[Eug]

Hmm... Microsoft said they made around $360 million profit this quarter on their division that handles the Xbox 360 and the Zune. Is this new?

[Hawkeye_a]

The last time i heard they turned a profit during a quarter was when Halo2 came out, so im not all that surprised they turned a profit last quarter with Halo 3, which sold 4million(???). I wouldnt be too optimistic, cause it'll probably be business-as-usual this quarter, and back to being in the red, at least until until Halo4 anyway.

I wonder if the XB360 RRoD replacement stuff factored into that number ? Also i was wondering what Microsoft's policy is regarding the RRoD outside N.America ?

Oh and the 'Zune'... they still making those things ? was it supposted to be selling for a profit from day1 ? or have they applied Microsoft's monopolistic gameplan to it as well ?

[angelmb]

Originally Posted by Eug 

around $360

and it had to be 360?, I smell cheap marketing trick, maybe all that glitters is not 'gold'

[jokell82]

Sony game division actually makes profit - PS3 Fanboy

I just picked up a PS3. Bought a 60 gig used. I actually really like the hardware - it's very quiet compared to the 360. Right now I'm just going back and playing some PS2 games I missed (God of War in particular) and don't have any PS3 games yet.

[exca1ibur]

God of War is great. I have to pick up the 2nd, since I finished the first one.

If you like the action adventure style games, you have to get Uncharted: Drakes Fortune.

[jokell82]

Originally Posted by exca1ibur 

God of War is great. I have to pick up the 2nd, since I finished the first one.

If you like the action adventure style games, you have to get Uncharted: Drakes Fortune.

I may when it drops in price. I'm thinking of getting UT3 first, since it allows keyboard and mouse support.

[exca1ibur]

If you get UT3, check this out.

UT3MOD.COM

They have a PS3 community starting up where you can download mods directly.

[angelmb]

This friend of me still can't login into his messenger account with the 360… the weird thing is that the 360 says the pass or name is not right, but the same name & pass gives him access to his hotmail & messenger account on his computer, which are closed and even turned off while trying to connect to 360's messenger service… what gives??

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Nintendo Wii: Say, Did You Know How Many Wii Games Suck?



Not that I am surprised but the Wii is probably the worst Nintendo system I have ever owned just because it is so un-cutting edge and as always very few games available worth spending $60 on.

Heck I had more games for my gamecube!

[jokell82]

Wow, that's pretty bad. Although the graph does make it look a bit worse than it really is. The difference between first and last place is only 10%, and the Wii is only 5-6% below the average.

But I agree with you on the games - so much that I just sold my Wii. Only have the 360 and PS3 now.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by angelmb 

and it had to be 360?, I smell cheap marketing trick, maybe all that glitters is not 'gold'

Actually, IIRC, it was 357. I just said 360 cuz... well you know why.

[sek929]

Originally Posted by article

While every console of the past eight years (sorry Dreamcast) have seen their games average around 69-71%, the average Wii score is only 64%.

Not as large a gap as that graph would lead everyone to believe.

[Dakar the Fourth]

It's still a decided drop-off compared to the others.

Optimists view: It will take a while for developers to create new ideas for games using the Wii-mote.
Pessimists view: This is what you get for trying to jerry-rig games to use a gimmicky control scheme.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

I get almost daily use out of my 360 and PS3 for it "other" features such as DVD/BR playback, music streaming, movie rentals, and now DIVX streaming from my mac.... compared to the Wii which I turn on every 60 days when someone is over and wants to play Wii Sports for the first time.

Considering I paid $300 for my Wii which doesn't do **** well other than play a few trendy games and $400-$500 for my Xbox and 360 which serve a million other highly useful purposes it is obvious I got the least value and paid the most for the stupid Wii.

Heck even when it comes to JUST games I actually use my PS3 more than the Wii.

To make things worse a game for Wii like Raving Rabbits which is ridiculously simple and short costs me $60. Even Mario only took me 12 hours for 75% of the game to be finished with the last boss beat and there is no hope of new content or online play in the future.

A game for 360/PS3 costs $60 also but at least I get a game that lasts longer, better replay, 10x better graphics and sound, network play and downloadable content.

[icruise]

I'm far from a Wii apologist -- it's my least favorite system. But the fact of the matter is that the reason the Wii's scores are so low is that its (largely unexpected) popularity has encouraged a lot of developers to churn out crap titles. There are way more Wii games than PS3 games, and a lot of these extra games suck mightily. I also wonder if this average took into account reviews of downloadable classic games, since a lot of those got pretty bad reviews.

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

To make things worse a game for Wii like Raving Rabbits which is ridiculously simple and short costs me $60. Even Mario only took me 12 hours for 75% of the game to be finished with the last boss beat and there is no hope of new content or online play in the future.

A game for 360/PS3 costs $60 also but at least I get a game that lasts longer, better replay, 10x better graphics and sound, network play and downloadable content.

I think you're overstating your case. There are plenty of PS3 or 360 games that can be beaten in one or two sittings, and if you zoomed through Super Mario Galaxy just trying to get to the boss, you missed out on most of the game.

[Hawkeye_a]

Until November 2006, many people(i call them "Nintendo haters"), had no problem with singing praises about the system which would have been the lowest on that graph(PS2) and completely dissing the one at the top(GCN)...at that time.

It just so happened that they also complained (quite excessively) about the (relatively)small GCN library when compared to the "amazingly" large PS2 library.

Well it's 15 months later, the tables have been turned and apparently so have their opinions. Apparently, Nintendo, irrespective of what it's consoles do, still "sucks". So why dont you make up your mind before ranting on the company that has gone from #3 to #1 in 15 months.

Me ? i do believe that there is an enormous amount of shovelware out there for the Wii. Call me "irrational" if you will, but i blame that on poor-cheap-third-parties (kinda like with poor third-party quality software on the Mac), not the Wii and not Nintendo. But the number of quality titles are decent as well, expecially considering first and second party efforts have not gone down in quality...... which is possibly why Nintendo has most of the top sellers on the system.

But please by all means, you dont need to listen to this fanboy as the author of that article clearly states....
"Maybe Wii games have lower review scores because we, as an industry, still don't know what makes a good Wii game." - What's With Wii's Low Review Scores?: Page 3 : Next Generation - Interactive Entertainment Today, Video Game and Industry News - Home of Edge Online

(A simple analogy would be rating a piece of software on the Mac in 1984, when all your used to is command-line interfaces... and there were many that rated it pretty low)

And not to nitpick or anything 'analogue SPRINKLES', but i'm pretty sure Wii games are $50(and lower), not $60.

Carry on with the Nintendo hating and SONY/M$ praising....

Cheers

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a 

Until November 2006, many people(i call them "Nintendo haters"), had no problem with singing praises about the system which would have been the lowest on that graph(PS2) and completely dissing the one at the top(GCN)...at that time.

Yeah, if you look real hard that the difference between the GC and the PS2 is nothing compared to the difference between the PS2 and the Wii. The drop-off is huge.

[Hawkeye_a]

Fair enough, now compare that to the first year of games for the GCN and PS2.

[Dakar the Fourth]

If you have the numbers, be my guest.

[Hawkeye_a]

What's With Wii's Low Review Scores?: Page 2 : Next Generation - Interactive Entertainment Today, Video Game and Industry News - Home of Edge Online

There's a pretty significant gap there and that seemed to bode just fine with "gamers" (the definition of which has changed quite a bit in 2007, imo).

Seems as though reviewers, conventional videogame reviewers that is.... are measuring the benchmarks used to define gaming for the past 20 years, which is fine if they ignore change. Unfortunately for them, Nintendo is now pulling that industry in a different direction, which they cannot comprehend and thus cannot or dont want to factor into their scores. While many Wii games are reviewed badly(ie: they are not necessarily bad games, but dont stack upto the old ideal of being videogames), they are commercial successes.... cases in point:
1. Wii Sports (metacritic 76)
2. Wii Play (metacritic 58)
3. Carnival Games(metacritic 56)
Index of Wii Game Reviews by Score
The first 2 have past the million mark. and the third has passed the 600k mark in the U.S. alone. Personally i really like Wii sports.

In the end, reviewers vote with their words and scores, and the public(please not that includes everyone not just "gamers"), vote with their wallets.

Also lets not forget the likes of third parties, which all but ignored the Wii at first and the rushed to shovel whatever they could onto system to try and cash in on the Wii's success, sorta like what happened to the PS2, imo.

Whether or not the Nintendo haters want to admit it, it seems as though the Wii is the PS2(+innovation+great first party software) of this generation. What surprises me is how they defended the PS2 and dissed Nintendo, and now when Nintendo has replaced Sony's former top position, "they"(the obvious vocal minority, given Wii's clear market dominance in both hardware and software sales) still diss Nintendo and support Sony.

Personally i'm still in the Nintendo camp cause of the innovation, like ive stated before.

[sogbrightlight]

I can't see myself buying any of them right now.

I'd like a 360 but people tell me the elite is the only one worth having and dropping 400 for the system and then needing a 60 more bucks for a game seems well unreasonable.

Same with the PS3 except the PS3 has a blu-ray player which goes for 399 stand-alone.

I feel that I get more bang for my buck with a PS3 but the games are lacking in my opinion.

It's hard to call right now for myself. Although I really like playing Ace Combat 6 on 360 I don't want to buy a system to play one game.

[jokell82]

I wouldn't buy an Elite over a Premium. The only real difference is the larger hard drive, and it's not really necessary on the 360.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by sogbrightlight 

I'd like a 360 but people tell me the elite is the only one worth having and dropping 400 for the system and then needing a 60 more bucks for a game seems well unreasonable.

Anybody who tells you the Elite is the only one worth having must have…kind of atypical needs. I have the current base model and it's all I need.

But if you don't think it's worth it, it's a good call not to buy the system. I waited for Halo 3 to buy mine. I've bought several more games since, but there's no harm in waiting.

[Shaddim]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a 

Whether or not the Nintendo haters want to admit it, it seems as though the Wii is the PS2(+innovation+great first party software) of this generation. What surprises me is how they defended the PS2 and dissed Nintendo, and now when Nintendo has replaced Sony's former top position, "they"(the obvious vocal minority, given Wii's clear market dominance in both hardware and software sales) still diss Nintendo and support Sony.

Personally i'm still in the Nintendo camp cause of the innovation, like ive stated before.

I own a Wii but I'm not fond of the games for the system and I'm not a big fan of the controls. Plus, it looks kinda crappy on the LCD it's attached to. It still gets played here, but it's the girls who get into it.

Lately I've been playing Assassin's Creed on PS3, when I can find time. My only issue with it is that it's almost too detailed, sometimes I get distracted by all the wonderful minute touches. It's a real stunner.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Originally Posted by icruise 

I think you're overstating your case. There are plenty of PS3 or 360 games that can be beaten in one or two sittings, and if you zoomed through Super Mario Galaxy just trying to get to the boss, you missed out on most of the game.

Well like i said I am 75% of the way through the game so I am way past when I first beat bowser which I was in no hurry to do since I knew you could beet him at 60 stars.

And as much as I am looking forward to mario cart and know graphics aren't everything this scares me:

[Hawkeye_a]

I guess there are only a handfull of games im looking forward on Wii this year....

-Okami (which is a 'dirty port' but still seems awesome)
-Mario Kart (the only other mario kart i have played is the DS version)

And analogue, the screens do look terribly aliased. i wonder why Nintendo cant just use the GCN kart engine, upscale the resolution and use the extra horsepower to antialias the final image. but hey its easy for me to recommend stuff, but im sure the actual coding is far more complicated.

When i first saw the DS Kart screens i didn't think i'd be able to play with such blocky graphics, but in motion it looks fine, maybe thats what will happen here ?

I dont know about you guys, but im not a Smash Brothers fan, so i wont be picking this one up. but it seems to have, from a design perspective, every 'hardcore' element in it.... online, level editor(and sharing), screenshots/videos, achievements, variety of controls.... they should include such features in Kart as well. anyone planning on getting Brawl ?

Oh and Factor 5 is back o Wii, and the president has some pretty crazy stuff to say about their work on Wii (IGN)... i think its unbelievable but being my favorite third party developers, i have hope.

Cheers

[Chuckit]

I am so looking forward to Brawl. I'm not a big fan of modern fighting games, but the Smash Bros. series is just plain fun. I loved to play as Jigglypuff in Melee — it always put people off their guard and they never expected the big instakill attack. I'll be in line to grab Brawl as soon as it comes out.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

I am so looking forward to Brawl. I'm not a big fan of modern fighting games, but the Smash Bros. series is just plain fun. I loved to play as Jigglypuff in Melee — it always put people off their guard and they never expected the big instakill attack. I'll be in line to grab Brawl as soon as it comes out.

I hated the one for Gamecube as I found it to be just a button masher with Nintendo characters to help sell it.

[jokell82]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

I hated the one for Gamecube as I found it to be just a button masher with Nintendo characters to help sell it.

I've only played it once, but I agree.

[Hawkeye_a]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

I hated the one for Gamecube as I found it to be just a button masher with Nintendo characters to help sell it.

Same here. I played it only once as well.

[Aegis]

It might feel like a button masher starting out but certain characters take a lot of skill to play. I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully there are still the crazy trophies to be earned.

[angelmb]

Originally Posted by Aegis 

Hopefully there are still the crazy trophies to be earned.

You'll have plenty of them

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

I hated the one for Gamecube as I found it to be just a button masher with Nintendo characters to help sell it.

I don't know about that. Some characters work well with button-mashing, but other characters have much better strategies. Like I said, I enjoyed playing as Jigglypuff, who will actually lose every time if you just try mashing buttons — a lot of her attacks are weak, and two of them totally disable her. The trick to her is to avoid people, let them get worn down a bit, then dive-bomb with the sleep attack to knock them out of the level.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

I don't know about that. Some characters work well with button-mashing, but other characters have much better strategies. Like I said, I enjoyed playing as Jigglypuff, who will actually lose every time if you just try mashing buttons — a lot of her attacks are weak, and two of them totally disable her. The trick to her is to avoid people, let them get worn down a bit, then dive-bomb with the sleep attack to knock them out of the level.

Well I have played it against people who have had months of experience and every time I play against them and just mash the buttons I have equal chance of beating them.

Gonna pass on that one and hope Mario Cart comes out soon.

[angelmb]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

And as much as I am looking forward to mario cart and know graphics aren't everything this scares me:

if that scares you then wait until check this… CRUIS'N, where midway developers have indeed hit bottom



Anyway, developers are here the ones to blame, if you play FIFA08 you will be very pleased about how good it looks… and plays, IMHO is the best FIFA since ninety-something, isometric view

on Smash Bros Brawl… 

 

There are some really nice scenarios… Wind Waker, Pictochat and Yoshi's to name a few are really cool. Then there is the history mode, way deeper than previous Smash Bros iterations.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Wow, is that a direct port from 1997?

[jokell82]

Seriously, that looks horrible.

/not regretting selling my Wii at all

[sek929]

Wow, look at the detail in those race sluts!

[Hawkeye_a]

Graphics can change in 7 months.



The Wii is to blame for crappy looking third-party efforts on Wii, right ?






No matter tho. out with the pitchforks...Nintendo Sucks..yada-yada-yada

[angelmb]

To make things clear: I wasn't picking on the Wii itself but on those developers -Midway here- that just don't care to offer a slightly decent product, a racing game is far from being a WarioWare title where poor graphics make sense… I don't care at all if a PS3-360 game looks way better than the one I am playing on the Wii but this -if the retail game looks like that- is plain stupid. Drawing an unfortunate comparison, it's like iPod's popularity, you can buy it from an astonishing Apple Retail Store or from an average store where they sell it side by side with a dishwasher, a refrigerator and what not…

I am pretty sure Mario Kart is going to look great, I hope they redo the time and lap counters and maybe -I am becoming greedy here- get the analog speedometer featured on GC's Mario Kart Double Dash screenshots previous to the retail version where it was not present.

[ort888]

Gears of War 2 = November 2008

I can't wait. Loved the first one.

[sek929]

Awesome, can't wait for it either.

Right after my birthday too, hmmm...

[sek929]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a 

Graphics can change in 7 months.

The Wii is to blame for crappy looking third-party efforts on Wii, right ?

No matter tho. out with the pitchforks...Nintendo Sucks..yada-yada-yada

Wow, need a napkin for all that foaming at the mouth?

I never said Nintendo sucks, in fact, Nintendo is responsible for 75% of my favorite games of all time.

While it may not be the Wii's problem directly the games that are available for a system define that system. No one buys a console to turn it on and nothing else.

Games like BioShock show that outstanding graphics AND gameplay are possible.

Although, the Wii's dominance in the console market shows that Nintendo knows exactly what it's doing.

[Hawkeye_a]

angelmb: Thats cool, and i have to say i am also one of those who are very disappointed with third part efforts on the Wii (with very few exceptions). I'm sick of publishers throwing their B-Teams in to develop multi-platform franchizes. Heck even Guitar Hero 3 is mono(as in non-stereo!) only on Wii, if it were upto me, i wouldnt have allowed that game to be put inside a case carrying the Wii logo.

sek929: *drooooolll*

Its amazing how badly publishing houses and developing studios are being run now-a-days. You have a system with a biggest installed base(of this generation), the lowest development costs, great opportunity to appeal to an even wider audience, and they are squander their resources into developing games for a tiny niche. Imagine if they actually spent a fraction of the amount spent on PS3/360 games into a AAA title for the Wii (instead of outsourcing development to a new inexperienced studio). I for one think it would sell a boatload. It's not even about brand loyalty or idealogy anymore, it's missed opportunity and missed $$$, which is just bad business imo.

Cheers

[sek929]

I agree. Even the GC Metroid had amazing graphics.

I think it's success has driven two-bit operations to try and churn out crap for as much profit as possible.

[jokell82]

Well the reason they're churning out crap may be because no one is buying third party Wii games. It may be a catch-22, but so far sales for third party games has been abysmal. Not too much of an incentive to develop games if no one is buying them.

[Hawkeye_a]

If you ask me, there doesnt seem to be any reason to buy third-party games cause they mostly seem like half-arsed efforts to try and make a quick buck (with a hand full of exceptions).

But people seem to be buying a lot of Nintendo games which all seem to be AAA titles, even if your not into Nintendo games themselves, you can see the spit and polish put into the software (and probably made at a fraction of the cost of a PS3/360 game), and in my opinion thats why they sell so well.

Third parties are just making up excuses now...first it was that the GCN market share was too small(even though it was neck-n-neck with the XBox to the very end), then it was they are too secretive about the Wii, well it's been out for over a year now. The most ridiculous of the excuses is that they think by releasing on Nintendo they are 'competing' with Nintendo, which is utter nonsense. The way i see it.... you release a quality product and guess what...it will sell. heck if a dirty port of a GCN game(RE4Wii) can sell over a million... why cant games that have been developed after that sell nearly as much.

If you ask me, there's a lot of money on the table(pockets of Wii owners) and so far, only Nintendo seems to be fighting for it, and so... chances are they will get it.

[angelmb]

Right there Hawkeye… it is so true than when people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. It is like playing WarioWare and then any WarioWareWannabe you can find out there, they just don't get it.

[Buxtop.com]

i would go with the Wii

[sek929]

After using a Wii all yesterday my g/f is going to get one with her tax-return.

I can't wait to play Metroid!!!