If only there was some kind of economic analysis possible, perhaps some kind of law of supply and/or demand that says what happens when demand is high and prices come down.
Man, you got me there.
So, in April my son and I bought three really cheap games for the xBox and the Gamecube, and I got a Sims 2 Open For Business expansion for my laptop.
I have no problem with in-game ads. It's those interminable in-game focus groups and surveys that make a game unplayable.
That's why I always carry a few fragmentation grenades and an auto-loading shotgun to those meetings. Then, I get the cash for attending, plus I get a nice bodycount from all the marketing droids when I spatter them against the walls...
Gates reminds me of the old guy dying of the plague in Monty Python, as he's trundled off by his son...
Seriously, though, I'm probably going to buy a $350 PC with an AMD processor for my son this week - Gates is facing the cold hard fact that his OS and Office prices are way too much of the purchase price of many PCs now that the usual price is way below $1000.
Economics is a harsh mistress, no matter how many billions you have stuffed in your mattress.
That's what we learned on South Park... you can't joke about something until it's been 23 years!
Elron Hubbard's been dead that long? Wow. I must be getting old.
I remember when teenagers didn't go around shooting each other with automatic weapons, they used saps, planks with nails in them, knives, shivs, revolvers, etc.
And remember when the unwed teenage pregnancy rate skyrocketed to levels higher than ever since in the 1950s?
One word: inflation. The price of each and every component used in producing the Wii has increased significantly, not to mention the development costs.
Good point, but I'd be more concerned with the currency exchange rate between Japan and the US at this point. I think that will impact the USD pricing more.
If it's flash, it's really annoying, especially those auto-follow-the-mouse-show-teardown ones that don't let my move my mouse around, which really annoys me as I have multiple tabs open and I hate the advertisers who do that and will never buy their products.
So, no, I don't actually care if it's W3C compliant, so long as it works with both browsers - I use Opera for email and Firefox to surf the web for news and sites.
They will be dropping analog over the air broadcasting it has nothing to do with HDTV, and it won't affect most people (do you have rabbit ears on your TV?)
My viewing habits, and whether or not I watch the Playboy Channel, are none of your concern.
I disagree with Merril Lynch analysis on this, Nintendo has always had a profit on all the consoles they've sold. To compete with the others, I expect around a $300 retail price around Thanksgiving, which will be dropped around President's Day or Memorial Day to somewhere around $250.
I'm not sure Katamari is dead - the creator was musing about the Wii, maybe he might change his mind and do a Wii version. He could call it Wii Wii Katamari, or maybe Katamari Wii Wuv U...
Heck, when most of the "advanced graphics" are for HDTV, which most people don't have and won't be buying until they're forced to, you'd think they'd clue in that people care more about the games themselves.
When I was thinking about the xBox360/PS3/Wii choice back a few months, I started realizing I was likely to buy a Wii when I noticed that I wanted to actually play four-fifths of the games that were announced as being developed for it, and only cared about two or three games of all the xBox360 titles, while the Sony PS3 had maybe twenty titles I might want to play.
And then E3 confirmed that even more.
I may end up buying a PS3. I don't own a PS2 - I have a GameCube and an xBox - I bought the xBox to play one game - I think I've got three games for it now, and one of those is cross-platform. But I won't be buying the xBox360, because it doesn't have the games I want to play, unless they're cross-platform. Although I should say that Lego Star Wars has sweeter graphics on the xBox than on the GameCube... and the same for Sims 2.
But a new console is more of a gut feel - I want to buy something that I know I'll have lots of choices of really fun games to play on it, but won't have to waste time wading thru ones I don't want to play at the gamestore.
I notice the graphs only show PS3 and xBox360, not the (price not set) Wii, but I do know that the dev kits for the Wii are way cheaper (think it's around $2000) compared to xBox360 and PS3 (both in the $xx,xxx range). In addition, we can expect the Wii to retail around the $300 price point or so.
Perhaps this is why we have high resistance levels to the PS3, and why the Nintendo Wii did so well at E3? Not just cheaper dev costs, but the existance of many fun games that people could just do and not sink too much money into development.
Good points. I agree, even though you seem to think I don't in your reply. It is the games, which is why I'm buying a Wii myself.
But, I was saying that Sony, unless they're really really dense, should be dropping the retail price to around $500 for non-crippled PS3. And, yes, they need more fun games - that I'm not so sure about - they may have shot themselves in the foot with their dev kit pricing.
Ah, good point. I think I have a firewire port too, or maybe it's the AGP port.
But, we were talking budget graphics cards. Since this is about budget graphics cards, it was less about the speedy part and more about the memory part, which is where I tend to have problems anyway.
Look, I used to be a subject matter expert for a lot of military information, held a SECRET clearance, handled various SECRET and lower message traffic (in person), had a combo safe, and declassified a lot of SECRET, CONFIDENTIAL, and RESTRICTED information.
The reality is that, yes, the President can declassify it, but he has to officially do so. It's just a notation, but everything we've heard indicates he declassified it two weeks after he had Cheney and Rove leak it.
You can't declare the barn door closed after you illegally opened it.
There are no do-overs in law. Especially in regards to secrets.
And, for that matter, the VP (Cheney) doesn't have that authority, and he acted without that express authority by his own and Rove's and Libby's admission.
But I don't pay $300 for a game console. I pay $99 or $129 for them. Again, the market retail price will eventually drop, just as it did for the original consoles. As it will for HDTV.
As it did for my $500 laptop which cost $2600 only slightly more than one year before I bought it.
Why spend $1000 to train your child to be a virtual murderer? For less than 1/2 the cost, everyone in the family can play our games and get a little exercise to boot. Oh, and if you buy DS with Brain Age, Grandma won't get Alzheimers.
Actually, I'm the Data Manager for the UW ADRC (translation - Alzheimers). It's not that Grandma won't get Alzheimers, it's just that Grandma will have a higher brain level and when she does get Alzheimers, you won't notice until much later. It's most useful with Dementia (related), which is much more treatable.
Now, if Grandma gets a DS and kiddies get one of those Wii games that flash at high speeds, are you sure they won't all go into catatonic seizures together?... the family that plays together, suffers together...
Note that you can get these games for Sony's PS3 and PSP as well, they're very popular in Japan. US English translation ports may not have been done for those platforms yet, but at least they can play Sodoku.
Yes, you can get an HDTV for $300. But for $300 (or, say $340 [circuitcity.com]), I can get a giant 32 inch television. This isn't carefully hunting for a sale; this walking into Best Buy or Circuit City with $340 (plus tax) and walking out with a big television. We're (mostly) Americans here. Bigger is better. I like having a big television. For 32 inches of HD I'm paying $700 [circuitcity.com] or more.
Valid point. As I stated elsewhere in this thread, cable systems will provide a converter to allow you to display broadcast HDTV channels on a digital TV (which is what you described). Additionally, all three consoles - PS3, xBox360, Wii - will work with a digital TV.
Again, you have the choice - you can shell out $2000 last year for HDTV, $1000 this year around Thanksgiving (when the new consoles release), or wait until the larger HDTVs drop in price, as electronics always do. Console prices will also drop if you wait.
Me, I'll buy around President's Day, when both consoles and HDTV will have started to flatten out the price curve and have dropped the most. You can wait if you wish.
Leaking classified information is a crime. Obviously, the FBI is going to investigate a (potentially criminal) leak of classified inforomation, because it is part of the FBI counter-intelligence and law enforcement missions to do so. It is standard police procedure in a criminal investigation to subpoena or to get a search warrant for telephone records. Nothing new or sensational to see here, move along.
I've declassified material from Secret, Confidential and Restricted to lower levels. I can attest, as a fact, that two-thirds of all material classified to a level higher than Restricted, is in fact classified too high.
And as a former Acting Security Officer, Records Supervisor, and Chief Clerk - in addition to other military duties as a combat field engineer before that - I disagree strongly with your incorrect interpretation of our Constitution and rules of intelligence.
You're entitled to your opinion, but we can disagree as to your interpretation.
are also being used to correlate with databases on your credit purchases, credit reports, banking records, passport applications (and travel), airline travel, and gas fuel records to try to find linkages, all without your permission.
Trust the computer. The computer is your friend, citizen.
Slashdot Mirror
LOWER PRICE POINT FOR CURRENT GEN
If only there was some kind of economic analysis possible, perhaps some kind of law of supply and/or demand that says what happens when demand is high and prices come down.
Man, you got me there.
So, in April my son and I bought three really cheap games for the xBox and the Gamecube, and I got a Sims 2 Open For Business expansion for my laptop.
You think there's a pattern there?
I have no problem with in-game ads. It's those interminable in-game focus groups and surveys that make a game unplayable.
...
That's why I always carry a few fragmentation grenades and an auto-loading shotgun to those meetings. Then, I get the cash for attending, plus I get a nice bodycount from all the marketing droids when I spatter them against the walls
Gates reminds me of the old guy dying of the plague in Monty Python, as he's trundled off by his son ...
Seriously, though, I'm probably going to buy a $350 PC with an AMD processor for my son this week - Gates is facing the cold hard fact that his OS and Office prices are way too much of the purchase price of many PCs now that the usual price is way below $1000.
Economics is a harsh mistress, no matter how many billions you have stuffed in your mattress.
That's what we learned on South Park... you can't joke about something until it's been 23 years!
Elron Hubbard's been dead that long? Wow. I must be getting old.
I remember when teenagers didn't go around shooting each other with automatic weapons, they used saps, planks with nails in them, knives, shivs, revolvers, etc.
And remember when the unwed teenage pregnancy rate skyrocketed to levels higher than ever since in the 1950s?
One word: inflation. The price of each and every component used in producing the Wii has increased significantly, not to mention the development costs.
Good point, but I'd be more concerned with the currency exchange rate between Japan and the US at this point. I think that will impact the USD pricing more.
Actually, I think the Wii clocks out as slightly better than the Microsoft xBox (not the xBox360).
because those are my default browsers.
If it's flash, it's really annoying, especially those auto-follow-the-mouse-show-teardown ones that don't let my move my mouse around, which really annoys me as I have multiple tabs open and I hate the advertisers who do that and will never buy their products.
So, no, I don't actually care if it's W3C compliant, so long as it works with both browsers - I use Opera for email and Firefox to surf the web for news and sites.
so long as it has games I want to play, why should I care what's under the hood?
I mean, seriously, I paid how much for an xBox just to play Fable and then two cross-platform games (Lego Star Wars and Sims 2)?
But the GameCube I've got tons of fun games.
And I expect a game bundle for the $300 retail.
I'm thinking more of the fact they will have to drop the price later, and how they tend to price it.
I might be convinced of a $250 retail price at launch.
They will be dropping analog over the air broadcasting it has nothing to do with HDTV, and it won't affect most people (do you have rabbit ears on your TV?)
My viewing habits, and whether or not I watch the Playboy Channel, are none of your concern.
But I do have gerbils on my TV.
I disagree with Merril Lynch analysis on this, Nintendo has always had a profit on all the consoles they've sold. To compete with the others, I expect around a $300 retail price around Thanksgiving, which will be dropped around President's Day or Memorial Day to somewhere around $250.
free is still too much to spend. they should pay you.
My question is, when will I be able to buy a Flight 93 game, and choose to either play as the terrorists, the cabin crew, or the passengers?
And will they let us use blankets? Very useful on planes.
But, yes, the whole Columbine game concept is excessively sick and twisted, and I'm sure they'll sell lots of copies.
I'm not sure Katamari is dead - the creator was musing about the Wii, maybe he might change his mind and do a Wii version. He could call it Wii Wii Katamari, or maybe Katamari Wii Wuv U ...
starting in 2007, all TV channels will be broadcasting only in HDTV.
if you live in the US.
Heck, when most of the "advanced graphics" are for HDTV, which most people don't have and won't be buying until they're forced to, you'd think they'd clue in that people care more about the games themselves.
... and the same for Sims 2.
When I was thinking about the xBox360/PS3/Wii choice back a few months, I started realizing I was likely to buy a Wii when I noticed that I wanted to actually play four-fifths of the games that were announced as being developed for it, and only cared about two or three games of all the xBox360 titles, while the Sony PS3 had maybe twenty titles I might want to play.
And then E3 confirmed that even more.
I may end up buying a PS3. I don't own a PS2 - I have a GameCube and an xBox - I bought the xBox to play one game - I think I've got three games for it now, and one of those is cross-platform. But I won't be buying the xBox360, because it doesn't have the games I want to play, unless they're cross-platform. Although I should say that Lego Star Wars has sweeter graphics on the xBox than on the GameCube
But a new console is more of a gut feel - I want to buy something that I know I'll have lots of choices of really fun games to play on it, but won't have to waste time wading thru ones I don't want to play at the gamestore.
I notice the graphs only show PS3 and xBox360, not the (price not set) Wii, but I do know that the dev kits for the Wii are way cheaper (think it's around $2000) compared to xBox360 and PS3 (both in the $xx,xxx range). In addition, we can expect the Wii to retail around the $300 price point or so.
Perhaps this is why we have high resistance levels to the PS3, and why the Nintendo Wii did so well at E3? Not just cheaper dev costs, but the existance of many fun games that people could just do and not sink too much money into development.
Good points. I agree, even though you seem to think I don't in your reply. It is the games, which is why I'm buying a Wii myself.
But, I was saying that Sony, unless they're really really dense, should be dropping the retail price to around $500 for non-crippled PS3. And, yes, they need more fun games - that I'm not so sure about - they may have shot themselves in the foot with their dev kit pricing.
Ah, good point. I think I have a firewire port too, or maybe it's the AGP port.
But, we were talking budget graphics cards. Since this is about budget graphics cards, it was less about the speedy part and more about the memory part, which is where I tend to have problems anyway.
Look, I used to be a subject matter expert for a lot of military information, held a SECRET clearance, handled various SECRET and lower message traffic (in person), had a combo safe, and declassified a lot of SECRET, CONFIDENTIAL, and RESTRICTED information.
The reality is that, yes, the President can declassify it, but he has to officially do so. It's just a notation, but everything we've heard indicates he declassified it two weeks after he had Cheney and Rove leak it.
You can't declare the barn door closed after you illegally opened it.
There are no do-overs in law. Especially in regards to secrets.
And, for that matter, the VP (Cheney) doesn't have that authority, and he acted without that express authority by his own and Rove's and Libby's admission.
But I don't pay $300 for a game console. I pay $99 or $129 for them. Again, the market retail price will eventually drop, just as it did for the original consoles. As it will for HDTV.
As it did for my $500 laptop which cost $2600 only slightly more than one year before I bought it.
Why spend $1000 to train your child to be a virtual murderer? For less than 1/2 the cost, everyone in the family can play our games and get a little exercise to boot. Oh, and if you buy DS with Brain Age, Grandma won't get Alzheimers.
... the family that plays together, suffers together ...
Actually, I'm the Data Manager for the UW ADRC (translation - Alzheimers). It's not that Grandma won't get Alzheimers, it's just that Grandma will have a higher brain level and when she does get Alzheimers, you won't notice until much later. It's most useful with Dementia (related), which is much more treatable.
Now, if Grandma gets a DS and kiddies get one of those Wii games that flash at high speeds, are you sure they won't all go into catatonic seizures together?
Note that you can get these games for Sony's PS3 and PSP as well, they're very popular in Japan. US English translation ports may not have been done for those platforms yet, but at least they can play Sodoku.
Yes, you can get an HDTV for $300. But for $300 (or, say $340 [circuitcity.com]), I can get a giant 32 inch television. This isn't carefully hunting for a sale; this walking into Best Buy or Circuit City with $340 (plus tax) and walking out with a big television. We're (mostly) Americans here. Bigger is better. I like having a big television. For 32 inches of HD I'm paying $700 [circuitcity.com] or more.
Valid point. As I stated elsewhere in this thread, cable systems will provide a converter to allow you to display broadcast HDTV channels on a digital TV (which is what you described). Additionally, all three consoles - PS3, xBox360, Wii - will work with a digital TV.
Again, you have the choice - you can shell out $2000 last year for HDTV, $1000 this year around Thanksgiving (when the new consoles release), or wait until the larger HDTVs drop in price, as electronics always do. Console prices will also drop if you wait.
Me, I'll buy around President's Day, when both consoles and HDTV will have started to flatten out the price curve and have dropped the most. You can wait if you wish.
Leaking classified information is a crime. Obviously, the FBI is going to investigate a (potentially criminal) leak of classified inforomation, because it is part of the FBI counter-intelligence and law enforcement missions to do so. It is standard police procedure in a criminal investigation to subpoena or to get a search warrant for telephone records. Nothing new or sensational to see here, move along.
I've declassified material from Secret, Confidential and Restricted to lower levels. I can attest, as a fact, that two-thirds of all material classified to a level higher than Restricted, is in fact classified too high.
And as a former Acting Security Officer, Records Supervisor, and Chief Clerk - in addition to other military duties as a combat field engineer before that - I disagree strongly with your incorrect interpretation of our Constitution and rules of intelligence.
You're entitled to your opinion, but we can disagree as to your interpretation.
are also being used to correlate with databases on your credit purchases, credit reports, banking records, passport applications (and travel), airline travel, and gas fuel records to try to find linkages, all without your permission.
Trust the computer. The computer is your friend, citizen.