Think before you buy !

[Foxi4]

Nobody buys a console at launch ---> Console gets very little developer interest since Last Gen has an infinitely bigger audience ---> Console doesn't get the games it needs to spread its wings ---> Heavy losses, console may even be deprecated like the Virtual Boy was

Sorry guys, but I disagree. While I do believe that buying consoles at launch is risky, we do need early adopters and launch consoles do have advantages. Not only are those the first to be hacked more often than not, sometimes they have additional functionality that'll be cut from future revisions.

Both "buying at launch" and "buying later" have their advantages, everything depends on which camp you belong to. I personally don't buy at launch unless I stumble upon a great value deal.

 

[Satangel]

Of course you don't buy consoles at launch. Waiting only has benefits IMHO...

 

[FAST6191]

Nobody buys a console at launch ---> Console gets very little developer interest since Last Gen has an infinitely bigger audience ---> Console doesn't get the games it needs to spread its wings ---> Heavy losses, console may even be deprecated like the Virtual Boy was

Sorry guys, but I disagree. While I do believe that buying consoles at launch is risky, we do need early adopters and launch consoles do have advantages. Not only are those the first to be hacked more often than not, sometimes they have additional functionality that'll be cut from future revisions.

Both "buying at launch" and "buying later" have their advantages, everything depends on which camp you belong to. I personally don't buy at launch unless I stumble upon a great value deal.

You know what would happen if everyone followed this advice? Gaming market crash. If you're worried about game library, well the games will get there eventually... if people buy the console. If they don't, then who's gonna make games for it?

If you're worried about defective hardware, that's another story. Call me a Nintendo fanboy if you like, but I trust them when it comes to launch hardware because they have a long history of solidly built hardware. Sony and Microsoft... well I'd be worried about getting their launch hardware after the this generation's debacle. Maybe they've learned from their mistakes, but I wouldn't make that gamble.

If that is the case then I would contend the model itself is flawed and needs changing. Maybe an inherently backwards compatible thing composed of gradual changes, graceful aging and maybe multiple vendors working towards a similar goal.

On launch hardware. I am of split opinion.
On the one hand it was BGA (a way of soldering) that caused all three consoles to fail and causes a rising percentage, not insignificant either, of devices in general that cross my repair bench to have failed.
On the other hand BGA is known to be bad if you do not put the effort in and for all sorts of reasons (PR, warranty costs, things like sale of goods acts being increasingly common around the world, aiming for an even bigger audience more...) you can bet they will want to stave off a repeat event this time around.

Gamecube, Wii, and Nintendo 64 proven that I can buy at launch.

Did I stumble into another universe again? Maybe Wii as well if it comes to amount of games I actually care to play/could not have played a near identical/better version of somewhere else.

 

[Foxi4]

Gamecube, Wii, and Nintendo 64 proven that I can buy at launch.

The Gamecube and the N64 bombed - they sold at semi-acceptable levels at best and had no games.

 

[RedCoreZero]

Did I stumble into another universe again? Maybe Wii as well if it comes to amount of games I actually care to play/could not have played a near identical/better version of somewhere else.

Opinion, Wii's exclusives were enough to buy the console, twice.

 

[retKHAAAN]

Wii came in early, cheap, had "innovative" controls (read: my mom and grandma could play it), and had immediate first party support. However, over its lifespan you gradually saw devs backing off from it in favor of power and demographics or just pushing out shovelware. The Wii sold a shit-ton of consoles, but how many hipsters and grandmas continued to buy games for it? How many have sat and collected dust for the past few years, not because something better came along, but because it was purchased on a whim?

Nintendo made a miscalculation in trying to get in there early again this time and with a higher price-point. Their "innovation" this time around really isn't all that innovative. The only real positive to the gamepad is the ability to stream some games to it... Other than that, minigames? Maps? Inventory? Kind of the same predicament as "how many different ways can you waggle a Wiimote?" They're also alienating devs a bit by expecting the gamepad to be used in some way. They should have focused on releasing a true next-gen console at $350 with the gamepad as a separate, optional peripheral. Give the devs something to work with. WiiU owners are looking at another generation of poor multiplat ports and/or xbox/ps3 version ports (like with the Wii and PS2)...

 

[Ethevion]

The Gamecube and the N64 bombed - they sold at semi-acceptable levels at best and had no games.

The N64 had good games. It didn't have 100s of good games, but it was enough.
Pokemon Snap, Kirby 64, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Mario Party, Pokemon Stadium, Paper Mario, Mario Kart 64, Zelda OoT and MM, Super Mario 64, and Smash Bros were some of the best games I ever played as a kid.

 

[TheCasketMan]

I prefer to buy new systems at dinner. That way I eat and get to play in bed.

 

[Foxi4]

The N64 had good games. It didn't have 100s of good games, but it was enough.
Pokemon Snap, Kirby 64, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Mario Party, Pokemon Stadium, Paper Mario, Mario Kart 64, Zelda OoT and MM, Super Mario 64, and Smash Bros were some of the best games I ever played as a kid.

Blinding nostalgia - the truth is that the system has 10-20 universally good games and that's it - the rest is incredibly debatable. The titles you mentioned are the titles everybody mentions and do you know why? Because the system has nothing else to offer. For every LoZ: OoT there's a Superman 64, for every Mario Kart 64 there's a Carmageddon 64. It has no gaemz, deal with it.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

The N64 had good games. It didn't have 100s of good games, but it was enough.
Pokemon Snap, Kirby 64, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Mario Party, Pokemon Stadium, Paper Mario, Mario Kart 64, Zelda OoT and MM, Super Mario 64, and Smash Bros were some of the best games I ever played as a kid.

I didn't know 11 "good" games made a system a success...

 

[Black-Ice]

Blinding nostalgia - the truth is that the system has 10-20 universally good games and that's it - the rest is incredibly debatable. The titles you mentioned are the titles everybody mentions and do you know why? Because the system has nothing else to offer. For every LoZ: OoT there's a Superman 64, for every Mario Kart 64 there's a Carmageddon 64. It has no gaemz, deal with it.

But Foxi all he said is that he likes *all the games he listed* and that they were the best he played as a kid.
He even admitted it didnt have 100's of good games.
Where's the blind nostalgia? I dont see your issue with the statement

 

[Foxi4]

But Foxi all he said is that he likes *all the games he listed* and that they were the best he played as a kid.
He even admitted it didnt have 100's of good games.
Where's the blind nostalgia? I dont see your issue with the statement

The nostalgia refers to "best games I played as a kid". Do you know that feeling when you've played with sticks and stones as a kid, had a blast, then grew up and realized "damn, that's just sticks and stones... that's pretty shit, actually"? Yeah, the N64 is like sticks and stones - it was good because at the time the user didn't know any better, didn't have a point of reference.

 

[Black-Ice]

The nostalgia refers to "best games I played as a kid". Do you know that feeling when you've played with sticks and stones as a kid, had a blast, then grew up and realized "damn, that's just sticks and stones... that's pretty shit, actually"? Yeah, the N64 is like sticks and stones - it was good because at the time the user didn't know any better, didn't have a point of reference.

Cant you say that about every old console?
The 64 had a reasonable library of enjoyable games that the fanbase of the 64 enjoyed. I think its unfair to completely write it off
Also, they were the best games he played as a kid, and that formed his positive opinion of the 64, I think thats reasonable

 

[grossaffe]

To be fair PS3s were made pretty well and even the YLOD only affected what? 0.7% of consoles?

Microsoft fucked up on earlier Xbox models but they've been good for years now.

But yeah there will always be early adopters but that doesn't mean everyone should be early adopters.

just doing a quick google search on failure rate: http://www.gamespot.com/news/xbox-360-failure-rate-237-ps3-10-wii-27-study-6216691

The ps3 was apparently somewhere around 10% failure rate. Certainly not at 360 levels, but still too high for my tastes. Going back and taking the PS2's Disc Read Errors into consideration. I don't have any statistics on it, but in combination with the PS3's failures, it's enough to give me pause.

 

[Foxi4]

Cant you say that about every old console?

No, I can't. The GBA continues to be spectacular as a system to this day - it had a good control scheme, great games and good support - everything the N64 doesn't have. The N64 was disappointing even at the time of its release, suffering from high game prices and game draughts.

The 64 had a reasonable library of enjoyable games that the fanbase of the 64 enjoyed.

Because they had no choice in the matter. You also have an odd definition of "reasonable" if the so-called library of good games can be enumerated with just two hands.

I think its unfair to completely write it off

Not completely, no. 10-20 games were good... which incidentally are almost 10% of the entire library since the system only had about 300 games in the west.

Also, they were the best games he played as a kid, and that formed his positive opinion of the 64, I think thats reasonable

Subjective evidence. Liking something doesn't make it factually good, especially liking it as a child. I liked Sonic R as a kid and that game is broken beyond repair.

 

[UltraMew]

Microsoft fucked up on earlier Xbox models but they've been good for years now.

Yep. NO THEY HAVEN'T

 

[Black-Ice]

No, I can't. The GBA continues to be spectacular as a system to this day - it had a good control scheme, great games and good support - everything the N64 doesn't have. The N64 was disappointing even at the time of its release, suffering from high game prices and game draughts.

Because they had no choice in the matter. You also have an odd definition of "reasonable" if the so-called library of good games can be enumerated with just two hands.

Not completely, no. 10-20 games were good... which incidentally are almost 10% of the entire library since the system only had about 300 games in the west.

Subjective evidence. Liking something doesn't make it factually good, especially liking it as a child. I liked Sonic R as a kid and that game is broken beyond repair.

The good games part is your opinion therefore cant be used factually, never used 64 much so i dunno about support or control scheme.
The N64 did touch hearts of kids in alot of places though, and the games that worked really worked.

My definition of reasonable and yours are different clearly

If you really wanna get into that, its scary to go into every single console in existence and work out the percentage of good playable games, even 360 and ps3 would look horrible. Wont see higher than 40% for any system,

Subjective evidence right back at ya (Kirby reference ) not liking doesnt make it bad

 

[Foxi4]

Yep. NO THEY HAVEN'T

RROD and YLOD follow Microsoft and Sony like a fart that just doesn't wanna go away and yet nobody remembers the Wii's Blue Slot of Death GPU failure problems.

Both the 360 and the PS3 were quickly revised and a large number of those hardware failures was caused not by faulty hardware but by users being stupid and covering the vents or not taking care of their console. There's this thing called a duster and it removes dust, guys - the system is going to overheat if the fan is blocked by a small sheep-like object that may or may not consist entirely of dust.

The good games part is your opinion therefore cant be used factually,

I can factually state that 300-odd games isn't nearly as much as 2400-odd games, which is exactly the amount offered for the competing system. I'm not going to go into quality vs. quantity arguments but I will say that the probability of finding good games increases if the library is bigger.

never used 64 much so i dunno about support or control scheme.

Can you tell me if you have three hands or not? Because if you don't, you probably wouldn't enjoy the control scheme.

The N64 did touch hearts of kids in alot of places though,

I hope their bodies were ready for the bad touch. ;O;

and the games that worked really worked.

...too bad there wasn't a whole lot of them, but here we can agree. I do have a few N64 favourites myself, I'm just dealing tough love here.

My definition of reasonable and yours are different clearly

Ten games do not validate the purchase of an expensive console.

If you really wanna get into that, its scary to go into every single console in existence and work out the percentage of good playable games, even 360 and ps3 would look horrible. Wont see higher than 40% for any system,

40% > 8%

Subjective evidence right back at ya (Kirby reference ) not liking doesnt make it bad

It doesn't make it good either.

 

[dragonmaster]

i bought ps vita ,3ds ,n64,ps3 in day one when my job was good and i had a good budget to spare
all are a matter of budget, right now i wont be able to buy day one releases ,hell i cant afford to buy brand new games
my 3ds is only with ambassador and a zelda.
in the end i believe the opinion that nothing worth a day one purchase cause it is the beggining and a game library is not established

 

[Thomas83Lin]

RROD and YLOD follow Microsoft and Sony like a fart that just doesn't wanna go away and yet nobody remembers the Wii's Blue Slot of Death GPU failure problems.

Both the 360 and the PS3 were quickly revised and a large number of those hardware failures was caused not by faulty hardware but by users being stupid and covering the vents or not taking care of their console. There's this thing called a duster and it removes dust, guys - the system is going to overheat if the fan is blocked by a small sheep-like object that may or may not consist entirely of dust.

All the care in the world, didn't save my launch Ps3. I barely even got a chance to use it, before it ylod on me. Its main use at the time was playing blu-rays. Now my refurbished Ps3 is a different story its still going strong but it barely gets used. And I don't use it for a player anymore lesson learned.