Well, my dad works at Nintendo and~: Console Wars Horseshit Megathread

[Merusk]

That's not anything but Bill Gates essentially saying, "He's in charge now, if he thinks that's best I'll support his decision."

The same policy that former Presidents use when asked to critique the current one.

[Cyrrex]

I finally broke down and ordered a PS4.  Took advantage of a slight price dip on the bundle that includes Second Son.  I knew I would be doing this anyway at some point, but I still feel a little filthy.  I'll just tell myself it is for the kids.

Equivalent cost in US Dollars?  700.  Thanks Obama.

[Yegolev]

I'm going to have to put off the PS4 for a bit due to the reaming I'm taking on having my car re-keyed.

[Merusk]

Doh.  Never found them, hey.

[Lakov_Sanite]

I'm going to have to put off the PS4 for a bit due to the reaming I'm taking on having my car re-keyed.

Wish there was a way to say "thanks  but I don't want the ridiculously expensive electronic key that makes things only marginally easier"

[Yegolev]

That would be great.  Prior to 2009 it was possible to program your own key.  Don't ask how much two new keys cost me at the ONLY INFINITI DEALER ON THE WEST SIDE.  Not even the Nissan dealer could do it.

This is way off topic but I found a place that I can sell scrap metal, and I sold springs from a mattress/box for $4.41.  I had unfortunately only just tossed out some ruined hedge shears, those might have gotten me up to $4.90.  I'm going to try to ebay some stuff while I remember to not toss out anything made of metal.

[Selby]

Don't ask how much two new keys cost me at the ONLY INFINITI DEALER ON THE WEST SIDE.  Not even the Nissan dealer could do it.

Considering the fobs alone can cost $95-105, I can imagine programming at the dealer running upwards of $75-150 each...  No PS4 for a while at that cost!

[schild]

That would be great.  Prior to 2009 it was possible to program your own key.  Don't ask how much two new keys cost me at the ONLY INFINITI DEALER ON THE WEST SIDE.  Not even the Nissan dealer could do it.

I didn't know white people were allowed to own Infinitis. So, let me get over that hurdle and we can talk about the cost of keys.

[Paelos]

ZING

[Yegolev]

I'm gansta.

[schild]

I'm gansta.

WEST SIED WHEATTHINZ

[Phildo]

My dad drives an Infiniti.

[HaemishM]

OG!!!!!

[schild]

My dad drives an Infiniti.

I had no idea your dad was black. That's awesome.

[Yegolev]

When I met Phildo, the first thing I realized was that he had a black dad.

[Nija]

Yeah a key for my '01 Volvo was something like $300 out the door.

It was even more for my GTO - apparently they have to request those keys from Australia still. GM efficiency for you.

Not fun.

[Trippy]

Xbox One without Kinect for $399 in June:

http://news.xbox.com/2014/05/xbox-delivering-more-choices

[HaemishM]

So Microsoft finally admits without admitting it that just about every "feature" of the XBOne was an absolute failure on every level for consumers.

[Miasma]

That's amazing, huge capitulation.  They are also finally going to stop forcing you to buy gold to get to Netflix and such.

[Merusk]

I'm amused, but I still won't buy an Xbone.  I wonder what consumer they're chasing now. Do they even know?

[Fabricated]

Squeeze every last dollar out of it while quietly shopping the division out to every company dumb and rich enough to buy the division

[Yegolev]

Some of the most popular voice commands include “Xbox On,”

"Our <APPLIANCE>'s most popular features include the ON switch,"

That endorsement is fucking ringing.  Ringing, I say.

Also: "This is just a taste of what we know about you!"

[Paelos]

So Microsoft finally admits without admitting it that just about every "feature" of the XBOne was an absolute failure on every level for consumers.

Too late. They are hopelessly beaten.

[Rokal]

I'm amused, but I still won't buy an Xbone.  I wonder what consumer they're chasing now. Do they even know?

They are chasing gamers now that they have realized "Consumers that want to access their cable box via another box that doesn't work as well and costs $500" wasn't actually a market that existed.

[Lakov_Sanite]

I bought a $50 blu-ray player that also give me wireless access to youtube/netflix/hulu and a ton of other shit I never use so....yeah, keep on keepin on xbone.

[Ingmar]

$400 does make it more palatable for me to eventually buy in the unlikely event they make a new Rock Band I guess.

[Maledict]

I'm amused, but I still won't buy an Xbone.  I wonder what consumer they're chasing now. Do they even know?

They are chasing gamers now that they have realized "Consumers that want to access their cable box via another box that doesn't work as well and costs $500" wasn't actually a market that existed.

Yeah, they made a huge mistake with their target market for the XBONE and I don't really understand how they were so blind.

Their research showed a large amount of 360 owners were just using their machines for netflix, hulu and other apps - generating piles of cash for Microsoft through gold subscriptions and ongoing subs. For some reason, instead of realising that this was because people buying 360s as games machines and then enjoying the other uses out of them, they instead thought this was the main reason these people had the machines. So the XBone was the next stage along that path - hence TV TV TV at the launch and all the other stuff.

Of course, non-gamers aren't going to buy an Xbox for TV stuff - they have a million other, cheaper, free ways of accessing that content. Folks weren't buying 360s as multimedia devices, they were just using them like that as the games dried up and because it was convenient. So Microsoft launched an overexpensive product for a market that does't even exist, whilst Sony just happily trucked on focussing on gamers and stole the show. The worse part is even with the price reductions and removal of Kinect, the Xbone is fundamentally crippled as a machine because of the design decisions that were taken very early on to allow for Kinect and the TV stuff. The difference between the two machines is really quiet telling, especially given how early on in the generation we are (Has there ever been a console generation where one machine simply had flat out better versions of all cross-platform games before?).


My only worry with all of this is that MS and Sony have a very different approach to games. Sony has a lot of quality, first party studios that produce amazing games. MS doesn't have those any more - it gutted them all in the last 3 years of the 360s life, and there's only a few left. instead, MS tends to buy third party exclusives, and as a gamer that practice just sucks. MS responding by throwing cash around and buying the next Mass Effect from EA would really, really depress me.

[Maledict]

$400 does make it more palatable for me to eventually buy in the unlikely event they make a new Rock Band I guess.

This is unlikely - Harmonix were utterly screwed by this announcement, as their twitter posts show. they've invested in developing a Kinect game, and the technology is basically dead now.

[Ingmar]

Doh!

[Rokal]

My only worry with all of this is that MS and Sony have a very different approach to games. Sony has a lot of quality, first party studios that produce amazing games. MS doesn't have those any more - it gutted them all in the last 3 years of the 360s life, and there's only a few left. instead, MS tends to buy third party exclusives, and as a gamer that practice just sucks. MS responding by throwing cash around and buying the next Mass Effect from EA would really, really depress me.

This isn't really feasible anymore either. As the market lead, it was an easier proposition to get a developer/publisher to agree to release a game on Xbox 360 exclusively. This could have been attractive to a developer/publisher if the majority of their sales were going to be on Xbox 360 anyway. With Xbox One, Microsoft is now significantly behind the competition and the gulf is only growing larger. Securing an exclusivity agreement will be much less appealing to the developer/publisher if it means they lose out on all of the potential sales from the platform that is the market lead. It means that exclusivity deals will become *much* more expensive for Microsoft moving forward until they are in a better competitive position with Xbox One (if ever).

[schild]

How badly did Harmonix fuck around over these last 5 years that they need to use Kickstarter for anything?

[Lakov_Sanite]

Too much success too quickly, it's an age old issue.

[Yegolev]

Hookers and blow, I agree.

[Merusk]

I grew up next to their music director.  Given the ultra repressesd nature of his upbringing that wouldn't surprise me.

[Phildo]

I need to replace all of my old Rock Band instruments.  If they were still available at all through Harmonix, they would have my money right now.