monopoly or not more consolidation means less consumer choice and higher prices ,you just said it "most are made by different companies" there is a difference between technical standards like dvd and blu ray and " merging "nintendo ,sony ,microsoft into one corporation" putting them under one umbrella if you will , look at google, and youtube perfect example YT sucks now that is has been acquired by google ,what the poster said is like saying google MS and apple should all merge so that consumers can have cheaper prices and better products, it runs contrary to any conventional knowledge as to how markets work
First I am not sure youtube under google is doing badly, though I have not been bored enough to look up the finances (they were a lossmaker/investment capital burner when youtube was flying solo) so I can not argue. More as a service though youtube seems to be doing quite well for its users (both the consumer types and the creative types).
Equally I am certainly not about to advocate for a monopoly, the post was more after you went down one quite narrow line of logic. Granted I am not about to hire Terenigma to write my business proposals but hey.
What I'm saying here is that the N64 may have been the more powerful system on paper, but it was a worse system due to its various hindrences and short-comings, similarly to the Sega Saturn which failed for similar reasons.
The n64 may have had more power but lacked many other things but that does not mean it was the worst system Because it was different from the other systems and lacked much space for games. It was a really great system and what makes it noticeable is its first party games. This was indeed one of the many greatest systems i have ever played it had great games.
A console's specs determine what sort of games can be made for it. Better specs mean developers have more freedom to bring their imaginations to life. So better specs = better games.
Also, the PS3 was the most powerful console of its hardware generation (unless you want to count the Wii U as last gen, anyway). So the PS3 pumped out amazing games because it was the most powerful. By your own admission, better specs meant better game output. QED, mofo.
Wii U more powerful than my ps3 and computer. Whats stopping good games from coming onto this platform
Your statement is valid about but were not talking about a nes to a ps1 here.
First I am not sure youtube under google is doing badly, though I have not been bored enough to look up the finances (they were a lossmaker/investment capital burner when youtube was flying solo) so I can not argue. More as a service though youtube seems to be doing quite well for its users (both the consumer types and the creative types).
Equally I am certainly not about to advocate for a monopoly, the post was more after you went down one quite narrow line of logic. Granted I am not about to hire Terenigma to write my business proposals but hey.
Financially, YT is doing good but it's a mess, the 144p option shouldn't be there, there's also no reason why they shouldn't have disabled buffering of 360p and up videos while pausing, also their flagging system is broken. Now you have to use FF plugins to get these features back.
Following your train of thought? Because it's the weakest system of its generation (assuming we're counting the Wii U as next gen, of course) by a country mile. The PS4 and Xbox One far outclass it at pretty much every turn.
First I am not sure youtube under google is doing badly, though I have not been bored enough to look up the finances (they were a lossmaker/investment capital burner when youtube was flying solo) so I can not argue. More as a service though youtube seems to be doing quite well for its users (both the consumer types and the creative types).
Equally I am certainly not about to advocate for a monopoly, the post was more after you went down one quite narrow line of logic. Granted I am not about to hire Terenigma to write my business proposals but hey.
yeah i dont know about YT finances ,i was referring to the consumer /user end experience, it totally sucks everyone hates the changes they have made to the layout , they ruined it
and merging the login from YT and google is awful too, they force you to use real name instead of being able to create a handle like before , they made the inbox so far burried instead of having it right where you can see it , everything about youtube since google got it sucks ,everyone complains and they dont do shit about it, cause they are really the only game in town for now, other similar sites have nearly zero % of users in comparison, the only thing keeping people there is cause everyone else is there
on topic the problem is that the market is over saturated, saturated with crap , too many FPS games and shovelware ,and nintendo direct was a huge ledown too all they seem to make now are side scrollers ,2 1/2 d linear, nonopen world games every game is basically the same format, a 2d side scroller in 3d or a coolie cutter rpg , and other companies just churn out FPS after FPS< 90% of what the industry produced today is just complete shit ,just like atari crash of the 80's
also nintendo isnt helping things by finding these milktoast dweebs with flat affects that they find from god only knows where to give their nintendo direct presentations, i though reggie was a tool but holy shit those guys in the last nintendo direct take the fucking cake, could they have found more boring people , maybe they should have got ben stein to reprise his role from ferris bueller to do it ,would have been more exciting, bueller, bueller
There are good reasons why the results were as you present them. The PS2 was indeed weaker than the Gamecube or the XBox, but it was released much sooner than the two and immediately after the highly-successful PS1. Additionally it doubled as a DVD player - a newly-emerged format which enticed early adopters. The hardware was rugged and well-designed, not to mention that Sony secured killer franchises for their system. The Gamecube was admittedly beefier, but it did not support DVD or any other multimedia functionality at all and the XBox was a moderate success in the area where it was meant to succeed - the US. It wasn't meant to match the PS2 in sales - that was impossible as at the time of the XBox's and Gamecube's release, the PS2 ruled over the market with an immense adoption rate - everybody and their dog had one so developers continued to support it. The Wii U does not have the same playing card in its sleeve.
The PS1 outsold the N64 despite the N64's fantastic number-crunching power because it was far better-designed. It was cheaper, it used CD-based media (lower production costs and higher profit margin for developers and lower price-per-game for the End User), it was compatible with Audio CD's (replacing a home stero for many non-audiophile users) it was not 64-bit (something entirely new for developers, which is why most N64 games aren't actually using the 64-bit power offered, instead opting for 32-bit doubles) like the N64, it did not have a texture size limit like the N64 did (resulting in developers having to multi-layer textures or resorting to gourad shading), it did not limit developers in terms of space (cartridges offered far less storage than CD's so contemporary solutions such as music streaming or FMV's were not within reach) and was generally a more well-thought-out device, which resulted in far superior developer support. What I'm saying here is that the N64 may have been the more powerful system on paper, but it was a worse system due to its various hindrences and short-comings, similarly to the Sega Saturn which failed for similar reasons.
The evidence leads me to a completely different conclusion. For the most part, only "nerds" care about hardware. Consumers care about things such as experience, branding, and other factors that can be marketed to. The PS1 did so well largely because it managed to create a whole new market of older gamers that were not interested in Sega Megadrives, Super Nintendos and Atari Jarguars. The ability to include full motion video and include a bit of CD audio in the PS1 was nice, but I have not seen a lot of evidence that this was a major reason consumers preferred the device.
The PS2 was successful because it built on the popularity of the PS1 and was able to provide a much larger library of reasonable quality games. The x-box and the gamecube both had ways to play DVD's, but the evidence shows that consumers, for the most part, would not choose a gaming device based upon that ability. A version of the gamecube that played DVD's was licensed and it was not a very big seller in the marketplace.
At the end of the day, the consoles that sell best are the ones that can market to new and existing audiences the best via a variety of methods. Simply having better hardware is never the primary motivation for most consumers.
Following your train of thought? Because it's the weakest system of its generation (assuming we're counting the Wii U as next gen, of course) by a country mile. The PS4 and Xbox One far outclass it at pretty much every turn.
Compare a Wii U to a decked out PC gaming rig and you might as well be. :^)
The PS2, PS1, and Wii were all "the weakest system of its generation" and they are the three best-selling home consoles of all time, by tens of millions. In the last two generations, the weakest competitor hardware-wise has held an easy first place while the strongest two fight for second.
At the end of the day, if there are compelling games to play on the Wii U like there were on the Wii, the PS2, and the PS1, it will be successful. Just like the Wii U sold at an amazing rate when it was first introduced, the PS4 and Xbone probably will too. But it is a marathon, not a mile. Whichever console has the most appealing games will win and, with the exception of games that are financed and published by the manufacturers, that will be decided by the demographics of the console and whether publishers believe they can profit.
I have a feeling that the home console as we know it reached its peak with the previous generation and is on the decline. The only thing that might save it are developing nations' increasing consumer purchasing power.
As a passive youtube user (I am usually behind some nice greasemonkey scripts but if I am slumming it on another machine then I am not in as much of a hurry to install them as I might be something like adblock) I am quite happy with the experience. About the only thing I miss is being able to kill a stream but as it does not preload much more then that is largely pointless. On changing interfaces I have seen some griping but I see the same wherever I go in life so I am not inclined to place too much stock in things.
144p seems to have reasonable audio too which is great for talking head stuff that does not need video.
A game console is never "fun" in and out of itself, it's a piece of plastic. Games are fun - that's what you buy a gaming platform for, and so far other than the usual Nintendo serving (which is not enough, as shown by the Gamecube and the Nintendo 64, although many tend to disagree here, mostly due to blind brand loyalty) and a couple current generation ports (which aren't a reason to buy a new system since you can play those games on a system you already own) it doesn't have a lot going for it.
Facts are that development is going to shift towards PC/PS4/XBox One this generation since the platforms are structurally similar, and the fact that they're leagues ahead of the Wii U in terms of specs means that many games will simply skip the platform altogether to cut multiplatform development costs. This equals game drought and a scarcity of games will lead the Wii U into the realm of obscurity with only a handful of gamers interested in it for the sake of these "rare and far between" Nintendo exclusive titles.
An opinion I don't share or downright dislike = Shit Post, the GBATemp way.
everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that the major problem with the wii u is not "wii u haz no gaems" only 10 year old boys are saying, as the wii u is the only real next gen console with backwards compatibility.
but the fact that the wii u doesnt offer any new experience that i cant already get in any other console.
now the new ps4/xbox0ne you are adoring IMO are heading right towards the same brickwall.
whats new and exciting about those two consoles that i cant experience on my already purchased ps3/xbox360? all the third parties are going multi platform for both new gen and old gen... and that seems to be the case for atleast two years from now, so why would i get a next gen console at all?
the same i can say about the wii u, why would i get it, if i can play the same games on my ps3/xbox360
next year we will be getting FIFA 15 for ps2, ps3, ps4, xbox360, xbox0ne, wii, wiiu, nds, psp, 3ds, vita, gbc, gba
"The Great Crash" (not to be confused with this great Crash) shook the fledgling games industry to its very core. Seemingly overnight, the market shriveled up. Companies collapsed, stores shuttered, and arcades became aren't-cades. It was a dark time, indeed.
So, is this report an accurate foretelling of dangers to come, or merely sensationalist doomsaying?
everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that the major problem with the wii u is not "wii u haz no gaems" only 10 year old boys are saying, as the wii u is the only real next gen console with backwards compatibility.
but the fact that the wii u doesnt offer any new experience that i cant already get in any other console.
now the new ps4/xbox0ne you are adoring IMO are heading right towards the same brickwall.
whats new and exciting about those two consoles that i cant experience on my already purchased ps3/xbox360? all the third parties are going multi platform for both new gen and old gen... and that seems to be the case for atleast two years from now, so why would i get a next gen console at all?
the same i can say about the wii u, why would i get it, if i can play the same games on my ps3/xbox360
next year we will be getting FIFA 15 for ps2, ps3, ps4, xbox360, xbox0ne, wii, wiiu, nds, psp, 3ds, vita, gbc, gba
Probably because you buy a console for it's games...
I mean shit, going by that logic, there was no need for me to buy a PS3 if I had a PS2. I mean, eventually The Last of Us will come to the PS2....right? Guys? Right?!
everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that the major problem with the wii u is not "wii u haz no gaems" only 10 year old boys are saying, as the wii u is the only real next gen console with backwards compatibility.
but the fact that the wii u doesnt offer any new experience that i cant already get in any other console.
now the new ps4/xbox0ne you are adoring IMO are heading right towards the same brickwall.
whats new and exciting about those two consoles that i cant experience on my already purchased ps3/xbox360? all the third parties are going multi platform for both new gen and old gen... and that seems to be the case for atleast two years from now, so why would i get a next gen console at all?
the same i can say about the wii u, why would i get it, if i can play the same games on my ps3/xbox360
next year we will be getting FIFA 15 for ps2, ps3, ps4, xbox360, xbox0ne, wii, wiiu, nds, psp, 3ds, vita, gbc, gba
I'm not sure I follow you. I do agree that, with the sole exception of the Wii Motion controller and Kinetic, consoles really have not added significantly new experiences since the PS2 era, but if you have unique games that are of meaningful quality and can only be played on next generation consoles, gamers will buy them.
Sure, Nintendo has not released anything breathtakingly new, but a lot of people do want to play the next Pikman, Zelda, Metroid, God of War, Halo, et cetera. You can bet they will not be released on the old consoles. Nintendo is probably done with releases for the Wii and don't expect Sony and Microsoft to release their exclusives for their old system.
Raw spec wise? Yeah. Will games actually make use of it? No.
The PS4 has an 8-core Jaguar x86 CPU (in reality it's 2 x 4 cores) which is a laptop CPU. x86 is very wasteful in resources, not only that but the PS4's operating system uses 4 of those cores, so only the other 4 will be used for games. The Wii U has a significant amount of eDRAM that makes up for it's RAM, and it's GPGPU is based around it. Wii U uses a PowerPC architecture, which is more efficient, and runs in a low power state. Wii U also has a second ARM CPU for running the OS, etc. So the Expresso CPU is solely for games.
The PS4's CPU is really just a junky thing, where it shines is it's GPU, which is rumored to be significantly more powerful than the Wii U's custom AMD "Latte" GPU (Nintendo has been really quiet about it's GPU, and it's under a heavy NDA) and better than the Xbox One's AMD Radeon. It should be able to run at a higher resolution while rendering more polygons, but we'll have to see. The Xbox One's specs shouldn't be too far off from the PS4's specs, and it's not like Microsoft has ever made stellar hardware.
The PS2, PS1, and Wii were all "the weakest system of its generation" and they are the three best-selling home consoles of all time, by tens of millions. In the last two generations, the weakest competitor hardware-wise has held an easy first place while the strongest two fight for second.
People have a bad habit of mixing up correlation and causation when it comes to this topic. While the winning consoles have not been the most powerful, they didn't win just because they were weaker. It's more due to a wide variety of other factors at play, as Foxi mentioned before.
Just being the weakest is in no way a guaranteed victory. After all, if the rule was "The weakest system always wins", then the Genesis and Dreamcast would've been the winners of their respective generations.
Precedent is helpful and all, but many people make the mistake of thinking that it is absolute and unchanging. That's just silly.
Sarcastic elitism aside, even with so many devices today, I can't help but think we're on the cusp of a golden age in gaming rather than a crash. With the exception of the WiiU, the 2 major consoles use relatively similar hardware to PCs and thus Steam Machines. Android "Gaming Devices" also use a common operating system. Even with so much market saturation, games may be easier to develop multiplatform than ever before. New technologies are being introduced that will further cement the gaming industry. Home consoles will never be the same as before, but instead are now simplified PCs running similar architecture, but still with wealth of features.
A PC by any other name is still a PC. Again, with the exception of the WiiU, both PS4 and Xbox One are pretty much simplified PCs, and so less resources can be spent optimizing for different platforms as in the past, and just focus on the game. This applies to AAA multiplats to the excellent indie games that are spewing out every day. There are now more choices than ever before, but these are excellent choices all around, not pieces of shit like "ET" back in 1983. Unprecedented support for indie games is being given by the big three, and Android is now the go-to OS for things like OUYA, and Shield.
And now Valve is hoping to change the landscape as well with the new controller and SteamOS. While Android is a welcome standard, it's not necessarily best for gaming. If SteamOS becomes the standard for set-top boxes, then that would be awesome.
There are so many good things happening every day. Occulus Rift, Steam Machines, x86 for consoles. With the advent of mobile gaming though, "hardcore gaming*" for lack of a better term, has become a niche, but it's a larger a niche than before mobile. There are more gamers than ever before, and there will be even more, children that will grow up of memories of playing The Witness on their PS4 that they got for Christmas, of ones playing Super Mario Brothers 3D Land and Wind Waker HD on their WiiU, and even more so of ones playing something as simple as Angry Birds on their mom's phones. Even with market saturation, gaming has never been more open.
*Everything from FEZ to Call of Duty, from JRPGs to The Elder Scrolls, and everything in between. Basically games you expect on console and PC, and not mobile-oriented games like Angry Birds or Temple Run, or Facebook games a la Candy Crush/Flash games (as if flash games still exist )
People have a bad habit of mixing up correlation and causation when it comes to this topic. While the winning consoles have not been the most powerful, they didn't want just because they were weaker. It's more due to a wide variety of other factors at play, as Foxi mentioned before.
Just being the weakest is in no way a guaranteed victory. After all, if the rule was "The weakest system always wins", then the Genesis and Dreamcast would've been the winners of their respective generations.
Precedent is helpful and all, but many people make the mistake of thinking that it is absolute and unchanging. That's just silly.
I think being "weaker" helped the Wii a lot, because it was able to reduce its pricing much more aggressively. The PS2 and PS1 won in part because they were "out of the gate" before their serious competitors, and as a result, had weaker hardware. So, there is some causation there, even though it is indirect. But, as you said, it is hardly a guarantee of victory.
My point was that most consumers do not actually understand nor care about specific specs like processor cores, CPU architecture, polygon fill rate, RAM architecture, et cetera.
im not sure wtf is going on anymore , seems hype outweighs the real need for the machines , i have a 13 yr old son that lives and breathes minecraft ( so my thoughts are , that its clear the gameplay far outweighs the visual appeal) , he has a PS3 and at least 2 dozen games , all gathering dust . Yet he craves a new console for xmas . So you tell me what his urge is ? im fukked if i know anymore , as a parent i want to keep them up to date with his peer pressures , but struggle to explain to him that the urges he has arent out of interest in the console but more the need to keep up with the joneses , he doesnt understand. He just wants , and i unwillingly will comply , we play wiiu much more than ps3 and xbox . So my general thoughts are that the kids these days dont know wtf they want , just feel duty bound to a degree to comply with the current trends .. iits frustrating as a parent (and old school gamer).
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