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| 3 FEB 2003 at 8:46pm |
MrLipidPrivate Detective
Posts : 666
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Status : Offline | Don't we have Microsoft to thank for the end of Tex Murphy?
As for Sony, they'll do fine. Microsoft is chasing a losing strategy with the XBox. They've dug themselves into a hole by selling a costly product below cost. It's one thing to give away a web browser and quite another to actually have to manufacture something and sell it at a loss. While it is possible that the XBox will eventually lose less money through a subscription online service, it'll take a while.
We could be entering a fallow period wherein we will have to rely on independents to generate interesting games.
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| 3 FEB 2003 at 8:54pm |
| Deleted User | The industry in general needs a shake up and this might be enough to do it. Personally, I am a fan of Microsoft. They took an unfriendly DOS world and made it into a consumer friendly Windows one. I know that many people hate them but I think that they have done a great deal for the computer world and I expect that there is lots more to come.
As far as EA buying Nintendo - that is an interesting and new piece of information for me. Nintendo hasn't done very much with the GameCube hardware (IMHO). Sales of the XBox and PS2 have left the GC in the dust. PS2 and XBox have developed online capability and the team at GC says that they are thinking about online and not in a rush. Very poor planning. If you snooze you lose. And the GC people are definately snoozing.
I don't have a clue as to what might happpen to the PS2 but it ismy understanding that they are hot into the development of their next level of console and I suspect that they will continue to hold their own.
Maybe we should call this Battle of the Giants and turn it into an adventure game.
Harriet@JA
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| 3 FEB 2003 at 10:10pm |
SirDaveGuild Master
Posts : 4953
Joined: 17 OCT 2002
Location: US
Status : Offline | I agree that GameCube is definitely on the ropes. As for Xbox, it's hard to know whether it will be a success in the end. Overall, Xbox is more powerful than PS2, but PS2 has so many more games and such as strong customer base. And then, of course, the 'PS3' may equal/surpass the power of Xbox.
One of the most ridiculous things Microsoft did in designing the Xbox were those idiotic huge controllers. I've got fairly big hands and I still hated them. Not only their size but the position of the buttons in the form of a 'thin-diamond' or 'kite' was useless.
I was suddenly able to play my beloved NHL Hockey again on the Xbox when I got a neat gizmo that lets me use my Playstation controller on the Xbox!
-Sorry for getting way off-topic here! :
The future ain't what it used to be!
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| 3 FEB 2003 at 11:39pm |
MichalNGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 7058
Joined: 14 SEP 2003
Status : Online | Originally Posted By Harriet (3 FEB 2003 8:54pm)
The industry in general needs a shake up and this might be enough to do it. Personally, I am a fan of Microsoft. They took an unfriendly DOS world and made it into a consumer friendly Windows one.
I guess I ought to remind you that it was Microsoft who created the unfriendly DOS world in the first place. Windows 95 (and Windows in general) was an "innovation" only if you had no idea what alternatives existed at the same time.
I know that many people hate them but I think that they have done a great deal for the computer world and I expect that there is lots more to come.
I'm probably one of those who started disliking Microsoft before it became fashionable. Microsoft's biggest achievement has been usually slowing down progress enough to let Microsoft catch up. Their business practices have been and are despicable - just read the antitrust trial depositions. But hey, if people are happy paying hundreds of dollars for Microsoft software, who am I to stop them?
I forgot my sig.
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| 4 FEB 2003 at 12:51am |
InlandAZGuild Master
Posts : 5587
Joined: 4 MAY 2007
Status : Offline | I'm probably one of those who started disliking Microsoft before it became fashionable. Microsoft's biggest achievement has been usually slowing down progress enough to let Microsoft catch up. Their business practices have been and are despicable - just read the antitrust trial depositions. But hey, if people are happy paying hundreds of dollars for Microsoft software, who am I to stop them?
hehehe - As it's been explained to me by those that should now... (and mind you it's all second hand...)
When IBM and Microsoft parted their ways with the Windows-OS/2 venture. Microsoft had the contracts written up in such a fashion that they would profit by the sale of OS/2 (IBM's product).
I actually find it quite funny - or, maybe just a bit sad... IBM has never in it's history managed to grasp the PC market...
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| 4 FEB 2003 at 12:59am |
MichalNGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 7058
Joined: 14 SEP 2003
Status : Online | Originally Posted By InlandAZ (4 FEB 2003 12:51am)
When IBM and Microsoft parted their ways with the Windows-OS/2 venture. Microsoft had the contracts written up in such a fashion that they would profit by the sale of OS/2 (IBM's product).
Could be. No one knows what was in the "divorce papers". Neither IBM nor Microsoft ever publicly talked about them. But IBM did enough stupid things in their relationship with Microsoft that it certainly sounds credible.
I actually find it quite funny - or, maybe just a bit sad... IBM has never in it's history managed to grasp the PC market...
It's both funny and sad... and almost incredible.
I forgot my sig.
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| 4 FEB 2003 at 8:15am |
SunspiralSpace Cadet
Posts : 122
Joined: 9 NOV 2002
Status : Online | Another rumour is that EA will buy either a big number of smaller game companies, or one big, probably Nintendo, in the coming year.
Thats funny. It doesn't matter if the gamecube is on the "ropes" or not. Nintendo prints their own money with the pokemon license and the gameboy line.
They will be around a long long while yet. I can't imagine a large Japanese company selling to EA or any eastern company.
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| 5 FEB 2003 at 2:32am |
HelenGuild Master
Posts : 3438
Joined: 12 OCT 2002
Location: US
Status : Offline | I had no idea gc was on the ropes either, I thought it was the x-box that was on the ropes. Guess that shows how much I know about it. But as Sunspiral says with the Pokeman and gameboy thing I just dont see it happening, and I believe the same thing was said when Sega Genesis came about and look who's still standing, So I'll have to see it to believe it.
As for Microsoft, we have almost always hated them, we hated going from DOS to win. 95,and fought it as long as we could, we were so used to dos we had a problem with windows in the beginning. (We tend to get set in our ways.)
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| 5 FEB 2003 at 3:25am |
MichalNGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 7058
Joined: 14 SEP 2003
Status : Online | Originally Posted By Gamer (5 FEB 2003 2:32am)
I had no idea gc was on the ropes either, I thought it was the x-box that was on the ropes.
But it is. Last year Microsoft lost something like $350m on XBox. There is no other company in the world that can afford to pour millions into a product that's losing money left, right and center. But Microsoft sits on a pile of cash they made through the DOS/Windows monopoly and they desperately want to enter new markets.
Microsoft's Windows and Office divisions are insanely profitable - licenses to print money. Server division is okay. Everything else (XBox, MSN, Business Solutions, Mobile...) is losing millions of dollars.
I forgot my sig.
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| 5 FEB 2003 at 4:44pm |
| Deleted User | MichalN is right, and that's why it makes perfect sense that Microsoft would want to go through with a deal like this. History tells us that it's not the technical specs, but the range of games that decides whether a console is successful or not. Many of the biggest titles on the shelves are under the Vivendi umbrella, and these titles would mean several more reasons to buy an XBox. Furthermore, Sierra has always been on good terms with Microsoft. They chose to move to Seattle because Microsoft were there and were doing well. Bill Gates was always amazed that Ken Williams could run such a successful game company from a little town in the mountains. In the end Sierra outgrew Oakhurst though and went the Microsoft way. Vivendi's games division will cost LOTS of money, but if anyone can afford it, it's Microsoft.
Meanwhile, the japanese market has opened up for U.S. investors and many experts predicts major acquisitions in the coming years. Nintendo has lost momentum recently, and may succumb to a buyout. EA are collecting money for something major this year or the next. If it's not Nintendo it's probably going to be a number of smaller game companies.
Seems like we'll have to live with a battle between two game gigants in the future: Microsoft vs. EA, both the very essence of hackerism in their early days. Today, as far from it as you can get.
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