ReverendXbox\'s 2001 Theme: I\'ll buy the system with the

Give a damn or not, the Reverend has something to say.  As I was meditating last night, I realized something important.  This is it: In the videogames industry, the formula for success is already known.  This formula is great first party games, massive third party support, a competitive price, good marketing and awesome hardware.  When I think of PS2 and Xbox, I see that both consoles have the ingredients for successful consoles. Let\'s look at some consoles that failed and see if they had the formula for success.

THE DUDS

[list=1]

• Philips CD-i: What the hell was this.  If I didn\'t subscribe to Next Gen or EGM I wouldn\'t know what the hell this thing was.  Plus, who was making games for this puppy?  Do you know?  Niether do I.  Did it have many games?  Did Phillips even make games?  This is the definitive recipe for disaster.  I think it was $300 bucks too.
  
  
• Real 3DO:  The $700 launch price really turned me off.  Sure they had titles like Crash and Burn that made me drool, but for $700 it was way out of my league.  They also had a decent version of Street Fighter, but that $700 price tag sucked big time.  It\'s safe to say that the price tag killed this sucker.  This is what happens when a console manufacturer tries to make money off of the hardware.  You can bet your bottom dollar Microsoft won\'t try to emulate 3DO\'s philosophy.
  
  
• Atari Jaguar:  It had a decent price tag ($200), but I wouldn\'t bust that for a version of Tempest 2000.  C\'mon, where was the third party support! Damn, it looked sweet and they said it was 64-bits (shyeeah right, and so was the Saturn), but no games that made me say "I gotta have this!"
  
  
• Sega Saturn:  You know, if Sony didn\'t mess everything up by starting this whole 3D stuff, Saturn would have done ok! :rolleyes:  The $400 price tag killed the Saturn.  Lack of third party support killed the Saturn.  Lack of retail precence killed the Saturn.  A late and weak ad campaign killed the Saturn.  This is the model Microsoft has to look to and do the opposite of everything on here to be a success.
  
  

  THE STUDS

  
  
  
• The NES:  Nintendo owned us! Resistance was futile!  Make games for us or else!  Buy our system because it\'s the only one.  We are the Japanese kings of monopoly!  We charge what we want!  Pay it if you want to play!  Of course this type of business isn\'t allowed today, but everyone knows the reason why the NES dominated, let\'s move on.
  
  
• The SNES and Genesis:  This was the only time in videogame history where competition was strong and two consoles shared the top spot.  Some say the Genesis won and some say the SNES won.  However, the truth is that the marketshare dominance shifted slightly in both company\'s favor.  Sega dominated early on with a 52% marketshare and Nintendo had about that much marketshare nearing the release of the PSX.  Nintendo and Sega did everything right (I know, the 32X and Sega CD, but for the most part, Genesis was a success).  Decent prices, 3rd party support and awesome first party games.  This is what I expect from Sony and Microsoft in the next generation.
  
  
• The Sony PlayStation:  Ahh! The crown jewel of SCEI!  This console would pave the way for the Sony that is loved by many today.  The price was expensive ($300), but it had cutting-edge 3D graphics and it\'s closest competitor the Saturn was even more expensive ($300).  PSX has the most developer support therefore it had the most games.  By the law of numbers, it also had the best games.
  
  
• N64: Not as big as the PSX, but with 15 million units in the states, how can you not call that a success?  First party support from Nintendo and Rare kept N64 afloat.  Moderate 3rd party support helped as well.  However, I\'m a firm believer that N64 should have crushed the PSX.  However, the cartridge format limited Nintendo\'s super machine.
  
  

  THE FUTURE

  
  
  
• Dreamcast: Awesome price. Great launch titles.  Great first and third party support.  How can Dreamcast fail?  Easy.  Gamers who dwell on the past are likely to blow off Sega\'s New Order Machine.  What these people need to do is go to Blockbuster and rent Shenmue for the weekend and they\'ll have a change of mind.  Shenmue is the best game ever created. Period.  I cried at the end (Hell, even Reverends shed a tear every now and then).  This Christmas Sega has all to itself once again, since Sony can\'t deliver the consoles they promised to retailers.  If Sega can keep DC\'s in stock, they may well reach the 5 million installed base by March.  If they do that, then DC is in it for the long haul.
  
  
• PlayStation2:  Sony\'s original plan will be executed with this brand new console.  Putting all of Sony\'s properties in one set-top-box...er...sorry, "computer entertaiment system". That\'s better (although a euphamism for "set-top-box").  With over 300 developers working on games and a reasonable $300 price tag, how can PS2 fail?  DVD playback also appeals to a broader audience...Sony Corporation\'s audience.  Screaming "main-stream", if Sony can build the damn things fast enough maybe they can reach that 100 million installed base faster.
  
  
• Xbox:What\'s Xbox got under the hood that can\'t compare or exceed what the PS2 has?  Don\'t worry about it, the folks at Microsoft have all the technology stuff covered (it\'s MS we\'re talking about here).  If it\'s state of the art, it\'s in the box.  I\'m talking a bleeding-edge GPU, the best sound chip in the universe and for you mainstream people, DVD movie playback.  Games?  How about over 200 developers including Konami, Namco, EA and soon Square.  So you want some titles?  Does Munch\'s Oddysee, Halo, Metal Gear Solid X, Madden, and SSX ring a bell?  Games are covered.  With a $500 million marketing budget, the people who don\'t purchase Xbox will do that because they don\'t want to.  It won\'t be because they don\'t know what an Xbox is, because by this time next year everyone with a pulse will know what an Xbox is.  With all of this in mind, how can Xbox not be a smashing success?
  
  
• GameCube: I don\'t know much about GC so I\'ll be brief.  Miyamoto.  Rare.  Pokemon.  Nuff said.  Even if by some catastrophe that GC doesn\'t hit big, they still got GBA which is expected to sell 24 million units in a year.
  

People, we are on the verge of console equality.  Every console has a strong point and all of the console manufacturers have all the ingredients for sucess.  This era will be like the Genesis/SNES era with four major consoles having somewhat equal marketshare.  It will be like fast food restaurants: McDonald\'s is cool, but sometimes I want Burger King or Wendy\'s.  Sony is like McDonalds, Microsoft like Burger King, Nintendo is like Wendy\'s and Sega like Arby\'s  (they aren\'t big, but they got some tight-ass sandwiches!).  For once we will have variety.  Variety means a bigger market and a bigger market means that games will be as legit as movies (not considered a child\'s waste of time).  Wouldn\'t it suck if all we had was McDonald\'s?  Yeah, I wanna see Sony stick around, but I don\'t want to see them do like they did in the last generation.  It\'s even stevens this time around.  Which ever system has the "shinest" games I will buy.  No shame here!    

Why not just buy them all..???  

Well if you don\'t have the money then no, but if you do then why the hell not.  And the shiner games do not always mean better..

Look at the PSX, was one of the better systems out up until the release of the PSX2.  People still played, bought , and reveled in the shadow of the PSX1. Even with other systems that were out that were hands down more superior.

I will wait and see what happens.  As of right now I have my PSX2 and I am quite happy with it!!

:burn:

Good post.  Personally, I think that of the "duds", the Saturn and 3DO very well could\'ve succeeded.  They each had some damn good games, hell, arguably the best libraries of the "duds" category.  If anything, they were killed by pricing and marketing.  But I\'m amazed they were able to get the support that they did (Cannon Fodder, Return Fire on 3DO were great).  You also forgot Turbografx 16 (it had one good shooter whose name I can\'t remember).  Also, under duds, you could\'ve added a lumpsum group: Not Gameboy.  Handhelds that were never given a chance.

Actually what killed the Saturn is the fact that they stopped distribution of SDKs to the United States.  They may have a tiny market left in Asia, but they abandoned America.

I\'m sure the factors you mentioned have something to do with that, but with the console less than a year old, it was a big "I don\'t give a f()ck about Americans" move.

So you have turned a new leaf...I like that, and you made a very great analysis too about the video game industry.....

If Square does signon with X-Box there will be a even playing field, if they don\'t Sony has a edge once again.........Agreed.

That was a great post Rev.

if this is not just a phase,
and you actually are going to start using common sense, then you are welcome here

I recently got a dreamcast beacuse I felt it had some good RPG\'s which I really love, I get consoles when they have enough games I wanna play... I also figured I would put up with the DC controller just to play the RPG\'s I would have got one sooner but that controller acted as a barrier..

well, anyway I hope you see the whole picture now