Topic: Xbox seems to be ready for a blowout...

[Stilletto]

Hey guys new to the forums but anyway...


   I think MS is starting to pose a serious threat to Sony which is always good, and Nintendo, which I don't really mind. Xbox came out of nowhere over 4 years ago with a new console and no credibility. Since then they have established themselves very well in mainstream media, everday culture, and harcore gamers alike. In those four short years they have already started some fantastic series and created the best most functional online console service so far. Games like Halo Halo 2 Kotor 1 Kotor 2 Fable MechAssault 1 Mechassault 2 Ranbow Six 3 and Ranbow Six Black Arrow and Splinter Cell 1 and Splinter Cell 2  with the soon to come Oddworld Stranger Jade Empire Conker Live and Reloaded Forza Motorsport and Republic Commando have all left marks on this industry.

   What does all that mean? It means MS could potentially turn Sony on its ass by taking Rockstar among other Sony reliables and bringing them to the big green X by next generation. With then next xbox coming out a year ahead of the comdefenestration and with 2 rumoured models, one being a cheaper model containing some serious power and preformance with all the essential and new toys, and the other being a beast of a machine that will have a fair bit of horsepower. Will this appeal to the mass market? Yep. Will it steal some SOny fans or anyone with some money? Yep. Does it have the power to stand up to the later coming Ps3? I think it will. Will it crush the Ps3? probably not but it will make things very heated in the expanding North America market. Will it send Sony bankrupt? No way, not unless MS has a rollout plan for Japan that stuns the world.

  Oh, ive seen a lot of stuff about MS leaving because of its loss on each console. Nope. This is because MS like Sony sells consoles at a loss but then makes up for it in games. Are they turning a profit right now? No, and that is because the entire Xbox franchise is a strategic investment. MS has three humongous cash cows right now and four strategic investments. Their MSN branch turned a profit last year for the first time ever and is steadily growing.    That is a strategic success. Xbox sold at a loss mainly because of their chip supplier refusing to lower chip prices, which drove MS to an ATI partnership for Xenon i believe. ALso, they had no credibility and needed to show everyone what they were made of. Now with consumer confidence and 3rd parties behind them MS can go for profit this coming generation with the Xenon. This is what Nintendo should do in my opinion. Open the purse strings and stop the shrinking profits people. Spend a little! Buy some 3rd parties back, expand into the *gasp* FPS sports and racing genres more to get more people interested. Absolutley blitz the media with a hot and sexy new Revolution styling and name, with games and hype to match. Generate your own hype if you have to dammit. Fable hyped the hell out of itself a little too much, but it stilll was a blockbuster success. Most importantly, word of mouth. Make sure the teenagers are impressed by this baby and can talk about it in school without ruining their reputations with their friends for life. Does this mean leave the old standbys in the dust? Of course...not. Keep them just as good as ever, but make sure people who want more then that have something to look for.

  Wheres Ninty! We don't know really. COuld this revolution turn off old Nintendo fans and still not appeal to the mass market. Uh huh. Could it make for some great new games. O yeah. Will nintendo ever come back to glory? Debatable unless its appeal and attitude changes in the future.

  Just some food for thought from a Xbox fanatic and Gamecube owner.  

[diiskrej]

I was a gamecube fanatic and I ended up buying an xbox. Why? Because it was cheaper to buy a 150 dollar system that game with 2 sweet games and never needs a memory card then to buy one that was 100 and came with none. I think nintendo really needs to spend some money and get some new 2nd party dev's and buy back some 3rd parties. MS has proved with Bungie that it is worth it to give your second parties unlimited time and resources and nintendo needs to do it to. Nintendo also needs a succesfull online strategy, that i just dont believe is possible with the gamecube. I really am excited about the new nintendo system. If they can get a HD and succesful online strategy, focus on a new marketing process and get back the 3rd parties, they can take back the console war.  

[Gamefreak]

erm...where have you been looing...
For $100 my brother got a platinum GCN with 2 platinum Nintendo controllers, Mario Kart double dash, a black mad catz controller, a mad catz memory card, and an extention cord.

[Caillan]

My problem with the XBox is that most of it's quality titles either are or will be available for another platform. Ninja Gaiden is the only exclusive game I can think of that might appeal to me. XBox Live would be really good if PCs didn't exist, especially considering FPSes (something that MS seem to specialise in) usually can be controlled more accurately with a mouse. It's for these reasons that I think the XBox has sold mostly because of it's mass appeal. Microsoft did it with Windows so they'll do it with the XBox as well.

I think their plan is to release early so they can have a Madden 2006 game featuring a few more polygons, allowing them to take control the North American market.

[Stilletto]

   There are alot more quality titles other then Ninja man. Look at my original post, theres a good 15+ titles exclusive to the xbox worth taking a look at at least. They have every genre covered as far as i can see let alone 3rd party titles, a lot of which aren't available to the Cube. Burnout 3, Mercenaries, GTA series all come to mind for one thing, among a lot of others.


    What titles do you mean are avaiable for xbox and other consoles? There are 16 xbox exclusives i could think of off the top of my head that i own myself.

   Why do you sound so bitter over a new madden? Sports games are a lot of fun and great for multiplayer if you put the time into looking at them. Some years its not worth getting the new versions but most years they innovate pretty well. Besides if a console wants to expand its fan base and its core genres you need some good sports games like Topspin Winning Eleven Series MVP baseball ESPN or Madden and NHL. The Ps2 game sales would be nothing without the EA sports games which people fell in love with. Oh, Fight Night 04 and the soon 05 are some of the most innovative things this generation with its new style of control and classic fights. You can't deny that the Japanese market has been shrinking for a while now while the NA market is exploding. Here in NA we like fast paced games or story driven games, freedom games (GTA style) and sports games so we can be pros in the sports we aren't so good at in real life. PRo at basketball but always wanted to see whats its like playing football? Pop in Madden for a while and u have the experience of being a top coach sans all the drug charges player arrests and crap on the side.  

[Caillan]

Well, games like KOTOR, Halo, Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six 3 that you mentioned are all available on other platforms. Burnout 3 and GTA are fine games, but there's more incentive for me to pick up a PS2 and play them on that instead. I guess part of it is that my tastes aren't 'mainstream' (I didn't like Halo, for example).

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Why do you sound so bitter over a new madden?

It was meant to be more tounge-in-cheek than bitter. As you said, the PS2 launched on Madden (and hype), and I think Microsoft might be lookng to do the same.

Out of interest, could you list a few of the exclusives?

[diiskrej]

"For $100 my brother got a platinum GCN with 2 platinum Nintendo controllers, Mario Kart double dash, a black mad catz controller, a mad catz memory card, and an extention cord."

The gamecube didnt always come with that. Yes you can now get one for that much but not months after launch.  

[KDR_11k]

"Months after launch" an XBox cost around 300 USD. I got my Cube two years ago, the XB and PS2 were simply 100 Euros out of my price range.

[vudu]

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Yes you can now get one for that much but not months after launch.

And you could get an Xbox and two games for $150 months after launch?  Right....

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MS has proved with Bungie that it is worth it to give your second parties unlimited time and resources

I could be wrong, but I seem to remember hearing that both Halo and Halo 2 were rushed in order to get them out for launch and Christmas 2004, respectively.  And while both games sold fantastically, them seemed to leave a bitter taste in many gamers' mouths.  If they keep it up, Halo 7 will barely sell 2 million copies.

[Ian Sane]

I think one thing that really helped the Xbox was that profit wasn't a goal.  This allowed MS to pay for third party exclusives, buy developers like Bungie and Rare, have the most powerful hardware, have an online service, and throw as much cash into marketing as needed.  Now that they want to be profitable they don't have that much freedom.

Buying Rare in retrospect was a waste of money for MS.  The only advantage they have from that deal is that they took away major franchises from Nintendo.  MS can't make deals like that anymore so they have to be more careful about their purchases.

They can't pay for third party exclusives that don't sell because that's not profitable.  How much support is a company like Sega going to give when their games can't be bought anymore?

The marketing has to have a tighter budget now.  The hardware can't be so expensive and it's not going to be as powerful as a result.  And most important of all Live has to be profitable now.  That might be a challenge.

I don't think that MS is doomed or anything.  They'll probably do fine but the Xbox isn't a free spend-for-all anymore and it's going to be harder to please Xbox owners who liked the results of endless spending.

[Stilletto]

Hey Cailan....

    No offense but every single game i listed in my original post is exclusive in the console world at least, most others completley. A few like KOTOR 1 and Halo 1 are on the PC but thats all, everything else is on the XBOX by itself. If someone finds Fable or Oddworld on the PC ill eat my own foot.  

[AMac2002]

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Originally posted by: CaillanXBox Live would be really good if PCs didn't exist, especially considering FPSes (something that MS seem to specialise in) usually can be controlled more accurately with a mouse.  

Well that's fine if you are striving to be the ultimate gamer who is the best at a certain game. But for most people who just want to sit on a couch and play on there new plasma TV, and not go through complicated systems to go online, they'd probably prefer the Xbox over PC. It's really about tastes.

[Flames_of_chaos]

There were alot of rumors that Molyneux wanted Fable to be on the PC as well but Microsoft refused.