The State of the Game Console Wars 439
An anonymous reader writes "Two years after the next-gen game consoles hit the market, the verdict is in. What does the future hold for each of the Big Three? Here is a thoughtful but crude summary of the X-Box vs. GC vs. PS2 ordeal."
Re:Worst. War. Ever. (Score:5, Informative)
Nintendo is making a huge profit. Sony is making a (relatively) small profit. Microsoft is taking a loss the size of Nintendo's income (not profit). Very different picture there.
Oh, and the SNES outsold the Genesis 2:1. Profit wise it was probably an even wider gap, although I've never seen financial figures for the two companies from back then.
Re:numbers? (Score:5, Informative)
1. PS2: 51.2 million worldwide (As of March)
2. Gamecube: 9.55 million worldwide (As of March)
3. Xbox: 9.4 million worldwide (As of July)
US figures are:
1. PS2: 17.7 million (As of May)
2. Xbox: 6.2 million (As of May?)
3. Gamecube: About 4 million? (figures not known, but estimated to be 2 million under Xbox)
Re:Who cares really... (Score:5, Informative)
I enjoyed Celda as well. Unfortunately, it's pretty much the only Gamecube game I've truly enjoyed so far (enough so that I played it entirely through). I admit that I only have a small library of Gamecube games, but that library does include Mario Sunshine and Metroid Prime, both of which were extremely disappointing to me. In fact, Metroid was extremely disappointing, considering that it was the reason I bought my Cube. Luckily, Celda made up for Metroid and made me not totally regret the purchase.
Right now, I've been playing Mario Golf, and it's enjoyable, but it's certainly not going to hold my attention for more than another week or two (just up until Soul Calibur II hits the XBox, at which point Mario Golf will go back on the shelf with Mario Sunshine and Metroid Prime, to eventually be sold or traded away).
For completeness, my Cube library consists of:
Any suggestions on what would be some good Cube games to pick up? I don't have time to really play something like Animal Crossing (plus, I played the old Harvest Moon on the SNES, which seems to be similar in style to AC, and wasn't that enthralled), and I generally don't have enough friends over at my place to make something like Smash Brothers: Melee worth a purchase (and when I do have enough people over, we generally will play Halo on two XBoxs and TVs). And no cross-platform games, please. I'd rather play those on my XBox, though if there's a good game that's only on the Cube and PS2, I may consider picking it up for the Cube (no PS2, and no interest in a PS2).
Re:Just like the domain name: (Score:1, Informative)
I thought the article was funny, and I don't think it was meant as anything other (did you see the predictions regarding World War VI?).
Oh yeah, it comes with the Monty Python foot, though I didn't notice it until I had chuckled my way through the article, and came back to read.
I also found a new sig (the quoted paragraph above)!
Missed the point on Xbox. (Score:5, Informative)
Discount GC too soon? (Score:5, Informative)
There are a number of GameCube releases that excite me in the future:
Mario Kart Double Dash [gamespot.com]
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles [gamespot.com]
I do not own a GameCube currently but I'm planning on buying one to play these two games...
Still, I'm glad to have a PS2 so I can play this game:
Final Fantasy X-2 [gamespot.com]
Re:Who cares really... (Score:2, Informative)
I agree with you completely, I was definitely dissapointed with Metroid. But really, I never liked FPS on consoles, the controller is too clunky. If there was a PC port I might pick it up just to try the game on a platform with controls more suited to the genre. In all honesty, I played at most 50% through this one.
I have however, found lots of other games worth playing. One thing I love about gamecube is that when I go to my local Blockbuster Video, I find their used games (in surprisingly good condition) for as little as $7. I bought Resident Evil 0 for 15, and was happy with it. Of course, that isn't really a game that everyone will enjoy. Star Fox Adventures was a decent game, cheap enough now that I would even give it a recommendation (Plays similar to zelda... sort of)
Theres alot of new stuff coming out late this year thats looking pretty interesting on GC. If you're a racing fan, theres the new F-Zero game. Theres a new star fox on the way. Of course, the third coming of Mario Kart too. One of the most interesting to me, Viewtiful Joe.
Now, I can't vouch for whether or not any of these games will be good, but I'll surely give them a try(at least a rent for one or two)
If all else fails, break out your NES. They aren't so tough to repair. (You do have one, don't you?;-))
The site is a joke site. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I don't really understand the idea of console w (Score:3, Informative)
ACTUALLY, according to this link [cube-europe.com], Nintendo is going to be dropping the US price of the Gamecube to $99 by the end of September. Unfortunately, the only other place I found the info was here [ign.com] and there's no linkage in that "viewer mail" section to get more details. Nintendo's website was similarly not helpful at all.
Assuming the above is true, it was probably at the end of last week's news cycle and we'll probably hear more tomorrow.
Re:Who cares really... (Score:2, Informative)
Definitely check out Blockbuster, I do it every chance I can get since I found Metroid Prime for $20 new, and have found a few good deals here and there.
Also check out Eternal Darkness, which I found new for $15 at Gamestop (at that price, I couldn't justify to myself renting it before I bought it, but that's just me). I think the only games I have that I payed near normal full retail ($40-50) for were Mario Sunshine and Animal Crossing. I can't give a lot of good recommendations that haven't been heard a million times before at the moment, though, because I've been playing KOTOR every moment I get the TV to myself.
Re:numbers? (Score:4, Informative)
To clarify for you:
PS2 worldwide figures: Asahi Shimbun [asahi.com] (also contains Nintendo figures)
Xbox worldwide figures: MSFT 4th Quarter Earnings Report [prnewswire.com]
Gamecube worldwide figures: Forbes from Reuters (at the bottom of the page). [forbes.com] There are a few other pages quoting this figure as well.
PS2 US figures: NPDFunWorld [nzoom.com]
Xbox US figures: Unknown. Possibly the same as above? [nzoom.com]
Gamecube US figures: Guessed from estimate listed on AMO.NET [amo.net] Please note that this article does seem to be biased towards the Xbox, with multiple opinions to that effect. Nevertheless there is one good quote:
The real truth about these sales figures and future sales opportunities is that no single gaming system fan can be trusted with anything he or she has read regarding one system selling better, or performing better than the other.