It's a known fact that consoles don't bring in revenue, it's in-house games and accessories and licensing fees. If the PS3 price were even remotely close to the XBox 360, I could see Sony not cutting the price on grounds of competitive pricing; that's clearly not the case. I can't see sales ticking up significantly through the first price drop, unless there's something I'm missing.
Sony has a 2 pronged problem. Too expensive, and lack of compelling exclusives. If they Dropped the price $200 and had a $399 system tomorrow what games are out right now that would compel you to buy it? They need compelling software on the shelf before a price drop would have any significant impact.
I had a Wii.. but I wanted to play more than Zelda. I sold it and bought an xbox 360, and I couldn't be happier.
It's all about multiplayer (and always has been for me.)
I suppose you're refering to Online multiplayer, and not local. There are a number of good to great local multiplayer games for the Wii already. I have a Wii60 and I do use LIVE quite abit, however local multiplayer for the Wii kicks the 360's ass 10 times over.
Also, if it's "all about multiplayer" why did you get the Wii for Zelda?
Castlevania: SotN takes up a decent chunk of space I believe...
Actually it doesn't (well depends on your perspective I suppose). It's around 100 megs. The original PS1 version was larger due to uncompressed audio filling the disk. There are much better codecs available now that allowed Konami to provide equal or better sound utilizing much less space.
For Risk you can try www.wiicade.com...they've got a risk clone on there. My wife was playing it and I didn't really see how close to the original it was, but just a suggestion. Flash sites are probably going to be the easiest way to get your board game fix on the Wii, at least for now.
Awsome. Do you remember what it was called, or who made it? I was searching under key works of 'global, conflict, territory, etc..' and didn't find it.
The screen thing could be kinda cool though...maybe have the DS as an interface. Or a PSP (then I'd actually get use out of it). Players could hand that off when it's their turn so you'd only need one. Somehow I think that requiring two consoles to play one game might not go over so well though! Maybe have the Wii host a webserver so you could use a laptop to see your cards...who knows. I'll stop rambling...good call on the board games though!
The DS would be perfect (as discussed on IGN) for Scrabble or Poker type games. The Wii hosts the game, and each DS serves as that player's private screen. To make the Wii+DS a requirement would be lousy. So you sell the game either in a collection with other games (or on the VC for cheap.) and offer computer AI, and Online game play.
That way people could get their value of playing with friends online (or solo), and it solves the local multiplayer issue if these people happen to have DS's.
Honestly though, I would be happy to get Monopoly or Risk on the Wii. If it's 'Casual gamer friendly' Board games are a natural fit...
And, in case you've overlooked this element of the argument, Microsoft DOES get paid to be a service provider. I pay five bucks a month to access online content. That's 5 bucks more than I pay to access similar content on the internet for games like Half Life and Quake.
You are actually paying $0 per month to access online content via Live. You Pay the $5 per month to play multiplayer games online and use Voice chat over Live. Considering Guitar Hero II supports neither, you would get the same access/experience if you had Live Silver, or Gold.
Furthermore, what you are not factoring in is the per-unit costs that multiple discs entail - you are doubling pressing costs, and also increasing case costs as well (though that is more minimal). Since that is a physical per-unit cost it means you have even more units to sell before you break even...
If a Blu-Ray disk and a DVD9 cost the same to produce that might be true, but it isn't. Currently it's cheaper to press 2 DVD9 disks than 1 Blu-Ray disk, but either way it's immaterial. Since consoles moved off cartriges, the cost of the media is such a small part of the production, it wouldn't matter.
I caved in. I wasn't going to buy them at that price but I was playing GH2 last night and my wife commented that $2 a song wasn't too much as far as she was concerned and I should buy them. Live Marketplace makes it too easy to buy stuff hehe. So I ended up with packs #2 and #3. But I won't buy #1 for that price damn it! I'm making a stand!
Then between the 2 of us we have 1 honest boycott. I bought pack #1, but won't buy the other two (just don't like them as much). That'll teach them! Damn them and their capitolist ways!
It still makes no sense that the full song list for the original GH costs $97+ by extrapolation while GH2 including the controller, packaging, media and more songs (that required the same testing, licensing and development work) costs $90. How can they possibly rationalize this?
Because it isn't the same thing. Why does it cost more to buy individual dinners than eat at a buffet? Why does a whole car cost less than the sum of its' parts?
And don't take my argument the wrong way -- I think everyone deserves to be paid for their work, but I also believe that the creators of content should be allowed to decide what they should charge for that work. Certainly, a body that would benefit from that work simply due to its existence should not be included in that decision.
That's the issue here, too many people need to get paid.
The Song creators deserve a cut to license their work for the game. Master Recordings or not, it's their song.
RedOctane/Activision et al... deserve a cut for doing the work to implement it into the game (including recording the songs)
Microsoft deserves a cut as the publisher for hosting / serving the files IE: getting them into the customer's hands.
If very few 20GB PS3's were shipped from Sony to Best Buy, is that because Best Buy did not ask for very many, or because Sony did not offer the quantities that Best Buy wanted?
Sony announced when they launched the PS3 (in Japan and the US) the split would be 80/20 in favor of the 60 gig model. Sony was expecting / hoping to sell fewer of the cheaper unit, so they made less of them.
YouTube (and google video) has worked since the beta in December. There was even a site created to help autoformat it so all videos display nicer on the Wii. This is just a front end to YouTube's site so you can bypass it if you don't care for how they are formatting it. Of note Strongbad, and Foamy work great too.
Does it handle streaming audio/video?
The beta didn't do shoutcast, but I have been using Finetune for quite some time.
I would never buy a golf or tennis or bowling or boxing game for the PS3. The Wii has spoiled those genres for me. Either it's on the Wii, or it doesn't exist to me. I don't care if Virtua Tennis looks so real it'll blow my brains out of my ears. I don't want to play it unless I can use the Wii Remotes.
I'm in the same boat (well replace PS3, with 360 and it's identical) I pre-ordered a Wii and was able to get it on Launch day (November 19th). On November 20th I put all my Golf, and Tennis games on ebay. There is simply no going back.
Speaking of Halo 3, I expect a LOT of Xboxs to be sold when this little gem comes out. I expect the 'console wars' to be red hot between July-December. In Jan 2008, we can safely call a winner.
If we can't declare a winner in Jan 08, we can likely declare a loser. Currently the Wii is riding high. MS has Halo 3, and Blue Dragon this year which will sell many units. The Wii has Mario Galaxy, and Smash Bros... (Metroid likely bumped to 08) which will sell many units... Sony has... what? A $600 system (real smart of them cutting the $500 version) with no exlusives of that calibur coming out this holiday season... MGS4 and FFXIII would move units... Provided they didn't come out in 08.
I addressed the question of Wii production shortages by positing that perhaps Nintendo is running into problems with the supply of the new GPU and CPU chips in the Wii (because they use different chips from those used in the Gamecube). Obviously, there could be other reasons such as a limited number of available manufacturing facilities.
It might also have to do with them selling more units faster than any other system. The Wii is not a trivial thing to produce, nor is a PS3. You see PS3's on the shelf because the initial demand has been met. The Wii's has not and has sold 2 to 3 times more units. It's simply a matter of Nintendo mis-gauging demand. They felt it would take longer for the Wii to 'Catch on' as is evidenced by the lack of 'casual gamer' titles available (both Wii, and VC).
They ramped up launch production so they could launch with about 2 million units world wide, and meet 6 million by the end of their fiscal year. At that point they felt their demand would be met, and wouldn't need any more capacity since 50% of all their hardware sales are Quarter 4 (typically) and they would have enough capacity to meet the next wave of demand. Wii sales exceeded their expectations, plain and simple.
There have been over 10 Zeldas, five MarioRPG games and three WarioWare games before the Wii even launched, oh, and Mario, MetroidPrime and SmashBros aren't exactly new either.
Why do you assume new IP when he says something new? Fine, there hasn't been an Elebits, WiiSports, RedSteel before... There are new IP's already but I don't think that's what he meant. Tiger Woods and Madden as Franchises have been on just about every system (including Cell phones) for years, but the Wii version does offer something new. This 'something new' is a more immersive gameplay mechanic that is unique to the Wii and (currently) can't be replicated on any other system.
### But the numbers seem to show there's more of me than you.
Last time I looked the XBox360 still had a 4mio lead to the Wii.
It also had a full 12 month head start. Is there any doubt the Will will sell more than 10 million units before the holiday season (Q4 2007) starts ?
They don't have to separate the guitar tracks from the vocals because these are not original recordings..None of them are even performed by the original bands - they're all covers done specifically for the game. Plus these songs were already done for the PS2 version of Guitar Hero so it's not like they had to re-record or do new new charts for any of them.
Ok, these songs were covers but some were master recordings. Also of note, these songs were done for GH1 which had a very primitive co-op compared to GHII. So at the very least there is reworking involved at every difficulty to include a seperation of Lead, and Bass guitar.
At these rates you can get the 'Best version' of those songs at a reasonable price. I can buy the (IMHO better) GHI soundtrack peice meal (& skip songs I don't like) and have it on GHII which is a better game (especially in multiplayer). Or if you simply don't think it's a reasonable price... by all means save your money.
I'm looking forward to Tiger Woods on the Wii (I saw it on a retailers shelf here in the UK, only to be told 'it wasn't for sale yet' at the counter) and that's entirely due to the control system. I don't think I'd ever buy it for the 360 though (playing golf on a regular controller just doesn't appeal to me). The poor graphics on the Wii do put me off though (and I'm already avoiding some Wii titles because of how blurry and indistinct they look on my HDTV).
I hear you. A game like Rayman, or Zelda can look better due to a stylized art design. That gets harder to do for 'realistic settings'. When I started playing Tiger I thought 'Holy PlayStation 2 Batman'... The graphics are low detail compared to what the Wii is capable of, and looks like it was lifted from the PS2. The graphics are the weakest link in the whole production. That being said, swinging the remote as a club, (having the 'hit' sound from the speaker) pulled me right into the game. It even picked up my natural slice. I have been playing it for hours a day since I got it last week. The control isn't 100%, and it isn't a 1:1 mapping of your swing like in WiiSports Golf, but if you have a clean swing in real life you'll do well. If you don't, then maybe it'll improve your swing.:-)
A new wave in sports games is coming soon. Personally, I am waiting for a golf game using that Wii controller.
Tiger Woods 07 is out, and real good. There was also 'Super Swing Golf' (Pangya Golf in Japan) that is more fantasy and less sim oriented. Personally I like the swing mechanic in Tiger or WiiSports Golf over Pangya, but it's a matter of personal preference. When in doubt give them both a rent.
If it's cross-platform, then it will likely be the least appealing on the most underpowered console...
I disagree. If power was that important, the PS2 would have died one year into it's life when the Gamecube and X-box (both more powerful systems) were launched. HD Graphics aren't as important as the typical gaming press wants to believe. Final Fantasy seems to have done well only supporting 480i.
People do want the best of what's available, but once again that doesn't mean graphics... So far EA has (surprisingly) been able to take several franchises and successfully launch them on Wii in a way that is new, better and more immersive than is possible on any other system. Madden, Tiger Woods, and The Godfather are all made better on the Wii by their intuitive and immersive control schemes.
I have a Wii60, and as pretty as Fight Night Round 3 looked on my HDTV, I can't wait to
buy Round 4 on the Wii.
Super Mario Bros. 3 is THE BEST SELLING GAME, EVER, and that includes Tetris
To be fair, if the 'Best selling game list' you are looking at has Mario 3 beating Tetris, it can only be including games that are sold at retail, and not include games that come bundled with a system. Tetris for the Gameboy (which is where it got it's legs) wouldn't be on the same list, but has more copies in circulation.
If bundles were included for consoles the top seller of all time would be 'Super Mario Bros'. There are over 40 million NES copies of that game alone (Including approved multicarts like Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt, or Super Mario Bros/Duck Hun/ Track & Field) Unlike any other game, it had the benefit of being bundled with the NES for 4-6 years.
However, I really would enjoy a 3D D&D type of game, where you use the wiimote as a sword and nunchuck to control a shield, switch to pulling the two apart like cocking a bow, even moving your arms like you're running and having that get picked up and move you along like you're running/walking, etc., etc. But, sadly, it doesn't seem like anything like this is in development.
You pretty much described how Zelda: Twilight Princess works. If you are interested in a Good D&D game (and are thinking of a Wii anyway), I highly reccomend: Baldur's Gate for the Gamecube, it isn't motion sensing or anything, but it's a fairly good action RPG that you can do (2 player) co-op .
Despite of what the article says, EA has release three great games for the Wii. They started out with Madden, which was great for an early Wii title. Recently, they have released The Godfather: Blackhand Edition (which is absolutely awesome) and the SSX game (which is great if you're into those kinds of games). They've also released a few sub-par games, but even Tiger Woods is quite nice.
I don't know about you, but I find Tiger Woods 07 DAMN addictive on the Wii. Even now I want to run home and play. Tiger, and Madden are much more 'Simulation oriented' (and addictive) than they ever were. Madden is simulating backyard 'double touch' football in an NFL setting and Tiger is simulating golf real nicely... I can't wait for Fight Night...
Slashdot Mirror
Sony has a 2 pronged problem. Too expensive, and lack of compelling exclusives. If they Dropped the price $200 and had a $399 system tomorrow what games are out right now that would compel you to buy it? They need compelling software on the shelf before a price drop would have any significant impact.
It's all about multiplayer (and always has been for me.)
I suppose you're refering to Online multiplayer, and not local. There are a number of good to great local multiplayer games for the Wii already. I have a Wii60 and I do use LIVE quite abit, however local multiplayer for the Wii kicks the 360's ass 10 times over.
Also, if it's "all about multiplayer" why did you get the Wii for Zelda?
Actually it doesn't (well depends on your perspective I suppose). It's around 100 megs. The original PS1 version was larger due to uncompressed audio filling the disk. There are much better codecs available now that allowed Konami to provide equal or better sound utilizing much less space.
THANK YOU!
Awsome. Do you remember what it was called, or who made it? I was searching under key works of 'global, conflict, territory, etc..' and didn't find it.
Thanks in advance.
The DS would be perfect (as discussed on IGN) for Scrabble or Poker type games. The Wii hosts the game, and each DS serves as that player's private screen. To make the Wii+DS a requirement would be lousy. So you sell the game either in a collection with other games (or on the VC for cheap.) and offer computer AI, and Online game play.
That way people could get their value of playing with friends online (or solo), and it solves the local multiplayer issue if these people happen to have DS's.
Honestly though, I would be happy to get Monopoly or Risk on the Wii. If it's 'Casual gamer friendly' Board games are a natural fit...
You are actually paying $0 per month to access online content via Live. You Pay the $5 per month to play multiplayer games online and use Voice chat over Live. Considering Guitar Hero II supports neither, you would get the same access /experience if you had Live Silver, or Gold.
Presumably It would be the same adapter (PS2 to USB2). I wonder if the PS3 will play the PS2 Guitar Hero (I or II) with the 360 controller.
If a Blu-Ray disk and a DVD9 cost the same to produce that might be true, but it isn't. Currently it's cheaper to press 2 DVD9 disks than 1 Blu-Ray disk, but either way it's immaterial. Since consoles moved off cartriges, the cost of the media is such a small part of the production, it wouldn't matter.
Then between the 2 of us we have 1 honest boycott. I bought pack #1, but won't buy the other two (just don't like them as much). That'll teach them! Damn them and their capitolist ways!
Because it isn't the same thing. Why does it cost more to buy individual dinners than eat at a buffet? Why does a whole car cost less than the sum of its' parts?
That's the issue here, too many people need to get paid.
The Song creators deserve a cut to license their work for the game. Master Recordings or not, it's their song.
RedOctane/Activision et al... deserve a cut for doing the work to implement it into the game (including recording the songs)
Microsoft deserves a cut as the publisher for hosting / serving the files IE: getting them into the customer's hands.
Sony announced when they launched the PS3 (in Japan and the US) the split would be 80/20 in favor of the 60 gig model. Sony was expecting / hoping to sell fewer of the cheaper unit, so they made less of them.
YouTube (and google video) has worked since the beta in December. There was even a site created to help autoformat it so all videos display nicer on the Wii. This is just a front end to YouTube's site so you can bypass it if you don't care for how they are formatting it. Of note Strongbad, and Foamy work great too.
Does it handle streaming audio/video?
The beta didn't do shoutcast, but I have been using Finetune for quite some time.
I'm in the same boat (well replace PS3, with 360 and it's identical) I pre-ordered a Wii and was able to get it on Launch day (November 19th). On November 20th I put all my Golf, and Tennis games on ebay. There is simply no going back.
If we can't declare a winner in Jan 08, we can likely declare a loser. Currently the Wii is riding high. MS has Halo 3, and Blue Dragon this year which will sell many units. The Wii has Mario Galaxy, and Smash Bros... (Metroid likely bumped to 08) which will sell many units... Sony has... what? A $600 system (real smart of them cutting the $500 version) with no exlusives of that calibur coming out this holiday season... MGS4 and FFXIII would move units... Provided they didn't come out in 08.
It might also have to do with them selling more units faster than any other system. The Wii is not a trivial thing to produce, nor is a PS3. You see PS3's on the shelf because the initial demand has been met. The Wii's has not and has sold 2 to 3 times more units. It's simply a matter of Nintendo mis-gauging demand. They felt it would take longer for the Wii to 'Catch on' as is evidenced by the lack of 'casual gamer' titles available (both Wii, and VC).
They ramped up launch production so they could launch with about 2 million units world wide, and meet 6 million by the end of their fiscal year. At that point they felt their demand would be met, and wouldn't need any more capacity since 50% of all their hardware sales are Quarter 4 (typically) and they would have enough capacity to meet the next wave of demand. Wii sales exceeded their expectations, plain and simple.
There have been over 10 Zeldas, five MarioRPG games and three WarioWare games before the Wii even launched, oh, and Mario, MetroidPrime and SmashBros aren't exactly new either.
Why do you assume new IP when he says something new? Fine, there hasn't been an Elebits, WiiSports, RedSteel before... There are new IP's already but I don't think that's what he meant. Tiger Woods and Madden as Franchises have been on just about every system (including Cell phones) for years, but the Wii version does offer something new. This 'something new' is a more immersive gameplay mechanic that is unique to the Wii and (currently) can't be replicated on any other system.
### But the numbers seem to show there's more of me than you.
Last time I looked the XBox360 still had a 4mio lead to the Wii.
It also had a full 12 month head start. Is there any doubt the Will will sell more than 10 million units before the holiday season (Q4 2007) starts ?
Ok, these songs were covers but some were master recordings. Also of note, these songs were done for GH1 which had a very primitive co-op compared to GHII. So at the very least there is reworking involved at every difficulty to include a seperation of Lead, and Bass guitar.
At these rates you can get the 'Best version' of those songs at a reasonable price. I can buy the (IMHO better) GHI soundtrack peice meal (& skip songs I don't like) and have it on GHII which is a better game (especially in multiplayer). Or if you simply don't think it's a reasonable price... by all means save your money.
I hear you. A game like Rayman, or Zelda can look better due to a stylized art design. That gets harder to do for 'realistic settings'. When I started playing Tiger I thought 'Holy PlayStation 2 Batman'... The graphics are low detail compared to what the Wii is capable of, and looks like it was lifted from the PS2. The graphics are the weakest link in the whole production. That being said, swinging the remote as a club, (having the 'hit' sound from the speaker) pulled me right into the game. It even picked up my natural slice. I have been playing it for hours a day since I got it last week. The control isn't 100%, and it isn't a 1:1 mapping of your swing like in WiiSports Golf, but if you have a clean swing in real life you'll do well. If you don't, then maybe it'll improve your swing. :-)
Tiger Woods 07 is out, and real good. There was also 'Super Swing Golf' (Pangya Golf in Japan) that is more fantasy and less sim oriented. Personally I like the swing mechanic in Tiger or WiiSports Golf over Pangya, but it's a matter of personal preference. When in doubt give them both a rent.
I disagree. If power was that important, the PS2 would have died one year into it's life when the Gamecube and X-box (both more powerful systems) were launched. HD Graphics aren't as important as the typical gaming press wants to believe. Final Fantasy seems to have done well only supporting 480i.
People do want the best of what's available, but once again that doesn't mean graphics... So far EA has (surprisingly) been able to take several franchises and successfully launch them on Wii in a way that is new, better and more immersive than is possible on any other system. Madden, Tiger Woods, and The Godfather are all made better on the Wii by their intuitive and immersive control schemes.
I have a Wii60, and as pretty as Fight Night Round 3 looked on my HDTV, I can't wait to buy Round 4 on the Wii.
To be fair, if the 'Best selling game list' you are looking at has Mario 3 beating Tetris, it can only be including games that are sold at retail, and not include games that come bundled with a system. Tetris for the Gameboy (which is where it got it's legs) wouldn't be on the same list, but has more copies in circulation.
If bundles were included for consoles the top seller of all time would be 'Super Mario Bros'. There are over 40 million NES copies of that game alone (Including approved multicarts like Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt, or Super Mario Bros/Duck Hun/ Track & Field) Unlike any other game, it had the benefit of being bundled with the NES for 4-6 years.
You pretty much described how Zelda: Twilight Princess works. If you are interested in a Good D&D game (and are thinking of a Wii anyway), I highly reccomend: Baldur's Gate for the Gamecube, it isn't motion sensing or anything, but it's a fairly good action RPG that you can do (2 player) co-op .
I don't know about you, but I find Tiger Woods 07 DAMN addictive on the Wii. Even now I want to run home and play. Tiger, and Madden are much more 'Simulation oriented' (and addictive) than they ever were. Madden is simulating backyard 'double touch' football in an NFL setting and Tiger is simulating golf real nicely... I can't wait for Fight Night...