The DC got discountined after what? 3 years? It did nothing to push the console genre forward, all it had was a clumsy controller, few games, and slightly better GFX than the competition.
Top 25 consoles ranked IGN
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The DC got discountined after what? 3 years? It did nothing to push the console genre forward, all it had was a clumsy controller, few games, and slightly better GFX than the competition.
I disagree with that. Up until this generation the console were almost entirely about games. PS2 added movies, and XB added media extender functionality, but there were definitely core game machines. PS360 OTOH are definitely multi-media platforms, offering broad entertainment. People are buying these machines for purposes other than gaming. That is a definite movement within the industry, away from gaming machines and towards all-in-one entertainment devices. IMO that's probably more important than Wii's move towards a pseudo health-machine. Or putting it another way, Wii is as much an evolution of previous ideas as PS360 are, just in a different direction, taking the examples of free motion controls and EyeToy-type physical interaction and structuring a platform around them.
(I think I've just argued for both XB360 and PS3 to make it ont the 'Cool Wall'!)
I'm not sure by what criteria PS3 and XB360 could be ranked against each other though. Which is 'better' must be purely subjective.
Here's my list.
11. Dreamcast
created alot of fond memories for the hardcore crowd. Introduced some innovative feature such as online capability.
10. PlayStation 3
9. Xbox 360
Both the PS3 and 360 have lead the way to HD gaming and online services that have become a intergral feature of today's gaming market.
8. Sega Genesis
7. Super Nintendo
both the SNES and Genesis carried the popularity created by the NES to new heights.
6. Xbox
gave us Xbox Live and a HDD. While the Dreamcast was the first console with online capability. MS introduction of Live gave us a online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service thats was not only wildly successful but acted as a motivator for competitors to introduce similar service.
5. Nintendo Wii
may end being the most popular console ever. Introduced us to motion control and expanded the market even more.
4. Playstation 2
most popular console ever
3. Atari 2600
Introduced gaming to the living room.
2. PlayStation
the catalyst of turning gaming from a relatively niche market to a market that rivals any general entertainment market today.
1. Nintendo
Launched right after the crash and burn the gaming market of the early 80s and reestablished it. I consider it the father of modern gaming.
11. Dreamcast
created alot of fond memories for the hardcore crowd. Introduced some innovative feature such as online capability.
10. PlayStation 3
9. Xbox 360
Both the PS3 and 360 have lead the way to HD gaming and online services that have become a intergral feature of today's gaming market.
8. Sega Genesis
7. Super Nintendo
both the SNES and Genesis carried the popularity created by the NES to new heights.
6. Xbox
gave us Xbox Live and a HDD. While the Dreamcast was the first console with online capability. MS introduction of Live gave us a online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service thats was not only wildly successful but acted as a motivator for competitors to introduce similar service.
5. Nintendo Wii
may end being the most popular console ever. Introduced us to motion control and expanded the market even more.
4. Playstation 2
most popular console ever
3. Atari 2600
Introduced gaming to the living room.
2. PlayStation
the catalyst of turning gaming from a relatively niche market to a market that rivals any general entertainment market today.
1. Nintendo
Launched right after the crash and burn the gaming market of the early 80s and reestablished it. I consider it the father of modern gaming.
If you actually read the article, they placed the XB360 so high because 1) XBox Live 2) first HD console 3) software.
The summarizing quote is "the Xbox 360 has drastically extended the lasting appeal and life expectancy of the average console." (peanut gallery insert RROD joke here)
Of course one could argue that these things would have been introduced by some other company (Sony) eventually, but, well, that other company didn't.
The summarizing quote is "the Xbox 360 has drastically extended the lasting appeal and life expectancy of the average console." (peanut gallery insert RROD joke here)
Of course one could argue that these things would have been introduced by some other company (Sony) eventually, but, well, that other company didn't.
How do they know XB360 has exnteded the average life of a console beyond the lengthy lifespans of the previous PlayStations?! Heck, PS2 is still selling! They must have a mightily effective crystal ball to know XB360's will be selling after even more years. Drastically more years, according to them.
This is a funny statement. My life expectancy of a console certainly went down after experiencing all the red rings of death.
by making the console software expandable... and then actually releasing viable expansions... (NXE, Netflix, Avatars and Avatar games, parties, improved friend communications and other features) making it an experience to be built upon without needing to release new hardware.
but of course, you are not really interested in discussing these ideas because you hate the list and think IGN is stupid... got it.
Both the PS3 and 360 online services are just an evolution of Live, media extender and DVD playback, which were started and found success on the Xbox and PS2. The 360 and PS3 just took what was already there and expanded upon it.
"First HD" console is pretty irrelevant IMO. There have been a lot of upgrades in resolution over the years. The Atari 2600 was a 160x260 console. The NES was a 256 x 240 console. It wasn't until the PS1 gen that consoles were even capable of 640x480 (a huge improvement over 160x260!), and it wasn't until last gen that it became standard. Why isn't the first system to have 256 colors equally important? Or the first system to have uh, more than 256 colors? I think it's because OMG HD GENARATION was a major marketing slogan. And is it really the first time to shift to "advanced shading and physics effects"? More advanced than the last generation...but that's true of every generation.
That's the problem with writing a "retrospective" about a current product. Half of the review is going to be going ga-ga over how advanced it is, when today's "advanced" is tomorrow's "dated."
I also don't believe that very many people are buying the Xbox 360 primarily for the NXE interface and Facebook support. In other words, when the games start to look tired and busted compared to the latest graphics technology, its user base will want to move on to something better, even if a new Twitter-related feature is on the way.
FWIW (systems I actually have first-hand knowledge of, no current systems):
14. Jaguar (Worst console ever made. What a pile of crap this was.)
13. Saturn (Big failure, lots of terrible games, but had some great 2D fighters!)
12. TG-16 (Not bad, not special, but some great SHMUPs!)
11. Dreamcast (Most overrated console of all time, lots of crappy games ported from PS1, a handful of gems, terrible controller, stupid VMUS, finally put Sega in the grave it dug for itself.)
10. Xbox (Basically a busted, casualized PC with lots of busted PC ports and PS2 ports, but made online console gaming what it is)
9. Gamecube (Had a lot of awesome, underrated games. Indestructible, too! I am biased toward this one.)
8. Colecovision. (Much better graphics than the Atari 2600, lots of good games for this one)
7. Nintendo 64 (The last great arcade-style gaming console, controller defined 3D console gaming until the Wii, made the FPS accessible, but a lot of crappy games and nearly killed Nintendo)
6. Sega Genesis (Changed gaming from "for everyone" to "console war OMG HARDCORE," but had lots of awesome games. Sports games really took off with Genesis. Sega's only great product.)
5. Playstation 2 (The SNES of the cinematic generation)
4. Super Nintendo (Awesome games, pinnacle of 2D gaming)
3. Playstation 1 (the foundation of console gaming up until the Wii)
2. NES (rebirthed console gaming as mainstream again)
1. Atari 2600 (made console gaming mainstream, for everyone)
That's the problem with writing a "retrospective" about a current product. Half of the review is going to be going ga-ga over how advanced it is, when today's "advanced" is tomorrow's "dated."
I also don't believe that very many people are buying the Xbox 360 primarily for the NXE interface and Facebook support. In other words, when the games start to look tired and busted compared to the latest graphics technology, its user base will want to move on to something better, even if a new Twitter-related feature is on the way.
FWIW (systems I actually have first-hand knowledge of, no current systems):
14. Jaguar (Worst console ever made. What a pile of crap this was.)
13. Saturn (Big failure, lots of terrible games, but had some great 2D fighters!)
12. TG-16 (Not bad, not special, but some great SHMUPs!)
11. Dreamcast (Most overrated console of all time, lots of crappy games ported from PS1, a handful of gems, terrible controller, stupid VMUS, finally put Sega in the grave it dug for itself.)
10. Xbox (Basically a busted, casualized PC with lots of busted PC ports and PS2 ports, but made online console gaming what it is)
9. Gamecube (Had a lot of awesome, underrated games. Indestructible, too! I am biased toward this one.)
8. Colecovision. (Much better graphics than the Atari 2600, lots of good games for this one)
7. Nintendo 64 (The last great arcade-style gaming console, controller defined 3D console gaming until the Wii, made the FPS accessible, but a lot of crappy games and nearly killed Nintendo)
6. Sega Genesis (Changed gaming from "for everyone" to "console war OMG HARDCORE," but had lots of awesome games. Sports games really took off with Genesis. Sega's only great product.)
5. Playstation 2 (The SNES of the cinematic generation)
4. Super Nintendo (Awesome games, pinnacle of 2D gaming)
3. Playstation 1 (the foundation of console gaming up until the Wii)
2. NES (rebirthed console gaming as mainstream again)
1. Atari 2600 (made console gaming mainstream, for everyone)
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fearsomepirate, that is only true of certain features. Unlimited streamed movies (and unlimited music downloads, if they ever fully integrate Zune Pass) is likely to remain a killer feature long after fads like Facebook have faded. In this sense, IGN's praise is well-founded. This console did change what we expect of consoles in a few ways.
So are you saying that even when the games look old and busted, there won't be any consumer demand for a new machine because they'll lose interest in playing games on their console and will just watch movies instead? I don't see it. People still buy Xboxes primarily for the games. You don't need an Xbox when you already download movies and music through your PC. So, once its gaming appeal is lost, the machine's appeal will drop precipitously.
Unless we really are at the point where people don't care about graphics anymore...
Unless we really are at the point where people don't care about graphics anymore...
I'm probably there. Getting to HD helped a lot in that.
The only thing I use a PC for is work & web browsing. Never watched movies on my PC, but when I get Twitter & Facebook on the Xbox I'll start using the home PC less & less. Don't get me wrong I'm not asking for my game console to replace my PC. I don't think I could ever do web browsing on anything but a PC.
Tommy McClain
THAT isn't new though, and not unique to consoles. Media extension functionality existed on the PC literally for years before it showed up on the 'PS360'...
It's not even really a defining feature of these consoles, but could arguably be seen as diluting the core functionality and confusing the consumer as to the function of the device and its reason for existing.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
I think it came down to who was first, and who had the better implementation at launch.
It really can't be argued that PS3's media functionality and online experience was a bit of a wash when it launched. X360 on the other hand just worked and was pretty polished.
Add to that online media purchase, rentals and streaming were working on X360 from day one with quite robust system in place already.
The two machines are lot closer in functionality now, but the X360 was quite a bit more polished on launch day than PS3 on launch day.
In that case, it could be argued that X360 lead the way and PS3 had no choice but to follow.
Both continue to be improved upon and are moving closer and closer to feature parity although I'd argue the X360 online media experience is still a bit more polished for your average non-techy consumer.
Regards,
SB
Silent_Buddha
Legend
THAT isn't new though, and not unique to consoles. Media extension functionality existed on the PC literally for years before it showed up on the 'PS360'...
It's not even really a defining feature of these consoles, but could arguably be seen as diluting the core functionality and confusing the consumer as to the function of the device and its reason for existing.
This isn't about the PC however.
Regards,
SB
In America...
Plus, do we rate a consle on it's impact at launch, or over its entire presence? I'd say the latter, giving them chance to developer. Natal and PSMotion will be aspects to PS360 that future reviews will look back on as possibly being industry defining changes.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Yes, but as of this article, I'd say my suppositions still hold basically true. That while PS3 is closer than it was at launch, it still has a way to go to reach the maturity and ease of use of the X360 with regards to online media rental and purchase. So I think it's still true that for the most part PS3 is still playing catch up in many of the consumer media areas.
That is, of course, disregarding things like support for .mkv containers and other specialized formats. Things your average consumer would have no clue about. In this regard I think the PS3 is a bit better with corner case streamed media as well as an actual online web browser (something I doubt MS will ever allow the X360 to have). But if we're talking web browsers, well, then we're back to the Dreamcast.
It'd be even harder to try to predict what effect each console will have at the end of it's product lifespan.
And I'd agree with the "In America..." thing. I wouldn't be surprised if this was written by Americans without regards to impact in other parts of the world. So the impact of features at launch that were missing in other parts of the world (and MS is STILL working, hurry up already) probably thus didn't detract from their grading.
Regards,
SB
As an interesting aside, it seems Sony are broadrer and shallower in features, MS or narrower and deeper. They have sort to create a rich service in a limited market, before extending beyond there. A sort of 'strong home turf', as it were. Whereas Sony are pushing in every market, but not as strong.
What is the current media marketplace like for Live! in Europe? We don't have Netflix yet, right, but there are download movies? Or are both networks still lagging on content in Europe?
