Topic: MS takes aim at the Rev's "virtual console" idea

[ruby_onix]

Supposedly from the latest issue of GamePro.

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A REAL Arcade...
Coming Soon to a Lving Room Near You

Of those of you that own an Xbox right now, how many use Live Arcade? Anyone? Bueller? Yeah, I thought so. You have to buy a hard-to-find disc to even accesss Live Arcade then you have to pay between $10 an $20 to play some rinky-dink game like Dig Dug. Yawn. That's all about to change, though: The Xbox 360 will have Live Arcade intergrated right into the box, and it willl pop right up on the home page dashboard; hit a button, and you're in like Flynn. You dont even need an Live account...or a credit card to browse, buy, and play freely. But will there be anything worth playing? We're breathless with anticipation. We got the inside scoop from Greg Canessa, group manager of Xbox Casual Games, who says that while the lineup has not officially been set in stone yet, there will be a wide variety of titles and styles, from quirky independents to big names to spiffed-up retro classics from consoles of a bygone era. The Atari 2600, TurboGraphix, Sega Saturn and even the Dreamcast were mentioned. Dare we dream? Next-gen Live Arcade sounds like the real thing.

Microsoft technically had Live Arcade long before the Rev was announced. But the Rev's system has been generating a lot of excitement (in the lack of other news), and going after other consoles is more what Nintendo had in mind, so it's pretty easy to say MS is at least taking a cue from Nintendo.

Nintendo will have NES/SNES/N64 and (full) GCN compatibility in the Rev, as well as apparently going after the Genesis.

MS will have (limited) Xbox compatibility in the Xbox360, and they're going after the Atari 2600, TG-16, Saturn and Dreamcast.

(Sony has teh BBQ sauce. )

Personally, I think this is a blow to Nintendo (and now the Rev has nothing else special "going for it" that we know of), but that it's not surprising, because emulation is nothing new, or particularly exclusive. Also, I think this is a good thing, because there seemed to be no way Nintendo was interested in the TG-CD, Sega CD, Saturn and Dreamcast (because they're all disk-based), and I think there's a lot of potential in those systems. Also, some competition hopefully means that Nintendo will get off their butts and make this thing happen, rather than endlessly debating about who gets a percentage of what.

[Spak-Spang]

I will still take Nintendo's line up and history of games over the selection Microsoft is offering...and notice Microsoft didn't get all of Sega's systems...I wonder if that means some other system did...like perhaps Nintendo?

Really the classic Nintendo stuff is much bigger saling poing and it is much easier to get 3rd parties onboard with that than Microsoft juggling 3 systems to collect and gather games.

[Bill Aurion]

Aha, THIS a blow to Ninty?  Microsoft is just picking up the scraps...Now if Microsoft got the Genesis, I'd be disappointed...

[ShyGuy]

How in da ghetto are you going to download a bunch of DreamCast games? they're not small...

[ruby_onix]

The Genesis is great and all (especially if combined with the SNES), but the Saturn and Dreamcast probably shouldn't be underestimated.

Microsoft just got (jumping to conclusions here) Bonk, which gives them some old-school cred they never had before. Microsoft just got Panzer Dragoon Saga.

It's a blow to Nintendo in that it's a missed opportunity, and moreso in that the Rev isn't alone anymore in doing "that thing" that makes it special (yeah, I know, there's supposed to be something else coming).

And actually, considering that this feature has been "stolen" well before the Rev even launched, I'm thinking it might have been smarter for Nintendo not to have said anything about it. All it did was give the fanboys something to talk about while we were waiting to hear about the "real" secret... and get stolen by the competition.

[S-U-P-E-R]

It would be sweet if I could just throw my mountain of DreamCast discs right in the hugebox instead of downloading them.

[Spak-Spang]

Ummm Bonk is street cred?  Its a decent game, but I wouldn't go crazy.

Yeah here are some great games Microsoft will get from this deal...however Nintendo still will have the vastly larger library with several more 3rd party games to sell.

Hell, Nintendo could offer incentives like royality free classic game sells for exclusive games.  We could pay you some money to make this game.  Or we could just allow you free sales on our servers for classic games...something that could potentially make SEVERAL more millions of dollars.  What do you say???

I still contest Nintendo could make a bargain for Sega games on the console as well.  Or more likely Sega approached Nintendo with the offer.

[stevey]

old

"Nintendo will have NES/SNES/N64 and (full) GCN compatibility in the Rev, as well as apparently going after the Genesis.

MS will have (limited) Xbox compatibility in the Xbox360, and they're going after the Atari 2600, TG-16, Saturn and Dreamcast.

(Sony has teh BBQ sauce. )"

What the hell is TG-16? Didn't all but 5 saturn game suck, and dreamcast game! There way too big you going to fill up the hard drive and all the good DC game been ported to the cube so it wont do much. and all that nintendo need to do is get the neo geo and ms just get all bad games nintendo dosen't want.  

[Arbok]

Yeah, I owned a Dreamcast and there is nothing to talk about there unless they pick up all of the 3rd party titles. Even then, my most played game, far and away, was Marvel vs. Capcom 2 anyway, and the Xbox and PS2 already have it.

Also this is NOT a huge blow to Nintendo at all. In this day and age, how many people actually want to play Atari 2600 games? I would imagine not a whole lot. While the TurboGraphix and Sega Saturn, only the hardcore video game fans even know what those are anymore. Dreamcast are really the only selection of titles to worry about here, as at least that system is still somewhat fresh in people's minds.

[mantidor]

See? Nintendo isnt paranoid about people stealing their stuff, its annoying when people (*cough* Ian *cough*) said so. As Rubi Onix said, microsoft wouldve never do that if Nintendo didnt reveal it at E3.

[ruby_onix]

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Originally posted by: stevey
old

Ah thanks. I had seen that thread, but I thought it was just specualting about the Rev's download service, so I didn't pay it much attention. My bad.

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What the hell is TG-16? Didn't all but 5 saturn game suck, and dreamcast game!

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Also this is NOT a huge blow to Nintendo at all. In this day and age, how many people actually want to play Atari 2600 games? I would imagine not a whole lot. While the TurboGraphix and Sega Saturn, only the hardcore video game fans even know what those are anymore.

It's not a "huge" blow. But I think it does make an impact. Mostly because the Rev doesn't have much of anything else out there in terms of a presence right now.

It's more of a win for Microsoft. They used to be a noob. Purchased exclusives like Shenmue and Panzer Dragoon Orta looked "out of place" on the Xbox. Now they're the natural home for them. And not only does MS have one generation of experience under their belt, but they've just inserted themselves into videogaming history.

Also, the PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16) beat the Genesis in Japan. The Saturn spanked the N64 in Japan. This is going to help MS in Japan.

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...and ms just get all bad games nintendo dosen't want.

There's Nintendo's problem in a nutshell.

[Galford]

Not to play Devil's Advocate, but as stated in the first post,
Live Arcade has been around awile.

In fact, Live Arcade was around before Nintendo even announced the Rev
download system.

Technically, Nintendo is copying MS in this case.

[Deguello]

I believe Nintendo offered downloadable versions of old games as early as the SNES thorugh the Satallaview system.

[Galford]

True the SNES did have Satallaview.

Of course Nintendo did briefly announce they were going to have a NES/SNES download service for the 64DD, but never came into being.

Even then, that annoncement came after Sega's ill-fated attempt at a download
service on the Dreamcast.

To put it mildly, this idea has been around a while.

[KDR_11k]

They "mentioned" Sega, doesn't mean they'll get it (popular way of spreading misinformation, especially in the political arena). Kutaragi mentioned OSX on the PS3, that's like mentioning Mario on XBox.

Microsoft just got (jumping to conclusions here) Bonk

The GC got the P.C. Genjin remake. So what?