Qroach said:
1. Marketing and brand name
2. Financial backing
3. Developer support
4. Publisher support
5. One of the biggest franchises in the previous generation
6. One of the best developement environments and dev tools.
7. Xbox live is paying for itself (IMO better than Sega net)
All of these are bullet points Sega didn't have when the dreamcast launched. What are your bullet points to counter this argument?
The thing is, I am not comparing companies -
I was comparing their respective products. As such, financial backing and "best development environment" will only get you so far. No doubt, Microsoft is the bigger opponent - it's also the wealthiest company outthere which makes it a bigger opponent to just about any competing one outthere.
And yet, despite this fact and countless arguments of the same kind back in 2001 before Xbox launched - Xbox still failed to make a dent into the Sony's market. So much to having the biggest financial backing in history.. didn't mean squat to the average consumers outthere that walked home with a PS2 while Xbox was sold next to it at a lower price and more powerful hardware. So maybe Microsofts advantage isn't all that what it's hyped up to be, is it? It's certainly isn't as black & white as is being led to believe in this thread - in fact, there are much more factors that haven't been factored into the equation yet:
While you are correct that Xbox360 has more [publisher] support, better financial backing (especially backing that will go into advertisment), one big advantage that is lost to the current situation is that Sony appears to be gearing up for a launch much sooner than what they were targeting back in late 1998 when Dreamcast launched. To be plain and simple: While Dreamcast lacked the support & advertisment, it still had over a year of headstart over its nearest competitor; the PS2. One full year is a lot, especially when the console in question sells as well as the Dreamcast did. So the question is, how do you quantify which advantage is more important? Is that one year+ more important as a factor than the lack of support & advertisment or do you draw the line at a different spot? What ever it is, it's just not as black & white as you or Platon make it out to be.
I attribute the time advantage to be quite a significant one in any case - the Dreamcast had much better graphics than the outdated PSone, it had great software (despite lacking support by EA) and it sold very well -
for a full year. If we fast forward to today, we have Xbox360 that is launching in late of this year, while PS3 appears to be launching in early 2006 (Spring). And if we still don't know if the PS3 launch will be Japan-only or if they are aiming to launch in two regions at the same time. Who knows, maybe, they'll [Sony] will even attempt to follow with a worldwide launch. Who knows? It's certainly anyone's guess and I'm sure Sony is still observing the situation very carefully.
As I said though, given the difference in launch dates of the competing consoles [Xbox360 vs Dreamcast], I'm not really sure anyone without factoring in all relevant points can say one is a stronger opponent than the other with a straight face. There's more to it than the backing company. As I said already, Microsoft's finances ment squat to the average Joe outthere when they walked home with a PS2 instead of a Xbox.
Reality is, Sony isn't launching over a year later - if anything, it's probably around 6 to 9 months depending if they'll go with a worldwide launch or not and in which regions they launch and when. As I already wrote a few pages back (I think in this thread or maybe the other one) - the first 1 year is that time when it is mostly bought by hardcore gamers and loyal supporters - in other words, a segment that isn't the majority of buyers anyway. That segment that will determine which console comes out on top are those that for a large part buy their products after first price drops anyway. These price drops won't occur too early anyway (Microsoft won't bring out a Xbox360 at $400 and drop the price 3 months later, or they'll piss off customers). On the other hand, if Sony launches early, I expect them to launch at the same price as Microsoft - if they launch in fall of next year, expect them to launch at $299 as well (the price that Microsoft will be at with their premium package).
No seriously, at the time Dreamcast launched, who thought Sega would go bust after a full year of being on the market? I bet Sega didn't think so either.
