The Successes and Failures of the XBox

thegamebiz writes "Amped IGO continues its 'XBox Retrospective Week' with a great two-page feature breaking down exactly where Microsoft went right and wrong with the XBox. From the article: 'Both lists have included hardware and the acquisitions of developers, but both have ended by reverting to the big issue: games...No matter how many impressive technical specs are shoved down our throats we must remember one simple fact: in the end, it's all about the games.'"

2 Pages?

[hal2814]

This is an on-line article. What do you mean there are two pages? Oh... There's really one one page of information split up to accomodate twice the number of ads. I get it.

Live should be the number one success

[indytx]

The purchase of Bungie was important (and irritated quite a few Mac people, myself included), but Xbox Live is impressive. When I am considering whether a game is worth purchasing, I look first for whether the game is Live Enabled. Xbox Live verifies something that everyone should know, human opponents and team mates are more fun than AI. Xbox Live gives real value, because games finally have real replay value.

If there is any lesson to be learned from the Xbox, it is that people like to play against other people, not computers. Is Halo 2 the best FPS ever? No. There are better shooters on the PC, many of them play better on the PC, and they certainly usually look much better with the appropriate expensive hardware. On the other hand, Xbox Live allows for easy network play at all times of the day against opponents from all over the world.

Did I mention that it's easy?

Does M$ need a great MMORPG? Sure. Does it need to have other genres better represented? Of course. However, having online play on so many games means that you're never stuck trying to get past a certain level. You don't even have to play the single player games. Live is fun.

Besides, M$ never released Myth on the Xbox. What a bummer.

Re:Live should be the number one success

[dividedsky319]

If there is any lesson to be learned from the Xbox, it is that people like to play against other people, not computers.

I disagree. This isn't true for all people.

If I'm sitting at home playing a game, and someone rings the doorbell, I can pause the game while playing against the computer. Or if something else comes up, I can save and turn the system off.

You can't do that when playing someone else. (Well, it's not polite to, at least) When I'm playing an online game, I make sure I'll have no distractions and I'll be able to dedicate my time to at least one game of whatever I'm playing.

When playing single player, or against a friend sitting next to me, you aren't "stuck" finishing a game. I feel bad making others wait, and hate when people do it to me in World of Warcraft. So... playing against a human isn't always better, IMO.

Re:These "successes"

[ivan256]

Why? [...] But right now they're far from a monopoly [...] even though it's bankrolled by the monopoly that is Windows

You almost answered your own question. Being a monopoly isn't illegal. Using your monopoly in another sector to force out the competition, thus granting yourself a new monopoly with a different product is. If it weren't, new businesses wouldn't stand a chance, and eventually we'd just end up with one big company that had a monopoly on everything.

Re:Eh?

[drinkypoo]

Don't forget that modern electronics have a warranty that lasts an even shorter time than that new electronics smell. The Xbox had what, 60 days? 90, maybe. About a week after my warranty expired, I cracked open the box and hacked it up. I was lucky enough to get a version 1.1 Xbox with the "good" DVD-ROM (which is now on its way out) and XBMC has been my hero ever since.

Re:2 Pages?

[cowscows]

It's also a useful way to split up information from time to time. As much as a love my scroll wheel, I do appreciate not having to spend 10 seconds going back to the top of a page to look at a navigation menu or something that I remembered seeing up there.

Perhaps you'd find slashdot more enjoyable if they just put put the full text and every comment from all the articles on one big page. Then you wouldn't have to see any more of those ads that help support all this content that so many people participate in for free.

Damn some of you people are cynical sometimes. If IGO had put each and every one of their bullet points on a separate page, then your whining would make some sense. As it is, you're being way more childish than insightful, regardless of what some moderates may have thought.