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Fallout From the November Console Wars 182

Posted by Zonk from the whew-i-can-finally-take-off-this-helmet dept.
All three 'next generation' consoles are out, and we can finally stop using that term. The NPD numbers for last month have been released, and there's plenty of information there to discuss. Analysts have already made some observations, with brandintel specifically pointing out the Xbox 360's 'surprising' role in last month's fight. For some more well-reasoned thought, Dean Takahashi's take is the place to turn: "At this rate, Microsoft isn't going to hit its goal of 10 million units by year end ... Sony's number is consistent with its warnings, but 197,000 is worse than what many expected ... the fair fight is really going to be what happens in the year 2007, when all three console makers should be able to ship as many consoles as consumers want. To me, this looks like consumers are hit with a case of sticker shock. The mass market is paying for cheap PS2s, DS Lites, and GBAs." Despite the Wii's success last month, it should be noted that Nintendo is no longer bragging of 1 Million units in the U.S. by the end of the year. So, essentially, it looks like all three companies will fail to hit their console goals for the year.
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Fallout From the November Console Wars More

Fallout From the November Console Wars

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  • shucks... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 09, 2006 @04:40PM (#17177886)
    I saw Fallout, but no 3. Frankly, I don't care what happens with those consoles, just give me my Fallout 3!
    • Only if they turn it over to the original developers first. The last thing I want is Morrowind with guns.

  • Remedial geography (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 09, 2006 @04:42PM (#17177916)
    All three 'next generation' consoles are out and we can finally stop using that term.

    *Cough* Europe.

    Despite the Wii's success last month, it should be noted that Nintendo is no longer bragging of 1 Million units in the U.S. by the end of the year. So, essentially, it looks like all three companies will fail to hit their console goals for the year.

    That was for 'The Americas'.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by keeboo ( 724305 )
      That was for 'The Americas'.

      You mean North America.
      I see no sign of any of those consoles here in Brazil.
      • then move to santo andré, next to são paulo. there's plenty of them in a shopping mall near here. price tag is R$ 2.300,00 (YIKES!!!)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by caudron ( 466327 )
      That was for 'The Americas'.

      Yeah. That's what he said. L.A. New York. Chicago. Detroit. etc.... You know, the Americas. What else is there?

      (Es una chiste, mis amigos suramericanos.)

      Tom Caudron
      http://tom.digitalelite.com/ [digitalelite.com]

  • It's the Sticker Shock (Score:5, Insightful)

    by scombs ( 1012701 ) on Saturday December 09, 2006 @04:43PM (#17177918)
    When it comes down to it, I believe I can have the same amount of fun (if not more) with the $130 Nintendo DS than I could with the $300+ current-gen consoles. My fun wouldn't increase five-fold if I bought a PS3, I don't think.

    • Re:It's the Sticker Shock (Score:5, Insightful)

      by 2nd Post! ( 213333 ) <gundbearNO@SPAMpacbell.net> on Saturday December 09, 2006 @05:04PM (#17178114) Homepage
      After playing Rayman and Sports, however, I do think your fun would increase two-fold if you bought a Wii... which coincidentally is less than twice a DS.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by aliquis ( 678370 )
        Is rayman really funny? Looks a little simple? Wii sports must become boring after a while, I think I rather play smash football or whatever the name of the gamecube tennis title is and so on because you can make more stuff in them, those with the new controller will be even better thought of course.

        On the DS I'm not intrested in the real gimmick games either such as Wario ware DS or whatever it's called and some other titles like that, Yoshi Touch&Go is ok and Kirby rocks thought.

        On the Wii I would muc

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by KokorHekkus ( 986906 )
      I think you're right when it comes to the long run ("extreme" gamers don't make up the majority of the customers. And from what I've read it would seem like Nintendo has an advantage when it comes to appealing to the non-gamers/occasional gamers with the new controllers... because. as you say, it allows them to have more fun. So I'm guessing the Wii will do allright (not saying it will come up on top but though) Me? No console and don't play much games.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by skam240 ( 789197 )
        "extreme" gamers can some times set the trends that more casual players will follow, however. it's still too soon to tell where this will all go.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sootman ( 158191 )
      But I've got a family, and we can't all play a DS at once. I'd buy a Wii in a second if there were any around--$250 isn't bad at all. I will get one eventually but I'd love to get one for the family for XMas--too bad there aren't enough. With the great reviews and the great price I think it'd be the winner if there were more.

    • Fun doesn't need to increase linearly.

      You can have quite a bit of fun playing various forms of solitaire with a $2 pack of playing cards. Are you really going to say that a Nintendo DS is 65 times more fun than a pack of cards? Actually, does trying to define a "fun comparison factor" even work?

      Any notable increase in fun that you can afford is generally worth it. The Nintendo DS isn't 65 times better than the pack of cards, but it's still worth getting a Nintendo DS because it's fun. If you want to play

  • One more system (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Sciros ( 986030 )
    But what if I want to talk about the Infinium Labs Phantom? can I still use the term "next generation?" A friend of mine was really confused about the console sale figures, as was I. And then we both realized we're playing the PS2 I bought just a month ago :-) (for FFXII). With so many folks being excited for the Wii/PS3 releases, I'd say not only sticker shock but also a determination to have at least something to play is what sold the other consoles. That and black friday making Game Boys cheap-as-free.

  • Analysts (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Okay. Let's assume for a moment that I announce to the press that I'm going to sell 1 million units or Product A by year end. There's much hype and fanfare, then I'm only able to actually produce 500,000 units. The Sales numbers at this point no longer mean anything. You can only have a valid comparison if there is a steady supply of all three models. Come on folks THINK.

    -ac

    -Parent should have never made slashdot...there nothing to read here move on..
    • That's a good point, but if a company really thinks they're going to be able to sell a million units of their product it seems like they'd go out of their way to make sure that a million units are available. Even if it cuts into the amount of money you make per unit, it'd be worth it for double the sales.

    • Re:Analysts (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Chris Burke ( 6130 ) on Saturday December 09, 2006 @06:48PM (#17179212) Homepage
      There's much hype and fanfare, then I'm only able to actually produce 500,000 units. The Sales numbers at this point no longer mean anything. You can only have a valid comparison if there is a steady supply of all three models. Come on folks THINK.

      Actually, they do mean something, just not that much about market acceptance. Since these consoles sold out, we can use the sales numbers as production numbers. And from that standpoint, there are really two interesting pieces of information: Not really a surprise given all the warnings, but Sony was able to make only half of their grossly down-sized forecasts. This means producing the PS3 is even more difficult than was thought, or the blue lasers are in even shorter supply than thought, and may even indicate that the longer term supply will be limited. In some ways more surprising is that Nintendo was unable to reach their manufacturing target for launch. I would naively assume that they should have minimal problems, but that apparently isn't the case. Maybe the remote is a trickier beast than thought? Supplies of extra remotes have been short for those who were able to buy a console.

      I realize that these sales figures may not be complete. I doubt that means Sony really sold twice as many consoles.

      An interesting catch: All these companies depend on IBM. Apple dropped IBM largely because they didn't seem ready or willing to develop and produce mainstream chips on a schedule that suited Apple. Are they partly responsible for the shortage of PS3 and Wii? I have no data to back that up at all; it's just idle speculation.

      • Re:Analysts (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Hes Nikke ( 237581 ) on Saturday December 09, 2006 @10:24PM (#17180884) Journal
        An interesting catch: All these companies depend on IBM. Apple dropped IBM largely because they didn't seem ready or willing to develop and produce mainstream chips on a schedule that suited Apple.


        ah, but apple wanted faster iterations of PPCs every 6 months. What they got was a 700 MHz upgrade in 1.8 years, and then the top speed got cut back by 200 MHz to make room for dual core CPUs. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft all have PPC specs set in stone for the next 5 or 6 years. much more compatible with IBM's slow pace of consumer chip upgrades.

  • Sticker shock for sure (Score:5, Interesting)

    by analog_line ( 465182 ) on Saturday December 09, 2006 @05:02PM (#17178090)
    I've no plans to buy an Xbox or a PS3 for only reasons of price. $500 as the minimum cost of entry for a system and one game is just nuts. I can't afford it, and I won't bother with it. There's nothing inherent that I will get out of either of those systems over the Xbox and PS2 that I own now, other than the derision of my friends, that I spent a pile of money I could've spent on food or rent on those. I'm sure the games are great, and I wouldn't mind owning one, but they're not worth that, no matter how many fools are willing to overpay for it.

    I'd like to get a Wii, and I have a reasonable chance of both affording and getting my hands on one at some point soon. However, right now, I'm actually considering getting a new GBA SP, because I have a lot of games I like for GBA, and an SP is a lot easier to carry around than even the new DS Lite (and a lot easier than my original recipe DS). And a second PS2 to backup my current box, so I can play all the good PS2 games that are now showing up in bargain bins before they become collectors items. Once the price comes down to something resembling reasonable, I'll get a PS3, and maybe even an Xbox 360, but it's got a LONG way to fall before it gets there.
    • The base X360 is $299. With game, that's $350. Use the Overstock 12% off coupon and it's ~$308 for the base console plus one game. That's a big difference from your $500 claim (even without the coupon). Don't confuse the 360 price with the PS3 price.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DECS ( 891519 )
        Of course, with the $200 Microsoft HD-DVD, the 360 is the exact same price as the PS3. Microsoft just allows you to not buy HD optical player as an option, so its not really less expensive at all, its just offered in a cheaper configuration.

        PlayStation 3 vs. Xbox 360 vs. Nintendo Wii [roughlydrafted.com]
        • You're assuming everyone wants or needs HD-DVD, which simply is not the case. Not everyone who buys the PS3 will play Bluray movies just like not everyone who buys a PSP plays UMD movies. The HD-DVD add-on is simply an optional accessory that has no impact on gaming.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by DECS ( 891519 )
            No that's the point of options: Microsoft provides an option of getting it or not. Sony doesn't.

            Sony wants to force adoption of Bluray, and if it can make everyone who buys a PS3 a Bluray customer, that will help.

            Microsoft's unbundling of the HD-DVD gives gamers uninterested in HD a discount, but that also means that HD-DVD won't be as widely available, making it less attractive for studios to release their movies for. It's the same problem Microsoft has with the hard drive option: the low end base model of
            • I think it was very wise to cut the expense of the HD-dvd from the base model. Even assuming sony wasn't out there trying to tear buisiness away from HD-dvd, it wouldn't have been true to the xbox model. The original Xbox didn't play movies without the decoder/remote option. As then, there is no reason to try to make the 360 a true all-things to all people solution - give me what I want, let me leave what I don't care for on the floor.

              The lack of Hard Drive in the 360 seemed at first to be a rip-off.. but
      • With the Core system, you'll need a memory card. So, add $40. And the games cost $59, not $49.

        I'm just throwing that out there; I'm a happy 360 owner. But I do think that not including some sort of integrated storage system in the Core system (does anyone buy those?) was a mistake. Data caching, patches and update storage, easier game saves, a more consistent base for developers: the lack of integrated storage in one of the SKUs does give the PS3 a significant advantage.

      • Re:X360 base price is $299 not $500 (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Overly Critical Guy ( 663429 ) on Sunday December 10, 2006 @03:52AM (#17182718)
        It's pretty disingenuous of you to not mention that you're referring to the Core configuration, which has no wireless capability or hard drive.

        If you buy a Core system for $300 and actually want to save your game or have XBox 1 compatibility, that's an additional $100 [xbox.com] for the hard drive add-on, putting you up to $400 (Microsoft really wants you to get a hard drive [xbox.com]). Along with a game, that's $450, and at that high of a price, you may as well just shell out for the Premium configuration at a whopping $400, which is $450 if you include a game.

        And after all that, you still have to pay Microsoft money every month just to be able to play online. Microsoft currently has no plans to make Xbox Live free, while Sony and Nintendo will offer it totally free.

        Of the three consoles, I actually consider the Xbox 360 the most overpriced. Nintendo can justify their price with the built-in WiFi, 512MB flash storage, and remote control, while Sony can cite Blu-Ray and the Cell in contributing to the cost of the PS3. I really think the 360 will be in trouble in the next two years when Sony sorts out its supply issues and everyone else picks up the Wii as a cheap primary or secondary console.

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by dontbgay ( 682790 )
          close [xbox.com] but no cigar. I know you want to drive your anti-Xbox point home, but at least get your facts straight. It's around $50 US [microsoft.com] for the annual gold membership. I pay that price because it keeps (most of) the cheaters out and my experience that much better.

          • close but no cigar. I know you want to drive your anti-Xbox point home, but at least get your facts straight.

            It's pretty funny that you link to a page showing the free Silver membership without mentioning that you can't play games online with it. You have to pay for the Gold membership to actually do that. Enjoy sending Microsoft $50 a year; the rest of us will play online for free.

            Looking at that page also reveals that you have to have a storage device to use Live, which means either buying the expensive

  • XBox a surprise winner? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Hawthorne01 ( 575586 ) on Saturday December 09, 2006 @05:15PM (#17178210)
    No, not when you think about it. Consider the typical big-box electronics store customer:

    "Excuse me, do you have any PS3's?"
    "No."
    "Nintendo Wii's?"
    "No."
    "Well, what do you have in stock?"
    "The xBox 360."
    "We'll take it."

    Having product on the shelves covers a multitude of sins.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by donaldm ( 919619 )
      Well I live in Australia and have a PS2 so it would go something like this.

      Browses massive selection of PS2.
      Find some very good games for half to a quarter of retail price.
      Go home with a collection of good to very good PS2 games.
      Saves myself a huge amount of money.

      Or the person who is looking for a game machine for a present.
      Hmm! PS2 is cheap and I can get a huge selection of games for a smaller outlay of money
      Guess I'll get the PS2 plus some games.

      Or the grandparents/parents buying for the kids.
      Hmm! The ki

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Hawkxor ( 693408 )
        [i]Even some of the cheap second hand PS2 games look attractive so why would I want to spend AU$600 to AU$750 for an Xbox360 or AU$400 for a Wii and a pack-in games.[/i]

        Why would somebody want to do this? Because they can afford it. ...

  • Couldnt be worse for Sony (Score:3, Insightful)

    by LibertineR ( 591918 ) on Saturday December 09, 2006 @05:16PM (#17178220)
    Has another corporation ever had such a single bad year?

    Who'd thought that the Wii would suck the life out of the PS3 launch?

    The Wii gets all kinds of free press and publicity, if not for Sports, then for idiots destroying their plasma screens and blaming the Wii-mote strap for being too weak.

    In the mean time, Microsoft has the best game out in Gears of War for the 360, while the only thing I hear about the PS3 is that it is so hard to program that most games will suck on it for another year.

    Oh, and thanks for the root kit, Sony. Karma is a bitch, eh?

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Jace of Fuse! ( 72042 )
      I am not going to knock Gears of War, since I just bought it the other day and have yet to have a chance to really sit down with it. But I don't think Gears of War is going to appeal to too many people other than shooter fans and Xbox 360 fans.

      Sure, the game looks beautiful, amazing even. But to jaded gamers or casual gamers there isn't enough there to draw in anyone who wouldn't have already been drawn in already. I personally picked it up, played it for about 10 minutes, said "neat", and put it down.
      • I should have been more clear, as I only meant best game out during the launch season, when Sony should have captured all the attention. Gears of War is good, but not earthshaking. I expect Halo 3 to accomplish that, though. The big winner is the Wii, and Microsoft did okay for not having any big news of their own. Sony lost this one big-time.
      • I'm not so sure on Wii Sports. I got a chance to try out two games recently, Tennis and Boxing. Both were interesting, but really seemed gimmicky. It disturbed me that in Tennis, you didn't control player movement and all you could do was swing. As for boxing, my character didn't really do what I always wanted it to do. You know how people "button mash" to win certain games? For Wii games, it's all about the "violent shaking". That said, I've heard that Tennis and Boxing may be the worst of the Wii titles,
        • You really have to play Wii Sports with another person for the full effect. You can play it solo, but it's just not the same experience (except for perhaps bowling and golfing which fare better as solo games). The Wii is the kind of system grandmas will keep around to pull out for when their grandkids come over. It's something everyone can enjoy, much like the original NES before "hardcore" gamers took over the market and turned everything into sports games, racing games with "Street" or "Underground" in

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by jchenx ( 267053 )
            Ehh, I should have mentioned ... but that's what I did. It was in a holiday party situation.

            Actually, that probably didn't help the situation. Everyone was interested in the food and mingling, more than playing any type of game.

            Wii Sports would have a pretty cool party game to have when I was in college. Potentially dangerous too. :)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by 7Prime ( 871679 )
        Yeah, automatically calling "Gears of War" the "best game" is a little one sided, as it will only appeal to certain audiences. This year is going to be insanly tough to give "game of the year" awards to, because we've had so many absolutely amazingly HUGE and wonderful games: Oblivion, Okami, FF12, Gears of War, Twilight Princess. My personal vote goes to Twilight Princess by a land slide, with Okami and FF12 coming in 2nd and 3rd... then again, I'm a pretty hard core RPG fan, so epic-style games are likely
    • Perhaps you've heard of Tyco or Enron or Worldcom?

      See, there are plenty of corperations who have had way worse years. Even with teh Rootkit stuff Sony isn't even on the same level as those guys.

      What Sony has had is manufacturing problems, and some bad press. But they have actually had not a bad year when it comes to the gaming segment - sure the PS3 supply is lower than they had hoped but it is still selling out of stores instantly - some people seemed to feel Sony wouldn't sell ten units. Nolan Bushnel
      • And while many think the PSP is a dismal flop, what people don't realize is that it's actually selling OK - it just looks like a flop next to the supernova that is the DS Lite.

        I just thought I should provide supporting evidence for that assertion - From the NPD report [joystiq.com]:

        Units:
        DS, 918k.
        PSP, 412k

        See? A little under half of what the DS sold. Not nearly as many as the DS but also not an unmitigated disaster either - I'll bet you wish you made something that 412,000 people wanted enough to pay $200 for. That's
        • The Gamecube remained profitable because of Nintendo's first-party titles. Sony doesn't make first-party PSP games.

  • Cheap PS2s... (Score:5, Funny)

    by LearnToSpell ( 694184 ) on Saturday December 09, 2006 @05:22PM (#17178298) Homepage
    ...but expensive PS1s! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&view item=&item=300050305788 [ebay.com]

  • Nope. Still Next Gen (Score:5, Funny)

    by moehoward ( 668736 ) on Saturday December 09, 2006 @05:25PM (#17178328)

    They are still to be referred to as "next generation" until you can actually get one. Just because Nintendo shipped its only Wii to Zonk does not mean that we are suddenly in a new generation.

    The PS3 and Wii are vaporware at MSRP. I await proof to the contrary.

    P.S. Oh, and when you get proof, pick one up and ship it to me. I'll reimburse via Paypal. Thanks in advance!

    How in the hell did I turn into one of those Tickle-Me-Elmo parents???

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Firehed ( 942385 )
      Would you like to see a receipt? I paid $249.99 plus tax for my Wii, along with 43 others a few weeks ago.

      The trick to getting one is knowing an employee who will tell you expected shipping dates (thanks, Lexxx!), and getting to the store two hours early. Time wasted argument aside, you know that you wouldn't have billable hours at 8am on a Sunday, and you'll more than piss away that "lost" two hours actually playing the thing.

      Of course, if you want the PS3, you're SOL. But I haven't met one person who s

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by necro2607 ( 771790 )
        The Best Buy near my girlfriend's place got a shipment on Friday. You know what? There were about 30 people lined up, THE NIGHT BEFORE, with TENTS. This is fucking three weeks after the console's launch. Who knows how long the line was by the morning (needless to say we went home as soon as we saw the line the night before). But guess what? Best Buy received ELEVEN SYSTEMS. Fucking eleven. Can you imagine how pissed off the rest of those people were after they camped out all night, three weeks after the

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Omestes ( 471991 )
          The manager of the local Target tipped off my dad last week that they were getting 30 that Sunday. He sized him up before giving the random insider tip, it seems. At 8am there were 6 people inside, in line, and about 16 consoles. It was all very orderly. But no camping, or such, I even missed the 8 opening thanks to a heinous traffic accident.
    • The PS3 and Wii are vaporware at MSRP. I await proof to the contrary.

      Well, going by the furious screams of agony I'm receiving from muscles and tendons that have spent the last decade in complete disuse, I'd say that Wii is pretty damn real...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jZnat ( 793348 ) *
      I feel your pain; this is fucking ridiculous. Scalpers are almost as bad (if not worse) when it comes to the Wii compared to the PS3. I am not going to wait several hours in subzero weather outside a Target/Best Buy/Walmart/non-gaming store (wtf is up with the low supplies given to the stores that actually specialise in games?) just to get one.
  • The technology is so expensive that they almost have no choice but to give away the consoles. By give away I'm referring to dropping the prices below $200. They need to sell games and a lot of them to pay off the machines. If you're already loosing a few hundred on a machine you have no choice but to depend on game sales. Prices have to drop like a rock next year or they'll never sell enough games to break even let alone show a profit. They are taking advantage of early adopters now but there will be price
    • The technology is so expensive that they almost have no choice but to give away the consoles.

      Wrong. Sony could very well have gone with a "real cost" figure for the PS3, and cut their liense feel and MSRP for games as well. They made a concious corporate descion to keep the same idea that got the PS and the PS2 out the door and into the mindset of everyone around. I doubt it'll work, as the PS3 isn't nearly as big a leap forward as either of its predecessors were.

      The strategic win has to go to Nintendo e

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pembo13 ( 770295 )
      What again does Nintendo have to do for your consider them able to compete with Microsoft?

    • They can't compete with Microsoft but they can blow Sony out of the water.

      Why can't they compete with Microsoft? Microsoft is in a potentially bad position. In 2007, a hardcore gamer with money to spend on a high-end console will eventually go with the Playstation 3 when supplies aren't limited (Sony still has 80% user base of the home console market, last I read). Everyone else will be getting Wiis, along with hardcore gamers wanting a secondary Nintendo system. This puts the 360 in a middleground posi

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by old-lady-whispering- ( 602967 )
      I agree. I see PS3 struggling into 2007 until they can drop price or provide a compelling differentiator. I certainly don't rule out Sony pulling a hat trick. PS3=Mac is a very interesting point. I am not sure that will happen. The PS3 will either get significant market share or they will be a loser. If they can't get their shipped numbers up to at least 100,000 a week starting Jan then they have no chance of catching the 360. Sony has alot of great titles comming for the PS3 but unless 360 sales stop compl
  • OK. After bitching over how my first 360 died within an hour, instead of returning it I exchanged it for a new unit and a 2 year warranty. I'm pretty sure the second unit will croak, but I'm am totally sucked in by Gears of War and Dead Rising. Shit. I want to hate this thing, but the games are freak'n great.

    Oh! The blood!!!
    • Sucked in by Gears of War? Hope you enjoy all 8 hours of gameplay. That sucks.
  • Its financial year end, somewhere around March if i'm not mistaken. I don't see them missing there goal.
    • Nitpick: Microsoft's *fiscal* year-end (fiscal, not financial) is June 30. But that doesn't preclude them from having goals for any period, up to and including December 31... in fact, it's a fairly good bet that they do have projections in place for Christmas sales.

      As the articles don't seem to actually mention specific Xbox360 goals, I don't think we really have any way of knowing if they'll meet them or not, but they probably do exist.

  • And the loser is... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by danwesnor ( 896499 )
    I was in Best Buy today and noticed the console displays. One guy in his mid-40's playing the PS-3, nobody watching. There was nobody near the Wii. I didn't look at the 360 (forgot about it, actually), but there were about 10 people standing around watching a kid play Guitar hero on a PS-2.

    Looks like the last gen is winning the next gen war.
    • Bah, console displays suck. Store employees often don't set them up right (composite cables on a HDTV!?) or take care of them. Many of the displays I see are "demoing" error or blank screens.

      Additionally, I believe you can only demo ESRB-rated "E" (everyone) games, which means no Resistance for the PS3 or Gears of War for the 360. Nintendo is actually fortunate here, since they don't rely on M-rated titles to be some of the best games for their systems.

      That said, I am excited for Guitar Hero II, although I'

    • Re:And the loser is... (Score:4, Funny)

      by Overly Critical Guy ( 663429 ) on Sunday December 10, 2006 @04:27AM (#17182844)
      That's it, folks. Dan Wesnor's lone experience in a Best Buy officially determines who is winning the next-gen war. Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft--may as well pack up your bags and go home. There's no way around the fact Dan saw some people playing Guitar Hero on a demo kiosk. It's all over.
  • If they ever get off their asses and actually get some units I that I don't have to camp out for. I know they have already lost a couple of my friends to Xbox just because they got so pissed off at how the store are handling things.

    Why in the world are they doing an international launch when they can't supply one country with enough units? Its making people, myself included, bitter. I'd rather they staggered things by a few months so they could get enough of the product to market.

  • Blu-Ray Killing PS3 (Score:2, Insightful)

    by stwf ( 108002 )
    While waiting for the PS3 I was sure I'd buy one. It's a no-brainer, like a free Blu-Ray player. And with PS3 pushing Blu-Ray it had to be the winner.
    But that has totally changed now. It seems we'll be stuck with 2 formats forever and like most normal people I'm limited by video inputs on my tv.
    So I'm not buying a next gen dvd player until they are dual format, my upscaling dvd player works very well, and they are releasing ridiculous movies in Blu-Ray. Ballad of Ricky Bobby? How about something beautiful,
  • I have been waiting 2 years for the PS3. I loved the PS2 but was ready to use the potential of my HDTV because I'm a hard core Gran Turismo player. Well the new PS3 has been a total disappointment for me. My TV only does 1080i HD, no 720p. The PS3 doesn't upconvert its 720p games to 1080i, but instead down converts them to 480p! So much for next generation. Solution? $1500 external scaler, $2000 new HDTV, or go to the XBOX 360. Next up, I love rumble in racing games, guess what, SONY dropped the bal

  • I bought a DS Lite (new) and a GameCube (used) (Score:3, Interesting)

    by sjonke ( 457707 ) on Monday December 11, 2006 @08:48AM (#17193500) Journal
    At home the game system is for my kids, 4 and 5. I have little to no time to play a console system, other than playing with them a little bit. I got them a used GameCube (w/box) with one official wired controller and official memory card for $54. I've gotten them a used (complete) copy of Super Mario Sunshine for $12, a used (complete) copy of MX Superfly for $8 and a new copy of Donkey Konga w/bongos for $20. I purchased one extra official wired controller for $20 and then another from amazon for $18, both new. I also got a pair of extension cables for $6. I just ordered a copy of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat w/bongos and a free 2nd set of bongos from gamestop for $21 shipped. Those are all new. I actually intend to sell Jungle Beat w/bongos on ebay and believe I'll net about $21 for it, effectively getting me the extra set of bongos for free. Total price for the GC w/3 nintendo-brand controllers (one used, two new), memory card, Super Mario Sunshine (used, complete), MX Superfly (used, complete) and Donkey Konga w/ 2 sets of bongos (all new) was around $140. More than $100 less than a Wii system alone (albeit with Wii sports). Or, if multiplayer Donkey Konga is all it's cracked up to be, I could keep Donkey Kong Jungle beat w/bongos and have a 3rd bongo controller (as well as DKJB) for an extra $21. The used games were purchased on ebay. I tested them and they work fine. Every price noted includes shipping.

    For myself I'm getting a (new) DS Lite which I'll be able to play on the train every day. Unlike the Wii, no accessories are necessary, so the $117 I paid for it (shipped) from buy.com is all I have to pay for it other than games. Lots of great games are available for it for little money, including a thriving used market. Indeed, even new games are only $30 to $35, compared to $50 for Wii/360/PS3. Before long new titles drop to $20. I picked up used/complete copies of Meteos and Madden '05 for about $19 total (including shipping). I'm also getting Gunpei DS (new) for $20. So all told it sets us back about $156 for the DS Lite (new) and 3 good games (2 used/complete, one new.)

    Total for both the complete GameCube setup and the complete DS setup was about $296. That's less than the price of core-version Xbox 360 alone and less than a Wii with one extra set of controllers (pretty much a necessity.) The Wii is no doubt a ton of fun and better than the GameCube, and unlike the 360 and PS3 seems to offer new/fun gameplay, but I'd rather have a nice system for my kids and a nice portable system for myself that I can actually use, not to mention lots of games to play on both of them. Some day I will get a Wii, in part because it will be able to play the GameCube games we'll have, but there's no hurry. At the earliest it will be next Christmas, when the price will have dropped, there will be a used games market, and new games will better utilize the system.

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