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."
Who cares really... (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally, I am a gamecube person. I have always been a fan of nintendos first-party games, and they are the only non-PC games I usually find an urge to play.
Yes, I enjoyed Celda.
Poorly Written Article (Score:-1, Insightful)
Who wrote that piece of rubbish? A 12 year old?
Thoughtful? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't really understand the idea of console wars (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Thoughtful? (Score:4, Insightful)
Gamecube "non-sales" ?
PS2 = PS1 painted black ?
Within three years it will be a violation of federal law to not own an X-box ?
C'mon now, thats funny.
Just like the domain name: (Score:5, Insightful)
This is nothing more than a person's personal opinion on the state of the console gaming market today, and you would be crazy to site it in any research paper or anything of that sort.
Worst. War. Ever. (Score:2, Insightful)
Sega and Nintendo, that was a console war. This is... not.
Re:PC vs Console.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Take a look at the hardware requirements for Jedi Knight II:
Operating System: Windows 95 OSR2/98/ME/2000/XP
Computer: 100% DirectX-compatible computer required.
CPU: Pentium II or Athlon class 350 MHz or faster CPU required.
Memory: 64 MB required. 128 MB required for Windows 2000 and XP.
Graphics card: 16MB OpenGL-compatible PCI or AGP 3D Hardware Accelerator required.
Sound card: 16-bit DirectX 8.x-compatible sound card required.
CD-ROM: Quad-Speed IDE or SCSI CD-ROM drive required.
Input device: Keyboard or mouse required. Joystick supported.
DirectX: Microsoft DirectX 8.0a is included on this CD.
Installation: 665 MB of free hard drive space required. Additional free space required after game installation for Windows swap file and save games.
By comparison, here's the hardware requirements for Halo:
Xbox.
numbers? (Score:4, Insightful)
1. How many PS2 consols have sold to date
2. How many Xbox consols have sold to date
3. How many Gamecubes have sold to date
I would also like to know when M$ is planning on making the XBOX smaller
crude yes. thoughtful.. no. (Score:5, Insightful)
I fail to see how an opininated piece of rubbish that lays out predictions, nay, edicts for what game console is the l3373S7 without describing the details of how the conclusions were drawn can be reffered to as thoughtful.
btw: I think that infographic was already published in USA today.
I turn to slashdot for informative tech news, not something I could find with a search engine by typing in video games +boobies
I wish for the old days (Score:5, Insightful)
Call me sentimental, but I feel as though the PS? and XBox have no substance, no charm, no soul. Nintendo and Sega have all those things for me. It's something that cannot be explained by logic or statistics.
Also, I know I can't be the only one who thinks that first-person shooters do not belong on consoles.
Re:I don't really understand the idea of console w (Score:5, Insightful)
The PS2 and xbox are normally priced at $179. And how many households make a good salary? Some don't have a salary at all, any more, and a second console certainly isn't a priority.
Also consider that some gamers are (gasp) underage, and as such have limited resources to spend on gaming. Let's say you're a kid with a PS2 and $240 burning a hole in your pocket. Would you prefer to buy an xbox, second controller, memory card and one (1) platinum hit game, or twelve (12) greatest hits games for the console you already own?
Re:Pricing of Game Consoles (Score:5, Insightful)
if by "hottest selling" you mean "I am only talking about the USA"...
and if you rank the PS2 as an equal success as the Xbox, you're being misleading, considering that Sony has sold many times more PS2's than Microsoft has sold Xboxen.
Note than in Japan, the Xbox makes up 1.6% of hardware sales. That
.
Wow, what rubbish (Score:5, Insightful)
The format of the article underscores this point beautifully.
Save Your Mod Points (Score:3, Insightful)
I lost braincells reading half of it... (Score:1, Insightful)
The whole question is moot, though. After all, the combination of having the best advertising and releasing first will be what wins out. Even fan loyalty will likely come in handy. So, why bother predicting, when one bureaucratic screw up can ruin the whole thing.
Now, there are the other holy wars...Linux, vi, and the like being worthy causes
Re:Thoughtful? (Score:5, Insightful)
Amen. In fact, I stopped reading because the writer presented something that not only wasn't news, but wasn't even true:
"Starcraft: Ghost, a game about a popular female character from the outrageously successful PC game who must perform a series of dangerous missions while avoiding being punched in the breasts, is now an X-Box exclusive."
The rumor that Ghost will be Xbox exclusive has apparently been spread around so much that it's now being taken as a fact. The truth, of course, is that no such announcement has been made and Blizzard's official website still has the icons of all three consoles on the Starcraft: Ghost front page.
I was nearly stopped in my tracks by the beyond insipid "penis chart." There was no way I could continue after the paragraph quoted above.
Two words for the linked article: "Utter crap."
Three words for michael [mailto]: "Shame on you."
Re:PC vs Console.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Ghost still multiplatform (Score:2, Insightful)
Editorial...not technical review (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Microsoft Propaganda As Always... (Score:4, Insightful)
Until there's a consistent third-party reporting on all three companies the various sales figures, while perhaps having some value taken on their own, become meaningless when compared to one another.
On Linux: The idea that Microsoft should be supportive of Linux on their machine is at best naive. Why should they offer more legitimacy [than they have to] to a competitor? Further, why should they support such a feature that would inevitably cause increased sales of a product that isn't a revenue generator while probably minimizing the attach rate of the software, on which they DO make money?
Perspective: If people buy one Xbox to run Microsoft-approved Linux, that's not too bad for Microsoft. After all, it's very likely that the buyer will purchase one or more games for the system (even if they're not a fan of Xbox exclusives, they could go for Xbox versions of multi-console titles that might be better on X).
On the other hand, if people buy one or more EXTRA Xboxen to run Microsoft-approved Linux then any chances of profit (slim in this generation, anyway) off the additional machines go up in smoke since a multiple-Xbox buyer is unlikely to buy multiple copies of each game.
Even in the PR area, it's at best a wash to support Xbox Linux since the people whose minds they would want to change about their company wouldn't be satisfied with just that one thing. They would simply move on to all the other things they hate about Microsoft and Windows while playing with their LinuXboxen.
Re:I don't really understand the idea of console w (Score:5, Insightful)
I realize that many gamers are underage, but I take the position of assuming that the article's writer (while he doesn't show it) is over the age of 18, and most likely, so are you and the rest of Slashdot's readers. This comment, being posted on Slashdot, was designed to cater specifically to Slashdot readers rather than, of course, to people who will never read the comment.
You do have a point about the Greatest Hits games, but chances are that there aren't 12 Greatest Hits games worth buying (which there almost certainly aren't) and you'll be suckered into buying more new games at $50-55 apiece. This is, of course, assuming that you don't already own the originals of Grand Theft Auto 3 and Final Fantasy X. When I was younger, I owned about 35 Playstation games. The only Greatest Hits title I owned was Crash Bandicoot, and it was given to me as a gift. I would go so far as to make the assumption that most people don't wait a long enough time for the low-price Greatest Hits release to actually buy it. If they want it, they'll probably get it when it's new. So, essentially, it boils down to 3 full-price games vs. one new console. Though, you do have me on one point -- I hadn't bothered to factor in the costs of memory cards, controllers, and other peripherals.
But the inverse may actually be true -- for many people, it may actually be more likely that you will buy more "Greatest Hits" titles for the new console that you just got -- so, if it comes down to 5 full-price games for PS2 that you've never played (since you own the originals of the Greatest Hits games), or 5 Platinum Hit games for Xbox that you've never played, you're only spending a marginal amount more on the Xbox games including the console.
I could be entirely wrong, but it sure makes sense to me.
Re:This article doesn't make any sense (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, and that wasn't really a picture of a Sony engineer testing out Cell.
I Own All Three Consoles... (Score:5, Insightful)
I find the XBox and the Gamecube to have much nicer/smoother graphics than the PS2 games. Also, I like the fact that they each have four controller ports- four-player simultaneous games are a blast. Yeah, I know you can buy a multi-tap for the PS2, but nobody I know has a multitap and there isn't much game support for them. Nintendo has the best controllers ever, IMHO, followed by the XBox S-Controllers. The PS2 controllers are... adequate.
I also like the small, cute appearance of the Gamecube. Yeah- call me weird, but something appeals to me about a system that squeezes that much power out of so little hardware. Maybe it's some sort of innate engineer's sense, I don't know. By contrast, the XBox seems to have slighly nicer graphics but is many times more massive.
People complain about the game libraries on the XBox and GC, compared to the PS2's. It's true that the PS2 has hundreds as times as many games as the other two systems. But I think that's only really an issue if you play hundreds of games. If you take the best 5, 10, or 15 games or so from any system's software library, I think the three consoles are pretty even.
Even though it made this point in a "funny" way - that article was SERIOUSLY RIGHT about one thing- the "kiddie"/"girly" image of Nintendo is KILLING it. Nintendo has to re-establish itself as a system for "real men". Like it or not, the reality is that a large portion of the game-buying public just doesn't want to be seen buying something like the Gamecube, and would rather go with the more-manly XBox or PS2.
Re:Microsoft Propaganda As Always... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll answer both questions technically:
Q: Why does Microsoft refuse to give Linux a legitimate license for use?
A: The XBox is a game console which is sold as a loss leader, so that the money can be made back in licensing fees from Microsoft and 3rd party software for the platform. Running Linux on it gains no licensing fees, damages the reputation among gamers that it is a game console and NOT a computer, opens the console to a market of people who aren't profitable (the people who buy games), and if Microsoft has had _any_ legal claim (Patent, trade secret, etc) to _any_ form of IP infringed on by Linux, selling Linux would nullify Microsoft's rights. Sony's PS/2 Linux is an example of a console implementation of Linux failing to produce anything of value to Sony. Microsoft doesn't need to repeat Sony's mistakes to learn from them.
Q: What does Microsoft plan to do about the fact that they are in third place worldwide?
A: Microsoft will study its competition and determine what it needs to do to compete in the long term. Being 3rd place selling over 10 Million units after 2 years of a V1 product from Microsoft is actually quite a success, and you can bet that Ms. Fryer is busy working out deals to acquire whatever advanced technologies she can to make the division more profitable, and in general turning around the revenue stream from being a losing money proposition in the short term to a profitable enterprise in the long term.
Which technologies she's getting into she probably won't tell you, but I'm guessing that you will be able to do video chat at some point using the XBox 2, or maybe even the XBox. Do they really need all that horsepower (733MHz P3) as it is? The XBox is more powerful than my main computer throughout my 4 years of college!
This year, a 3.06 GHz P4 with hyperthreading and 6 USB 2 ports is $1000. Imagine what kinds of things software on this device will be able to do in a box under your TV next year. You had an opportunity to ask someone who produces cool advanced technologies about what they thought was coming in 5 to 10 years, and maybe even influence her, and all you could do is rant to boost your "proud 17-year-old ego". This is exactly the kind of mentality that brings down /., and here it is with a score of 5, Interesting.
Re:Thoughtful? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I don't really understand the idea of console w (Score:3, Insightful)
Who knows what these boxes will be doing for us in a decades time, I predict that we will we will see all the modern media devices (dvd, dvr, games, hi fi) converge into one box in the center of the living room.
Re:I wish for the old days (Score:3, Insightful)
I think Nintendo made well balanced hardware and puts out games of medium-high quailty.
Sony made hardware based on marketing (blue LED, promises of a ninth generation model that will rape your senses with various infeasable marketspeak based features, you think they'll ever deny that the PS3 chip is able to shoot magic? Now do you think they'll figure out texture filtering next round (just maybe)? How about load times (I have a hat waiting to be eaten)?) and a massive catalog of hit and miss and really miss and please I'll pay you to take this from me software.
Microsoft has money, they made a box based on money, they get software development by throwing money around. It outputs pretty, its made by the devil, and unplugged it makes a nice set of blunt weapons.
Summary:
Nintendo serious game company,
Sony psycho marketers with a following,
Microsoft bleeds money with trial and error.
Re:numbers? (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't own any console nor am I a real MS fan, but what they have achieved with the XboX in such a short time and on such a (what was assumed to be a) closed market is pretty amazing. Especially because this is their first generation console.
Re:Microsoft Propaganda As Always... (Score:1, Insightful)
You hit the nail on the head.
Previous articles on the Playstation Linux kit mentioned the importance of developers. Training people to learn the custom hardware and specialised SDKs costs a fortune.
I belive Sony are smart enough not to sell below cost, so Linux kit just creates good will rather than lost profits. If people with the linux kit buy even one Game Sony are probably doing well.
And I believe playstations have been used as cheap hardware in renderfarms.
There were notions of building clusters using Playststations (the defunct Wulfstation cluster project) all this creates goodwill towards Sony and a few extra sales.
Pathetic. (Score:2, Insightful)
"Nintendo is kiddie!!!1"
"Teh Xbox is big!!!1"
"Sony liek hype!!!1"
A shame they didn't think of evaluating the ACTUAL GAMES available for each of the machines, or how they've performed commercially in the three main territories. Or failing that, tried to be funny.
At least the domain name [pointlesswasteoftime.com] was accurate.
Re:The PC will always be the premier gaming platfo (Score:3, Insightful)
Sounds fun to me!