Who will be the market leader next generation?

[Teasy]

Magnum PI

EA said that Burnout 3 was not on GC (despite strong Burnout 2 sales on GC) because it lacked good online support. They wanted all versions of the game to be online. It certainly wasn't a technical reason.

Although I certainly agree that XBox being percieved as the most powerful consoles got it plenty of sales this generation. MS wouldn't have hyped their specs so much otherwise.

 

[Pozer]

It will take some effort indeed online gaming is not the 'IT' factor for next generation and I don't see it affecting sales. How many Live subscribers vs Xbox units shippped/sold, around 1.8-2 million vs 20 million which is close to +/- 10%.

Yep, something I agree with. Online isn't the most important thing for most people. I think MS's targets, Live!, customizability, HD, are missing the mainstream public. Perhaps it's another Americocentric view, just as XB oozes American product that's marginalised it in other cultures?

People bet too much on Live as a sales point, Big N and Sony can both come out with great online systems with just as solid of an infrastructure and what if they're free?

In this, though in theory you're right, I kinda disagree. Though Sony have been working on an online infrastructure for a while, I fear chances are they'll make a hash job of it. Look at the PSP video encoding software they've created. Charge $20 for an application that's awkward and produces a small picture instead of one that fills the PSPs screen. The freeware efforts do a better job. Looks like they released PSP without the complete software support for it, adding features as they go. I imagine the same happening with PS online. If PS3 comes with an online service as well thought out and implemented as Live!, I'll be gobsmacked. I expect something more functional, less versatile, and maybe even buggy in places. Nintendo's efforts here are an unknown, as they've never entered this area. But knowing Nintendo's quality values I expect them to produce something impressive one way or another.

I disagree. I think online gaming was marginal this generation because Nintendo denied it existed and Sony had lackluster support for it. Getting 2-3 million console gamers to duke out like PC gamers is still pretty impressive. I don't understand how online gaming "oozes an Americocentric view" or whatever that bigoted comment means. Especially since I play Outrun with people from Ireland and STeele Battaltion with japanese gamers everynight.

I don't think Online will ever be bigger than Single player, but I think there is lots of room for growth. Most xbox gamers I know have never gone online but the few that have were bitten by the bug.

 

[Magnum PI]

EA said that Burnout 3 was not on GC (despite strong Burnout 2 sales on GC) because it lacked good online support. They wanted all versions of the game to be online.

i don't really see how the lack of good online support could have prevented EA to release burnout3 on GC, even on plateforms with good online support 90% of players didn't play burnout 3 online..

even without online it would have been at least as enjoyable as burnout2, and it would have made good sales too..

OK that's what they said, but the real reason is something else that they don't want to say for not hurting business.

 

[Brimstone]

A big difference this time around is X-Box LIVE will be up and running from day one. Microsoft launched last time without LIVE, but with the XB-360 there will be plenty of good online enabled games from start. Of course LIVE will be more robust than ever before.

MS won't have that hard of a time creating rabid demand for the next-gen hardware among the hardcore gamers, but getting the bulk of those early adopters online will take some effort.

It will take some effort indeed online gaming is not the 'IT' factor for next generation and I don't see it affecting sales. How many Live subscribers vs Xbox units shippped/sold, around 1.8-2 million vs 20 million which is close to +/- 10%. People bet too much on Live as a sales point, Big N and Sony can both come out with great online systems with just as solid of an infrastructure and what if they're free? If online gaming is such a huge next gen factor like some people believe it will, what if the competition is offering a similar service free of charge.
There are just too many possibilities to foresee who comes out on top next gen but Sony is again on track for a threepeat. We will find out soon enough

Halo didn't even have online support. X-Box users had to wait for Halo 2 for that. Until that time, X-Box LIVE gamers mainly depended on a lot of 3rd party games for decent online support. EA was late to the party also.

Things look totally different this time around with the XB-360. An awesome (hopefully?) first person shooter with online support from day one with Perfect Dark Zero. Throw in EA with Madden (I'm sure Fifa will come out soon after the consoles release) and for racing fans Project Gotham 3.

 

[bas1975]

The fact that Burnout 3 was released on the PS2 is a clear enough indicator that the reason it isn't on the Gamecube has nothing to do with the hardware not being able to hack it.

 

[Teasy]

i don't really see how the lack of good online support could have prevented EA to release burnout3 on GC, even on plateforms with good online support 90% of players didn't play burnout 3 online..

It doesn't make a great deal of sense to me no. But its still many times more likely then Burnout 3 not being technically possible on GC. All we can do is accept their reasoning I suppose. That they wanted to focus on online play for this series and as we know GC's online support is minimal. Perhaps its just EA's way of getting Nintendo to get off their arse and support online

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I don't understand how online gaming "oozes an Americocentric view" or whatever that bigoted comment means.

Bigoted?! It's just refering to regional cultures! Japanocentric would imply small, cartoon characters, big eyes, peculiar RPG storylines. Americocentric means Big. Big cars, big boxes, big everything. US culture likes big.

There was an article, Games Industry.biz I think, where developers came away from Microsoft's development talk (where they gave away HDTVs to their devs) and some felt MS were targetting a rather narrow audience, one more prevalent in the US than elsewhere. Its an opinion I tend to agree with based on what we've heard so far about the direction of the console. Just talking local markets, and nothing like bigotry!

 

[Pozer]

I don't understand how online gaming "oozes an Americocentric view" or whatever that bigoted comment means.

Bigoted?! It's just refering to regional cultures! Japanocentric would imply small, cartoon characters, big eyes, peculiar RPG storylines. Americocentric means Big. Big cars, big boxes, big everything. US culture likes big.

There was an article, Games Industry.biz I think, where developers came away from Microsoft's development talk (where they gave away HDTVs to their devs) and some felt MS were targetting a rather narrow audience, one more prevalent in the US than elsewhere. Its an opinion I tend to agree with based on what we've heard so far about the direction of the console. Just talking local markets, and nothing like bigotry!

Bigoted was a rather strong word to use then. I don't see cultures that divided though. Especially when I have 2 roommates who I would consider Japanese fanboys and I go to Suncoast and the stupid Anime section is twice as big as the Drama section. Some of the tastes maybe dissimilar like I dont see many horse racing or schoolgirl raping sims but quality games will sell regardless of origin.

Still, I don't know anyone that likes their xbox because it's big. I actually laugh at how huge and ugly it is. When I bought mine in 2001 I looked at all the GC games in developement and all the Xbox games in developement. I wrote down all the ones that interested me and the xbox had more. It was that simple. The thing is ugly as sin though. I definitely don't think very many americans see it as appealing visually. Also not everyone in america drives a big truck and is really loud and obnoxious and into having the biggest things. I know some but there's normal folk too,

 

[Johnny Awesome]

I agree with Qroach. It's all about the games. Hardware specs don't really matter.

 

[Magnum PI]

i guess it's the xbox motto for the next generation...

 

[Qroach]

It's the "winning" motto for every generation and the same motto used for PS2 this generation.

 

[Qroach]

why would an average game loving consumer buy xbox over PS2 when it has more developers, more variety, and more games?

 

[Kolgar]

why would an average game loving consumer buy xbox over PS2 when it has more developers, more variety, and more games?

Ignorance?

 

[Qroach]

heh, well... no. It's jus tthe games. All the techy stuff never really pans out, as you've seen this generation.