother even giving it a try.
I also wouldn't be surprised if the long term sales weren't as good as the pre-sales promised. After all, the presales were ~600,000 units, which is about half of their total sales. Still, I think in the longer term they'll continue to do well, even if not as well as the Pokemon titles on the GBA.
and cartoons in the US are mostly made for kids. The difference is that the Japanese are not afraid to make anime with adult themes without toning it down just because it's animated, whereas in the US if a cartoon goes even just a little overboard, people freak out.
Then again, I saw an interview with one manga artist who said the reason he drew tentacle porn was because his art wouldn't have been published if the women/girls were having sex with humans.
No, unfortunately, I have to go on what a good friend tells me. The only way I could go to Japan at the moment would be if work sent me, which would mean I'd spend most of my time working, rather than watching Japanese television... He, on the other hand, goes with his girlfriend to see her family on a fairly regular basis.
Actually, the statement you quoted makes it pretty clear what's going on.
Rare isn't developing Nintendo games any more. Nintendo owns the rights to most of the titles/characters/etc that were used in games Rare made for the Nintendo systems. Nintendo is now working on games internally and has other companies working on games in those series which Rare previously developed.
But the cynical kiddy outlook probably did its damage and stopped most from even giving it a chance, since I heard it hasn't sold well.
heh, I hope that was a joke, since they've sold over a million of them in the US alone, and topped the sales charts in Japan, the US, and the UK within a week of release. Not to mention breaking the record for pre-orders set by Vice City.
Ugh. Anime sucks.
But you have a point. Its amusing how the Western "violence and power over people is macho" is perceived by many people as mature - see most films, hip hop/rap music etc. Its all about attempting to force `respect` via violence/threats, rather than earning it. I guess its an instant-gratification thing, like the quest for fat-reduction pills and surgery, rather than eating the right food and excercising.
Regardless of your feelings for anime, at least you admitted he has a point. Look at it this way: even though the Japanese tend to have a much more open atmosphere as far as allowing their children to be exposed to sex and violence, most anime isn't intended for children in Japan, and it is often on prime time or late nite television.
I think another point is that even though the ratings on both video games and movies were put in place to 'protect children' or inform their parents in regards to content, over time the movie ratings have been interpreted by some people as what is proper for those age ranges rather than just being guidelines. Many children, once they reach the latter part of their pre-teen years, want to be viewed as more mature, and therefore gravitate towards games, movies, and music that is considered more mature by their peers, in other words, they like it because someone thinks they shouldn't be listening/watching/playing it, rather than because it's actually good.
Then again, what do I know? According to the TV Daredevil's the must-see DVD of the summer.
ok, under this new rule I declare the affinity for GTA as cool as childish, as is Beavis & Butthead, and South Park.
Doesn't mean I don't like the above-mentioned items, just that they appeal to me in a childish manner, and appeal equally to my girl-friend's 9 year-old half-brother because they're 'cool' and he's not supposed to play/watch them.
I think the real problem is that the biggest market for games tends to be the teen-to-early-20s, where a lot of people are more worried about appearance than reality. Hell, I had a 9 year old looking down at a good portion of my game collection because it was either 'for kids' or 'boring' (the latter being the large number of RPGs, the former being the Nintendo titles he already has and played through at least once). All he wanted to play was GTA because that's what kids think is cool.
I have a PS2 for RPGs and Tekken primarily, and bought GTA3 and Vice City because I occasionally enjoy them. I also bought GT3 for it because it's simply the best racing game I've played to date. I have an XBox primarily for Halo and have bought a handful of titles for it, both exclusives and multi-console titles, and find that the multi-console titles are usually best on it, so I'm not disappointed (and I'll probably buy KOTOR this weekend, as it seems to be the 2nd must-have title for the XBox, and given that it's both Star Wars and the 1st well-received exclusive (until it comes out on PC) RPG on the system, it obviously appeals to me). The GC is simply the system I've bought the most games for recently, and that I've played the most since I bought it. Part of that is because I bought it recently, and am playing catchup buying older titles, but another part of it seems to be that the games are just fun without having to put a lot of time into them, which means I can play a game without having to have a lot of spare time (ie all of those RPGs on the PS2 that I usually play on the weekends and often don't touch all week). Also, it helps that I haven't had a Nintendo console since the NES, and there's a good amount of nostalgia involved with Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc. without having gone through it all with the 2 systems between then and now. Oh, and that Game Boy Player with Wario Ware and Castlevania.
In 2001 the average age of a PS2 gamer was 22/23, whereas the average age of a PS1 gamer in 2000 was 17. The age difference is mostly attributed to the price difference between the two consoles. So, if you factor in PC gamers, where the cost most definitely increases, you could very well end up with an average age of 29, though given that car sims aren't very popular on the PC, this is probably a bad idea to figure it in. However, GT and GT2 are both in the top 10 on the PS1 (Lifetime sales), and GT3 is in the top 10 on the PS2. The only other series with titles on both lists are Tony Hawk and Final Fantasy. Still, the average ages of the consoles where GT sells the best are old enough to drive in the US, so it still makes sense. I bought my first car when I was 20, and still own it today (5 years later, almost paid off), but I've never played a game that I feel accurately models the car, so maybe they're just generally hoping that their cars are modelled favourably (mine is not).
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=intuitive ness
Intuitiveness
# Of, relating to, or arising from intuition.
# Known or perceived through intuition. See Synonyms at instinctive.
# Possessing or demonstrating intuition
The intuitiveness of that particular operating system interface is fairly low.
unclethursday pretty much handled the second part well enough, so I won't repeat what's already been said.
You aren't too good with hardware since it was pretty easy to use the network adaptor with PSO for Dreamcast.
I wouldn't know, because I have never seen the network adapter for the DreamCast available in a store and did not buy PSO for the DC. I'm simply repeating what I had heard, which may very well have been incorrect (and I even prefaced it with 'I had heard').
I believe that buying the network adapters for the other systems would at least increase the number of users that own the adapters by 1, which would at least show that there's 1 more person out there that wants to play online or LAN games. If it only influences Nintendo and Sony to continue selling them as add-ons, then I've made the wrong choice, but then there really is no right choice. The XBox, on the other hand, already has a network adapter, so it's really just a matter of when I want to start a subscription, which will only happen when I have a number of games that I want to play online (and which have the capability of being played online). It doesn't matter how many online titles there are for a console, if I do not own a single title that can be used online. Charging me a subscription simply means that I will make sure I have enough titles to justify that subscription before paying it.
All of that being said, I know plenty of people that are actively using XBox Live, and enjoy it a great deal. That means I have no shortage of people I know to play games with online, but then my game choices don't really overlap with their choices.
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/co mputers/data/m0051086.html
;) Found through onelook.com
Dictionary of computers, multimedia, and the internet
In other words, immersive was made up pretty much for describing computer use, by people that probably wanted a word that didn't sound as bad as some of the alternatives that come up when looking up immersion, or something that better described what they wanted to portray than engrossing or absorbing.
Intuitivity, on the other hand, I've never heard before. It reminds me of people that use orientated a lot when oriented makes as much sense.
A gamecube adapter is quite a bit cheaper than XBox Live, and if I buy Live today and don't use it then I have to renew the subscription later if I do have games I want to play on it.
On the other hand, if I buy an adapter for the GC and PS2, the only way it costs me anything in the future is if the game I want to play has a subscription cost.
Stop putting words in my mouth, I said there are no games I want to play on Live, I said nothing about games on the GC. A $15-20 adapter doesn't mean much compared to a $50 subscription, especially when I already paid $50 less for the GameCube than I did for the XBox.
I'm such a friggin fanboy, I didn't even own the GameCube until a couple months ago, and have a DC, XBox, and PS2 on top of that. Hell, I own more PS2 games than games for any of the other 3 consoles (though I own more PS1 games than PS2 games, and the DC and GC come close to the PS2).
No one has many (if any) online games that I want to play. The subscription on the XBox means that I won't buy in until I have a number of games I want to play. The PS2 and GC just don't have any (again, that I want to play) at the moment, but I'd like to at least have the hardware when (if) they come along.
PSO really interested me when it came out for the DC, but then I heard that it didn't support the network adapter, and I couldn't buy the network adapter anyway, so I've never played the game. If I were to buy PSO, though, I'd probably follow nearly the same formula I follow for every other multi-console game I've bought in the last 7 months: look at it on all systems and buy on XBox unless there was a compelling reason to buy it elsewhere. In fact, this is the only reason I own anywhere near as many XBox games as I do games for any other system.
The only reason I don't have XBox Live is because I have no games I wish to play on it, and since it's a subscription-based system, I won't buy it until I will use it.
The only reason I don't have the PS2 network adapter is because I have trouble finding it without buying a whole new PS2 (I see plenty of the bundled ones, though).
The only reason I don't have the Gamecube network adapter is because I can't find one in a store near me (I have seen the dial-up adapter, though).
That being said, neither the PS2 nor the GameCube has any more games that I want to play online than the XBox (or at least, games that can play online that I want to play, there're plenty of games I'd like to play online that just don't have online capability).
And you only mentioned the RAM aspect. I was looking at the overall. You lose ROM with the Gamecube disc. Good-bye assets. And how is the backup data storage doing?
a mes/new s/28463.shtmla mes/new s/28287.shtmlg ames/new s/28146.shtml= 3636
I only mentioned the RAM aspect because ROM isn't even remotely an issue when it comes to developing a game. At best, there would be complaints about the higher cost of developing a 2-disc title, when in reality there's already a higher cost involved in developing the content to fill more than 1.8 GB of space. How many of the titles on XBox and PS2 actually use the full space of the DVD? GT3 wasn't even a launch title in Japan, yet it was the first PS2 game to even use DVD at all (the previous titles as well as many of the US launch titles used CDs). As time progressed, most have moved to using DVD, but it has hardly been a necessity to go over the size of a GameCube disc for the vast majority of titles, even with large amounts of pre-rendered video and full CD-quality soundtracks.
Its a fact, some third parties are dropping support for the Gamecube (see Sega Sports as one example) because it is harder to work with and returns less in $. They couldn't ship any of the 2k3 series without crashes due mostly to hardware limitations, then announced its not worth it. No 2k4 for you.
If it was the most powerful you wouldn't hear these complaints.
Can you cite any press releases stating the GameCube being less powerful is the reason they (or anyone else) have dropped the GameCube? The reason I've usually seen stated is that the titles don't sell as well on the GameCube. In fact, when Sega announced they were dropping the Sega Sports line from the GameCube, they pledged to continue support with their entertainment titles (Sonic, Super Monkey Ball, etc) which do quite well on the cube.
http://www.gamepro.com/nintendo/gamecube/g
(EA pledges 20 games for the Cube over the next year)
http://www.gamepro.com/gamepro/financial/g
(THQ axes 20 externally developed titles, 1/3rd of which were cube games)
http://www.gamepro.com/nintendo/gamecube/
(Sega drops Sega Sports from Cube, pledges 'entertainment' titles)
http://www.gamerfeed.com/index.php?story
(Acclaim drops Cube, but maintains all currently in-development Cube titles)
The only way you would lose any of that with a GameCube port of a game that's been released on the PS2 is if the developer crammed the PS2's non-video RAM full of data and code. The 4MB of video RAM in the PS2 is certainly not going to require either of the other systems to cut back on the textures (and the throughput on the PS2 isn't high enough to make a difference in graphics quality either).
The XBox can do higher quality graphics if you have a higher resolution display (ie HDTV), but at the basic television resolution you're not likely to see much difference on a well ported game (until you get to the PS2 version, which will look worse than either unless it was a quick port from the PS2 to the other 2 consoles).
And, while RE and RE0 sold well, Eternal Darkness didn't. Which is unfortunate, as it's a great game
I just picked up Eternal Darkness last week for $14, new.
I'm waiting to see if they're going to release the full RE pack (all of the titles in one set) like they did in Japan before I pick up any RE titles on the GC. I figure if I can pick up that, Soul Calibur 2, and a couple of other titles, I might be able to put my DreamCast away.
Additionally, DVD currently has 70% of the video market, meaning that most people that want a DVD player already have one. I don't want to watch DVDs on my PS2, hell, at this point I don't even want to play PS1 games on the thing, because from all accounts the PS2 could die on me next week and I'd be completely SOL for all 3 uses. Time to pick up a PSOne and another DVD player to make sure the PS2 will last long enough for the next price drop.
but the point is that even if it's slightly misleading, Nintendo would've gotten credit for higher sales in a previous quarter if stores were holding a lot of stock that they weren't selling, and only needed 80,000 more units. Somewhere along the line it all evens out, until the cubes stop selling, at which point Nintendo ends up having to pick up the overstock or slash the prices and refund retailers (who might slash the prices on their own to dump overstock otherwise).