[Holly Jolly]

I say Nintendo. Many people say Sony won last time, with over 70 million consoles sold, yet Nintendo made more money. Nintendo owns the handheld market, and Miyamoto will once again release one of his games after a three year break on GameCube.

What do you say, and support your opinion.

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Uhhhhh...hi

[Loki]

I agree - Sony pissed away their advantage with the PS2 delivery problems. Additionally, the lack of decent games doesn't help either.
Also, I heard that the PS2 is a bitch to program.
Microsuck with their X-box is one of the unknowns. It's hard to see the potential - the doctored screenshots don't help. I wonder if their hardware will be iffy too - putting a hard drive in there is a nice idea, but will the thing boot up - and crash?

Nintendo is a good bet - good games, usually solid hardware and their more or less rock-solid target group - kids (and me). Also - they have some excellent franchises going - Pokemon (yuck) and Mario, which is not to be underestimated.

Too bad SEGA is out of the run. The dreamcast was a solid box - they always fucked up their timing and didn't use Sony's fumble as an opportunity to market that box intensively and gain a bigger marketshare ...

[CaptainCool]

Although I own a PS2, I think that Nintendo will win because of there good marketing, Sony fucked it up Big-time, And the X-bow is just like the PC...

[Holly Jolly]

Ya, X-Box has a uphill battle in front of it, I personally think it has no chance in Japan. PS2 is hard to program for, but it can survive. X-Box, and PS2 are fighting over the same market, one will die, or both will suffer, they are too expensive to support both. Nintendo's GameCube will be cheap, and will support just as good graphics. Nintendo's ultimate future is not known, like everything else, but I do know they can't fail. They produced a horrible system called N64, yet Nintendo, and Rarware alone kept it alive, and sold software like nothing else. Nintendo know has Silicon Knights, Rareware, Retro Studios, NST, Left Field Productions and more, all as 2nd parties. Nintendo is building a exclusive army, and correcting every mistake made from the past. GameCube may be third, or second, but for some reason, they will make the most money, again.

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Uhhhhh...hi

[Frost]

PS2 is decent, but it's difficult to program, plus it has 4MB of graphics memory, which is laughable. It lacks good titles, and I don't think it will recover too well as developers would rather put their efforts into more "compatible" and easier to develop platforms (such as XBox and GameCube). A few games I am looking forward to however, like Metal Gear Solid 2, Devil May Cry, and Silent Hill 2.

GameCube will sell, because its "Nintendo" and it has Mario/Luigi/Link/Kong/Pokemon and all those cute and colorful characters that (almost) everyone loves. ATI's graphics chip kicks ass and has some very decent potential. I'm personally not looking forward to this platform simply because of Nintendo's kiddy market and development. As cool as Kurby (sp?) 3D could be, it's still not mature content, which my violent American-influenced mind needs.

Xbox is something that is VERY interesting because its high-end PC quality hardware that is the same on every machine (as opposed to making a game that will run on every machine from Pentium2-266 with Voodoo1 to a Pentium3-1000 with GeForce3), so developers will have the ability to fine tune everything to run to the max of the platform, which I think is the most powerful (slightly more advenced than GeForce3 technology, with a unified memory structure of over 64MB with a nice fast processor for all the physics/AI/etc.). The potential is there, but I doubt many developers in North America are meticulous enough to do good console games... it requires a lot of fine tuning which NA developers seem to know little about... let's hope they adapt. Since all/most of the game graphics and code for any console are made on PC in the first place, and that the xbox is basically a PC, developers will LOVE this console. As to how well it will do?... that depends on the titles... but I have total faith in Microsoft's marketing department... resistance is futile. =]


On a somewhat related topic: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/2/18233.html

(hehe)

[This message has been edited by Frost (edited April 12, 2001).]

[MrPumpernickel]

Nintendo already won when they made the NES (you know, 8bit console). Since then everything has gone straight to hell, consoles have become uglier, graphics might have improved but not the feeling you get when you play the game.

Of course I'm just speaking about bad-ass-ness, not about the financial aspects...

*think it's time to dig up ye olde NES from the closet again*

[edit] Just a further addition to this thread: http://mrpumpernickel.hypermart.net/cont1.jpg

[This message has been edited by MrPumpernickel (edited April 12, 2001).]

[PandaX52]

true, gameplay has gone to shit now-a-days...


*plays doom*

[schabe]

hmmm dont know which console will win the console war. i have a dreamcast here... it wont win probably :/ but i think xbox will be a great thing. i would like if they'd provide keyboard and harddisk so u can use it as a usual pc. you wont have any problems with compatibility etc. coz all is defined. so i guess xbox will win.

pandax52: imho quake3 has greatest gameplay ever and this isnt that old... but doom is ok also

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if i cancel tomorrow the undead will thank me today (iron maiden)
(((www.jzone.de)))

[travis travis]

jahoo! now here's something I can talk about

let's see... who WON the last round? Well let's just say there are two that didn't loose and then there's Sega (nice effort, but they would have needed a godly effort and for their hardware to magically rebuild itself to match the next gen) Nintendo rode out the US market nicely, considering all they fucked up with the N64 design, but somehow their arrogance and floating above everything actually worked. They have patience and are in it for the long haul so they're never going to disappear. Sony's Playstation on the other hand was a monster hit, but the games... lots of shovelware. It just worked better as the 'mature' toy though, not too technical or too kiddie. And that style in itself I think caught a whopping marketshare.

ding!ding! next round. wow, the sentiment is pretty universal that Sony blew their wad with the PS2. First off, yes I can tell you on the inside that it is bitch to program. Which translates to high development costs for one thing. And secondly the graphics hardware is chock full o' flaws. Low res textures, low screen res - those are going to be common elements of all PSX2 games throughout it's life, and those are some awful setbacks. It's very N64ish in hardware in my opinion, of course pumping way more raw raw power, but clouded with ugly limitations that just make you wonder how they could think we were blind and why they didn't focus on a system that would really support their end product (games.) BUT... all us gamers with a brain are keen to think our observations equal how the market will react. Here's the thing I'll tell you, no one, not retailers, not game developers, really has a good clue about how well the PS2 will sell. It's just impossible to have any idea and that's about the short of it, for one because console sales have always hugely varied in different years, two - the market is crazy, and three - it depends on the momentum buzz. you see if the right people are the ones buying PS2's to start with then they'll have people buying one just because they have one. But that factor is hugely unpredictable. Personally, I think PS2 sales will be lower then expected, because the momentum hurdle is going to die fast without a base of star games. You see, Nintendo can make a bad console and live through it because they truly focus on good, solid titles. Sony does not.

about the x-box... it's in trouble. the hardware is great. the developers they have for launch are terrible. the games are all passionless pc-like shelf fodder. console games require way more theme to be remotely successful. if billy doesn't find some more people who can make videogames and not pc-style videogames, his box is going to look like electronics and not a console.

gamecube - fuckin Nintendo, they blew their hardware too. hopefully at least they don't have some of the PS2's more glaring flaws, but they haven't made any bones that their hardware isn't going to be a revolution. it does have high points though, and I think perhaps more built-in fx bonuses then the PS2, but both of these systems are way behind X-box. In built in features that is, remember things can get programmed, but also remember that things often aren't programmed and the hardware standards are used. on the plus side they should launch way cheaper then their friends that are shooting for the stars and missing, and they SHOULD have the most balanced hardware. should. but they can mess it up. they also have texture compression which is going to work in some instances and in other instances make textures look like very bad compressed jpg's. so let's HOPE the compression is variable and doesn't have to be applied to everything.

the games are absolutely where the war is fought. theme, atmosphere, originality, new experiences, special experiences, these are what really draw people into games. stock games are not going to cut it at all in this generation, and fortunately with a bad economy I think we'll see more innovation.

[Holly Jolly]

Bill Gates is going to get laughed out of the water. 500 million in advertising X-Box, did anyone tell him that Nintendo spends more then 250 million in advirtising just games? And this is with backing, and not at a worldwide reach, like Gates is trying to create. I don't know about you, but do you think PC gamers are happy about what is happening to Halo? Don't think so. I here you guys talking about how it comes down to games, and gameplay. Nintendo is the only ones that have that covered.

[KrassOtti]

travis travis,

The gamecube actually has better hardware than the XBox. It has everything the XBox has, plus 8 textures instead of 4 [XBox]...

Nintendo should win, but PS2 will be very strong as well. All the PSX fanboys are gettin a PS2, after FFX everyone will get a PS2 for sure. [Saturn and PSX were selling equally until FF7 came along]

[Totally]

meh... gamecube is a toy... i mean i know its hardware is very high end and stuff, but it looks like a friggin toy im tellin ya heh...

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Dave Myers http://members.home.com/totally

[Holly Jolly]

FFX, and MGS2 will be the titles that save PS2. But I don't think anything can take away E3's Game of the Year from whatever Miyamoto is creating.

[fshock]

I think the X-Box will do ok for itself,but by the time its released the PS2 will be over a year old...
Meaning the PS2, as powerful as it is will be at a lower price then the x-box,beating out the X-box in the holiday sales.

From what I hear, there are going to be alot of games for ready when the X-box is released. Which is really good...
When I bought my PS1 many moons ago I had it on hold so when the day of release I stood in line and shelled out $300 for it...Only to find 3 titles on the shelf.

Overall, I think the X-Box will be the better system, but I won`t buy it... I`d rather dump $400 into my puter.

Let me rant about Sega for a moment.
Will these bastards ever support a system for more then 8 months?
They dump everything so quick.
Sega cd- dumped
Sega 32x- dumped within only a few months.
Sega Saturn-Dumped
Now the Dreamcast-dumped...
Jesus, why won`t these fuckers just roll over and die already!


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fotoshock

[A.Buttle]

Blah blah blah. You're all wasting time. Get jobs.

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I fear the end is near for fish with no hip burrito.
Joe Dillingham
[email protected]

[Bradford]

I second what A.Buttle said.

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[email protected]
icq:3704871

[Chris]

I got a job full time

and I say X-Box will kick all their asses.

It might be LIKE a PC, but it isn't. If it was a PC it would be called a PC and not a console.

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G3 Designs

ICQ: 68812458

[Totally]

I work 30 hours a week and have a full college schedule.

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Dave Myers http://members.home.com/totally

[immi]

No doubt in my mind that the X-box is going to take over the world

[Pat]

Historically speaking, the X-box should win.

Each of the console generations was taken by the new, upstart company. At one point, in America Nintendo was said company, wrestling the title away from the venerable Atari. Lest we forget, before the PSX, Sony's had little to nothing to do with the video game industry. Their fledgling effort is now the cornerstone of the industry.

While I agree that Nintendo has both the finacial resources and the experience to do well, I beleive their notoriously high developer costs will preclude them for attracting a large audience of developers. They'll do well for themselves, as I understand they've been addressing that issue --but their financial model is built on high royalties from licensing exclusive developers. Paradoxically, it's in their best interest not to expand their developers too greatly --hence their suprisingly rude treatment towards SquareSoft. Besides, everyone knows the real breadwinner is the GameBoy. Not of paramount import, but worthy of note: the Gamecube is also the least poerful next-gen console.

Sony's just basically screwing up. They're learning some hard lessons now about hype. They'll be lucky if they can salvage their situation. By not shipping enough units, software sales are really poor. When you've bet the farm on the PS2 (as many developers have) and then fail to ship enough units, you've just committed the cardinal sin for launch titles.

I'm curious to see what Microsoft has to show. Travis travis mentioned they're in trouble with launch titles, but I just read they'll have 12-18 ready. PS2 launched with 23-26, but with that many they canibalized their own sales --resulting in dismal sales for all launch parties. Maybe Microsoft learned from the PS2's failure? I hear people crying about lack of Japanese support, but Sega, Konami, Capcom and Tecmo are all on board. It's almost a given that Namco will produce at least 2 titles as well, and Square has accepted dev kits.

It's gonna be a bar fight out there --but one thing's for sure: the consumers are going to really win out when the companies compete this hard.

-Pat

[blynde]

quote:

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Originally posted by MrPumpernickel:
[B]Nintendo already won when they made the NES (you know, 8bit console). Since then everything has gone straight to hell, consoles have become uglier, graphics might have improved but not the feeling you get when you play the game.

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Dito...!



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I'm a nobody just like you....well you are anyways.

[Ian]

console gamers...



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To thine own self be true.

[email protected]
ICQ:36732485

[Dean Welsh]

I think Dreamcast already won it with me. I haven't enjoyed playing videogames this much since the NES was king.

Awe hell... I'm rootin' for whoever gets the most Sega and Konami stuff.

The Gameboy Advance has me the most excited of all the upcoming prospects I have to say though.

-Dean

[shahar2k]

I second Ian

and to all you people who "haven't enjoyed a console game since the NES" try playing some of the N-64's "kiddie" games... Mario party is one of my all time favorite, and smash bro's is one awesome game, you have to understand that while content is geared towards kids, you're not much better than kids if you can't look past the graphics into the gameplay...

I seriously don't give a damn about what the graphics are, and I think the gamecube WILL succeed, because all microsoft and sony will do is allow titles with "we're the new matrix" attitudes, and "dark apocalyptic future" plotlines, while nintend will still be producing quality works.
play conker's bad fur day if you really want to see what a Nintendo game is all about, I know, it's not nintendo's and it's not a kid's game, but it looks like one in some parts, unless you bother to dig deeper into it, where it's actually a very good game, with one of the most unique plotlines and endings you've seen.... I would almost compare it to "time bandits"

so my vote is nintendo, mainly since my ownly console was the N-64 and I've never regretted it even though my friends all own PSX...

oh and I STILL prefer PC games to any console

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Maybe I'm paranoid... maybe it's you!