I'm not sure whether you're just trolling or not. PC game sales have been in a steady decline over the past 5 years, while console games and sales have been doing the exact opposite- sales of console games totally eclipse PC games and the gap is only getting larger.
The PC and the console appeal to two totally different audiences. Neither one is going anywhere any time in the forseeable future, but the PC does not appeal to the kind of consumer that desires easy to use, plug and play gaming. It's great that all the "hardcore" players you know are migrating to PC- but its a fair bet that none of those gamers enjoy Racers, Fighters, Rhythm Games, JRPG's, Beat em ups, or any of the other genres that exist on consoles that the PC does terribly.
Those figures were the prices at launch. The price on NES stuff came down over time, just like everything else did. I distinctly remember buying Zelda for $69 when it first came out. SNES games were just as bad, Final Fantasy VI was nearly $80 when it came out in 1994.
It also wasn't until later that Nintendo launched the duck hunt/mario brothers combo with the zapper...that was $189 or so IIRC.
Console gamers don't WANT their consoles to behave like PC's.
Console gamers want a system that will play the games they buy for it with none of the hassles "adaptability" brings, and they expect the games to look better over the lifetime of the console as they always have without buying any upgrades at all, adaptability be damned.
Someone's looking at the past through rose colored glasses. The NES had two bundles:
$249:
NES Console
2 Controllers
Light Gun
R.O.B (Robotic Operating Buddy)
Gyromite (R.O.B game)
Duck Hunt
Super Mario Bros.
$199
NES Console
2 Controllers
Super Mario Bros.
Games cost anywhere from $59 to $79....and this was in 1985 Dollars! the Atari 2600 IIRC launched around $400 and sold like hotcakes. In comparison, the Xbox360 and the Ps3 are right in line with every other system launch that preceded them.
I'm sure you're aware of this, but SMB2 wasn't a mario game- It was a totally unrelated franchise called Doki Doki Panic that had mario characters inserted into it to make it palatable to US audiences.
The REAL SMB2 (released as "the lost levels" on SNES) was EXTREMELY similar to SMB1 only much, much, much harder.
If you view the mario series as going from SMB - Lost Levels - SMB3 - SMW- its a much more linear evolution of the series until you hit SM64, which redid the concept of the series to take advantage of 3D.
Yes, Games haven't changed at all in the past 7-10 years, which is why DOA4 looks and plays like Tekken 1, Resident Evil 4 looks and plays exactly like resident evil 2, Stealth games like Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and MGS3 look and play precisely like MGS1, and Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne is exactly like final fantasy 7.
Think about what you're saying man, it's ridiculous. I'm not a PC gamer, but I imagine there's a substantial jump between something like Duke Nukem and Half Life 2, also.
The XBOX 360 notwithstanding, games are as cheap or cheaper now than they've ever been. Most AAA titles are down to 29.99 or less within 6-8 months of release, and ultra rare titles like guitaroo man and Rez are being re-released at their original MSRP so those who want to play them without getting bent over on ebay have a chance to. Am I the only one that remembers paying $75+ for SNES era RPGs like Final Fantasy VI and The Seventh Saga when they came out?
I'm not sure how this old chestnut gets tossed out in every console discussion- it's way off. Sony's Television and consumer electronics unit has been taking a hit, but the playstation division consistently posts strong profit every year.
Sony has been known to take an INITIAL loss on consoles at launch, but this is easily made up within a year or less on with game sales and reduction in production costs.
for the quarter the Playstation division posted a 52% increase in profits over the same period last year, bringing in ~$580 million on healthy sales of both Playstation 2 and Playstation Portable hardware and software.
580 million in profit for the QUARTER is nothing to sneeze at- and this is considering the money that's been sunk into PSP and Ps3 development and marketing.
THE ONLY CONSOLE COMPANY TO CONSISTENTLY LOSE MONEY IS MICROSOFT, and even they are turning this around with the 360, since they're no longer taking a hit by using off the shelf components.
All of the next gen consoles, and 2/3 of the LAST gen ones can do High Def, as well as 5.1 surround sound. No online fees are necessary for play on the Ps2, and the Xbox Live online fees boil down to what, $4 a month?
Of course you can use the PC for other tasks, because that's what PC's are- general purpose machines designed to do a lot of different things. No PC game will ever be made that will truly take advantage of that ultrafast video card and couple gigs of ram. On the flipside, Consoles are dedicated game machines that do one thing very, very well and some of us prefer that.
If you don't see the allure of console gaming, maybe it's just not for you. There are plenty of genres on a console that are totally nonexistent on PC- while the mouse and keyboard are great for FPS and RTS titles, they're woefully inadequate at handling fighters, racers, rhythm games, and other titles the control pad excels at.
And as for "maybe" a console is cheaper there is no argument here. I have a Ps2 purchased in 2000 that will play the newest, top of the line Ps2 games released today, tomorrow, and 2 years from now flawlessly, every time, without ever having to upgrade it. This is not something you can say about the PC, and its a big reason why console gaming has an audience.
not to turn this into yet another PC vs. Console flamefest, but had to chime in.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not sure whether you're just trolling or not. PC game sales have been in a steady decline over the past 5 years, while console games and sales have been doing the exact opposite- sales of console games totally eclipse PC games and the gap is only getting larger.
The PC and the console appeal to two totally different audiences. Neither one is going anywhere any time in the forseeable future, but the PC does not appeal to the kind of consumer that desires easy to use, plug and play gaming. It's great that all the "hardcore" players you know are migrating to PC- but its a fair bet that none of those gamers enjoy Racers, Fighters, Rhythm Games, JRPG's, Beat em ups, or any of the other genres that exist on consoles that the PC does terribly.
Those figures were the prices at launch. The price on NES stuff came down over time, just like everything else did. I distinctly remember buying Zelda for $69 when it first came out. SNES games were just as bad, Final Fantasy VI was nearly $80 when it came out in 1994. It also wasn't until later that Nintendo launched the duck hunt/mario brothers combo with the zapper...that was $189 or so IIRC.
Console gamers don't WANT their consoles to behave like PC's.
Console gamers want a system that will play the games they buy for it with none of the hassles "adaptability" brings, and they expect the games to look better over the lifetime of the console as they always have without buying any upgrades at all, adaptability be damned.
Someone's looking at the past through rose colored glasses. The NES had two bundles:
$249: NES Console 2 Controllers Light Gun R.O.B (Robotic Operating Buddy) Gyromite (R.O.B game) Duck Hunt Super Mario Bros.
$199 NES Console 2 Controllers Super Mario Bros.
Games cost anywhere from $59 to $79....and this was in 1985 Dollars! the Atari 2600 IIRC launched around $400 and sold like hotcakes. In comparison, the Xbox360 and the Ps3 are right in line with every other system launch that preceded them.
I'm sure you're aware of this, but SMB2 wasn't a mario game- It was a totally unrelated franchise called Doki Doki Panic that had mario characters inserted into it to make it palatable to US audiences.
The REAL SMB2 (released as "the lost levels" on SNES) was EXTREMELY similar to SMB1 only much, much, much harder.
If you view the mario series as going from SMB - Lost Levels - SMB3 - SMW- its a much more linear evolution of the series until you hit SM64, which redid the concept of the series to take advantage of 3D.
Yes, Games haven't changed at all in the past 7-10 years, which is why DOA4 looks and plays like Tekken 1, Resident Evil 4 looks and plays exactly like resident evil 2, Stealth games like Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and MGS3 look and play precisely like MGS1, and Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne is exactly like final fantasy 7.
Think about what you're saying man, it's ridiculous. I'm not a PC gamer, but I imagine there's a substantial jump between something like Duke Nukem and Half Life 2, also.
The XBOX 360 notwithstanding, games are as cheap or cheaper now than they've ever been. Most AAA titles are down to 29.99 or less within 6-8 months of release, and ultra rare titles like guitaroo man and Rez are being re-released at their original MSRP so those who want to play them without getting bent over on ebay have a chance to. Am I the only one that remembers paying $75+ for SNES era RPGs like Final Fantasy VI and The Seventh Saga when they came out?
I'm not sure how this old chestnut gets tossed out in every console discussion- it's way off. Sony's Television and consumer electronics unit has been taking a hit, but the playstation division consistently posts strong profit every year. Sony has been known to take an INITIAL loss on consoles at launch, but this is easily made up within a year or less on with game sales and reduction in production costs.
for the quarter the Playstation division posted a 52% increase in profits over the same period last year, bringing in ~$580 million on healthy sales of both Playstation 2 and Playstation Portable hardware and software.
580 million in profit for the QUARTER is nothing to sneeze at- and this is considering the money that's been sunk into PSP and Ps3 development and marketing.
THE ONLY CONSOLE COMPANY TO CONSISTENTLY LOSE MONEY IS MICROSOFT, and even they are turning this around with the 360, since they're no longer taking a hit by using off the shelf components.All of the next gen consoles, and 2/3 of the LAST gen ones can do High Def, as well as 5.1 surround sound. No online fees are necessary for play on the Ps2, and the Xbox Live online fees boil down to what, $4 a month? Of course you can use the PC for other tasks, because that's what PC's are- general purpose machines designed to do a lot of different things. No PC game will ever be made that will truly take advantage of that ultrafast video card and couple gigs of ram. On the flipside, Consoles are dedicated game machines that do one thing very, very well and some of us prefer that. If you don't see the allure of console gaming, maybe it's just not for you. There are plenty of genres on a console that are totally nonexistent on PC- while the mouse and keyboard are great for FPS and RTS titles, they're woefully inadequate at handling fighters, racers, rhythm games, and other titles the control pad excels at. And as for "maybe" a console is cheaper there is no argument here. I have a Ps2 purchased in 2000 that will play the newest, top of the line Ps2 games released today, tomorrow, and 2 years from now flawlessly, every time, without ever having to upgrade it. This is not something you can say about the PC, and its a big reason why console gaming has an audience. not to turn this into yet another PC vs. Console flamefest, but had to chime in.