Author Topic: The TRUTH about the XBOX - Microsoft taint in the video game industry (Read 10937 times)

oldfart · « **on:** August 19, 2003, 07:38:31 PM »

Agreed, there is NO convincing the Xboxphiles of the inherent inferior design of their 'gaming system', but know this.... As a retail manager for a large, franchised mass retailer of video game systems, games and accessories, I can an will attest to the fact that the MS Xbox is nothing more than an over-hyped, over-rated Celeron PC sans keyboard, mouse and monitor. While the PS/2 system outsells the Xbox 4 to 1, on average, 1 out of every 4 new Xbox systems and (as high as) 3 out of 4 (75%) of factory refurbished XBoxes are returned to my store and end up on the defective heap. No other 'video game system' demands the after-the-sale technical support and follow up (system crashes, lock-up's and the like) as the Xbox. Like everything Microsoft has done so far, the Xbox is another late entry in a market Microsoft was loathed to be a part of (look at the internet browser market, and what they spent to destroy the competition) and have half-heartedly and half-assedly became a part of.
More to come....

Siegfried · « **Reply #1 on:** August 19, 2003, 08:54:33 PM »

I do believe this the gamecube section of the forums, take your trolling to the other consoles section. I know for a fact that your grossly exagerating the level of xbox's that break down because i have a friend who repairs consoles and the one he gets tons of is ps2 and very rarely a gamecube or xbox.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #2 on:** August 19, 2003, 09:06:39 PM »

1. Wrong Forum.
2. The PS2 is said to be much less reliable than GC, XBox or any given DVD player. NOthing about XB, though.
3. Do you perhaps mean return of functional devices? Dumb people claim a device is defective at even the slightest error. Ask a tech hotline, they will tell you that like 90% are just too stupid to use the device/program.
4. There's no chance in hell any fanboy will listen to reason. That's not limited to a certain console. The problem is fanboys usually make up/exaggerate "facts", the other fanboy knows that's wrong, but counters with other fake facts, which the first one will know are utter bs. No forward, no backward.

Infernal Monkey · « **Reply #3 on:** August 19, 2003, 09:20:57 PM »

Quote
I can an will attest to the fact that the MS Xbox is nothing more than an over-hyped, over-rated Celeron PC sans keyboard, mouse and monitor.

... And?
Is there some hidden rule that all consoles must be made from chips that you won't find in Computers? And how the hell do you treat your Xbox supplies? Throw them out windows before selling them to the consumer? A return rate that high is shocking, and I've never ever heard of it before.

Celebi · « **Reply #4 on:** August 19, 2003, 10:03:44 PM »

One thing is for sure if Microsoft would dominate the console market it will spell an end for the true console gaming experience.Don't ever think of good rpgs anymore.
I come from an Asian country and one of my friend is in the console gaming business.That day he just sent a xbox for repair.He claims that the best selling console is still the PS2.The Gamecube is also quite a good console for gaming though it is not selling that well because many have a perception that it is a console for children and the variety of games is limited especially rpgs.You may say rpg games suck but the fact is that it plays a very important role in marketing a console in Asia.I have asked many of my friends and many say that its more worthwhile getting a rpg than other genres because for the price you pay you get to play game for much longer.They believe the value is there.

As you can see if MS would to team up with Nintendo,there will never be anymore nice rpgs.SquareEnix,Konami,Capcom,Atlus which are all japanese oriented companies will never support that.Thats the reason why you don't see the FF series on the Xbox and will never will except for the PC.Like it or not,MS's intention when it entered the console business was to make money and nothing else.Worst,they plan to dominate it and gobble up the whole thing themselves but they didn't know that they are not a game company at heart and they are indirectly destroying the console business market.Even though if they manage to monopolise this business one day,the console market that time would have most probably shrunk to something which is not as agressive and valueble as today/earlier years.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #5 on:** August 20, 2003, 07:03:15 AM »

I fully agree with Celebi here. But I think that's not the point of this thread.

Uglydot · « **Reply #6 on:** August 20, 2003, 07:10:04 AM »

Yay, you are a fan boy, thank you for telling me that. Next time I am having fun one my friend's xbox, I will remember that oldfart didn't like xbox

. Course, given that I don't give a crap and no one else does, I probably won't remember the name. Please, don't bother with the "more to come".

oldfart · « **Reply #7 on:** August 20, 2003, 04:38:30 PM »

Yes, there should be some differentiation from a PC to a dedicated console, period. In keeping with MS's 'parts off the shelf' and 'lets just buy something that's already been made' attitude with all of their products, what I'm merely stating is fact. The Xbox is nothing more than a stripped down PC with a run-time direct X core to play games that could easily be moved to a Windows PC. As for the high failure rate, true PS/2 have more repairs but as I said, they outsell the Xbox 4 to 1. I'm not exaggerating one bit when I tell you that 1 of 4 new Xbox's are returned defective (drive doors that don't close, crashed hard disks mostly) and 2 of 4 factory refurbs are returned for mostly the same issues. If you'd like, I'd be happy to post pix of my defective heap. It's another one of MS's marketing manuevers that the whole world seems to be falling for. So, what other console required a toll-free repair line (1-800-FIX-XBOX)? What other console systematically locks up during gameplay? True, they all will from time to time but given the fact that the XBox GDI is by design bloated and unstable, (directX), XBox lock ups win hands down.

Uglydot · « **Reply #8 on:** August 20, 2003, 05:39:03 PM »

I play games, not hardware. So do the rest of us. Why in the world do you care about whether it is made from modified pc parts. Everyone knows that. Everyone knows it uses a modified 2k kernel. Everyone knows this crap. We don't care. The xbox happens to have some fun games. If you don't like them...hmm, don't play them perhaps?

Also, ever surf these forums for GCN failures?

The Omen · « **Reply #9 on:** August 20, 2003, 06:38:40 PM »

I think he's commenting more on the "hey lets slap this 3 year old PC out there, hype the hell out of it, and take our fair share" attitude, not that they had the gall to release it. I think hes saying they entered it with a half assed attitude and just figured people would buy it because of the hype. Sure it has some fun games, but so does every system that has ever been released, does that mean its good? The fact of the matter is M$ has an agenda. I know Nintendo and Sony do as well. But OLdfart doesn't like said agenda, so why can't he comment on it? He's not forcing you to agree.

One thing: The PS2 has by far more defective product than either GC or Xbox.

joeamis · « **Reply #10 on:** August 20, 2003, 08:19:30 PM »

the omen is right.
also celebi is right.
and oldfart as well.
the one thing i dread is if Microsoft one day monopolizes the industry and we are fed first person shooter after fps...with online play...
i want my rpgs, strategy games, and all the niche genre titles M$ doesn't give a flying #$^% about!

M$ could have just made a PC to run all the games on Xbox, but they had to throw it in a box and spend 100 million marketing it so they could gobble up more $ from the console market... (damn now that i think of it, M$ will start making their own PCs in the future)

Uglydot · « **Reply #11 on:** August 20, 2003, 08:42:27 PM »

I was in a bad mood and kinda flipped out there...

But really, MS knew people would buy it, and people did. Nintendo is well known for having money as a HUGE goal. MS had business ties in the pc world, why not use them? Anyone comming into the console business now needs to hype like mad. We all nock Nintendo for not advertising like hell, but then nock MS for doing it well. Kinda backwards there...

The Omen · « **Reply #12 on:** August 20, 2003, 09:20:26 PM »

it wasn't the advertising that annoyed me, it was statements like"The best RPG ever is for the box." Still waiting for it. Hype, not advertising. Nintendo does no advertising. I dont want them to over hype anything unless it deserves it.

Uglydot · « **Reply #13 on:** August 20, 2003, 10:02:02 PM »

Well, that is true, the RPGs aren't exactly thriving on xbox. Course, that is mostly because it is an American console. Flat out crap like that does bother me. But a company using what it has at its disposal, such as business ties and money, I will never nock. Why go into a fight half-assed?

Ymeegod · « **Reply #14 on:** August 21, 2003, 05:28:41 PM »

And here comes the lock :0.

What's funny is oldfart states the Xbox is nothing more than a PC but what about the GC? It has a powerPC (from IBM the creators of the PC term no less) which are found in Macs, or the fact that it uses opengl which PC's have been using for years (both N64 and NGC uses them).

Saddly oldfart is here just stinking up the place.

And if you're talking big numbers, big deal since the Xbox is selling at the same rate as the GC. If one's a failure then the other one is as well.

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Also Nintendo's & Sony Customer's Services are all toll-free or you can even file online.

Ymeegod · « **Reply #15 on:** August 21, 2003, 05:30:15 PM »

"Well, that is true, the RPGs aren't exactly thriving on xbox."

Actually both Morrowind & SWKOTR are selling pretty damn well. If you mean more traditional RPG's then not really but neither is the GC for that matter. SoA didn't sell beans.

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #16 on:** August 21, 2003, 05:33:04 PM »

I don't really see the point in either side debating anything- this is a thread for XBox bashing and the only people who take it seriously are fanboy trolls.

AERO · « **Reply #17 on:** August 23, 2003, 06:04:56 AM »

Why was this even moved, instead of closed?

The Omen · « **Reply #18 on:** August 25, 2003, 04:13:50 PM »

Quote
Actually both Morrowind & SWKOTR are selling pretty damn well. If you mean more traditional RPG's then not really but neither is the GC for that matter. SoA didn't sell beans.

In my post i stated the fact that M$ said that their RPG will be the best ever. What i was referring to is Fable, which has been hyped beyond belief...for 2 years now. I wasnt commenting on RPGs as a whole. I also think comparing SOA to Morrowind and SWKOTOR is a little unfair, considering that SOA is a 4 or 5 year old game.

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #19 on:** August 25, 2003, 04:40:26 PM »

I know this is being hypocritical, but isn't it stupid to be comparing the sales of 2 brand new, big name RPG's on one system to the sales of a 2 or 3 year old Dreamcast port with a few extras on another system?

JSasky · « **Reply #20 on:** August 25, 2003, 06:40:01 PM »

Man I wish GC had KOTR. I am sure every system has a certain amount of returns but you can tell just by looking at the internal pictures of the Xbox versus the GC that a lot more engineering and thought went into designing the GC hardware. The Xbox design definitly gives off a half ass smell. Man do I ever sound like a fanboy.

All loyalties aside Oldfart is right about the Xbox being a glorified PC in a big box. And I don't mean in a PC in functional sense, because basically all the consoles are computers. I mean in a structural way they are built and put together sense. If you look at the internals of the Xbox your first impression is 'man this looks just like the inside of a personal computer.' Long ass IDE cables, flat MB, onboard video, a standard PC DVD player complete , slow ass hard drive. Not that there is really anything wrong with all of this, other than it shows a lack of effort on Microsofts part. Man the Xbox is big. I don't think that a lack of RPGs is the reason why Xbox sells so poorly in Japan, its because the Japanese can not fit the thing into their apartments.

Anyways, sorry about sounding like a fanboy. It is just my two cents. Ok a penny and a half.

AERO · « **Reply #21 on:** August 26, 2003, 10:56:09 AM »

I guess all there is to say is that when it comes to who likes the xbox architecture.

The game developers

or

Non-xbox owners

I'm glad that the game developers like it more becuase it seems that its architecture has only been a plus for us in the way of pc ports.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #22 on:** August 27, 2003, 05:12:23 AM »

If I want a PC game, I get it on my PC. Not a good argument for buying an XBox...

AERO · « **Reply #23 on:** August 27, 2003, 03:41:51 PM »

Well then its convenient for me that I wasn't trying to sell anyone on buying and xbox.

Quoting myself I said it was a "plus for us" referring to xbox owners.

Round Eye · « **Reply #24 on:** August 28, 2003, 08:45:46 AM »

Yes it is all a matter of personal choice. The right to choose, it's what our forfathers fought and died for. And what people continue to fight and die for everyday. The 'Right to Choose', or the right to having a hugely inflated standard of living compared to the rest of world. Whatever, its all good. As long as I can play my GC baby, snd the Xboxers can play their Xboxs we are all winners.

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Author Topic: The TRUTH about the XBOX - Microsoft taint in the video game industry (Read 10937 times)