So the gamecube is failing

ABCMan · 16th October 2002

Some would have you believe that the gamecube could be losing the console wars, i realise that most of you sit and think how can this be, the xbox has no decent games......

......Well.......thats because it isnt

here is a link that i shamelessly stole from ZX7R's reply in biggy's cheapskates corner http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm

but for your viewing pleasure i'll give you some "edited" highlights

sales figures take a while to be compiled so the most current ones are up to the 29th sept

but...

week sept 23rd - 29th
GameCube 15,240
Xbox 2,125

oh dear, maybe we should look at the week before....

week sept 16th - 22nd
GameCube 12,784
Xbox 2,473

and people wonder why stores are dumping xboxes for �130.

oh and one more bit of good news, looks like the cube gets metal gear substance instead of xbox, but the snake on a skateboard section will be missing as he is to become a secret character in a forthcoming skateboarding game from konami

**Yazmon** · 16th October 2002

Heh heh, I was going to say that those were just Japanease figures, but check out North America and Europe! ( http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten3.htm#US )

North America (August)
1 Madden NFL 2002 Electronic Arts PS2 46,144,320 930,329
2 Super Mario Sunshine Nintendo GC 17,313,710 350,768
3 Socom: U.S. Navy Seals Sony PS2 9,599,110 161,217
4 NCAA Football 2003 Electronic Arts PS2 7,604,977 152,172
5 Madden NFL 2003 Electronic Arts XB 7,241,994 146,150

Europe (August)
1 TOCA Race Driver Codemasters PS2
2 Medal of Honor: Frontline Electronic Arts PS2
3 Grand Theft Auto 3 Rockstar Games PS2,PC
4 Spider-Man: The Movie Activision PS2,GC,XB,GBA
5 The Weakest Link Activision PS2,PS,PC <----- FFS!!!

ABCMan · 16th October 2002

yeah, the xbox is failing in all markets not just japan, maybe m$ should stop telling everyone how good it is and actualy SHOW US time after time a new game is touted as the next great thing, only to leave most people disapointed, yes there are some good sounding titles in the schedules, but there always have been and good sounding hasnt translated as good games. YET!!!!

**[FrEEzEr]** · 16th October 2002

That MGS news is official ??? I really hope so !!!

Xbox badddddddddddddd
Gamecube gooddddddddddddd

ABCMan · 16th October 2002

no, its not official (as far as i know) but word has it that they told ms that about a month ago and since then i've seen it listed on a gc news site and as a ps2 release as well so its certainly going to be far from an xbox exclusive

(if you were a huge software house like konami would you want to waste time preparing a game for an xbox release when you can make tons more money off other consoles, then take your time and make another load off a real pc version?

**Arcolite** · 17th October 2002

Gamecube might be thrashing XBOX golbally, but locally here in Europe it's a completely different story.

After a full week of sales of Super Mario Sunshine, the Nintendo GameCube has made not made the leap forward in sales that Nintendo were hoping for. Nintendo were hoping that the launch of their triple A Mario title would boost hardware sales across Europe and put them way ahead of the Xbox, but Microsoft's console has in fact, closed the gap: in terms of sales, the Xbox was only 21 units behind the Gamecube last week, an improvement of 269 units difference on the previous week.

This link was posted on the news section of the MCVUK's website (games industry mag)
http://www.totalgames.net/news/newsf...newsType.REF=1

**coogy** · 17th October 2002

I'm constantly hearing the same old tired arguments about XBOX not having any 'decent' games.It may be true that it doesn't have many if any 'exclusives' but who gives a toss when the games that come out on all formats are by and large the best on XBOX? I own all 3 consoles BTW so I'm not having a dig at GC far from it, I love my GC. It just pisses me off at all the flak the XBOX gets, just because it's made by m$ and everybody hates them. It's a damn fine console, the PS2 should cop most of the flak as in my opinion it's utter shite, with it's crap jaggy graphics.Like I said earlier I own all 3 consoles so I ain't no XBOX fanboy. With that said I'll climb back down off my soapbox and wait to be flamed!

**Arcolite** · 17th October 2002

I completely agree with you, I haven't touched my PS2 in months. XBOS is a damn good console that really does deserve success.

Anyway, dont want this to turn into a flame war.

**fe_man2000** · 18th October 2002

I agree with the above comments about the Xbox - not having a GC I cant comment on its abilitys either way. I notice alot of anti Xbox post in the GC forum though which is strange as there are dosent appear to be any Anti GC posts in the Xbox forum. I think ABCman either has shares in Nintendo or got beat up by Bill Gates one time.

Cheers
Ironman

**Gavin M** · 18th October 2002

everytime i mention the xbox to people they say, why bother its just a pc, which i reply with, u find me a pc that looks like an old video player with a console hidden inside (haha) which has all these great games i'll buy it from you, which 4 of them, couple'o weeks later replied to me with, i got my xbox lol
people just think its a pc for your tv...thats why its dying on its arse, they should market as a console and shouldnt have put m$ all over it

ABCMan · 18th October 2002

Originally posted by fe_man2000
I agree with the above comments about the Xbox - not having a GC I cant comment on its abilitys either way. I notice alot of anti Xbox post in the GC forum though which is strange as there are dosent appear to be any Anti GC posts in the Xbox forum. I think ABCman either has shares in Nintendo or got beat up by Bill Gates one time.

Cheers
Ironman

i've got 2 xboxes and 3 cubes, i have plenty of games for both and have tried even more, maybe its the dreadfull xbox controller, maybe its the fact that there is no fun in xbox games, maybe its because of all the hype and lies that m$ came out with before its launch, maybe its the fact that its from microsoft, maybe its the fact i didnt get my free controllers or free games, maybe its the size and weight of the machine, maybe its the fact that it was supposed to be a complete kit, but you had to pay extra for the dvd bits, maybe its the fact that its broadband enabled, but they want you to fork out another �50 to make it work how they want it to, maybe its the fact that having sold it to you they want to control every aspect of how you use it..... i'm sure you get the idea

i want a console that plays good games end of story, the gamecube fits the bill, i'm not a fanboy, i liked the saturn, dreamcast psx and ps2 in their day but the new gen fight is between the cube and the box and as a videogames system the cube wins hands down because it offers what i want (good games, removable storage, reliability and decent quality components, user friendly pads ahnd easy room to room or house to house portability with the benifit of it being made truely portable with the addition of a screen, battery pack and a couple of wavebirds).

and no i dont have shares in nintendo or m$ (but i did in railtrack

)

**Infinity** · 18th October 2002

Originally posted by Gavin M
everytime i mention the xbox to people they say, why bother its just a pc, which i reply with, u find me a pc that looks like an old video player with a console hidden inside (haha) which has all these great games i'll buy it from you, which 4 of them, couple'o weeks later replied to me with, i got my xbox lol
people just think its a pc for your tv...thats why its dying on its arse, they should market as a console and shouldnt have put m$ all over it

you could get one of those shuttle pcs - they're funky. Or one of those modded pcs that look like old jukebox radios.

ps. I am not denying the fact that the x box is a great console. I just don't like its size.

ABCMan · 19th October 2002

i'm not denying the xbox is a mid range pc (look at its components) but i already have a pc, i like to play console games on a console not pc ports on a alternative pc.

yes its locked to stop it from playing pc games and m$ did what they could to deny it was a pc but look at the fookin thing will you? it has pretty standard pc components built into a pc sized desktop case, like a pc it has all the normal pc components, the only difference between an xbox and a half decent pc is that in a pc they use good quality components not toshiba dvd roms and seagate hard drives, its even got 4 usb ports ffs, ok so they have been modified to stop them looking like usb's but they are usb's.

i havent seen win 95 or win 3.1 running on a ps2 or gamecube not because they lack the power to do it, but because they are games consoles and not pc's pretending to be consoles.

**DoctorX** · 19th October 2002

I have all 3 systems

never play PS2 unless exclusive
Xbox all games
GC for exclusive titles which seem to be better than most other exclusive titles

also GC load times are incredibly small which is real nice

**fe_man2000** · 19th October 2002

ABC - MS have really honked you off with the Xbox havent they - to be honest I didnt give them a 2nd thought - I dont really take the company ad campaign/promises or lies into account when I buy hardware, I dont see the point. As you your other points which are all valid but here at least is a different opinion on them.

>maybe its the dreadfull xbox controller
True - get a jap one - I did - rumor is that the normal controller is now dropped and as from christmas all Xboxs will be sold with S controllers - gods I hope so.

>maybe its the fact that there is no fun in xbox games
This is too subjective to argue - you like cartoons - you like Nintendo etc. This is such a generalisation its unbelivable - I havent the time to type the essay nessasary to exaplain why. But its a valid point but you have to play the game to make you own mind up. I dont like platform games so mario isnt my thing.

>maybe its because of all the hype and lies that m$ came out with before its launch.
Everyone does this. Who really believes this stuff come on ? An emotion engine from Sony anyone ?

>maybe its the fact that its from microsoft
who cares ??! If British rail brought out a console I would still consider it (if it was any good)

>maybe its the fact i didnt get my free controllers or free games
Maybe this is the real reason you dont like it - I didnt get mine either - doesnt make the console player any better or worse.

> maybe its the size and weight of the machine
true - it big and heavy. - cant argue this - again doesnt effect gameplay but is a pain in the arse.

>maybe its the fact that it was supposed to be a complete kit, but you had to pay extra for the dvd bits.
GC doesnt play DVD's at all correct ? and never will.
Get it modded and you dont have to pay for any extras to get full mulit region DVD playback.

>maybe its the fact that its broadband enabled, but they want you to fork out another �50 to make it work how they want it to.
You must know that (A)- this isnt true you can play it on broadband for nothing XBconnect anyone and (B) is nintendo/sony going to bring out a Free Broadband service in the UK anytime soon - I dont think so.

>maybe its the fact that having sold it to you they want to control every aspect of how you use it.
Again - this is a strange one - I have a Modded Xbox so I fail so see how MS are "controlling" me. Surely with no mods out for the GC and it using a hard to reproduce disk format its not MS doing the controlling.

I am not flaming the GC (esp as this is in the GC forum) but heres some of its problems
its not modable - you know what this is really about so just count how many games you all own - I have about 40 Xbox titles at the moment.
No DVD play back mulitregion or otherwise

I am not having a go ABC as I respect you opinions on this forum but I felt that a counter arguement had to be put forward to help people whp havent got a Xbox or a GC see both sides of the story. What the hell there only game consoles after all.

Cheers
Ironman

P.S sorry this so long

**MaFiA_MaN** · 20th October 2002

OMG why is everyone sayin the ps2 is shit?

Yes i know it does have the best graphics ect ect but it is a really nice console. but i guess all it has to do with is "GAMES" if u like the game u r going to play it. i can prove it for the last few weeks i have been hooked on Capcom V's SNK 2000 Mill Pro. edt. on my psx not cuz its the best lookin game but it's just fun to play it.

i think that the ps2 is better than the xbox i cant say its better than the gc coz i havnt played it but i really like the look of the games i think i will be buying one soon for $100 AUS yes $50 US (hehehe i have to trade in 10 psx games 1st not bad deal)

anyway i just think that all this xbox vs gc vs ps2 is pointless who cares if the gc is beatin the xbox in the market if you like it you will buy it no matter how shit people or the market said it is.

just my $0.02 :shock:

ABCMan · 20th October 2002

WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

a decent, well thought out and well put case there feman

the controller-s is better than the standard, BUT try using the pad and bnot hitting the start button (annoying).

games, for the multi format stuff in most cases the cube and xbox versions are identical, some M$ paid the companies paid extra to include a bonus level but in most cases the extra is a poor tacked on afterthought to an already complete game, if you ask xbox fans (and i dont mean fanboys) about good games on xbox they all reply HALO i'm sorry, but that type of game is far better on a pc than it can ever be on a console, not only that but as i've covered many times before the level maps are apalling, once you have sen the first 4 or 5 stages you have seen almost everything the game has to offer it all just starts to look the same.

online, nintendo have stated that their inhouse games will play online for free, other companies can make charges as they see fit, m$ have stated that an initial charge of $50 will cover initial useage but that companies will bill you on top of that for online play, i do know about xbconnect, but the official xonline service requires the headset and no chip replicates that, the other problem lies within the hard drive, as we are already seeing unreal championship modyfies the code on your hard drive resulting in a non working xbox if you had evox dash installed, its pretty safe to assume that ALL xonline titles are going to require a modified startup and as such could cause problems to many users.

mods, you are right about modchips, BUT (again

) just imagine how much damage a gamecube mod would do to xbox, as it stands right now i have 65 gamecube games (from all regions) and inmost cases they get played to death (or near to it) i'm not going to detail how many xbox games i've played, but not one has done anything to change my opinions on it, in fact if anything its actualy gone down in my opinion, xbox owners are always waiting for the next big thing as something that is going to prove how good xbox is, then it comes out and its as dissapointing as the last big thing (bruce lee anyone?), at some point something good HAS to come out for it, even if its only by luck but that is not the way to gain support for a machine.

you are correct that the gc doesnt play dvd's (the q does, and the new q also has a hard disc video recorder built in too) but as i said, be honest, who the hell doesnt have a dvd player anyway nowdays so why need another? a games console is for playing games on, and just for playing games on a pc is a multi purpose tool that can do lots of things depending on how you choose to build it but the xbox? yes it plays games but maybe m$ should have concentrated on that aspect and left the rest to the pc market.

no one can be foolish enough to think that m$ support for the xbox will continue, the xbox is a staging post to the xbox 2 they want xboxes in homes so when xbox 2 comes out people will buy them, but xbox 2 is promised to be some kind of permenently online unit that control various other devices (as long as you only do what m$ wants you to) no one is nieve(?sp) enough to say that bill gates doesnt want control over people, look at their latest idea to force dvd+r onto people because it can be controlled better than -r, look at the digital rights management stuff he wants building into the hardware of future pc's he wants to control EXACTLY what you can and cant do, xp and its inbuilt bandwidth stealing spyware is just the first example of things to come have you read the latest t&c's on xp sp1, you know the bit which says you agree to let m$ examine your machine contents over the net? of course they arent doing it yet, they want the systems in place first, xbox is simply leading us on another path to bills goals.

yeah, i know the last part is a rant about m$ rather than xbox but i hope that you can see my point, yes i realise that a chip gets around any current "problems" related to copyright but how will that be done with an online system that is controlled by m$? the way things are looking its likely that if uou want xonline you are going to neeed a second, non evo-x box to be able to play or at least be prepared to change stuff around on your hard drive every time you want to use xonline, this is realy not acceptable for most people.

rant over

**fe_man2000** · 21st October 2002

Cant argue with any of this really. I didnt know about the -r +r thing but I can believe that MS are looking for more of a foothold in you living room than they currently have.

6 Months ago I would have also agreed with you about the first person shooters are better on the PC. In single Player they still are in 9/10 games - NOLF2 anyone. But the problem I have with multiplayer onlines games is that I never have more than about 3 people playing together in one place - all the other players are either complete strangers or mates in there own houses. HALO was the first game that really broke this rule and allowed us to get 6 to 10 of us together with 4 TV's and 4 Xboxs and play a good Mulitplayer game over pizza and beers. To be honest with you the multilinking factor in Xbox is a big winner with me but I do concide that a lot of poeple out there may not be using it in this way and hence not care how good/bad it is at this. PS2 was what we all had before and the playing GT3 with just 2 of you is just not a good enough anymore.

The Online Evo X problems - I genuinely think that this will be circumvented by the hackers after Xboxlive is out for real - modifed dashboards etc - it may be a pain at first but I dont think it wil last long.

Nice to exchange a bit of intelligent disagreement.

cheers
Ironman.