Since when have the decisions of upper management or CEO's ever made sense to begin with?
Maybe there was a time long ago, but recently the only way to make sense out of half of the actions we see out of big company CEO's is if there actions will somehow justify giving themselves another $10 Million or so in salary or other bonuses.
In this case the intelligent thing would probably be to just save a copy in the.xls format anyhow. I dont' think I've ever opened up a spreadsheet and changed to formatting around and added formulas with the intention of simply saving it in its original format and stripping out all of that work I've just done.
The people who can't figure out or don't understand what's being asked of them in that dialogue are the same users who likely won't notice or mind the application eating up a little more disk space to save them a headache later.
It's not always the best design to have software act this way, but a dummy mode that's toggled on by default isn't necessarily a bad thing when dealing largely with dummies. Any power user who doesn't want their applications taking any such initiative can simply turn it off. Some people might just leave it on for convenience. If you don't know how to turn it off or don't bother to read the manual or help files to find out how to turn it off, than it's likely that you're one of those people who should have it on.
I recall reading an article a short while ago that suggested one of the main reasons that they're currently not profitable is because of the extended warrenty that they offered and the number of console replacements that they've had to make. I don't know how prevalent the problem is, but I've heard stories of some people having to send the console in for repair three or more times. I'm not sure how much of this is true, or if it's just Sony or Nintendo fanboys trying to rip on Microsoft.
I do believe that the main problems are faulty DVD drives that result in a scratched disc due to a missing component in some of the drives by a certain manufacturer and either a solder point failing or some component on the motherboard becoming unseated after the board warps slightly due to cooling related issues. I don't know if the Elite solves any of these problems by adjustments to any of the components, but I'd like to think that as they transition to 65 nm chips, they'll solve some of these other issues as well.
I haven't seen any hard figures, but I'd have to say that based on what I've read, the Xbox 360 is running into some of the same problems that the PS2 had, namely cheap hardware that fails early in the products life cycle. The disc drive on my PS2 has recently started to go bad, but I've had it for several years, but if it had happened early on Sony wouldn't have covered it. At least Microsoft is providing some good customer service. I think that everyone could save some money, however, if they'd spend more time designing and testing the product to begin with and not buying the cheapest parts available.
Compared to a lot of the other people on this list, I honestly think he deserves a spot. The Nintendo Wii and the DS have really shaped up to be great gaming products that have in some ways changed how the industry has to think about games. I'm not going to say the Wii has revolutionized the gaming world. Maybe if the next generation of consoles all featured similar motion sensing technology, but not quite yet.
From personal experience though, I'd have to say the Wii has been a major breakthrough in the gaming market. I had taken mine home over Christmas and for the first time in his life, my father actually played a video game. Even more stunning, he enjoyed it. I can't ever see him being a hardcore gamer like myself, but it was really great being able to share something with him that's a big part of my life and is something that I enjoy doing with my time. I'll still enjoy things like going fishing together or watching ball games with him, but it's nice to know that if we ever wanted to, we could enjoy a few hours together playing Wii Sports.
I like at a lot of the other people on that list and there are many that have legitimate reasons to be there, but there are also a lot that don't. Maybe some of them have brought about a unique experience in your life like the Wii did in mine, but I think that's really what pushes me over the edge when considering whether or not Miyamoto belongs there. From reading comments on Slashdot over the past months I know that I'm not the only one out there who's had something like this happen.
For as many problems as Slashdot may have, things are exponentially worse on sites like Digg. Digg is a great site in its own way, but for actual information I generally tend to come to Slashdot knowing that I can expect to find insightful comments and a knowledgeable community that generally has something to add to the discussion. While there are certain people who will moderate poorly, through the meta-moderation system there is the chance that this will be recognized and stopped.
There are also a number of other tools that Slashdot offers that can help you while browsing the comments. Don't like reading the Soviet Russia and Futurama reference jokes? Just change your preferences so that comments moderated as funny are weighted less heavily. If you find a user that seems to get moderated insightful for comments that you feel are trolls, add him as a foe and weigh such posts less heavily. The simple fact that there are options like this on Slashdot make it so much better than other sites when it comes to the quality of comments.
The only other than I can do is to encourage you to be a good moderator. Maybe there's something you agree with or find interesting, but it's already been moderated as such so it might be more worthwhile to sink your points somewhere else. The simple fact of the matter is that any system implemented, no matter how good on paper, is still at the mercy of people who don't always tend to act rightly. Slashdot will never be perfect, but I enjoy it for what it is, and that's why I continue to come here.
All of the artists and the people who are actual involved with creating all of the content for the music labels, television stations, and other big media companies realize that at least to a certain extent allowing people to freely access and spread their content is good for them. Maybe some bored person who just happens to be browsing around the internet will happen to stumble on this content and for that reason might end up buying a CD, DVD, or something else to support the creaters of that content. I know that I've personally discovered several different things that have interested me and lead to me purchasing a product because I've found free clips or samples on the internet.
The corporate dinosaurs who are in charge don't seem to realize this and almost flat out refuse to change. EMI offering to sell music without DRM on several online music stores is a good start, but it seems like almost everyone else is trying to despirately cling to a business model that the consumers are rejecting in favor or something better. In a truly free market, I'd like to think that these people would have been put out of business already, but with the fortunes they've accumulated to court government and write their own policy, they keep trying to dictate how we will consume the content that's produced.
Why not give us what we want. Put free clips of The Daily Show on Youtube, but ask the Google display advertisements to buy official merchandise from their store in exchange for the rights to display it. I get to consume some content on demand for the reasonable price of free, and if I'm really interested in it, I've got a nice link to where I can get more or buy something else to support the creators. I think there are a lot of people out there, who like me, don't mind paying a little bit to support the people who make the music, television, or other content that we enjoy.
I think that most people who would be willing to shell out $500 for a console wouldn't mind having to pony up another $100 for built-in wireless (I think that's usually about $100 to add on, at least that's what it is for the Xbox 360), an extra 40 GB of room on the HD, and some media card slots (not sure how useful these are).
Makes me wonder when Microsoft is going to axe the $300 version of the Xbox 360, which in a way is kind of crap since it doesn't come with any way to save games on it by default without shelling out at least enough for a memory card or a special HD (since you can't plug your own in as far as I know). With the new Elite version coming out in the future, why bother having this lowend version take up shelf space?
That's a possibility. I'm also a little leery about the Vista numbers including all of the copies sold on new Dell (and other PC manufcaturers) boxes either. My roommate has a new Dell sitting in our apartment so he can remove Vista and install XP because Vista breaks some of the programs that need to be run on in apparently. This probably doens't happen in a majority of cases, but I wonder how often one of these new boxes is purchased and for whatever reason Vista is removed.
In the best case scenario this is thrown out of court and Microsoft's lawyers actually get to earn their keep. No big deal other than a few sensationalist headlines every now and again. Isn't any press good press anyhow?
In the worst case Microsoft is seriously guilty of the claims of infringement. They end up paying a few tens of millions of dollars and having to pay to liscense the stolen technology in Live. But considering that Microsoft makes billions of dollars each year as a whole company and that the Xbox division dropped something like $4 billion on the Xbox, and probably a few extra billion on the Xbox 360 at this point, does an extra ten or twenty million dollars really matter?
Considering that Live is one of Microsoft's big selling points for their console, I seriously doubt that they would put themselves into a situation where they could no long offer it until they fixed parts to work around the infringement. Either they throw some chump change at some company or they don't. Business as usual in that the only real winners are the lawyers.
But look at some of the games that are included in Wii Sports (bowling, baseball, and golf) which really don't need multiple controllers to be fully enjoyed by multiple people. Unless the baseball part of the game allows one person to pitch (I don't think I've seen this reflected in any of the commercials showing it off) and the other to swing, players would just take turns by passing the controller around. The same thing could be said of bowling and golf, where it's not necessary (or perhaps even possible in game) for multiple people to take their turns at the same time. To further this point, my friends and I used to play the golf mini-game from Monkey Ball. Even though we had four controllers plugged in, we still head to wait to take turns, so we really could have gotten by with only one controller.
Tennis (and perhaps boxxing if it supports two players) would require multiple controllers to enjoy fully in a group, but considering that this is at most 40% of the game, I'm not entirely sold on your comment. Perhaps Nintendo packaged Wii sports in such a way that users could get a taste of the games where only a single controller was necessary and have an enjoyable enough experience so that they would want to buy a few extra controllers to play tennis.
I think the fact that Nintendo even bothered to pack Wii Sports in with the console suggests that they are making a serious effort to appeal to other types of gamers. Wii Sports seems simple enough that just about anyone could enjoy it. It doesn't try to look graphically powerful or realistic, which might seem univiting to some people. If a mom who buys this console for her kid thinks Wii Sports is interesting and gives it a try she might start to use the console for other features (such as the news or weather channels on the system) or maybe buy that old Mario game that she used to play way back in the day.
I think Nintendo is trying more than ever to promote a console that can be enjoyed by everyone, at least on some level.
"It's not MS who've said that but four British MEPs"
I think that if they really understood the issues in general they would not have made such a statement. Just because you're in government, doesn't necessarily mean that you're above being a corporate shill. No offense to the British, but I'm willing to bet that there are a few Ted Stevens over there as well that are just as ignorant when it comes to modern technology as he appears to be.
If they were really concerned they'd probably be trying to work with Microsoft in order to get Vista within the guidelines so that I can make launch in Europe on time with the rest world. I'd say that they're not in Microsoft's pocket, but the fact that they are unnamed makes it seem a little bit suspicious. Microsoft might not have said it themselves, but I'm willing to bet that's where it came from.
In response to what Koster had to say, I think that over the next few generations of consoles, things will radically change.
First of all, the Nintendo Wii and DS have tried some out of the box approaches to gaming that have opened up new and different ways for games to be played. I'm not saying that the current ways are terrible and obsolete or that they should be done away with, but it is nice to have something new to try every once and a while. If the Nintendo Wii is a huge success, I think that we can expect next generation Sony and Microsoft consoles to include something similar. Sony and Microsoft each have an Eye Toy that also opens up a few new areas, but it seems somewhat unpopular and underdeveloped for. I'd say there are a lot of new ideas coming out, but the market is currently in a process of chosing the best and weeding out the bad ones. There's still plenty of room for evolution though.
Additionally, there was mention a while back by one of the Sony bigwigs that the PS4 might not even use a disc drive, but would download games to a hard drive from an online download service. This is probably the last thing that gaming stores want, but it does remove some of the problems that Koster talked about. Because these stores have limited floor space, they can't physically put every game for every console out there and advertise the hell out of it like they do for A-list titles or highly anticipated games. An online download service doesn't have the problem of shelf-space and could borrow features seen in other online stores such as iTunes or Amazon where people who buy one particular game could be pointed to another that they might like. I'm sure that something like this might help the bottom 80% of games sell better, especially if the game price can be reduced if the game studio doesn't need to pay a publisher to press discs for them. Also consider that the cost of shipping the discs as well as any store mark-up can be removed. The only added costs are running the online store and paying for the bandwidth for downloads. I think it would be cheaper to do it online.
I'd have to say that the gaming industry is in fairly good health. Some consumers might be turned off by the higher prices of the Xbox 360 or PS3, but Nintendo is offering a low cost machine. If people don't like outdated graphics of the Wii, they can get a PS3. If they want a great online experience, get an Xbox 360 and play online with Live. There's plenty of choice out there for consumers. I'd be more worried if all three companies had offerings that were almost the same. A lot of what I wrote about is a few years down the road, but I think the industry is in a good enough position to weather any storms until that time.
I can understand wanting to spin the situation to make it appear as though it's not their fault that there will be a delay, but are they really so naive as to believe the crap they're spouting about how not having Vista "would put European companies at a competitive disadvantage with every other company around the world who does have access to these new technologies"?
I'm sure that there are a few businesses out there that still run Windows 2000 on their machines, and that even after Vista comes out, some companies will take several years before migrating away from XP. About the only way I could consider Microsoft's statement valid is if you consider the new technologies found in the new boxes that will be needed to run Vista, because the current hardware used might not be up to snuff.
Considering that there are only going to be 100,000 PS3s for the Japanese launch, it does make sense for Microsoft to at least attempt to sell a few more Xbox 360 units in Japan. The only question I have is whether or not any games that appeal to the Japanese audience have been released for the console yet? If the answer to that question is yes, then I think that Microsoft has a decent shot at pushing a few consoles. Then again, perhaps the average video game consumer in Japan is as anti-Microsoft as the average American consumer (as seen on Slashdot, Digg, etc.) is anti-Sony.
Even with the massive number of Wii consoles that Nintendo is supposed to have ready for launch (2 million worldwide) it's entirely possible for there to be shortages as well, especially if the popularity of the DS is considered. So if a consumer wants a next generation console, but everyone has sold out of both PS3s and Wiis, then perhaps they'll grab an Xbox 360, which just happens to be a little more price friendly now.
I think that things might be slightly blown out of proportion here. First of all, I think that Cell chips, RAM, GPU's, and Blu-Ray drives have already been produced for the PlayStation 3, however they have not been assembled yet. Perhaps there aren't enough of any particular component yet to start ramping up production without running out of said component. Additionally, Microsoft didn't start manufacturing consoles until September either, and they still managed to get the Xbox 360 to market, albeit fewer than was initial demand for.
I don't think it's fair to consider Sony to be doomed, but they might run into some of the same problems that Microsoft did last year if they don't have enough consoles out the door in time for the holiday season.
I think that some people view their computer as more than a computer, a status symbol as it were. As many people will attest the new macbooks have a very stylish and well-refined look to them. Some people think it smacks of "elitist bastard", "artistic", or even "I'm different". However no matter how much Microsoft wants PC makers to make their boxes look pretty, I don't see it happening.
What would happen to the price of Dell's $300 PC if they decided to "pretty it up"? I'm guessing the price goes up a little bit. People shopping for a $300 computer don't really give a damn about what it looks like they just want to pay $300 for it. So how many $350 comptuers will Dell sell that look good but have the exact same feature set as a $300 HP computer? Not many. And can HP afford to make their PCs look pretty and lose even more ground to Dell or other companies?
Unlike the PC industry the only company that makes macs is Apple. They have no competiion in their niche and probably never will allow themselves to again. Even though Dell seems to be doing a number on other companies, they walk a pretty fine line. They can't afford to take risks like this simply because Microsoft is trying to emulate Apple.
Some company might decide the gamble is worth it. If they appear to have any success with this expect the rest of the PC industry to follow suit, but otherwise I expect everyone to stand very still and continue to ship bland looking boxes at the lowest price posible.
I really don't know if things have ever really changed all that much. I honestly feel that things have always been largely the same. Consider for example the Nintendo (NES) era. There were a lot of 2D platformers that were essentially side-scrollers with the same basic principle. The only difference being the sprites and a few animations.
Everything has largely been the same throughout history. Someone finds something that resonates with consumers and everyone else seeks to cash in on it be creating simple knock-offs. We still have endless sequals (how many Mario Bros. games were there on the NES or Sonic games were there on the Genesis), a large number of games based on movies or other franchises (Yo Noid, Total Recall, and endless others), and many other of the same problems that exist today. The only difference between today and yesteryear is that we look back with the sense of nogistalgia and fail to see the same glaring problems that rear their ugly head today.
Eventually you have to come to the realization that everything is simply and spin on a spin on a spin. For example, several people suggest that the DS game Trauma Center is a good example of a new and innovative example of what the gaming industry can produce. Funny that I remember playing a board game called Operation when I was young. There are a lot of differences, I'm sure, but you're still playing doctor. I haven't been on this planet long enough to know what Operation is a spin on, but I'm sure there's something. With a planet as old as ours it's almost inconceivable that there are still original ideas outside of recent discoveries by humanity. That joke about the nun and the rabii, I'm pretty sure there was something equivalent to it 200 years ago that was based off another joke that preceded it by another 200 years.
I'm not entirely sure if I buy the article, or at least everything it has to say. Some of the points it makes should have been obvious from the conception of video games. If they weren't whoever didn't realize it shouldn't necessarily have been in the business to begin with.
1. Perception, Games as Media - Games have always been a medium, regardless of what some people might think. Much in the same way that you can convey a story through a movie, book, play, or other art form you can do the same with a video game with the exception that a video game is more interactive. In some ways this makes it both superior and inferior to other art forms, but I think most people would place video games under that catagory of entertainment along with movies, books, etc. They are things which are used to occupy time and naturally compete with any other leisure activity.
2. Upside Down Metrics - Personally, I feel that the same arguments used with video games apply in other fields as well. Do people honestly believe that every movie is profitable? Every book? How about any other form of art for that matter? In one sense, perhaps rising costs will ensure that only well made games are created so that no one has to worry about buying a sub par game (after all, of the sever hundred, if not thousands of games made for a given console, how many does the average consumer own? a handful, a few dozen at best perhaps?), but perhaps this will only lead to the so-called "safe" games that people seem to storm off about. Of course if one were to consider all "video games" one must also consider simple flash games or other games that are every bit as popular as console games, but made for a fraction of the price.
3. Increased Risk Means Decreased Creativity - Despite what the media may tout as fact, I tend to disagree. While it might be popular sentiment that there is not more creativity in the video game industry, I must beg to differ. As an example, I would suggest Will Wright's Spore. Although it could be consider a logical progession from Sim City and other games he has had a hand in creating, I believe it transcends almost anything I have experienced (Although many would point out it is a spin on several other game
That's like saying that having your left hand cut off doesn't sound all that bad compared to having the whole arm removed. No matter how you look at it, you're probably paying a lot more than you should.
Personally, I'd only be willing to pay about $5 for NES and SNES games and might consider paying upwards of $10 for N64 games. Asking for anything more than that is highway robery in my opinion. I'd prefer to see $2 for NES games, $3 for SNES games, and $5 for N64 games. Considering the cost to transmit the ROM images are mere pennies, even in the worst case, the rest is practically straight profit on something that has cost you nothing else (unless the game failed to turn a profit when it was released in its original form).
I'd also like to see package deals. For instance if I by the new Legend of Zelda game for the Wii, perhaps they should include a free download on the Virtual Console, or perhaps a free copy of an old school Legend of Zelda game.
Is it just me, or is anyone else getting sick of the massive hype that keeps surrounding the Halo franchise?
I was wonderfully impressed with the first game, which I had heard little about. For its time it was one of the best looking console games I had seen and coupled with the Xbox hardware the lack of loading was truly impressive for a console game. However, since then there's been entirely too much hype for the series good. The second game was massively hyped and generated insane sales numbers, but in my opinion was a let down (at least in terms of the single player campaign. The mutliplayer was still good.) and I'm sure many others have felt the same way.
I was under the impression from various news that I had read that Bungie was planning on working on another franchise or an entirely new game before making another Halo. However, this was pretty much put to rest at E3 when they released the trailer. I watched the trailer and wasn't impressed in the slightest. Other than some eye candy we're giving nothing. However, major news sites covered the trailer quite extensively and I think Halo 3 was even nominated for some awards on some sites. Now we have a documentary about a 2 minute trailer?
I can understand that Microsoft wants to build up some hype for their products and is probably trying to use announcements concerning Halo as a counter to anything that Sony might be trying to accomplish, but I fear that they'll only end up causing more damage to the series by creating an image that the actual game can't live up to. However, I'm even more disgusted with the media making such a big deal over the trailer. It's a 2 minute trailer that doesn't tell us anything important, reveal anything new, or show us any gameplay footage. As far as I'm concerned this is the Killzone trailer all over again.
I think the best possible thing for the Halo series would be for everyone to get over it. It's probably the best console FPS I've played to date, but I'm sure PC FPS players would argue that it's nothing special and they may be right for all I know. I'd rather see Bungie move on to a fresh project and make something new and wonderful, rather than burn themselves out on the same franchise. I really want Halo 3 to be a great game that makes the Xbox 360 a must have console, but if Bungie really doesn't have it's heart fully set on making the game great and the level of hype is at the point where everyone goes bat shit loco over a 2 minute trailer, I have a feeling the game will be a failure.
I'm sure it's quite obvious to most people that they're just inflating numbers. They can't really even begin to estimate how much revenue is lost to piracy on a yearly basis. I'll wager a substantial sum of money that in a few years this number will grow by another 2 or 3 billion dollars, not because people are pirating any more or any less music, movies, books, or other forms of media, but because the corporations want to make it seem as though they're in danger of falling apart. The truth of the matter is that they've been ripping consumers off for so many years that they have more than enough money to withstand the effects of piracy. Their hesitation to change and adapt by switching to new business models and solutions only reaffirms my belief that these corporate dinosaurs are actually in need of extinction.
If you can't be creative and adapt to the modern world market and find new methods of selling your product, please get the hell out of the way of the companies and people that are trying to make a difference. The stagnation and lack of creative thinking is inflicting more harm on the consumers and economy than any amount of piracy could ever do. Sink, swim, or get the hell out of the water.
This is all pure speculation, but it is entirely possible that this whole thing is a big, albeit late, April Fool's joke. Consider the following scenario:
Thousands of people are gathered around Nintendo's booth at E3 waiting for them to talk more about the Wii, DS, and other things. A spokesperson for Nintendo steps up to a podium and begins delivering a speech about the Wii. "Wii have a dream!" the spokesperson begins. The speech is filled with similar puns and word plays. As the speech ends, the spokesperson closes with, "Of course, wii're just joking. Viva la REVOLUTION!" Screens light up with pictures of the Revolution/Wii and some of the games that are going to be launched or are being worked on for the console. Throw in some banners, fireworks, or anything else to add to the overall emotional rush and the entire expo will be talking about it.
No one's going to care about the PS3's launch or how many tera-majigaflops it can do and how it's better than the Xbox 360 and can play Blu-Ray movies. No one's going to care about Halo 3 demo (non-playable) that Microsoft came up with. Nintendo will essentially steal the show if they were to do something like this. The important part is that there's a lot of fanfare so that everyone gets caught up in the moment. They'll also need to keep the surprises and big announcements comming in a steady rate after that to keep the emotions running high. I'd suggest allowing people to get hands on and showing some good looking vaporware to keep people excited. Kudos if it isn't vaporware, but it really doesn't matter if it will keep people impressed.
They'll get coverage based on the games they're releasing, but they'll get even more when every site that posted a story about the Wii has to post another one saying it was all a big gag that Nintendo played on everyone.
Of course, like I said, this is all purely speculation.
The X-box was "new". It was fresh. It meant a new player in a market that had been neatly carved in two.
Personally, I think this is probably the most significant factor that differentiates the two launches. The Xbox was the first generation console out of Microsoft. Sony had already made one successful console, whereas Nintendo had been in business for generations. Sega had just gotten out of the console business, leaving the playingfield down to 2 major competitors. However, this time around, Microsoft is already established in the console field, which changes everything.
It also stood a chance of actually happening unlike some stuff like the phantom and other console vaporware wich never had the kinda backing needed to take on Sony.
MS took some intresting decisions. It used existing hardware with minor modifications to simplify and speed up development wich in theory should have made it cheaper but in the end made it a more limited machine with a lot of security flaws (from MS viewpoint) meaning it was hacked to hell and back.
The PS2 continues to be pushed to new heights, the X-box is maxed out. It is kinda sad when a system over 1.5 years older (ps2 early 2000, x-box late 2001) continues to be as powerfull as your new release.
I think a lot of the "new heights" that the PS2 is ascending to have a lot to do with the fact that it's been said to be a pain to program for. Of course all major consoles are similar, the best looking games will come out towards the end after developers have had 5 years to play around with the console and learn how to optimize for it. From what I've heard of the PS2, it's powerful yes, but a bugger to code for. It's been around five or six years now, so the developers should have plenty of experience and know all the ins and outs for it.
Nonetheless the new kid on the block powered some chances. Despite the fact that none of the current generation seem to include a HD by default it seems that it is going to be an almost essential add-on. Live for better or worse was also a sorta wakeup call especially for Nintendo.
I don't quite buy into this. I think Live customers consist roughly of 10% of all Xbox users (There was a/. article this summer about how Live had 2 million customers, which makes it about 10% considering the Xbox sold around 20 million units). 10% isn't really enough, in my mind, to get all gung-ho about online capabilities. The same could be said of HD capabilities, when a lot of people still don't own HD TV's. Maybe these consoles will help fuel the sales of HD TVs, but once again you're probably going to get another low figure.
Microsoft has lost loads of money on the Xbox because it has done some inovative things. If Xbox Live had really taken off, MS might have made a profit selling online subscriptions. However, it didn't and they took a big hit in the pocket book. If they didn't have other business areas to fall back on the Xbox would have already been discontinued. Nintendo has always been a more conservative company and remaiend profitable. I'm assuming that they view the market trend to be an increase in online gaming, which is why they've finally started including it. Perhaps in this future generation, online play might be profitable, or at least not as much of a loss. Nintendo is also taking a similar stance with regards to HD support. Apparently they don't think there's enough reason to include it at this point. I'll wager that the generation after this, they'll include it, but not yet.
For the most part, HD is a bullshit buzzword spread around to sell you more stuff. Most people really don't understand what it truly is, but it sounds cool and everyone's saying it so it must be good. HD can make games look better, but not necessarily. It won't make them play any better though. I'm an avid console gamer and play a lot of games these days, but I really miss the days of 2D gameplay. The last few generations have put an emphasis on 3D, which really does
Actually over Christmas their was a bundle (at least in the US anyhow) that included a Gamecube, 2 controllers, Mario Party 7, and a microphone (comes with Mario Party 7) for $99. These things sold out like crazy in my area. I had to check 4 different stores just to finally get my hands on one that someone had already reserved but had thankfully not picked up.
Nintendo probably didn't make any money at all on these, or might have even lost a small amount, but they probably moved a few hundred thousand GameCubes across NA. Maybe there were similar deals in Japan and Europe. I don't know about consumer trends there, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that Nintendo moved large volumes there as well.
CompUSA and BestBuy are using games to give you a reason to go into the store. While you're there they hope you might buy some other stuff. Maybe a nice new HDTV or surround sound system to play those games on. Guess what the mark up is on those items.
Games aren't quite a loss-leader, but they're fairly close in some cases. BestBuy can afford to make money through the rest of their product and have thin margins on games. If the stopped selling TVs, sterios, and other electronics then they'd probably get into the used game business. Fortunately for them, they've found an alternative method to rape the customer.
Slashdot Mirror
Since when have the decisions of upper management or CEO's ever made sense to begin with?
Maybe there was a time long ago, but recently the only way to make sense out of half of the actions we see out of big company CEO's is if there actions will somehow justify giving themselves another $10 Million or so in salary or other bonuses.
In this case the intelligent thing would probably be to just save a copy in the .xls format anyhow. I dont' think I've ever opened up a spreadsheet and changed to formatting around and added formulas with the intention of simply saving it in its original format and stripping out all of that work I've just done.
The people who can't figure out or don't understand what's being asked of them in that dialogue are the same users who likely won't notice or mind the application eating up a little more disk space to save them a headache later.
It's not always the best design to have software act this way, but a dummy mode that's toggled on by default isn't necessarily a bad thing when dealing largely with dummies. Any power user who doesn't want their applications taking any such initiative can simply turn it off. Some people might just leave it on for convenience. If you don't know how to turn it off or don't bother to read the manual or help files to find out how to turn it off, than it's likely that you're one of those people who should have it on.
I recall reading an article a short while ago that suggested one of the main reasons that they're currently not profitable is because of the extended warrenty that they offered and the number of console replacements that they've had to make. I don't know how prevalent the problem is, but I've heard stories of some people having to send the console in for repair three or more times. I'm not sure how much of this is true, or if it's just Sony or Nintendo fanboys trying to rip on Microsoft.
I do believe that the main problems are faulty DVD drives that result in a scratched disc due to a missing component in some of the drives by a certain manufacturer and either a solder point failing or some component on the motherboard becoming unseated after the board warps slightly due to cooling related issues. I don't know if the Elite solves any of these problems by adjustments to any of the components, but I'd like to think that as they transition to 65 nm chips, they'll solve some of these other issues as well.
I haven't seen any hard figures, but I'd have to say that based on what I've read, the Xbox 360 is running into some of the same problems that the PS2 had, namely cheap hardware that fails early in the products life cycle. The disc drive on my PS2 has recently started to go bad, but I've had it for several years, but if it had happened early on Sony wouldn't have covered it. At least Microsoft is providing some good customer service. I think that everyone could save some money, however, if they'd spend more time designing and testing the product to begin with and not buying the cheapest parts available.
Compared to a lot of the other people on this list, I honestly think he deserves a spot. The Nintendo Wii and the DS have really shaped up to be great gaming products that have in some ways changed how the industry has to think about games. I'm not going to say the Wii has revolutionized the gaming world. Maybe if the next generation of consoles all featured similar motion sensing technology, but not quite yet.
From personal experience though, I'd have to say the Wii has been a major breakthrough in the gaming market. I had taken mine home over Christmas and for the first time in his life, my father actually played a video game. Even more stunning, he enjoyed it. I can't ever see him being a hardcore gamer like myself, but it was really great being able to share something with him that's a big part of my life and is something that I enjoy doing with my time. I'll still enjoy things like going fishing together or watching ball games with him, but it's nice to know that if we ever wanted to, we could enjoy a few hours together playing Wii Sports.
I like at a lot of the other people on that list and there are many that have legitimate reasons to be there, but there are also a lot that don't. Maybe some of them have brought about a unique experience in your life like the Wii did in mine, but I think that's really what pushes me over the edge when considering whether or not Miyamoto belongs there. From reading comments on Slashdot over the past months I know that I'm not the only one out there who's had something like this happen.
For as many problems as Slashdot may have, things are exponentially worse on sites like Digg. Digg is a great site in its own way, but for actual information I generally tend to come to Slashdot knowing that I can expect to find insightful comments and a knowledgeable community that generally has something to add to the discussion. While there are certain people who will moderate poorly, through the meta-moderation system there is the chance that this will be recognized and stopped.
There are also a number of other tools that Slashdot offers that can help you while browsing the comments. Don't like reading the Soviet Russia and Futurama reference jokes? Just change your preferences so that comments moderated as funny are weighted less heavily. If you find a user that seems to get moderated insightful for comments that you feel are trolls, add him as a foe and weigh such posts less heavily. The simple fact that there are options like this on Slashdot make it so much better than other sites when it comes to the quality of comments.
The only other than I can do is to encourage you to be a good moderator. Maybe there's something you agree with or find interesting, but it's already been moderated as such so it might be more worthwhile to sink your points somewhere else. The simple fact of the matter is that any system implemented, no matter how good on paper, is still at the mercy of people who don't always tend to act rightly. Slashdot will never be perfect, but I enjoy it for what it is, and that's why I continue to come here.
All of the artists and the people who are actual involved with creating all of the content for the music labels, television stations, and other big media companies realize that at least to a certain extent allowing people to freely access and spread their content is good for them. Maybe some bored person who just happens to be browsing around the internet will happen to stumble on this content and for that reason might end up buying a CD, DVD, or something else to support the creaters of that content. I know that I've personally discovered several different things that have interested me and lead to me purchasing a product because I've found free clips or samples on the internet.
The corporate dinosaurs who are in charge don't seem to realize this and almost flat out refuse to change. EMI offering to sell music without DRM on several online music stores is a good start, but it seems like almost everyone else is trying to despirately cling to a business model that the consumers are rejecting in favor or something better. In a truly free market, I'd like to think that these people would have been put out of business already, but with the fortunes they've accumulated to court government and write their own policy, they keep trying to dictate how we will consume the content that's produced.
Why not give us what we want. Put free clips of The Daily Show on Youtube, but ask the Google display advertisements to buy official merchandise from their store in exchange for the rights to display it. I get to consume some content on demand for the reasonable price of free, and if I'm really interested in it, I've got a nice link to where I can get more or buy something else to support the creators. I think there are a lot of people out there, who like me, don't mind paying a little bit to support the people who make the music, television, or other content that we enjoy.
I think that most people who would be willing to shell out $500 for a console wouldn't mind having to pony up another $100 for built-in wireless (I think that's usually about $100 to add on, at least that's what it is for the Xbox 360), an extra 40 GB of room on the HD, and some media card slots (not sure how useful these are).
Makes me wonder when Microsoft is going to axe the $300 version of the Xbox 360, which in a way is kind of crap since it doesn't come with any way to save games on it by default without shelling out at least enough for a memory card or a special HD (since you can't plug your own in as far as I know). With the new Elite version coming out in the future, why bother having this lowend version take up shelf space?
That's a possibility. I'm also a little leery about the Vista numbers including all of the copies sold on new Dell (and other PC manufcaturers) boxes either. My roommate has a new Dell sitting in our apartment so he can remove Vista and install XP because Vista breaks some of the programs that need to be run on in apparently. This probably doens't happen in a majority of cases, but I wonder how often one of these new boxes is purchased and for whatever reason Vista is removed.
In the best case scenario this is thrown out of court and Microsoft's lawyers actually get to earn their keep. No big deal other than a few sensationalist headlines every now and again. Isn't any press good press anyhow?
In the worst case Microsoft is seriously guilty of the claims of infringement. They end up paying a few tens of millions of dollars and having to pay to liscense the stolen technology in Live. But considering that Microsoft makes billions of dollars each year as a whole company and that the Xbox division dropped something like $4 billion on the Xbox, and probably a few extra billion on the Xbox 360 at this point, does an extra ten or twenty million dollars really matter?
Considering that Live is one of Microsoft's big selling points for their console, I seriously doubt that they would put themselves into a situation where they could no long offer it until they fixed parts to work around the infringement. Either they throw some chump change at some company or they don't. Business as usual in that the only real winners are the lawyers.
But look at some of the games that are included in Wii Sports (bowling, baseball, and golf) which really don't need multiple controllers to be fully enjoyed by multiple people. Unless the baseball part of the game allows one person to pitch (I don't think I've seen this reflected in any of the commercials showing it off) and the other to swing, players would just take turns by passing the controller around. The same thing could be said of bowling and golf, where it's not necessary (or perhaps even possible in game) for multiple people to take their turns at the same time. To further this point, my friends and I used to play the golf mini-game from Monkey Ball. Even though we had four controllers plugged in, we still head to wait to take turns, so we really could have gotten by with only one controller.
Tennis (and perhaps boxxing if it supports two players) would require multiple controllers to enjoy fully in a group, but considering that this is at most 40% of the game, I'm not entirely sold on your comment. Perhaps Nintendo packaged Wii sports in such a way that users could get a taste of the games where only a single controller was necessary and have an enjoyable enough experience so that they would want to buy a few extra controllers to play tennis.
I think the fact that Nintendo even bothered to pack Wii Sports in with the console suggests that they are making a serious effort to appeal to other types of gamers. Wii Sports seems simple enough that just about anyone could enjoy it. It doesn't try to look graphically powerful or realistic, which might seem univiting to some people. If a mom who buys this console for her kid thinks Wii Sports is interesting and gives it a try she might start to use the console for other features (such as the news or weather channels on the system) or maybe buy that old Mario game that she used to play way back in the day.
I think Nintendo is trying more than ever to promote a console that can be enjoyed by everyone, at least on some level.
"It's not MS who've said that but four British MEPs"
I think that if they really understood the issues in general they would not have made such a statement. Just because you're in government, doesn't necessarily mean that you're above being a corporate shill. No offense to the British, but I'm willing to bet that there are a few Ted Stevens over there as well that are just as ignorant when it comes to modern technology as he appears to be.
If they were really concerned they'd probably be trying to work with Microsoft in order to get Vista within the guidelines so that I can make launch in Europe on time with the rest world. I'd say that they're not in Microsoft's pocket, but the fact that they are unnamed makes it seem a little bit suspicious. Microsoft might not have said it themselves, but I'm willing to bet that's where it came from.
In response to what Koster had to say, I think that over the next few generations of consoles, things will radically change.
First of all, the Nintendo Wii and DS have tried some out of the box approaches to gaming that have opened up new and different ways for games to be played. I'm not saying that the current ways are terrible and obsolete or that they should be done away with, but it is nice to have something new to try every once and a while. If the Nintendo Wii is a huge success, I think that we can expect next generation Sony and Microsoft consoles to include something similar. Sony and Microsoft each have an Eye Toy that also opens up a few new areas, but it seems somewhat unpopular and underdeveloped for. I'd say there are a lot of new ideas coming out, but the market is currently in a process of chosing the best and weeding out the bad ones. There's still plenty of room for evolution though.
Additionally, there was mention a while back by one of the Sony bigwigs that the PS4 might not even use a disc drive, but would download games to a hard drive from an online download service. This is probably the last thing that gaming stores want, but it does remove some of the problems that Koster talked about. Because these stores have limited floor space, they can't physically put every game for every console out there and advertise the hell out of it like they do for A-list titles or highly anticipated games. An online download service doesn't have the problem of shelf-space and could borrow features seen in other online stores such as iTunes or Amazon where people who buy one particular game could be pointed to another that they might like. I'm sure that something like this might help the bottom 80% of games sell better, especially if the game price can be reduced if the game studio doesn't need to pay a publisher to press discs for them. Also consider that the cost of shipping the discs as well as any store mark-up can be removed. The only added costs are running the online store and paying for the bandwidth for downloads. I think it would be cheaper to do it online.
I'd have to say that the gaming industry is in fairly good health. Some consumers might be turned off by the higher prices of the Xbox 360 or PS3, but Nintendo is offering a low cost machine. If people don't like outdated graphics of the Wii, they can get a PS3. If they want a great online experience, get an Xbox 360 and play online with Live. There's plenty of choice out there for consumers. I'd be more worried if all three companies had offerings that were almost the same. A lot of what I wrote about is a few years down the road, but I think the industry is in a good enough position to weather any storms until that time.
I can understand wanting to spin the situation to make it appear as though it's not their fault that there will be a delay, but are they really so naive as to believe the crap they're spouting about how not having Vista "would put European companies at a competitive disadvantage with every other company around the world who does have access to these new technologies"?
I'm sure that there are a few businesses out there that still run Windows 2000 on their machines, and that even after Vista comes out, some companies will take several years before migrating away from XP. About the only way I could consider Microsoft's statement valid is if you consider the new technologies found in the new boxes that will be needed to run Vista, because the current hardware used might not be up to snuff.
Considering that there are only going to be 100,000 PS3s for the Japanese launch, it does make sense for Microsoft to at least attempt to sell a few more Xbox 360 units in Japan. The only question I have is whether or not any games that appeal to the Japanese audience have been released for the console yet? If the answer to that question is yes, then I think that Microsoft has a decent shot at pushing a few consoles. Then again, perhaps the average video game consumer in Japan is as anti-Microsoft as the average American consumer (as seen on Slashdot, Digg, etc.) is anti-Sony.
Even with the massive number of Wii consoles that Nintendo is supposed to have ready for launch (2 million worldwide) it's entirely possible for there to be shortages as well, especially if the popularity of the DS is considered. So if a consumer wants a next generation console, but everyone has sold out of both PS3s and Wiis, then perhaps they'll grab an Xbox 360, which just happens to be a little more price friendly now.
I think that things might be slightly blown out of proportion here. First of all, I think that Cell chips, RAM, GPU's, and Blu-Ray drives have already been produced for the PlayStation 3, however they have not been assembled yet. Perhaps there aren't enough of any particular component yet to start ramping up production without running out of said component. Additionally, Microsoft didn't start manufacturing consoles until September either, and they still managed to get the Xbox 360 to market, albeit fewer than was initial demand for.
I don't think it's fair to consider Sony to be doomed, but they might run into some of the same problems that Microsoft did last year if they don't have enough consoles out the door in time for the holiday season.
I think that some people view their computer as more than a computer, a status symbol as it were. As many people will attest the new macbooks have a very stylish and well-refined look to them. Some people think it smacks of "elitist bastard", "artistic", or even "I'm different". However no matter how much Microsoft wants PC makers to make their boxes look pretty, I don't see it happening.
What would happen to the price of Dell's $300 PC if they decided to "pretty it up"? I'm guessing the price goes up a little bit. People shopping for a $300 computer don't really give a damn about what it looks like they just want to pay $300 for it. So how many $350 comptuers will Dell sell that look good but have the exact same feature set as a $300 HP computer? Not many. And can HP afford to make their PCs look pretty and lose even more ground to Dell or other companies?
Unlike the PC industry the only company that makes macs is Apple. They have no competiion in their niche and probably never will allow themselves to again. Even though Dell seems to be doing a number on other companies, they walk a pretty fine line. They can't afford to take risks like this simply because Microsoft is trying to emulate Apple.
Some company might decide the gamble is worth it. If they appear to have any success with this expect the rest of the PC industry to follow suit, but otherwise I expect everyone to stand very still and continue to ship bland looking boxes at the lowest price posible.
I really don't know if things have ever really changed all that much. I honestly feel that things have always been largely the same. Consider for example the Nintendo (NES) era. There were a lot of 2D platformers that were essentially side-scrollers with the same basic principle. The only difference being the sprites and a few animations.
Everything has largely been the same throughout history. Someone finds something that resonates with consumers and everyone else seeks to cash in on it be creating simple knock-offs. We still have endless sequals (how many Mario Bros. games were there on the NES or Sonic games were there on the Genesis), a large number of games based on movies or other franchises (Yo Noid, Total Recall, and endless others), and many other of the same problems that exist today. The only difference between today and yesteryear is that we look back with the sense of nogistalgia and fail to see the same glaring problems that rear their ugly head today.
Eventually you have to come to the realization that everything is simply and spin on a spin on a spin. For example, several people suggest that the DS game Trauma Center is a good example of a new and innovative example of what the gaming industry can produce. Funny that I remember playing a board game called Operation when I was young. There are a lot of differences, I'm sure, but you're still playing doctor. I haven't been on this planet long enough to know what Operation is a spin on, but I'm sure there's something. With a planet as old as ours it's almost inconceivable that there are still original ideas outside of recent discoveries by humanity. That joke about the nun and the rabii, I'm pretty sure there was something equivalent to it 200 years ago that was based off another joke that preceded it by another 200 years.
I'm not entirely sure if I buy the article, or at least everything it has to say. Some of the points it makes should have been obvious from the conception of video games. If they weren't whoever didn't realize it shouldn't necessarily have been in the business to begin with.
1. Perception, Games as Media - Games have always been a medium, regardless of what some people might think. Much in the same way that you can convey a story through a movie, book, play, or other art form you can do the same with a video game with the exception that a video game is more interactive. In some ways this makes it both superior and inferior to other art forms, but I think most people would place video games under that catagory of entertainment along with movies, books, etc. They are things which are used to occupy time and naturally compete with any other leisure activity.
2. Upside Down Metrics - Personally, I feel that the same arguments used with video games apply in other fields as well. Do people honestly believe that every movie is profitable? Every book? How about any other form of art for that matter? In one sense, perhaps rising costs will ensure that only well made games are created so that no one has to worry about buying a sub par game (after all, of the sever hundred, if not thousands of games made for a given console, how many does the average consumer own? a handful, a few dozen at best perhaps?), but perhaps this will only lead to the so-called "safe" games that people seem to storm off about. Of course if one were to consider all "video games" one must also consider simple flash games or other games that are every bit as popular as console games, but made for a fraction of the price.
3. Increased Risk Means Decreased Creativity - Despite what the media may tout as fact, I tend to disagree. While it might be popular sentiment that there is not more creativity in the video game industry, I must beg to differ. As an example, I would suggest Will Wright's Spore. Although it could be consider a logical progession from Sim City and other games he has had a hand in creating, I believe it transcends almost anything I have experienced (Although many would point out it is a spin on several other game
That's like saying that having your left hand cut off doesn't sound all that bad compared to having the whole arm removed. No matter how you look at it, you're probably paying a lot more than you should.
Personally, I'd only be willing to pay about $5 for NES and SNES games and might consider paying upwards of $10 for N64 games. Asking for anything more than that is highway robery in my opinion. I'd prefer to see $2 for NES games, $3 for SNES games, and $5 for N64 games. Considering the cost to transmit the ROM images are mere pennies, even in the worst case, the rest is practically straight profit on something that has cost you nothing else (unless the game failed to turn a profit when it was released in its original form).
I'd also like to see package deals. For instance if I by the new Legend of Zelda game for the Wii, perhaps they should include a free download on the Virtual Console, or perhaps a free copy of an old school Legend of Zelda game.
Is it just me, or is anyone else getting sick of the massive hype that keeps surrounding the Halo franchise? I was wonderfully impressed with the first game, which I had heard little about. For its time it was one of the best looking console games I had seen and coupled with the Xbox hardware the lack of loading was truly impressive for a console game. However, since then there's been entirely too much hype for the series good. The second game was massively hyped and generated insane sales numbers, but in my opinion was a let down (at least in terms of the single player campaign. The mutliplayer was still good.) and I'm sure many others have felt the same way. I was under the impression from various news that I had read that Bungie was planning on working on another franchise or an entirely new game before making another Halo. However, this was pretty much put to rest at E3 when they released the trailer. I watched the trailer and wasn't impressed in the slightest. Other than some eye candy we're giving nothing. However, major news sites covered the trailer quite extensively and I think Halo 3 was even nominated for some awards on some sites. Now we have a documentary about a 2 minute trailer? I can understand that Microsoft wants to build up some hype for their products and is probably trying to use announcements concerning Halo as a counter to anything that Sony might be trying to accomplish, but I fear that they'll only end up causing more damage to the series by creating an image that the actual game can't live up to. However, I'm even more disgusted with the media making such a big deal over the trailer. It's a 2 minute trailer that doesn't tell us anything important, reveal anything new, or show us any gameplay footage. As far as I'm concerned this is the Killzone trailer all over again. I think the best possible thing for the Halo series would be for everyone to get over it. It's probably the best console FPS I've played to date, but I'm sure PC FPS players would argue that it's nothing special and they may be right for all I know. I'd rather see Bungie move on to a fresh project and make something new and wonderful, rather than burn themselves out on the same franchise. I really want Halo 3 to be a great game that makes the Xbox 360 a must have console, but if Bungie really doesn't have it's heart fully set on making the game great and the level of hype is at the point where everyone goes bat shit loco over a 2 minute trailer, I have a feeling the game will be a failure.
I'm sure it's quite obvious to most people that they're just inflating numbers. They can't really even begin to estimate how much revenue is lost to piracy on a yearly basis. I'll wager a substantial sum of money that in a few years this number will grow by another 2 or 3 billion dollars, not because people are pirating any more or any less music, movies, books, or other forms of media, but because the corporations want to make it seem as though they're in danger of falling apart. The truth of the matter is that they've been ripping consumers off for so many years that they have more than enough money to withstand the effects of piracy. Their hesitation to change and adapt by switching to new business models and solutions only reaffirms my belief that these corporate dinosaurs are actually in need of extinction.
If you can't be creative and adapt to the modern world market and find new methods of selling your product, please get the hell out of the way of the companies and people that are trying to make a difference. The stagnation and lack of creative thinking is inflicting more harm on the consumers and economy than any amount of piracy could ever do. Sink, swim, or get the hell out of the water.
Sorry about the formatting. The gremlins got in methinks.
This is all pure speculation, but it is entirely possible that this whole thing is a big, albeit late, April Fool's joke. Consider the following scenario: Thousands of people are gathered around Nintendo's booth at E3 waiting for them to talk more about the Wii, DS, and other things. A spokesperson for Nintendo steps up to a podium and begins delivering a speech about the Wii. "Wii have a dream!" the spokesperson begins. The speech is filled with similar puns and word plays. As the speech ends, the spokesperson closes with, "Of course, wii're just joking. Viva la REVOLUTION!" Screens light up with pictures of the Revolution/Wii and some of the games that are going to be launched or are being worked on for the console. Throw in some banners, fireworks, or anything else to add to the overall emotional rush and the entire expo will be talking about it. No one's going to care about the PS3's launch or how many tera-majigaflops it can do and how it's better than the Xbox 360 and can play Blu-Ray movies. No one's going to care about Halo 3 demo (non-playable) that Microsoft came up with. Nintendo will essentially steal the show if they were to do something like this. The important part is that there's a lot of fanfare so that everyone gets caught up in the moment. They'll also need to keep the surprises and big announcements comming in a steady rate after that to keep the emotions running high. I'd suggest allowing people to get hands on and showing some good looking vaporware to keep people excited. Kudos if it isn't vaporware, but it really doesn't matter if it will keep people impressed. They'll get coverage based on the games they're releasing, but they'll get even more when every site that posted a story about the Wii has to post another one saying it was all a big gag that Nintendo played on everyone. Of course, like I said, this is all purely speculation.
The X-box was "new". It was fresh. It meant a new player in a market that had been neatly carved in two.
/. article this summer about how Live had 2 million customers, which makes it about 10% considering the Xbox sold around 20 million units). 10% isn't really enough, in my mind, to get all gung-ho about online capabilities. The same could be said of HD capabilities, when a lot of people still don't own HD TV's. Maybe these consoles will help fuel the sales of HD TVs, but once again you're probably going to get another low figure.
Personally, I think this is probably the most significant factor that differentiates the two launches. The Xbox was the first generation console out of Microsoft. Sony had already made one successful console, whereas Nintendo had been in business for generations. Sega had just gotten out of the console business, leaving the playingfield down to 2 major competitors. However, this time around, Microsoft is already established in the console field, which changes everything.
It also stood a chance of actually happening unlike some stuff like the phantom and other console vaporware wich never had the kinda backing needed to take on Sony. MS took some intresting decisions. It used existing hardware with minor modifications to simplify and speed up development wich in theory should have made it cheaper but in the end made it a more limited machine with a lot of security flaws (from MS viewpoint) meaning it was hacked to hell and back. The PS2 continues to be pushed to new heights, the X-box is maxed out. It is kinda sad when a system over 1.5 years older (ps2 early 2000, x-box late 2001) continues to be as powerfull as your new release.
I think a lot of the "new heights" that the PS2 is ascending to have a lot to do with the fact that it's been said to be a pain to program for. Of course all major consoles are similar, the best looking games will come out towards the end after developers have had 5 years to play around with the console and learn how to optimize for it. From what I've heard of the PS2, it's powerful yes, but a bugger to code for. It's been around five or six years now, so the developers should have plenty of experience and know all the ins and outs for it.
Nonetheless the new kid on the block powered some chances. Despite the fact that none of the current generation seem to include a HD by default it seems that it is going to be an almost essential add-on. Live for better or worse was also a sorta wakeup call especially for Nintendo.
I don't quite buy into this. I think Live customers consist roughly of 10% of all Xbox users (There was a
Microsoft has lost loads of money on the Xbox because it has done some inovative things. If Xbox Live had really taken off, MS might have made a profit selling online subscriptions. However, it didn't and they took a big hit in the pocket book. If they didn't have other business areas to fall back on the Xbox would have already been discontinued. Nintendo has always been a more conservative company and remaiend profitable. I'm assuming that they view the market trend to be an increase in online gaming, which is why they've finally started including it. Perhaps in this future generation, online play might be profitable, or at least not as much of a loss. Nintendo is also taking a similar stance with regards to HD support. Apparently they don't think there's enough reason to include it at this point. I'll wager that the generation after this, they'll include it, but not yet.
For the most part, HD is a bullshit buzzword spread around to sell you more stuff. Most people really don't understand what it truly is, but it sounds cool and everyone's saying it so it must be good. HD can make games look better, but not necessarily. It won't make them play any better though. I'm an avid console gamer and play a lot of games these days, but I really miss the days of 2D gameplay. The last few generations have put an emphasis on 3D, which really does
Actually over Christmas their was a bundle (at least in the US anyhow) that included a Gamecube, 2 controllers, Mario Party 7, and a microphone (comes with Mario Party 7) for $99. These things sold out like crazy in my area. I had to check 4 different stores just to finally get my hands on one that someone had already reserved but had thankfully not picked up.
Nintendo probably didn't make any money at all on these, or might have even lost a small amount, but they probably moved a few hundred thousand GameCubes across NA. Maybe there were similar deals in Japan and Europe. I don't know about consumer trends there, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that Nintendo moved large volumes there as well.
CompUSA and BestBuy are using games to give you a reason to go into the store. While you're there they hope you might buy some other stuff. Maybe a nice new HDTV or surround sound system to play those games on. Guess what the mark up is on those items.
Games aren't quite a loss-leader, but they're fairly close in some cases. BestBuy can afford to make money through the rest of their product and have thin margins on games. If the stopped selling TVs, sterios, and other electronics then they'd probably get into the used game business. Fortunately for them, they've found an alternative method to rape the customer.