Since there are more PS2's out there it is a more common problem, you see. I hadn't heard of anyone's XBox crapping out in the last year so I'd assumed they'd gotten rid of it. At least they've never -denied- that its broken. They've just not fixed the problem.
I love this. Especially the SEC report on Microsoft. I myself had no such luck searching the SEC website, but I'm attributing that to short attention span and lack of interesting in learning about that search engine. Goolge has provided, on the other hand, what seems to be lacking from the article. An explination of exactly WHY Nintendo's profits fell.
But in the end, does that really matter? Nintendo lost 26 Million. Microsoft is loosing a quarter of a Billion dollars every quarter this thing goes on. And desipte the nay sayers which come out of unholy holes whenever Nintendo's on the board, when its the turn for the Xbox usually the spectacular loss gets a footnote for the entire article. Blah.
And no one's willing to try and touch Sony. I mean, doesn't anyone remember this??? I know I sure as hell do. And that's when it started.
On of the biggest secrets of the PS2 are Disc read errors. Well, it's actually not so big of a secret. When you get buisness offering to fix your game console becuase Sony won't, you've found a pretty significant problem. Granted, the Xbox has the same thing, but my understanding is that those have been overcome. Sony has denied that this is a problem. How many people have heard they where sued over it??
I'm spouting rhetoric now and will stop. My point that negative attention about either Sony or MS rarely gets published on gaming websites stands. These are examples, and I'm pretty sure that given some creative manuvers i can find more, but I need to get back to work.:)
No doubt Sony, too, has had its moments, also particularly in the beginning of the PSX or PS2 cycle lifespan.
Yes. The PS2 specifically. Becuase Sony knew the groundswell for the thing was huge, and that they'ed released it at the perfect time to sell through to the extreme other side of the holiday.
Timmy: Whats this mom?
Mom: Its a reciept, your getting a PS2!
Timmy:Yaaaaa...
Mom:.....In March....
Timmy:..aaay. Oh. Awesome! I still beat all my friends!
Granted thats a little extreme, but still.
The point is that Sony started a Machine that didn't even start to slow down until the Xbox and GC were release within a week of each other.
And there are other points with the PS2 i'm going to make a main post about. ^_^
All that means is that Nintendo can survive some financially stupid decisions.
Correct, and they actually have survived those decisions in the past as well. The difference the article is trying to paint is that while Microsoft (and for this purpose Sony's game division) have a very loyal, devoted fanbase, neither has actually SURVIVED something like the Virtual boy.
Or The SNES-CD which became the Playstation.
I can't argue against the logic that those numbers are not good to investors. However, none of the articles which usually bring up the information that Nintendo posted a loss ever mention that the other 2 of the three might have done so as well. In fact, when was the last time you heard of Sony's finances?
To illustrate, I have no way of knowing or proving that (other than the microsoft information in the article) Nintendo's Numbers where either unique or a reflection of a trend thanks to the affor mentioned decline of the US dollar. It stands to reason that if this is an multinational industry trend, that they wouldn't be to worried though.
See, I'm not big on MMORPG's. I like playing FFXI and SWG's. They're both fun, hours at a time hack and slashers.
I am not however, interested in playing them fo 10 hours per day in order to be at a very high level and keep having fun. I'm not a instant high level kind of guy.
However, whats stopped me from playing both of them recently are two factors:
#1: Both charge a flat, montly fee, which I do not get the good end out of.
#2: Both delete your character off of the server after a month of a cancelled account. There is nothing you can do to keep the character from being deleted.
If I could pay, say, 5$ a month, and and only expect to get 10 hours of play time, and anything over that gets be the premium 12:50$ a month, I'd probably never cancell my account.
This is why I've given up on PC online RPG's by the way. The developers use the helpfullness of server side characters to completely screw players into paying money. If I could drop a dollar or so whenever I started playing until I logged out, then hey.
You ever considered that the reason production values aren't higher is because Mac users don't produce enough of an influx of money due to...heh...piracy?
If the game runs like crap, then no. The action of seeing if a game runs like crap is justified. That arguement might have some ground if, contrary to many, many people in this thread, the game ran well on anything but God's Mac.
Hey, Sudeki. I remeber that. I think. It was the one that looked like Rare had figured out what the word 'Gameplay' meant, but by another developer, right?
Halo 2: D'oh. Then again, I don't supposed that would be much of an incentive for the -Japanese-, which was my original train of thought. Given the past FF's year-localization** turn around, I'm kind of doubting we'll see FFXII in 2004 either. Remember, FFX was supposed to be an early Janurary 2002 release until Square relized they where comitting profit homocide.
** = and being released as an interenational version with actual BONUS content a year later in Japan 2 weeks later
You bought 2? Jesus, I had to scam Walmart just to get one.(My PS2 crapped out and I return swapped it for an Xbox).
On the plus side, you get True Fantasy Live Online before us.
If we get it at all.
This time last year at least 3-4 A list games had been announched. There was Zelda on the horizon, FFX2 was starting to rear its ugly head, Knights of the Old republic, I mean hell, its was a unavoidable release orgy. By March I was budgetting 3-400$ just for games as presents there were 5 months away. I don't want to know what I spent on myself.
Now we have (supposedly) FF12 and (probably) GTA5. Thats about it. Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot Crystal Chronicles.
GTA5 hasn't officially been announced yet, and given some of the troublestake two is facing, GTA5 could face delays in the making. Or at least in release, so its not going to pull a night trap or something.
Myself, I want to see Nintendo get off its ass and start making more BroadBand enabled games. Crystal Chronicles is cool and all, but finding 4 friends to play a RPG for X # of hours is going to be a hurdle I might not clear.
Right. Either the million sellers or the Niche* title which people spend money on importing anyway.
Trying going into Best Buy and finding the Black Mages CD. And thats one of many, many things that will more that likely never see a release stateside until VG music becomes profitable over the counter.
*Read: Final Fantasy
I don't have a problem downloading music for games I technically own. No one should have to pay 50$ just to hear music they technicaly own. I do try and import fun things like that, but I rarely get the money/chance to.
Sure, its easy to point out the growing importance of music on the continental side of things. Some how though I think the person who wrote this thinks that all games are either made for America or made to suit Americas need.
The quote:"Once an afterthought in the production process, video game soundtracks increasingly use original music to reach new listeners who blur traditional entertainment boundaries", followed directly by "Record companies are realizing that this is the new radio," and the use of sales figures for GTA vice city, a game who's precursor has semi-recently seen light of day in Japan are all figures in this line of thought. Also, all the companies mentioned are American. Well, not Namco, but even then consider Namco's (dwindling)arcades.
I will grant that the entire article isn't writen from the slant that I noticed, but focusing on how this is a 'starting' trend is an sign of ignorance. We're catching up to Asia if anything.
An interesting note is that digicube , Sqaure-Enix's own Sam Goody, went bankrupt. Or whatever the hell chain died over here recently. Goes to show that one markets up is anothers down. I'm just surprised that more people arn't reporting that.
Slashdot Mirror
Understanding, understanding.
...yeah, i'm not sure thats any better myself.
Since there are more PS2's out there it is a more common problem, you see. I hadn't heard of anyone's XBox crapping out in the last year so I'd assumed they'd gotten rid of it. At least they've never -denied- that its broken. They've just not fixed the problem.
I love this. Especially the SEC report on Microsoft. I myself had no such luck searching the SEC website, but I'm attributing that to short attention span and lack of interesting in learning about that search engine. Goolge has provided, on the other hand, what seems to be lacking from the article. An explination of exactly WHY Nintendo's profits fell.
:)
But in the end, does that really matter? Nintendo lost 26 Million. Microsoft is loosing a quarter of a Billion dollars every quarter this thing goes on. And desipte the nay sayers which come out of unholy holes whenever Nintendo's on the board, when its the turn for the Xbox usually the spectacular loss gets a footnote for the entire article. Blah.
And no one's willing to try and touch Sony. I mean, doesn't anyone remember this??? I know I sure as hell do. And that's when it started.
On of the biggest secrets of the PS2 are Disc read errors. Well, it's actually not so big of a secret. When you get buisness offering to fix your game console becuase Sony won't, you've found a pretty significant problem. Granted, the Xbox has the same thing, but my understanding is that those have been overcome. Sony has denied that this is a problem. How many people have heard they where sued over it??
I'm spouting rhetoric now and will stop. My point that negative attention about either Sony or MS rarely gets published on gaming websites stands. These are examples, and I'm pretty sure that given some creative manuvers i can find more, but I need to get back to work.
Timmy: Whats this mom?
Mom: Its a reciept, your getting a PS2!
Timmy:Yaaaaa...
Mom:
Timmy:
Granted thats a little extreme, but still.
The point is that Sony started a Machine that didn't even start to slow down until the Xbox and GC were release within a week of each other.
And there are other points with the PS2 i'm going to make a main post about. ^_^
Correct, and they actually have survived those decisions in the past as well. The difference the article is trying to paint is that while Microsoft (and for this purpose Sony's game division) have a very loyal, devoted fanbase, neither has actually SURVIVED something like the Virtual boy.
Or The SNES-CD which became the Playstation.
I can't argue against the logic that those numbers are not good to investors. However, none of the articles which usually bring up the information that Nintendo posted a loss ever mention that the other 2 of the three might have done so as well. In fact, when was the last time you heard of Sony's finances?
To illustrate, I have no way of knowing or proving that (other than the microsoft information in the article) Nintendo's Numbers where either unique or a reflection of a trend thanks to the affor mentioned decline of the US dollar. It stands to reason that if this is an multinational industry trend, that they wouldn't be to worried though.
Huh. I'll be damned. I apologize then.
See, I'm not big on MMORPG's. I like playing FFXI and SWG's. They're both fun, hours at a time hack and slashers.
I am not however, interested in playing them fo 10 hours per day in order to be at a very high level and keep having fun. I'm not a instant high level kind of guy.
However, whats stopped me from playing both of them recently are two factors:
#1: Both charge a flat, montly fee, which I do not get the good end out of.
#2: Both delete your character off of the server after a month of a cancelled account. There is nothing you can do to keep the character from being deleted.
If I could pay, say, 5$ a month, and and only expect to get 10 hours of play time, and anything over that gets be the premium 12:50$ a month, I'd probably never cancell my account.
This is why I've given up on PC online RPG's by the way. The developers use the helpfullness of server side characters to completely screw players into paying money. If I could drop a dollar or so whenever I started playing until I logged out, then hey.
You ever considered that the reason production values aren't higher is because Mac users don't produce enough of an influx of money due to...heh...piracy?
If the game runs like crap, then no. The action of seeing if a game runs like crap is justified. That arguement might have some ground if, contrary to many, many people in this thread, the game ran well on anything but God's Mac.
Hey, Sudeki. I remeber that. I think. It was the one that looked like Rare had figured out what the word 'Gameplay' meant, but by another developer, right?
Halo 2: D'oh. Then again, I don't supposed that would be much of an incentive for the -Japanese-, which was my original train of thought. Given the past FF's year-localization** turn around, I'm kind of doubting we'll see FFXII in 2004 either. Remember, FFX was supposed to be an early Janurary 2002 release until Square relized they where comitting profit homocide.
** = and being released as an interenational version with actual BONUS content a year later in Japan 2 weeks later
You bought 2? Jesus, I had to scam Walmart just to get one.(My PS2 crapped out and I return swapped it for an Xbox). On the plus side, you get True Fantasy Live Online before us. If we get it at all.
This time last year at least 3-4 A list games had been announched. There was Zelda on the horizon, FFX2 was starting to rear its ugly head, Knights of the Old republic, I mean hell, its was a unavoidable release orgy. By March I was budgetting 3-400$ just for games as presents there were 5 months away. I don't want to know what I spent on myself.
Now we have (supposedly) FF12 and (probably) GTA5. Thats about it. Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot Crystal Chronicles.
GTA5 hasn't officially been announced yet, and given some of the troubles take two is facing, GTA5 could face delays in the making. Or at least in release, so its not going to pull a night trap or something.
Myself, I want to see Nintendo get off its ass and start making more BroadBand enabled games. Crystal Chronicles is cool and all, but finding 4 friends to play a RPG for X # of hours is going to be a hurdle I might not clear.
Right. Either the million sellers or the Niche* title which people spend money on importing anyway.
Trying going into Best Buy and finding the Black Mages CD. And thats one of many, many things that will more that likely never see a release stateside until VG music becomes profitable over the counter.
*Read: Final Fantasy
I don't have a problem downloading music for games I technically own. No one should have to pay 50$ just to hear music they technicaly own. I do try and import fun things like that, but I rarely get the money/chance to.
Sure, its easy to point out the growing importance of music on the continental side of things. Some how though I think the person who wrote this thinks that all games are either made for America or made to suit Americas need.
The quote:"Once an afterthought in the production process, video game soundtracks increasingly use original music to reach new listeners who blur traditional entertainment boundaries", followed directly by "Record companies are realizing that this is the new radio," and the use of sales figures for GTA vice city, a game who's precursor has semi-recently seen light of day in Japan are all figures in this line of thought. Also, all the companies mentioned are American. Well, not Namco, but even then consider Namco's (dwindling)arcades.
I will grant that the entire article isn't writen from the slant that I noticed, but focusing on how this is a 'starting' trend is an sign of ignorance. We're catching up to Asia if anything.
An interesting note is that digicube , Sqaure-Enix's own Sam Goody, went bankrupt. Or whatever the hell chain died over here recently. Goes to show that one markets up is anothers down. I'm just surprised that more people arn't reporting that.
Well, sure. As a phone it works. As a game system its a joke. And Nokia is trying to sell a game system, not a phone.