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Taken from C&VG.com:
Ready for this? Sure, we've thrown more numbers at you in the last few days than a conference of mathematicians discussing the latest quantum giga-flux theory, but we've got another batch for you - perhaps the most visually shocking of the lot.
Australia is the setting - sun-kissed home of natural beauty and natural home of sun-kissed beauties - and the Christmas sales figures for the big three consoles are in.
No surprise at the top, with PS2 securing around 84,477 sales during the last three weeks of December. Microsoft came second, with the Xbox finding its way into a decent 45,939 tinsel-draped homes.
And then there's Nintendo. Ah, Nintendo! We love you, we really do. A fine machine with some of the most creative and downright playable games on the planet. Home of Zelda, Kirby, Metroid, Starfox and, of course, Mario. How did the GameCube sell during the Christmas period in the land they call Oz?
5,846. Five thousand, eight hundred and forty six. Xbox sold over forty-five thousand. GameCube failed to break six. Barely 3% of the overall market share. Hum.
Reasons? Well, if we're to believe EA's Bob Katz, Nintendo's "disappointing reluctance to compete" was behind the shortfall. Katz's comment may also explain why EA started to reduce the price of its games towards the end of last year - simply not enough numbers to do good business.
Will 2003 prove any different? Regional analysts seem to think not, but we can only wait and see.
- - - - - - - - -
Oh dear...
Ready for this? Sure, we've thrown more numbers at you in the last few days than a conference of mathematicians discussing the latest quantum giga-flux theory, but we've got another batch for you - perhaps the most visually shocking of the lot.
Australia is the setting - sun-kissed home of natural beauty and natural home of sun-kissed beauties - and the Christmas sales figures for the big three consoles are in.
No surprise at the top, with PS2 securing around 84,477 sales during the last three weeks of December. Microsoft came second, with the Xbox finding its way into a decent 45,939 tinsel-draped homes.
And then there's Nintendo. Ah, Nintendo! We love you, we really do. A fine machine with some of the most creative and downright playable games on the planet. Home of Zelda, Kirby, Metroid, Starfox and, of course, Mario. How did the GameCube sell during the Christmas period in the land they call Oz?
5,846. Five thousand, eight hundred and forty six. Xbox sold over forty-five thousand. GameCube failed to break six. Barely 3% of the overall market share. Hum.
Reasons? Well, if we're to believe EA's Bob Katz, Nintendo's "disappointing reluctance to compete" was behind the shortfall. Katz's comment may also explain why EA started to reduce the price of its games towards the end of last year - simply not enough numbers to do good business.
Will 2003 prove any different? Regional analysts seem to think not, but we can only wait and see.
- - - - - - - - -
Oh dear...
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Totoro wrote:
> Actually, unlike you, I own all 3 next gen consoles, so I do
> understand plenty about games, and unlike you, I have an open mind
> about all 3 consoles and am not a biased little fanboy.
> I was talking about people's opinions being swayed towards a console
> purely for the fact that it could play dvd movies as well as games. I
> wasn't talking about game dvds.
> Fool.
You are wrong. Buying a console becuase it has DVD-ROM (to hold bigger games as well as movies), is no different to my decision to buy a PC that had a built in DVD-ROM drive. Software is shifting over to DVD-ROM on the PC, so you need a DVD-ROM drive to access those titles. Effectivly, you know that the market is moving on to one disc format - so why buy a machine which does not use it?
> Actually, unlike you, I own all 3 next gen consoles, so I do
> understand plenty about games, and unlike you, I have an open mind
> about all 3 consoles and am not a biased little fanboy.
> I was talking about people's opinions being swayed towards a console
> purely for the fact that it could play dvd movies as well as games. I
> wasn't talking about game dvds.
> Fool.
You are wrong. Buying a console becuase it has DVD-ROM (to hold bigger games as well as movies), is no different to my decision to buy a PC that had a built in DVD-ROM drive. Software is shifting over to DVD-ROM on the PC, so you need a DVD-ROM drive to access those titles. Effectivly, you know that the market is moving on to one disc format - so why buy a machine which does not use it?
Exactly, being able to play dvds means absolutely zilch. Sure, it's a great bonus, and for me being able to use my PS2 or Xbox in my bedroom to watch a dvd instead of downstairs in the livingroom on the dedicated player is cool, but to "normal" people who know nothing about games, it should be the games themselves that help them make their choice, not whether it can play movies too.
Top score wrote:
> I think another issue with the GC is the amount of money it costs 3rd
> party developers to put games on there system, I mean lets face it
> Nintendo have never made it easy for developers.
When I said you said something semi-decent, Top Score, i was referring to your argument starting with the above sentence NOT your blathering about DVD games! Looks like you've reverted back to your normal self!
I agree with Totoro. While it's a bonus having a DVD player on your games machine, that would not influence me in any way. It's the games that count. Sony and Microsoft merely made their console DVD capable so that they would sell more:
"But mum/dad you can also plays films on it!"
"Okay, son, that sounds good. We'll buy you one of those."
*Unbeliever brandishes his fists*
> I think another issue with the GC is the amount of money it costs 3rd
> party developers to put games on there system, I mean lets face it
> Nintendo have never made it easy for developers.
When I said you said something semi-decent, Top Score, i was referring to your argument starting with the above sentence NOT your blathering about DVD games! Looks like you've reverted back to your normal self!
I agree with Totoro. While it's a bonus having a DVD player on your games machine, that would not influence me in any way. It's the games that count. Sony and Microsoft merely made their console DVD capable so that they would sell more:
"But mum/dad you can also plays films on it!"
"Okay, son, that sounds good. We'll buy you one of those."
*Unbeliever brandishes his fists*
I like to get out my wooden spoon...
:-)
:-)
Actually, unlike you, I own all 3 next gen consoles, so I do understand plenty about games, and unlike you, I have an open mind about all 3 consoles and am not a biased little fanboy.
I was talking about people's opinions being swayed towards a console purely for the fact that it could play dvd movies as well as games. I wasn't talking about game dvds.
Fool.
I was talking about people's opinions being swayed towards a console purely for the fact that it could play dvd movies as well as games. I wasn't talking about game dvds.
Fool.
Top score, you've actually said something intelligent for once. Is hell about to freeze over?
Anyway, I agree to a certain extent, but when you see developers making multi-format games, there seems to be no problem bringing them to the GC. It's probably Nintendo's reluctance to commit to PAL regions whereas Microsoft and Sony usually try to release software across all regions simultaneously. This is the one thing I have been annoyed with Nintendo about for the last ten years! Having said that, if developers can't fit all the data on one disc, then they simply have to release it on two disc like Resident Evil, for example. Obviously production cost will be higher but they should be able to recoup their money quite easily if it's a game that they know will sell well. Another bonus of the smaller discs is the invariably quicker loading times with have always been a benchmark of Nintendo. My relationship with Nintendo is on a love-hate basis. I love their games but I hate how they treat their PAL gamers!
Anyway, I agree to a certain extent, but when you see developers making multi-format games, there seems to be no problem bringing them to the GC. It's probably Nintendo's reluctance to commit to PAL regions whereas Microsoft and Sony usually try to release software across all regions simultaneously. This is the one thing I have been annoyed with Nintendo about for the last ten years! Having said that, if developers can't fit all the data on one disc, then they simply have to release it on two disc like Resident Evil, for example. Obviously production cost will be higher but they should be able to recoup their money quite easily if it's a game that they know will sell well. Another bonus of the smaller discs is the invariably quicker loading times with have always been a benchmark of Nintendo. My relationship with Nintendo is on a love-hate basis. I love their games but I hate how they treat their PAL gamers!
Totoro wrote:
> Anyone who buys a console just because it has dvd playing capabilities
> is a total muppet who deserves to be dragged out onto the street so we
> can all laugh at them.
> What's all the fuss about dvd capabilities? It's the bloody games that
> matter!!!
The only muppet here is you if you really understood about games you would know that all the quality games like MGS2, Splinter, GT3 and GTA VC come out on dvd discs YES DVD GAMES wow isn't that amazing, well not really anyone with a brain would realise that dvd is the only format with capacity to hold these sort of games, so its not all about DVD movies and if Nintendo think they were clever in saying there console was a pure games machine not a dvd player then it has back fired badly in terms of sales and game developers.
> Anyone who buys a console just because it has dvd playing capabilities
> is a total muppet who deserves to be dragged out onto the street so we
> can all laugh at them.
> What's all the fuss about dvd capabilities? It's the bloody games that
> matter!!!
The only muppet here is you if you really understood about games you would know that all the quality games like MGS2, Splinter, GT3 and GTA VC come out on dvd discs YES DVD GAMES wow isn't that amazing, well not really anyone with a brain would realise that dvd is the only format with capacity to hold these sort of games, so its not all about DVD movies and if Nintendo think they were clever in saying there console was a pure games machine not a dvd player then it has back fired badly in terms of sales and game developers.
I think another issue with the GC is the amount of money it costs 3rd party developers to put games on there system, I mean lets face it Nintendo have never made it easy for developers.
N64 cartridges were expensive to manufacture and had a low capacity. Suprisingly the same problems can be levelled at there new 1.5gig discs why spend all that money on developing a new format the reason given is priracy. The trouble is it cost the developers more money to press and print the small discs as they are not a standard size like cd and dvd. Then there is putting games on the disc its a nightmare for developers to squeeze games that are bigger than 1.5gig onto the GC discs and often they have to leave parts out like NFS2 and jungle things around to get them to fit. It is a process that is expensive and time consuming and that is why a lot of developers scrap plans to release games on GC that have come out on PS2 and Xbox.
It doesn't matter how easy the GC is to program the Format is flawed.
N64 cartridges were expensive to manufacture and had a low capacity. Suprisingly the same problems can be levelled at there new 1.5gig discs why spend all that money on developing a new format the reason given is priracy. The trouble is it cost the developers more money to press and print the small discs as they are not a standard size like cd and dvd. Then there is putting games on the disc its a nightmare for developers to squeeze games that are bigger than 1.5gig onto the GC discs and often they have to leave parts out like NFS2 and jungle things around to get them to fit. It is a process that is expensive and time consuming and that is why a lot of developers scrap plans to release games on GC that have come out on PS2 and Xbox.
It doesn't matter how easy the GC is to program the Format is flawed.
Anyone who buys a console just because it has dvd playing capabilities is a total muppet who deserves to be dragged out onto the street so we can all laugh at them.
What's all the fuss about dvd capabilities? It's the bloody games that matter!!!
What's all the fuss about dvd capabilities? It's the bloody games that matter!!!
Update2.01 wrote:
> Dringo wrote:
> because it isn't a multiformat console... with the new DVD onslaught
> (coming basically now) everyone is grabbing a stand alone DVD
> player... so who see's the attraction to the ps2? Now all they need
> is
> a game console... they could get an X-box but except for America the
> world seems to hate them so we'll get a GC... cheaper you see.
Thats is the problem for the GC see it is not cheaper, how many kids have got there own dvd player very few I know. So when the parents go out to buy a console if the machine has yet another feature to keep the kids quiet like dvd (biggest selling format of all time) they are gonna choose the console with dvd if that means paying an extra £30 or £40 then that its worth the extra, it appears that a console without dvd is onto a loser, no movie capabilities and worse of all short low capacity games a developers nigthmare.
> Dringo wrote:
> because it isn't a multiformat console... with the new DVD onslaught
> (coming basically now) everyone is grabbing a stand alone DVD
> player... so who see's the attraction to the ps2? Now all they need
> is
> a game console... they could get an X-box but except for America the
> world seems to hate them so we'll get a GC... cheaper you see.
Thats is the problem for the GC see it is not cheaper, how many kids have got there own dvd player very few I know. So when the parents go out to buy a console if the machine has yet another feature to keep the kids quiet like dvd (biggest selling format of all time) they are gonna choose the console with dvd if that means paying an extra £30 or £40 then that its worth the extra, it appears that a console without dvd is onto a loser, no movie capabilities and worse of all short low capacity games a developers nigthmare.
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