The Nintendo DS reigns victorious, as evidenced by this poll. Completely expected, but interesting none the less!
Before we get into anything descriptive, let's recap the rules again!
So what do we have in store this week? Could it be the current generation of consoles? Why, I do believe that it is! So what do we have in store? While certain companies continue to maintain the status quo of "more power!", one company went out on a limb and tried something different. Now, I don't really have to explain this stuff to you, but here's a half-assed approach anyway.
This Week's Challengers are:
The Microsoft Xbox 360
This fine console got a bit of a headstart on the others, being released in 2005. After the relative success of the original Xbox, Microsoft managed to follow it up with a nicely featured system with a fantastic controller and a robust online service.
Due to the out of control sales of the Wii, Microsoft hoped to capitalize on this motion gaming trend with the Kinect. Strangely enough, the Kinect continues to be successful in a time when motion gaming seems stale and overplayed. Who knew?
The Xbox 360 was not without problems though. The infamous Red Ring of Death that plagued early models of the system continues to haunt fans of the system. And the failure of the HD-DVD medium was a blow to the system and it's over-priced player peripheral.
The Xbox initially outsold the PlayStation 3 month to month, and while it still outsells the PS3 in total sales, Sony's console is at least (on average) on par with the PS3 in monthly sales. As of January the Xbox 360 has sold approximately 65.8 million units, and it's best selling game is Kinect Adventures with 18 million units. Kinect Adventures is a pack-in with the Kinect though, and I can't find info on the best selling non-pack-in game.
The Nintendo Wii
Ah yes. The system everyone loves to hate and hates to love. In the dying days of the Gamecube Nintendo teased their 'Revolution' to the world, promising a change in gaming as we knew it. With speculation abound we eventually got to see the Wii remote; a controller that used accelerometers, etc. to track movement. While this piqued the interest of a lot of gamers, the underpowpered hardware and SD output had a lot of people wondering what Nitnendo was thinking.
While self proclaimed 'hardcore' gamers despise the idea of the weak little console that lets you waive your arms around, they can't ignore the huge response it received. The Wii has sold an impressive 94.97 million units to date, in an extremely short amount of time.
Hardware sales, while impressive, don't tell the whole story though. While some games did quite well for themselves, most did not. And a large majority of those that did well were Nintendo produced games. Quality issues, lacklustre advertising, unknown properties, all these things are possible reasons why not a lot of third party developers could really make money off the Wii.
The Wii has become an homebrewer's dream, as it is so ridiculously hackable, and the number of resources available (Homebrew channel, Homebrew broswer, a myriad of emulators, etc.) only sweeten the deal that much more.
As a testament to the nature of the new market the Wii captured though, it's best-selling game, that isn't a pack-in, is Wii Play with 26.7 million units sold (probably because it came with an extra Wii remote).
The Sony PlayStation 3
In 2007, Sony released what was the obvious evolution of the PlayStation 2, the PlayStation 3. A fully featured multi-media device, the PS3 boasted a powerful cell processor, Blu-ray medium, and out-of-the-box wireless capabilities. Amid ridicule, Sony abandoned their ergonomic controller for a classic look to appease their fan-base.
At first the PS3 seemed like it would have no problems at all; it was powerful, twas the cheapest Bluray player out there, and it could play vid-yo games. What could go wrong? Apparently a $499 launch price (for the basic version) and a slew of awful launch titles is what could go wrong.
The cell processor, while an impressive piece of kit, was new and was notoriously difficult to program for, resulting in some awful games in the first year of the system. While there were some great ones to come out of that first year, they were buried under what some felt was shovelware. A price drop, the death of the HD-DVD, the addition of rumble to the SixAxis controller, and a dearth of good games managed to turn that around though, and before long the PS3 was a viable contender against the 360. Finally, the PS3's features were able to shine!
Everyone knows about GeoHot's hacking of the system, that led to Sony filing a lawsuit against him and removing Linux from the PS3, which may have been the inspiration for the Anonymous attacks on Sony, which resulted in the loss of personal data (apparently including passwords and the answers to security questions, I did not know that until today), and encrypted credit card info, which resulted in Sony shutting down their online system for a month. Not only is that a long, convoluted sentence, but it's also a quagmire of fanboy flame fuel that I'm not going to get into. Just know that it happened.
Eventually Sony felt just as Microsoft did about the Wii: that it was poor tech that could easily be replicated and it's market share could be stolen. To that end, Sony released their Move controls to the masses. So far the PlayStation Move has sold close to 9 million units. While that's not anywhere near what the Kinect sold, Sony still considers it to be a success. Hopefully we'll see some compelling stuff from it soon.
The PlayStation 3 has, so far, sold 62 million units, and it's best-selling game is apparently Call of Duty: Black Ops (according to Wikipedia), although there are no sales figures on that.
Housekeeping!!!
So that's that. We're done with the console generations! Next week will be the end of the handheld generations, and then we're going to find out what we all think is the best of each group! Exciting, no? No. o_o
Here's what the brackets look like, BTW:
Who will win? It could be you!*
*note: It can't be you.
So long, folks!
EDIT: Dangit. I called it the 10th when it should be the 11th. Ah well. Vote now!
EDIT: #2. Thanks to whoever modified the title to make it say round 11.
EDIT #3: The poll is now closed. I'll post the results soon.
Before we get into anything descriptive, let's recap the rules again!
Each week, video game history will be put to the test to see which console or handheld is the greatest. There can only be one!
Vote for your favourite and follow it through to the end as we try to determine GBATemp's favourite console/handheld!
Consoles and handhelds will face off in brackets comprised of their generation. Because there can only be one, in the event of a tie I will cast a tie-breaking vote. Once a winner has been declared for each generation, the console winners and the handheld winners will face off in individual brackets. Once an ultimate console and ultimate handheld have been chosen, they will face off against each other to see who is the greatest!
For a concrete example of the brackets, see the image at the bottom of this post.
Vote for your favourite and follow it through to the end as we try to determine GBATemp's favourite console/handheld!
Consoles and handhelds will face off in brackets comprised of their generation. Because there can only be one, in the event of a tie I will cast a tie-breaking vote. Once a winner has been declared for each generation, the console winners and the handheld winners will face off in individual brackets. Once an ultimate console and ultimate handheld have been chosen, they will face off against each other to see who is the greatest!
For a concrete example of the brackets, see the image at the bottom of this post.
So what do we have in store this week? Could it be the current generation of consoles? Why, I do believe that it is! So what do we have in store? While certain companies continue to maintain the status quo of "more power!", one company went out on a limb and tried something different. Now, I don't really have to explain this stuff to you, but here's a half-assed approach anyway.
This Week's Challengers are:
The Microsoft Xbox 360
This fine console got a bit of a headstart on the others, being released in 2005. After the relative success of the original Xbox, Microsoft managed to follow it up with a nicely featured system with a fantastic controller and a robust online service.
Due to the out of control sales of the Wii, Microsoft hoped to capitalize on this motion gaming trend with the Kinect. Strangely enough, the Kinect continues to be successful in a time when motion gaming seems stale and overplayed. Who knew?
The Xbox 360 was not without problems though. The infamous Red Ring of Death that plagued early models of the system continues to haunt fans of the system. And the failure of the HD-DVD medium was a blow to the system and it's over-priced player peripheral.
The Xbox initially outsold the PlayStation 3 month to month, and while it still outsells the PS3 in total sales, Sony's console is at least (on average) on par with the PS3 in monthly sales. As of January the Xbox 360 has sold approximately 65.8 million units, and it's best selling game is Kinect Adventures with 18 million units. Kinect Adventures is a pack-in with the Kinect though, and I can't find info on the best selling non-pack-in game.
The Nintendo Wii
Ah yes. The system everyone loves to hate and hates to love. In the dying days of the Gamecube Nintendo teased their 'Revolution' to the world, promising a change in gaming as we knew it. With speculation abound we eventually got to see the Wii remote; a controller that used accelerometers, etc. to track movement. While this piqued the interest of a lot of gamers, the underpowpered hardware and SD output had a lot of people wondering what Nitnendo was thinking.
While self proclaimed 'hardcore' gamers despise the idea of the weak little console that lets you waive your arms around, they can't ignore the huge response it received. The Wii has sold an impressive 94.97 million units to date, in an extremely short amount of time.
Hardware sales, while impressive, don't tell the whole story though. While some games did quite well for themselves, most did not. And a large majority of those that did well were Nintendo produced games. Quality issues, lacklustre advertising, unknown properties, all these things are possible reasons why not a lot of third party developers could really make money off the Wii.
The Wii has become an homebrewer's dream, as it is so ridiculously hackable, and the number of resources available (Homebrew channel, Homebrew broswer, a myriad of emulators, etc.) only sweeten the deal that much more.
As a testament to the nature of the new market the Wii captured though, it's best-selling game, that isn't a pack-in, is Wii Play with 26.7 million units sold (probably because it came with an extra Wii remote).
The Sony PlayStation 3
In 2007, Sony released what was the obvious evolution of the PlayStation 2, the PlayStation 3. A fully featured multi-media device, the PS3 boasted a powerful cell processor, Blu-ray medium, and out-of-the-box wireless capabilities. Amid ridicule, Sony abandoned their ergonomic controller for a classic look to appease their fan-base.
At first the PS3 seemed like it would have no problems at all; it was powerful, twas the cheapest Bluray player out there, and it could play vid-yo games. What could go wrong? Apparently a $499 launch price (for the basic version) and a slew of awful launch titles is what could go wrong.
The cell processor, while an impressive piece of kit, was new and was notoriously difficult to program for, resulting in some awful games in the first year of the system. While there were some great ones to come out of that first year, they were buried under what some felt was shovelware. A price drop, the death of the HD-DVD, the addition of rumble to the SixAxis controller, and a dearth of good games managed to turn that around though, and before long the PS3 was a viable contender against the 360. Finally, the PS3's features were able to shine!
Everyone knows about GeoHot's hacking of the system, that led to Sony filing a lawsuit against him and removing Linux from the PS3, which may have been the inspiration for the Anonymous attacks on Sony, which resulted in the loss of personal data (apparently including passwords and the answers to security questions, I did not know that until today), and encrypted credit card info, which resulted in Sony shutting down their online system for a month. Not only is that a long, convoluted sentence, but it's also a quagmire of fanboy flame fuel that I'm not going to get into. Just know that it happened.
Eventually Sony felt just as Microsoft did about the Wii: that it was poor tech that could easily be replicated and it's market share could be stolen. To that end, Sony released their Move controls to the masses. So far the PlayStation Move has sold close to 9 million units. While that's not anywhere near what the Kinect sold, Sony still considers it to be a success. Hopefully we'll see some compelling stuff from it soon.
The PlayStation 3 has, so far, sold 62 million units, and it's best-selling game is apparently Call of Duty: Black Ops (according to Wikipedia), although there are no sales figures on that.
Housekeeping!!!
So that's that. We're done with the console generations! Next week will be the end of the handheld generations, and then we're going to find out what we all think is the best of each group! Exciting, no? No. o_o
Here's what the brackets look like, BTW:
Who will win? It could be you!*
*note: It can't be you.
So long, folks!
EDIT: Dangit. I called it the 10th when it should be the 11th. Ah well. Vote now!
EDIT: #2. Thanks to whoever modified the title to make it say round 11.
EDIT #3: The poll is now closed. I'll post the results soon.
