Quote:
|
Sony will undoubtably go back seeing what problems occur with the 360 and ensure they dont with theirs. Sony will continue to rein as champ of the consoles.
|
Ahh, my point is proven -- always the imitators, never the innovators. Very rarely does the Playstation family and innovation go hand in hand. Is it an effective business strategy? Sure it is -- it's one of the reasons why they're on top right now. The interesting thing is, if it hadn't for Sony and Nintendo's chaotic partnership in the early 90's (look into the original release plans for the Super Nintendo CD system) Sony may never even have gotten a leg up into the industry. And of course, while the then-VERY aggressive Nintendo company was doing what they've always done best (not play ball well with others) and Sony was gifted with a bunch of R&D and marketting experience from their failed collaboration with Nintendo, Sega was forging ahead as always, and releasing the SegaCD (even though the actual credit for the first mass-market addon AND standalone CD console goes to TTI's TurboDuo.) Nintendo made the fatal mistake (at least from a marketing standpoint) of pursuing the SuperFX chip, and then continuing on with the cartridge-based N64 (two missed chances to get into the CD medium.) Meanwhile (after a couple years of making life difficult for us devotees by releasing several different systems) Sega released the Saturn, which to this day is STILL a damn 2D powerhouse, especially when teamed with the 1 and 4 meg memory cartridges. This system also brought us some of the most incredible and creative games in history (Panzer Dragoon, Nights, Radiant Silvergun -- even Shenmue was originally begun as a Saturn game.) Unfortunately, the masses demanded something else, and Playstation hit the market catering fully to this demand -- the desire for 3D gaming. No matter how crappy or uninventive the games, if it sold, Sony slapped a license on it. Now licking its wounds and swallowing its pride, Nintendo focused on what they had always done best -- gaming. Some great games came out for the N64, and out-of-the-box four-player support proved a great strategy. Meanwhile, Sega was ramping up for the Dreamcast, and on 9/9/99 they released another wonderful system, supporting four players AND internet right out of the box (something else they had pioneered years earlier in the late Genesis/early Saturn life.) The Dreamcast also had the Visual Memory Units, which were a really cool idea. Sony then released the PS2 -- complete with numerous flaws and a poor launch library. Microsoft jumped in with their console, and were able to get into the market by sheer muscle alone -- let's face it, the Xbox really had nothing great to offer aside from 4 player support (which Sony STILL wasn't offering) and a couple fluke hits. Which brings us to today.
Out of all the systems I own, the one's I use the most are my Dreamcast and Saturn, followed by my PS2. I have Halo for the PC, and frankly I don't see what the big deal is (it strikes me as a better than average FPS at best.) Aside from that maybe I'd pick up a GameCube or something, because there's some good games for it. And I respect Nintendo for keeping it real -- designing a videogame system focused on gaming (no home entertainment/DVD/other unnecessary stuff.)
Of course, like others have noted, free time and money to spend on videogaming is more of a luxury now, as opposed to when I was younger. And it's harder for me to justify sitting down to game when I could be reading a book, or outside getting exercise. Although now that Winter's here...
