Easy. My computer is not superior graphically and a 360 is cheaper than upgrading or replacing a three-year-old rig that could barely run Morrowind. (Athlon 1700+, 512MB DDR-RAM, ATI Radeon 9600)
Plus, console gaming is a different experience, and I think I logged as many hours modding Morrowind (more than I wish I had given how little I produced) than I did playing it. I would much rather forget about the CS and download mods for free or with micropayments if they allow it on the 360, hopefully free of course.
Anyone who runs a business knows you need more than Economics 101. If it was that easy, they would have had no problem meeting their sales targets. But the supply is finite. As someone pointed out to me in an earlier discussion, MS can only make so many 360s per month, and from the appearance of the article we're discussion, they can't even make enough to make their sales targets. It isn't like they're gathering dust on the shelves, at least outside of Japan anyway. Adding production capacity is probably difficult and takes a lot of time and money. You don't want to build a thousand factories working full steam to meet the launch demand and and leave 900 factories sitting idle after 12 months. That's a lot of wasted money. And that's probably Microsoft's thinking - let's only have 50 factories, those are enoughtoo meet the expected demand over the long term, just that most of the people who want theirs at launch will have to wait. And then they shot themselves in the foot by releasing without having built up any sort of stock. They also shot themselves by missing out on that holiday buying plus launch binge by not being prepared. They probably won't make that up, or they'll have to work really hard to maintain "buzz" about the product.
Jealously-guarded price points are another matter, one which I don't understand, however.
As other people have said before me, this should effectively kill the "planned shortage" theory, trying to generate some sort of grassroots demand such as Google did with Gmail, or something. I haven't been into any Best Buys or Wal-marts so I can't speak to the availability of bundled systems but I doubt there are any sitting on the shelves. Maybe someone else can describe their experience finding systems?
If their production can't even meet their sales goals, what it means is they screwed up on the production side of it. Clearly they decided that production capacity was expensive and they should try to maintain a slow trickle so they don't end up with extra costs from unused capacity later on. But they didn't give what little capacity they had any time to build up a stock for the initial release.
The last resort of those who say the shortage was an intentional effort to create demand is that all the 360s are tied up in bundled packages. I haven't spent a lot of time in Best Buy or Wal-mart, so I can't speak to what stock I've seen. I only know that Costco and Sears don't have any 360s, but I didn't expect them to have any. And Gamestop and EB Games didn't have any either from what I could tell, butt I didn't ever ask them if they kept them in back. I'm not in the market until Oblivion comes out so I haven't been paying close attention. Can anyone provide their experiences with finding systems and finding bundles? What are they bundling with the 360?
Now that I think of it, does anyone know where there's a list of games available for the 360 and what else is coming out when, as well as release dates have been pinned down? I'd like to know if there's anything else worth buying for the 360 by the time Oblivion is out. (I hope to God they bundle Oblivion with the full system when it comes out.)
RPGs, party games, etc, sell well in Japan. Sports games do not. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any big sports games from Japan. But out of America, you have annual releases of EA everything: FIFA, NCAA, NFL, etc. Contrast that to American and Japanese RPGs, for example. From the US you have the Elder Scrolls series (which is the only reason I have right now to buy a 360, and I'm beginning to question whether it's enough,) and the Bioware games (ie Baldur's Gate and Star Wars KOTOR, which I think are too repetitive and suck.) The list from Japan are endless, and begin with MANY from SquareEnix than you can find from the US put together, (ie. Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, Star Ocean, etc.) That's evidence that Microsoft isn't catering to Japanese tastes, but rather expecting Japan to buy imported American tastes. Now, onto your statements.
The FACT that XBOX 360 with the SAME launch titles would have done much better if it simply had a Nintendo or Sony stamp on it PROVES that the Japanese are closed-minded when it comes to the video game market.
How is that a fact? And if it isn't actually a fact, then doesn't that mean it doesn't prove anything?
Maybe there is a strong anti-American bias, or a strong pro-domestic bias, but you haven't provided any evidence to support it.
RPGs, party games, etc, sell well in Japan. Sports games do not. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any big sports games from Japan. But out of America, you have annual releases of EA everything: FIFA, NCAA, NFL, etc. Contrast that to American and Japanese RPGs, for example. From the US you have the Elder Scrolls series (which is the only reason I have right now to buy a 360, and I'm beginning to question whether it's enough,) and the Bioware games (ie Baldur's Gate and Star Wars KOTOR, which I think are too repetitive and suck.) The list from Japan are endless, and begin with MANY from SquareEnix than you can find from the US put together, (ie. Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, Star Ocean, etc.)
That's evidence that Microsoft isn't catering to Japanese tastes, but rather expecting Japan to buy imported American tastes. Now, onto your statements.
The FACT that XBOX 360 with the SAME launch titles would have done much better if it simply had a Nintendo or Sony stamp on it PROVES that the Japanese are closed-minded when it comes to the video game market.
How is that a fact? And if it isn't actually a fact, then doesn't that mean it doesn't prove anything?
Maybe there is a strong anti-American bias, or a strong pro-domestic bias, but you haven't provided any evidence to support it.
Possibly OT, but something I've wanted to bring up for a while now - has MS thought about making a mode for gamers that offers more available resources for gaming? For example, who needs that print spooler to play WoW? And how many WoW players are savvy enough to turn off all the unnecessary services before they load it up? A guy named Black Viper once had a site that was dedicated mainly to showing how to shut off those unnecessary services for things like gaming and generally freeing up resources that Windows took up for no good reason, but I wonder how far could it go? Especially since MS is now running games on the Xbox off a version of Windows?
This was me. I just wanted to add that I wish something like this would be shipped with Vista.
Slashdot Mirror
Easy. My computer is not superior graphically and a 360 is cheaper than upgrading or replacing a three-year-old rig that could barely run Morrowind. (Athlon 1700+, 512MB DDR-RAM, ATI Radeon 9600)
Plus, console gaming is a different experience, and I think I logged as many hours modding Morrowind (more than I wish I had given how little I produced) than I did playing it. I would much rather forget about the CS and download mods for free or with micropayments if they allow it on the 360, hopefully free of course.
Anyone who runs a business knows you need more than Economics 101. If it was that easy, they would have had no problem meeting their sales targets. But the supply is finite. As someone pointed out to me in an earlier discussion, MS can only make so many 360s per month, and from the appearance of the article we're discussion, they can't even make enough to make their sales targets. It isn't like they're gathering dust on the shelves, at least outside of Japan anyway. Adding production capacity is probably difficult and takes a lot of time and money. You don't want to build a thousand factories working full steam to meet the launch demand and and leave 900 factories sitting idle after 12 months. That's a lot of wasted money. And that's probably Microsoft's thinking - let's only have 50 factories, those are enoughtoo meet the expected demand over the long term, just that most of the people who want theirs at launch will have to wait. And then they shot themselves in the foot by releasing without having built up any sort of stock. They also shot themselves by missing out on that holiday buying plus launch binge by not being prepared. They probably won't make that up, or they'll have to work really hard to maintain "buzz" about the product.
Jealously-guarded price points are another matter, one which I don't understand, however.
As other people have said before me, this should effectively kill the "planned shortage" theory, trying to generate some sort of grassroots demand such as Google did with Gmail, or something. I haven't been into any Best Buys or Wal-marts so I can't speak to the availability of bundled systems but I doubt there are any sitting on the shelves. Maybe someone else can describe their experience finding systems?
If their production can't even meet their sales goals, what it means is they screwed up on the production side of it. Clearly they decided that production capacity was expensive and they should try to maintain a slow trickle so they don't end up with extra costs from unused capacity later on. But they didn't give what little capacity they had any time to build up a stock for the initial release.
The last resort of those who say the shortage was an intentional effort to create demand is that all the 360s are tied up in bundled packages. I haven't spent a lot of time in Best Buy or Wal-mart, so I can't speak to what stock I've seen. I only know that Costco and Sears don't have any 360s, but I didn't expect them to have any. And Gamestop and EB Games didn't have any either from what I could tell, butt I didn't ever ask them if they kept them in back. I'm not in the market until Oblivion comes out so I haven't been paying close attention. Can anyone provide their experiences with finding systems and finding bundles? What are they bundling with the 360?
Now that I think of it, does anyone know where there's a list of games available for the 360 and what else is coming out when, as well as release dates have been pinned down? I'd like to know if there's anything else worth buying for the 360 by the time Oblivion is out. (I hope to God they bundle Oblivion with the full system when it comes out.)
...if he was actually writing with all the time he spends farming items in video games.
Sorry. I forgot my HTML.
RPGs, party games, etc, sell well in Japan. Sports games do not. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any big sports games from Japan. But out of America, you have annual releases of EA everything: FIFA, NCAA, NFL, etc. Contrast that to American and Japanese RPGs, for example. From the US you have the Elder Scrolls series (which is the only reason I have right now to buy a 360, and I'm beginning to question whether it's enough,) and the Bioware games (ie Baldur's Gate and Star Wars KOTOR, which I think are too repetitive and suck.) The list from Japan are endless, and begin with MANY from SquareEnix than you can find from the US put together, (ie. Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, Star Ocean, etc.) That's evidence that Microsoft isn't catering to Japanese tastes, but rather expecting Japan to buy imported American tastes. Now, onto your statements.
The FACT that XBOX 360 with the SAME launch titles would have done much better if it simply had a Nintendo or Sony stamp on it PROVES that the Japanese are closed-minded when it comes to the video game market.
How is that a fact? And if it isn't actually a fact, then doesn't that mean it doesn't prove anything?
Maybe there is a strong anti-American bias, or a strong pro-domestic bias, but you haven't provided any evidence to support it.
becomes pretty clear that there english skill are very poor
Indeed. ;-)
RPGs, party games, etc, sell well in Japan. Sports games do not. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any big sports games from Japan. But out of America, you have annual releases of EA everything: FIFA, NCAA, NFL, etc. Contrast that to American and Japanese RPGs, for example. From the US you have the Elder Scrolls series (which is the only reason I have right now to buy a 360, and I'm beginning to question whether it's enough,) and the Bioware games (ie Baldur's Gate and Star Wars KOTOR, which I think are too repetitive and suck.) The list from Japan are endless, and begin with MANY from SquareEnix than you can find from the US put together, (ie. Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, Star Ocean, etc.) That's evidence that Microsoft isn't catering to Japanese tastes, but rather expecting Japan to buy imported American tastes. Now, onto your statements. The FACT that XBOX 360 with the SAME launch titles would have done much better if it simply had a Nintendo or Sony stamp on it PROVES that the Japanese are closed-minded when it comes to the video game market. How is that a fact? And if it isn't actually a fact, then doesn't that mean it doesn't prove anything? Maybe there is a strong anti-American bias, or a strong pro-domestic bias, but you haven't provided any evidence to support it.
Anyone? Snarf snarf.
Possibly OT, but something I've wanted to bring up for a while now - has MS thought about making a mode for gamers that offers more available resources for gaming? For example, who needs that print spooler to play WoW? And how many WoW players are savvy enough to turn off all the unnecessary services before they load it up? A guy named Black Viper once had a site that was dedicated mainly to showing how to shut off those unnecessary services for things like gaming and generally freeing up resources that Windows took up for no good reason, but I wonder how far could it go? Especially since MS is now running games on the Xbox off a version of Windows? This was me. I just wanted to add that I wish something like this would be shipped with Vista.