From my limited knowledge, PS2 online amounted to "Here's the Ethernet adapter. OK, go." Well, the Gamecube had a LAN adapter, so how come 3rd parties (with 1 or 2 exceptions) never did anything with it? Did Nintendo give only a few developers access to it, did they quit manufacturing it too early on, or what? I searched around the forum a bit and couldn't find the answer, so I was wondering if someone with a little more knowledge could tell me just what made the difference between PS2 and Gamecube in this regard.
Why didn't Cube online happen?
- Thread starter fearsomepirate
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tongue_of_colicab
Veteran
Besides that, look at the low amount of ps2 games that have online, I cant see why any dev would have botherd for the small GC userbase.
Rainbow Man
Veteran
Hiroshi Yamauchi dissed online play as a fad and made sure Nintendo wouldn't make any efforts in that direction.
After he retired it was simply oto late to change things for the cube. Its ships were already burnt in that regard.
Peace.
After he retired it was simply oto late to change things for the cube. Its ships were already burnt in that regard.
Peace.
I remember Nintendo spokespeople noting in interviews that they didn't see online gaming as a viable business model yet. Nintendo is about the green and online didn't make much sense for them (boo) at the time. The GCN has a design for a modular ethernet interface as well as an ethernet addon... but it was never really supported and Nintendo's own rhetoric was very negative on product genre. The fact their own games that were screaming for online play (Mario Kart Double Dash, Metroid Multiplayer, Battalion Wars, Mario Party) gave no incentive for franchises like TimeSplitters, Madden, and such to even support online when their competition on the Xbox and PS2 did. Nintendo became a caricature of itself: Online is a fad and not viable, graphics are not important, more buttons are bad, complex games and controls are bad, long games are bad, games are to hard to make, and so forth. As much as people whine about them being pigeon holed into the "kiddie" image they do their fair share of work to feed such generalizations to gamers, and publishers!, by their own rhetoric and business moves. If you don't support online with your own software and talk it down why would any publisher even attempt to try on your platform when MS, Sony are willing to go the extra mile to get you this exposure?
But I'm somewhat confused. Sony didn't "make" online happen AFAIK. They just had an ethernet adapter for the PS2 which developers could choose to implement. What was the extra mile that Sony went to that Nintendo didn't? Was it just the refusal to support it with their own titles that made 3rd parties say "Well, Cube owners aren't buying the ethernet adapter, and Nintendo's not much selling it in stores, so it makes no financial sense for us to support it"?
Not bashing it as a viable gaming experience was the first step to even opening the door. And having 5x as many consumers, and many more serious/older gamers helps a lot to make a newer market viable to publishers (e.g. if Nintendo had a potential 250k online gamers, Sony would easily have 1.25M and infact I believe Sony had something like 2M people play online last gen). I know if I was a developer and I saw Nintendo poopooing online to all their customers and then Sony talking it up, supporting it, and having 5x as many customers I am going to invest my money in Sony's platform--knowing that other publishers will be taking the same stance and the effort of many to generate a new customer base will be much easier/successful than trying to single handedly, against Nintendo's goals, to establish online gaming on the GCN.
Also releasing games like SOCOM, Everquest, ATV Offroad 2, and such and enticing SE with a FF MMO and getting games like Madden, Live, 2K, Burnout. Battlefield, Call of Duty, MOH, MGS, Fight Night on board is huge because you are hitting either popular franchises or renowned online games... many of which never even saw the GCN. Hard to get online games if your platform isn't big enough to entice them to begin with, telling them they need to then fight upstream *alone* makes it not worth while. Sony's initiative lead to dozens upon dozens of games supporting online with the PS2.
That and the smaller install base and the spokespeople for the platform poopooing the idea to begin with.
Personally, imo, I think Nintendo knew a) their demographic leaned toward more casual and younger and b) knew long ago the direction they were going to take in the market. Trying to carve out a niche with a smaller install base with a feature many of their fans wouldn't need -- and not profitable -- didn't appeal to Nintendo. They had done some online stuff in the past and were not yet sold on it. With the new consoles they were pretty much compelled to jump in and with the DS they saw some success. The problem, from my perspective, is online services, software, and features don't grow on trees. And while not a direct revenue method they are indirectly: One reason I hopped out of Nintendo waters was this very reason. It is my expectation that most games feature MP modes these days and also support such online. I feel I receive less value without such and it is a base selling point to my gaming tastes. Your mileage will vary, but I am a social gamer and thoroughly enjoy online gaming (solitary gaming not so much) and see it core to the experience and not an alternative revenue model that needs to justify/support itself. And that is the great thing about competition: others will disagree and get the platform that caters to their choices and preferences best
I suppose that makes sense. I wonder if they'd just kept their mouths shut about online and simply had the LAN adapter on the shelves in stores if 3rd parties would have made games online on Cube that were also online on PS2/Xbox (Madden, Timesplitters, Mortal Kombat, etc). I suppose that making a big deal about online gaming being totally stupid ensured that their licensees didn't even try.
Sony themselves sold the LAN adapter, bundled with Twisted Metal supporting 16 player online. They also provided a basic interface / library. It wasn't much, but AFAIK all games used this same interface. So that's the difference between Sony and Nintendo in that regard.
Microsoft did online in a big way, Sony did more or less the minimum required, and Nintendo did nothing.
Microsoft did online in a big way, Sony did more or less the minimum required, and Nintendo did nothing.
Nintendo apparently wasn't very forthcoming with the API details for the ethernet adapter either.
I think PSO did decently though, but was ultimately killed by a weak, old game and hackers.
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