Honestly, why folks seem to think the videogame market is mutually exclusive is beyond me. A crap-ass movie is still a crap-ass movie even in HD-DVD on a $20k Plasma screen that can be watched from the Moon and 7.1 surround sound on an uber expensive audio system that goes all the way up to 11.
I've watched low budget titles in plain stereo that blew me away and immersed me beyond belief on a 25" RCA TV. Pi, SmallTime, Big Man on Campus, Bully, Kids, Bichunmoo, etc.
Guess what? Same with games. Same with music. Same with everything.
I'm done arguing with you on this. If you honestly believe the Neo Geo was created to be a console system just like the NES/SMS/SNES/Genesis then more power to ya. It was a 100% authentic arcade experience packaged for home use. No other console has done this. Consoles have always had ports and close reproductions of popular arcade titles, but were never _the_ actual hardware and ROM's as the Neo Geo was.
You are trying way too hard to make the term "console" mean any system that plays games. Does it really matter? All I was saying is that comparing the Neo Geo to any standard mass-marketed console is lunacy. It was an ultra high-end product that had one use and one goal, it lasted 8 years, longer than any other "console" of it's type. So no matter how you slice it, it was in a category of its own. Tell me another console that consists of actual arcade hardware and the exact ROM on a chip as the game. Not even the PS3 will have this ability, some 20 years later. Sure it may be *close* to a new arcade title that may come out, but even it will not be a 100% reproduction of the game.
Apples and oranges in my book, but if you disagree then so be it.
I'm quite sure of what I'm saying. Do some research and you will see that the Neo Geo was never marketed to a mass market and it was never marketed as a console. It was an arcade system for the home aimed at middle-aged consumers.
Here is a quote from the dump: A few months after the Neo Geo's inital arcade unveiling, the Neo Geo home system was announced. The hardware of the home system was identical to the MVS (arcade) version and the games were also identical, each containing both the arcade and console versions of each game, as well as full US and Japanese text. The Neo Geo home system was never meant for the mainstream, however. The console itself cost over $500US at the time of its release, and the games cost over $200US apiece. Although only true arcade aficionados could afford it, the Neo Geo home system sold fairly well upon its release. SNK's magazine advertising campaign (Bigger, Badder, Better) was particularly amusing in that it seemed to target the naive teenage gamer instead of its primary market of mature arcade-loving mediaphiles. The ads incorrectly touted it as a "24-Bit System" (due to its combination of a 16-bit and 8-bit processor), and the listed specs of competitive systems were completely inaccurate. After the initial advertising campaign, SNK opted not to advertise their home system anymore, as their games could be seen in nearly every arcade.
The Neo Geo was not a console, I owned one. It was not marketed as a console, it was not *meant* to be a console. It was sold as a true arcade unit that had the ability to play all of the arcade titles without needing to buy individual cabinets.
The Neo Geo did exactly what it was supposed to do, be a 100% exact copy of the arcade unit, NOT a port or a very close remake.
For what it was the Neo Geo was a hell of a deal. A single arcade cabinet would have cost as much as the system and just one game, so after purchasing a few titles you had saved a considerable amount of money over individual stand alone units.
I will say that the Neo Geo would have been much better had it come as a stand up cabinet that allowed the games to be changed, for the money. But then it did not take up the space of a cabinet, so I guess that was the tradeoff.
In any event, this is not a fair comparison. The 3DO, fine, but not the Neo Geo. Everyone likes to use it as the comparison and it is so damn frustrating because it most certainly was not a console, not even close.
Well put. To think about two weeks ago the internet and/. was awash in Sony fanatics explaining how "their" system was going to pwn us all in the arse and that they would be willing to pay "any price" for the super duper PS3 because the Revolution (Wii) controller was "gay" and lame and going to cause carpal tunnel and make them look "stoopid."...and then the Sony Conference happened.
So, wait, where are all those dedicated fanboy's now? Which is exactly why being a fanboy is the dumbest thing in the world, the company doesn't care about you any further than your wallet. You don't get a discount on Sony merchandise or even a ribbon for bashing noobs and Nintendo/MS players anonymously online... and contrary to popular belief your wiener doesn't grow to mammoth proportions as a result either. All that dedication, rage, and elevated blood pressure got them where?
An uber expensive console, with no clearly defined market or business plan, that scrambled to ditch their banana controller for a semi-ripoff of the oh-so-hated Wii controller, and the graphics and "games" shown are yawn inspiring at best with only a slight leap in graphics or gameplay all wrapped around a unproven technology and media. Yay.
So, basically... if I *actually* want a game system I'm hosed, but if I want a totally useless expensive movie player for a format that may very well lose to HD DVD and be stuck with the most expensive door stop ever... then I should be crapping my pants. eh?
Not trolling, but seriously who is going to buy into this complete disaster? Lets take a huge gamble on the media format (*cough*UMD*cough*), then lets mix it with wholly unproven and expensive technology, add in a dash of plagarism but hastily done and at the expense of everything else that had been planned for the controller, and a healthy dollop of over used same-old same-old games and graphics that are barely a moderate step forward and you get... OK, wait, what do I get again for my $600+
Even after two price drops this thing will still be a turd, so you even lose the late adopters because it will still be ~$400 2 years out. So in about 6 years when it drops to $250 people *may* buy one
Sorry, but no matter how you slice it Sony has already lost. Fanboy or not, reality has to step in at some point.
Greak leaping jeebus on a fucking pogo stick... "Wii" We... from Revolution to Wii!!!!! Double-u Tee Eff?!?
Come freakin on. Major hit in the nads with that name change, at least the rumors of it being changed to "RS" or "Go" made some fucking sense. RS and GO both are short and universal names too, who in the bloody hell came up with "Wii." At best it conjurs up instant thoughts of piss, or worse yet French people.
Arrghh... Nintendo can manage to screw up the smallest shit. I have a ton of hope and faith in this system too... so I can imagine what the haters are thinking.
Doh!
Re:I can't wait for Spore!
on
EA's E3 Lineup
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· Score: 0
... or Fable, or any number of other "highly anticipated" titles. I have been a game reviewer for some years, and amazingly I still fall for one game a year being a truly groundbreaking title... it never happens. Fable, Guild Wars, Odama, and my next ones Okami and Spore.
I've finally given up and pay no attention to the hype or press a game gets and am just pleasantly surprised when something new and cool breaks through like Katamari Damacy... caught me offgaurd totally.
To be a true unknown it canlt have years of build-up and hype surrounding it, it has to just "happen" and my doubts are already in place for spore. If you just think about it for a moment, the concept is too big and grand to actually come to fruition. It will be tweaked and tuned to be consumer friendly and much will be cut or lost in one way or another making it homogenized and a slightly bland shell of what it could have been. We'll see.
Taco, this is Slashdot remember, a lot of the readership *has* the time and ability to recreate 150+ icons... it will just cut into their Natalie Portman time and their grits may get cold... but otherwise it's "Photoshop time in mom's basement!" uber fun for some.:)
In fact, I actually was thinking the entire time I read the rules, that a seperate contest for new icons would be perfect. Plenty of graphic design folks who are not web dev's could contribute a ton to say at least a standard icon size (64x64, whatever) with transparent backgrounds so they could fit any winning entry for the site design contest.
I'll tell you what the hell I'm talking about: Quake 4. Runs like a slideshow at times, not quite the steady 60fps MS claimed. I have a feeling that part of this move is to get a better running CPU.
If you truly buy into this being just a "update" to make it cooler and cheaper, then your view is understood... but if you honestly believe that then you have been drinking the kool-aid.
OK, lemme get this straight... we have a videogame based movie and anyone expects otherwise?!? Now that is the real story here.
Doom was without a doubt one of the worst videogame movies next to Alone in the Dark... next to well I could go on and on.
Slashdot should be a fairly intelligent bunch, yet most of the 20 comments so far read: "I know it will suck, but I'll be there opening night..." What is wrong with you people? Are your lives that devoid of quality that you actually anticipate going to see garbage and wasting your money?
How's bout this, send the $10-20.00 to me and then sit and think about getting a hobby or interest besides computers/videogames/movies/porn.
Well of course it happens everywhere, but in areas where it is EXPECTED like the PC industry as you have pointed out. I don't buy a PC today and NOT think that in 3 months something better won't come out. But when I buy a console system, especially a BRAND NEW product that is billed as the coming of the next messiah, now that is a problem.
Microsoft suffers from a complete lack of focus and direction mixed with a total lack of customer service and greed. Yet they thrive, so they have no need to do otherwise.
What kills me is how otherwise educated people get sucked in along with Joe Sixpack and get screwed over and over again. Must feel good.
Pretty much. Part of the reason why folks should think twice about doing business with Microsoft. I'm not saying this in some idealistic Linux zealot type way, but just from my own personal experience and beliefs. Microsoft is 100% about making money and 0% about actually delivering a product that does what *you* want it to. They intentionally cripple their software and features like requiring MCE for Xbox 360-PC interaction, etc.
They have no real strategy or vision beyond "make money." They will do whatever it takes too, if tomorrow Microsoft learned that Barbie sales were up 4000% and that was the hot market then MS would be out everywhere stating how they had designed the Xbox 360 just for Barbie! and market that to death while alienating the core users who they had originally marketed to with no concerns.
There aren't many idealistic companies left who actually put the customer and their core market first... sure many claim they do, but in reality it is harder and harder to find. No one likes to buy a fairly expensive product only to find that in a few months it is inferior to a "new" version and leaves them out in the cold.
I have no respect for their business and I do my best to not support that type of company.
So the few "lucky" ones who own a 360 right now get snowed and end up with a totally inferior product within months... that still has an anemic library. After seeing Quake 4 chug and stutter all over the place I think the 360 could use a bit more horsepower, so this may not be all production number driven. We'll see.
Well, my main reasoning and rationale come from my personal experience. I have worked as a writer/reviewer as well as an analyst and retail specialist in the gaming industry. I also worked directly with Sony for a number of years, so I have some insight and real hard facts behind my intentions.
Media format wars are not a major issue in other tech industries like the PC market, but in a console it is a life or death venture. Blu-Ray has been widely accepted as having only 30% market penetration by a number of analysts and a very low initial sales coupled with an expensive media and player but having much better features and damage protection. You cannot swap out a drive in a console like you can in a PC when you bought a DVD-RAM drive and DVD+/-R becomes the winner. Also, the bigger reason has to do with manufacturers. Just like UMD, new formats that do not take off and become wildly popular very quickly are expensive and get ignored.
Those issues as well as cost, DRM, features, and innovation among others all factor in my decision. The Xbox 360 would be useful to me if it were not dependent on Media Center for some of the extra features. The PS3 is too much of a gamble with no real benefits to me personally (and partially why I parted ways with the company) I have no faith in the technology or the marketing and strongly believe it will be Sony's downfall. Just my opinion, but one I believe fully.
Nintendo is championing a number of things I have been calling for for years. Complete backwards compatability, smaller less complex and expensive games (not every game needs to be 40 hours and cost $60), Indie/single developer support (this is huge and a my main selling point, so many amazing games get passed by every day because they are not "marketable"), low cost of entry, well established hardware and dev systems, and last but certainly not least A CHANGE FROM THE NORM. Innovativeness, creativity being brought back into gaming. Hardware, software, both are being seen for what they are: stale, derivitive, and bland. It is time that someone shook up this industry and began to dig out of the 40ft. ruts we are in. FPS, gangtsta sim, cliche RPG, running on teh uber-est hardware with 40bazillion textels per nanosecond running on 37 processors that does nothing for the end user except make the hoe he is slapping look more realistic that the last 12 games in the series.
I am a creative person, it is why I got into games, all I see from the game industry side are sweatshops completely devoid of real creativity and a culture that actually punishes thinking outside the box. That is why so many top talents have broken away or left completely, they don't want to pump out code all day for some pre-designed engine to make yet another shooter. I don't either. I want a change, personally, and that is why *I* support the Revolution. I have no ties to Nintendo and never have, this time it is personal.
Did you really not at least *think* this would be the outcome? Seriously, I can't see how anyone would put all of their eggs in one basket all riding on the N-Gauge. I feel bad that in business there are winners and losers, and that more often than not the losers have some of the best ideas and creativity... but that is life. If the talent is there and the desire, pick yourself up by the bootstraps and re-invent yourself, not by selling overpriced prints to hang on by a unraveling thread. No sense in chasing good money after bad.
Oh, I fully understand and agree... except that DX10 COULD be ported to xp if they wanted to, they just WON'T in hopes that this will force the consumers hand. I think it will fail. Just MHO but developers right now need to reach the largest audience as possible to attempt to make money, and depending on sales numbers for Vista (which I believe will be low) Developers will go elsewhere (Mac?) and that is the kind of paradigm shift I would like to see. A company finally crushed by it's heavy handed business practices. Sony and MS are both on pace to damage themselves due to this type of business "strategy" and I really hope for all of our sake that they go down in a blaze of unglory.
To upgrade my OS to Vista purely for games, and I also will not get caught up in the 360/PS3 and attached format war, so it looks my only gaming will be XP Pro and the Revolution with the DS for portability for some time.
Vista offers nothing of value or interest and I really don't see a mass switch to Vista happening so the least amount of sales MS sees should hopefully stop this new "trend" of claiming new games will be Vista-only.
...and we prove my point. Just as I thought. I stated twice where the data can be found (back as far as you want to research) and that IT CANNOT BE POSTED HERE ON SLASHDOT due to their "lameness filter" which will not allow comments to be posted containing more than a certain amount of spacing/special characters.
I have the data, I have the charts, they cannot be posted here. The info I posted was just to show how the top selling software is from the PS2 and the DS. If there was such a downturn and wait for new systems then new PS2 and DS titles would not dominate the sales charts and be selling 1-2+million copies in 2006 with the 360 out and E3 a month away.
But you will believe what you want, I'm sorry I can do no more.
We all really believe that our sole interface to our games is "no big deal" to how we play and enjoy them?!? Umm, sure. Immersion beyond simple 2D controls is only natural when all games are now being created in 3D. I mean no one wants VR... who would actually want to feel like they are in the game when they can hold a small uncomfortable controller and contort their hands to manipulate little non-responsive sticks?
With Nintendo claiming over and over that they have numerous MAJOR surprises yet to be released about the Revolution I think it is foolish at best to make such a short-sighted and stupid statement as this. Let's bash something no one including third party developers even know about yet! - ??? - Profit?
Best of luck with that. Dual analogs for-evah! Please.
The Xbox 360 wants to be whatever is currently popular to try to sell units and games, especially now that they have come to realize the "hardcore" market is small and unable to produce the sales numbers they need to stay afloat with the massive costs of development.
Best of luck MS, except all of your marketing and design was geared toward the hardcore gamer. Not many family customers want a $400+ console that has a million confusing and over-reaching features and setup. Sure, Nintendo may have you running scared with the wide audience they are aiming at but trying to switch your entire focus now is just insane and not likely to work.
You dug your grave MS trying to outdo Sony and lost sight of the real goal, best of luck!
The real problem here is the complete lack of a standard installation. I think most of the time questions are not *able* to be answered due to the wealth of info the user would need to provide to even begin to get meaningful assistance. This is the real root of the perceived "snobbishness."
Sure there are always your run of the mill asshats, but I know I would try to help newbs out if it was possible to have some baseline to work from. Choice is great, and advanced users need that choice, but what we need is a standardized basic set of applications, kernel, directory structure, FS, etc. for regular installations.
Imagine if Windows could be installed any which way and with all different options and applications... no one could troubleshot anything there either. Same for OSX. Standards and limiting choice at the outset is "A Good Thing" now if we could just do it instead of tossing the entire box of spaghetti at the wall right off the bat and having a million different possible outcomes.
Slashdot Mirror
Honestly, why folks seem to think the videogame market is mutually exclusive is beyond me. A crap-ass movie is still a crap-ass movie even in HD-DVD on a $20k Plasma screen that can be watched from the Moon and 7.1 surround sound on an uber expensive audio system that goes all the way up to 11.
I've watched low budget titles in plain stereo that blew me away and immersed me beyond belief on a 25" RCA TV. Pi, SmallTime, Big Man on Campus, Bully, Kids, Bichunmoo, etc.
Guess what? Same with games. Same with music. Same with everything.
I'm done arguing with you on this. If you honestly believe the Neo Geo was created to be a console system just like the NES/SMS/SNES/Genesis then more power to ya. It was a 100% authentic arcade experience packaged for home use. No other console has done this. Consoles have always had ports and close reproductions of popular arcade titles, but were never _the_ actual hardware and ROM's as the Neo Geo was. You are trying way too hard to make the term "console" mean any system that plays games. Does it really matter? All I was saying is that comparing the Neo Geo to any standard mass-marketed console is lunacy. It was an ultra high-end product that had one use and one goal, it lasted 8 years, longer than any other "console" of it's type. So no matter how you slice it, it was in a category of its own. Tell me another console that consists of actual arcade hardware and the exact ROM on a chip as the game. Not even the PS3 will have this ability, some 20 years later. Sure it may be *close* to a new arcade title that may come out, but even it will not be a 100% reproduction of the game. Apples and oranges in my book, but if you disagree then so be it.
I'm quite sure of what I'm saying. Do some research and you will see that the Neo Geo was never marketed to a mass market and it was never marketed as a console. It was an arcade system for the home aimed at middle-aged consumers.
Here is a quote from the dump: A few months after the Neo Geo's inital arcade unveiling, the Neo Geo home system was announced. The hardware of the home system was identical to the MVS (arcade) version and the games were also identical, each containing both the arcade and console versions of each game, as well as full US and Japanese text. The Neo Geo home system was never meant for the mainstream, however. The console itself cost over $500US at the time of its release, and the games cost over $200US apiece. Although only true arcade aficionados could afford it, the Neo Geo home system sold fairly well upon its release. SNK's magazine advertising campaign (Bigger, Badder, Better) was particularly amusing in that it seemed to target the naive teenage gamer instead of its primary market of mature arcade-loving mediaphiles. The ads incorrectly touted it as a "24-Bit System" (due to its combination of a 16-bit and 8-bit processor), and the listed specs of competitive systems were completely inaccurate. After the initial advertising campaign, SNK opted not to advertise their home system anymore, as their games could be seen in nearly every arcade.
The Neo Geo was not a console, I owned one. It was not marketed as a console, it was not *meant* to be a console. It was sold as a true arcade unit that had the ability to play all of the arcade titles without needing to buy individual cabinets.
The Neo Geo did exactly what it was supposed to do, be a 100% exact copy of the arcade unit, NOT a port or a very close remake.
For what it was the Neo Geo was a hell of a deal. A single arcade cabinet would have cost as much as the system and just one game, so after purchasing a few titles you had saved a considerable amount of money over individual stand alone units.
I will say that the Neo Geo would have been much better had it come as a stand up cabinet that allowed the games to be changed, for the money. But then it did not take up the space of a cabinet, so I guess that was the tradeoff.
In any event, this is not a fair comparison. The 3DO, fine, but not the Neo Geo. Everyone likes to use it as the comparison and it is so damn frustrating because it most certainly was not a console, not even close.
Well put. To think about two weeks ago the internet and /. was awash in Sony fanatics explaining how "their" system was going to pwn us all in the arse and that they would be willing to pay "any price" for the super duper PS3 because the Revolution (Wii) controller was "gay" and lame and going to cause carpal tunnel and make them look "stoopid." ...and then the Sony Conference happened.
So, wait, where are all those dedicated fanboy's now? Which is exactly why being a fanboy is the dumbest thing in the world, the company doesn't care about you any further than your wallet. You don't get a discount on Sony merchandise or even a ribbon for bashing noobs and Nintendo/MS players anonymously online... and contrary to popular belief your wiener doesn't grow to mammoth proportions as a result either. All that dedication, rage, and elevated blood pressure got them where?
An uber expensive console, with no clearly defined market or business plan, that scrambled to ditch their banana controller for a semi-ripoff of the oh-so-hated Wii controller, and the graphics and "games" shown are yawn inspiring at best with only a slight leap in graphics or gameplay all wrapped around a unproven technology and media. Yay.
So, basically... if I *actually* want a game system I'm hosed, but if I want a totally useless expensive movie player for a format that may very well lose to HD DVD and be stuck with the most expensive door stop ever... then I should be crapping my pants. eh?
Not trolling, but seriously who is going to buy into this complete disaster? Lets take a huge gamble on the media format (*cough*UMD*cough*), then lets mix it with wholly unproven and expensive technology, add in a dash of plagarism but hastily done and at the expense of everything else that had been planned for the controller, and a healthy dollop of over used same-old same-old games and graphics that are barely a moderate step forward and you get... OK, wait, what do I get again for my $600+
Even after two price drops this thing will still be a turd, so you even lose the late adopters because it will still be ~$400 2 years out. So in about 6 years when it drops to $250 people *may* buy one
Sorry, but no matter how you slice it Sony has already lost. Fanboy or not, reality has to step in at some point.
"Time Magazine reports how it feels to play with the Wii. Overall it's a very enthusiastic review."
Awesome, If only I had some mod points you'd get 'em. It appears the majority of /.'ers just don't get it. They probably have balls on their chin.
Funniest AC post. ever. +37 Awesomeness.
Greak leaping jeebus on a fucking pogo stick... "Wii" We... from Revolution to Wii!!!!! Double-u Tee Eff?!?
Come freakin on. Major hit in the nads with that name change, at least the rumors of it being changed to "RS" or "Go" made some fucking sense. RS and GO both are short and universal names too, who in the bloody hell came up with "Wii." At best it conjurs up instant thoughts of piss, or worse yet French people.
Arrghh... Nintendo can manage to screw up the smallest shit. I have a ton of hope and faith in this system too... so I can imagine what the haters are thinking.
Doh!
... or Fable, or any number of other "highly anticipated" titles. I have been a game reviewer for some years, and amazingly I still fall for one game a year being a truly groundbreaking title... it never happens. Fable, Guild Wars, Odama, and my next ones Okami and Spore.
I've finally given up and pay no attention to the hype or press a game gets and am just pleasantly surprised when something new and cool breaks through like Katamari Damacy... caught me offgaurd totally.
To be a true unknown it canlt have years of build-up and hype surrounding it, it has to just "happen" and my doubts are already in place for spore. If you just think about it for a moment, the concept is too big and grand to actually come to fruition. It will be tweaked and tuned to be consumer friendly and much will be cut or lost in one way or another making it homogenized and a slightly bland shell of what it could have been. We'll see.
Taco, this is Slashdot remember, a lot of the readership *has* the time and ability to recreate 150+ icons... it will just cut into their Natalie Portman time and their grits may get cold... but otherwise it's "Photoshop time in mom's basement!" uber fun for some. :)
In fact, I actually was thinking the entire time I read the rules, that a seperate contest for new icons would be perfect. Plenty of graphic design folks who are not web dev's could contribute a ton to say at least a standard icon size (64x64, whatever) with transparent backgrounds so they could fit any winning entry for the site design contest.
Just a thought.
I'll tell you what the hell I'm talking about: Quake 4. Runs like a slideshow at times, not quite the steady 60fps MS claimed. I have a feeling that part of this move is to get a better running CPU.
If you truly buy into this being just a "update" to make it cooler and cheaper, then your view is understood... but if you honestly believe that then you have been drinking the kool-aid.
OK, lemme get this straight... we have a videogame based movie and anyone expects otherwise?!? Now that is the real story here.
Doom was without a doubt one of the worst videogame movies next to Alone in the Dark... next to well I could go on and on.
Slashdot should be a fairly intelligent bunch, yet most of the 20 comments so far read: "I know it will suck, but I'll be there opening night..." What is wrong with you people? Are your lives that devoid of quality that you actually anticipate going to see garbage and wasting your money?
How's bout this, send the $10-20.00 to me and then sit and think about getting a hobby or interest besides computers/videogames/movies/porn.
Well of course it happens everywhere, but in areas where it is EXPECTED like the PC industry as you have pointed out. I don't buy a PC today and NOT think that in 3 months something better won't come out. But when I buy a console system, especially a BRAND NEW product that is billed as the coming of the next messiah, now that is a problem.
Microsoft suffers from a complete lack of focus and direction mixed with a total lack of customer service and greed. Yet they thrive, so they have no need to do otherwise.
What kills me is how otherwise educated people get sucked in along with Joe Sixpack and get screwed over and over again. Must feel good.
Pretty much. Part of the reason why folks should think twice about doing business with Microsoft. I'm not saying this in some idealistic Linux zealot type way, but just from my own personal experience and beliefs. Microsoft is 100% about making money and 0% about actually delivering a product that does what *you* want it to. They intentionally cripple their software and features like requiring MCE for Xbox 360-PC interaction, etc.
They have no real strategy or vision beyond "make money." They will do whatever it takes too, if tomorrow Microsoft learned that Barbie sales were up 4000% and that was the hot market then MS would be out everywhere stating how they had designed the Xbox 360 just for Barbie! and market that to death while alienating the core users who they had originally marketed to with no concerns.
There aren't many idealistic companies left who actually put the customer and their core market first... sure many claim they do, but in reality it is harder and harder to find. No one likes to buy a fairly expensive product only to find that in a few months it is inferior to a "new" version and leaves them out in the cold.
I have no respect for their business and I do my best to not support that type of company.
So the few "lucky" ones who own a 360 right now get snowed and end up with a totally inferior product within months... that still has an anemic library. After seeing Quake 4 chug and stutter all over the place I think the 360 could use a bit more horsepower, so this may not be all production number driven. We'll see.
Well, my main reasoning and rationale come from my personal experience. I have worked as a writer/reviewer as well as an analyst and retail specialist in the gaming industry. I also worked directly with Sony for a number of years, so I have some insight and real hard facts behind my intentions.
Media format wars are not a major issue in other tech industries like the PC market, but in a console it is a life or death venture. Blu-Ray has been widely accepted as having only 30% market penetration by a number of analysts and a very low initial sales coupled with an expensive media and player but having much better features and damage protection. You cannot swap out a drive in a console like you can in a PC when you bought a DVD-RAM drive and DVD+/-R becomes the winner. Also, the bigger reason has to do with manufacturers. Just like UMD, new formats that do not take off and become wildly popular very quickly are expensive and get ignored.
Those issues as well as cost, DRM, features, and innovation among others all factor in my decision. The Xbox 360 would be useful to me if it were not dependent on Media Center for some of the extra features. The PS3 is too much of a gamble with no real benefits to me personally (and partially why I parted ways with the company) I have no faith in the technology or the marketing and strongly believe it will be Sony's downfall. Just my opinion, but one I believe fully.
Nintendo is championing a number of things I have been calling for for years. Complete backwards compatability, smaller less complex and expensive games (not every game needs to be 40 hours and cost $60), Indie/single developer support (this is huge and a my main selling point, so many amazing games get passed by every day because they are not "marketable"), low cost of entry, well established hardware and dev systems, and last but certainly not least A CHANGE FROM THE NORM. Innovativeness, creativity being brought back into gaming. Hardware, software, both are being seen for what they are: stale, derivitive, and bland. It is time that someone shook up this industry and began to dig out of the 40ft. ruts we are in. FPS, gangtsta sim, cliche RPG, running on teh uber-est hardware with 40bazillion textels per nanosecond running on 37 processors that does nothing for the end user except make the hoe he is slapping look more realistic that the last 12 games in the series.
I am a creative person, it is why I got into games, all I see from the game industry side are sweatshops completely devoid of real creativity and a culture that actually punishes thinking outside the box. That is why so many top talents have broken away or left completely, they don't want to pump out code all day for some pre-designed engine to make yet another shooter. I don't either. I want a change, personally, and that is why *I* support the Revolution. I have no ties to Nintendo and never have, this time it is personal.
Did you really not at least *think* this would be the outcome? Seriously, I can't see how anyone would put all of their eggs in one basket all riding on the N-Gauge. I feel bad that in business there are winners and losers, and that more often than not the losers have some of the best ideas and creativity... but that is life. If the talent is there and the desire, pick yourself up by the bootstraps and re-invent yourself, not by selling overpriced prints to hang on by a unraveling thread. No sense in chasing good money after bad.
Oh, I fully understand and agree... except that DX10 COULD be ported to xp if they wanted to, they just WON'T in hopes that this will force the consumers hand. I think it will fail. Just MHO but developers right now need to reach the largest audience as possible to attempt to make money, and depending on sales numbers for Vista (which I believe will be low) Developers will go elsewhere (Mac?) and that is the kind of paradigm shift I would like to see. A company finally crushed by it's heavy handed business practices. Sony and MS are both on pace to damage themselves due to this type of business "strategy" and I really hope for all of our sake that they go down in a blaze of unglory.
To upgrade my OS to Vista purely for games, and I also will not get caught up in the 360/PS3 and attached format war, so it looks my only gaming will be XP Pro and the Revolution with the DS for portability for some time.
Vista offers nothing of value or interest and I really don't see a mass switch to Vista happening so the least amount of sales MS sees should hopefully stop this new "trend" of claiming new games will be Vista-only.
...and we prove my point. Just as I thought. I stated twice where the data can be found (back as far as you want to research) and that IT CANNOT BE POSTED HERE ON SLASHDOT due to their "lameness filter" which will not allow comments to be posted containing more than a certain amount of spacing/special characters.
I have the data, I have the charts, they cannot be posted here. The info I posted was just to show how the top selling software is from the PS2 and the DS. If there was such a downturn and wait for new systems then new PS2 and DS titles would not dominate the sales charts and be selling 1-2+million copies in 2006 with the 360 out and E3 a month away.
But you will believe what you want, I'm sorry I can do no more.
We all really believe that our sole interface to our games is "no big deal" to how we play and enjoy them?!? Umm, sure. Immersion beyond simple 2D controls is only natural when all games are now being created in 3D. I mean no one wants VR... who would actually want to feel like they are in the game when they can hold a small uncomfortable controller and contort their hands to manipulate little non-responsive sticks?
With Nintendo claiming over and over that they have numerous MAJOR surprises yet to be released about the Revolution I think it is foolish at best to make such a short-sighted and stupid statement as this. Let's bash something no one including third party developers even know about yet! - ??? - Profit?
Best of luck with that. Dual analogs for-evah! Please.
The Xbox 360 wants to be whatever is currently popular to try to sell units and games, especially now that they have come to realize the "hardcore" market is small and unable to produce the sales numbers they need to stay afloat with the massive costs of development.
Best of luck MS, except all of your marketing and design was geared toward the hardcore gamer. Not many family customers want a $400+ console that has a million confusing and over-reaching features and setup. Sure, Nintendo may have you running scared with the wide audience they are aiming at but trying to switch your entire focus now is just insane and not likely to work.
You dug your grave MS trying to outdo Sony and lost sight of the real goal, best of luck!
The real problem here is the complete lack of a standard installation. I think most of the time questions are not *able* to be answered due to the wealth of info the user would need to provide to even begin to get meaningful assistance. This is the real root of the perceived "snobbishness."
Sure there are always your run of the mill asshats, but I know I would try to help newbs out if it was possible to have some baseline to work from. Choice is great, and advanced users need that choice, but what we need is a standardized basic set of applications, kernel, directory structure, FS, etc. for regular installations.
Imagine if Windows could be installed any which way and with all different options and applications... no one could troubleshot anything there either. Same for OSX. Standards and limiting choice at the outset is "A Good Thing" now if we could just do it instead of tossing the entire box of spaghetti at the wall right off the bat and having a million different possible outcomes.
Food for thought.