A Canadian is Actually Right About Something

What the fuck is that sony grill on the bottom right?

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Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater

Indeed. If I wasn't already pro-standardization, this thread would have convinced me. The anti-standard crowd has mostly just been burning itself.

And people so quickly forget that the personal computer industry was once a lot like the console industry with a few different hardware makers (like Commodore, Atari, Apple, Sinclair, NEC, etc.) making incompatible machines. These first-parties thankfully didn't control content like the consoles ones do but it still wasn't a healthy model for the growth of the industry. Yeah, there's still the Mac in opposition to the PC standard but it becomes more like the PC as time goes on anyway. My point is that you can't just say "it will never happen for consoles" because it definitely could.

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The PC market prevailed, because of the need to have a standardised computer that you could use at work as well as home. It's not like you need to send an email or word document from home, using a videogame console.

Computers like C-64, Apple II, TRS-80 and the countless other models existed, because very few people could actually afford an IBM PC. The clone market is the only reason it became a reality. I own a C-64 and an Amiga, because I used them for entertainment, not because they had any work related purposes. I have a PC in my home now, for the business and social needs, more than just as a form of entertainment. If I wanted to use a PC more for the entertaiment side, I'm going to have to spend the extra cash to do so.

Home entertainment is quite different though. There are no outside needs for owning a console, thus your purchase decision has no relation to your work environment.

The standardised console sounds like a great idea in theory, but you're basically going to have to build a console that is produced at a break even price, while providing technology that is somewhat more powerful than what we currently have. Who's going to make a product that just breaks even? The DVD player manufacturers had to charge excessive amounts of money, when the product first hit shelves, and 3DO had to do the same with their product. DVD really didn't have any competition, while 3DO did.

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Originally Posted by Advocate

The 360 took two years before it achieved profitability.

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The 360 hardware really hasn't been profitable at all. It's the software that's created the profitablility.

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Originally Posted by gamevet

The 360 hardware really hasn't been profitable at all. It's the software that's created the profitablility.

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I think he meant before the hardware was sold for more the manufacture cost. Servicing those pieces of shit fucked up their profit margin.

The console market seems to mimic the cell phone market a little more than the DVD / home video market. Albeit there are unique intricacies to consoles. But as a whole I'm not sure if even going to one standardized formats is possible.

Companies have a different ideas of what people want. Sony thought the market should head in a more complicated direction (and maybe more sophisticated games. and so far none of the games offered really hikes up the creativity at all, and devs still complain about the complicated nature of the machine). Microsoft put its effort on multiplayer and online (of which I am a fan), and Nintendo went motion control and very little, if any, horsepower uppage. So far only Sony seems to have made a mistake. The less sophisticated Xbox hardware is proving enticing for development. Especially when cost gets out of hand so fast.

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Originally Posted by YellerDog

(that didn't really happen, arjue. they call thems 'fiction')

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the shit you say. That ic boy post here all the time

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Originally Posted by Drewbacca

Sony thought the market should head in a more complicated direction (and maybe more sophisticated games. and so far none of the games offered really hikes up the creativity at all, and devs still complain about the complicated nature of the machine).

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Sony's problem is that they made a complicated machine that's hard to develop for. A truly sophisticated system wouldn't be such a pain in the ass to work on. The developer's challenge shouldn't be to make the system work but rather to make a game that doesn't suck.

James

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Originally Posted by Drewbacca

The console market seems to mimic the cell phone market a little more than the DVD / home video market.

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No it doesn't. If cell phones were as fucking retarded as game platforms, I couldn't call you on Sprint from AT&T.

You have government regulations to thank for that one. Any kind of phone, cell or land line, is highly regulated. If the industry was left to its own devices I'm not honestly sure the two providers would interact so seamlessly.

James

And the FCC thinks its it's place to do inane commie bullshit like investigate the "legality" of AT&T having iPhone exclusivity.

Its not long before they start doing that crap to consoles too.

Yeah, no. The information communication infrastructure is vital to keeping America going. Fancy electronic toys, not so much.

James