Who dashed out and bought the Halo 3 Console?
By now you’ve probably been buried in the hype surrounding Halo 3, Microsoft Xbox 360’s exclusive “killer app” game released this week– the canny live action commercials featuring old veterans praising the franchise’s hero, Master Chief, the prominent coverage in the New York Times, the long lines and Chief tattoos and other totems of gamer enthusiasm.
With all that excess, you might assume this means Halo 3 is the game phenomenon of the year. And that would be a mistake. From the market’s point of view, all that fanboy energy is a sideshow. The reality is that the 360 is no longer the market’s most popular next gen console: the Wii owns that spot, now with more than half a million more units sold worldwide. For that matter, the 7 year old Playstation 2 is still going strong, and even into this year, was still outselling the 360.
While Halo 3 will sell well with the 11 million who already own one, the big question is, will it move significantly more 360s? And the even more crucial question, will it move the 360 back to its short-lived lead among next gens?
I’ll go on record right now and say No and No.
Click the link and read the Post and you’ll find out how he came to that conclusion.
I think it’s funny that they keep calling the Wii a ‘next generation’ console. It’s actually a game cube with new controllers.
Not me !!!
I have a problem paying for a console more money than what I can build myself equivalent or more powerful.
Especially since the Can $ on par with US $, the computer parts are dirt cheap now.
#1 with such old generation features as rumble. PS3 is so futuristic and nex gen.
Ed, you are so right. Microsoft had another kick at the can with Halo 3, but they are blowing it again… big time. They can’t even manufacture a disk now without there being flaws. The scratched disks they are replacing are defective! Here’s an excerpt from the “news” section on the MS site…
“…. a friend “is having a lot of problems with his 2nd copy of Halo 3” because he gets a “cannot read disk” error. Asked if this could be a problem with the system’s drive, the poster replied back saying the system works fine with other games.
This could be considered an isolated issue if it wasn’t for the fact that the thread has already 15 pages with dozens of users replying back and explaining the errors they’re getting and when those are happening. A user by the name of Muffy said:
I’m on my 3rd copy of Halo 3 – after the 2nd Limited copy was found to be scratched I upgraded to Legendary hoping the REAL DVD CASE you get when you by the “PLASTIC EDITION” (PE) would yield a clean disk – and it did – the surface is perfect.
But… I’m still getting read error intermittently at various points in Solo or Campaign – usually when I reboot I can get by the read error and continue on. This is happening on a spanking new 360 Elite – 4 days old.”
Because it’s an established franchise with enormous hype, this is going to be a huge game. Like Metroids and Zeldas, it’ll get unswervingly positive reviews from people who wouldn’t know narrative from nonsense, people who make sweeping misguided assumptions about the average guy jumping online and having a grand ol’ time getting teabagged and called a faggot.
The Wii shows that you don’t have to have awesome graphics – just *good enough* graphics.
By reusing the Game Cube hardware, they’ve kept costs down. Instead they made a great box with connectors, WiFi, controller, SD reader. Free games.
My money bet is on the Star Wars LightSaber game coming out for the Wii. May The Force Be Wii Thee 🙂
#3. I guess it boils down to what makes a console “next generation”. Is it better graphics? High definition? On-line capabilities?
I’m a PC gamer so I’m always “Next Gen” 🙂
Imagine the wireless SW LightSaber w/force feedback….!
Oh the YouTubes…
Next generation = Generation after the previous generation.
It’s not a measurement of system abilities or features.
#6 Mark Derail
“Imagine the wireless SW LightSaber w/force feedback….!
Oh the YouTubes…”
Now thats a game that would get me to buy a console.
consoles… HA!
This fad will pass because the PC is the one true gaming platform!
now if I could just get game developers to realize that… as if to intentionally kick me in the groin, Rockstar is, apparently, not developing GTA:4 for the PC at all… Only Xbox360 and PS3… and that sucks.
I have to admit to being a Wii fan through and through. I think what Nintendo have quite astutely realised is that its the parents of gamers that often make the console buying decisions, and that most of those parents grew up playing on consoles themselves and want something to appeal to them.
There is nothing really about Halo 3 that appeals to the parent of a teenager who want to have a go themselves, but the Wii certainly does and since buying one for my boy’s 15th we’ve had great fun as a family playing on it. The in-laws came over and in their upper 70s have a lovely evening playing golf on it, which bodes well for a family style console. Certainly our PSII never had such a wide appeal…. I think Nintendo just got it right….
Kind of pitiful, all these “grown-ups” getting so het up about playing games that should be the rightful domain of pre-adolescents.
MMuster, yes play the grown-up games. Vroom, vroom, look at my powerful gas guzzling car. Look out little old ladies and speed limits, I OWN this road!
Mister Mustard – The rightful domain of anyone is what they choose it to be. The video game industry is increasingly catering to the older generations because they know that they can produce the type of content that the older generations will enjoy, and they do.
OhForTheLoveOf – The console and PC will merge soon as one in the same platform for everything. Of course, there will be people who say this will never happen, and those are the ones who still have black and white TVs.
Skippy – Next Generation is not just the simple next version of the same idea. Next Generation also assumes that Natural Selection has occurred to some extent. The Wii is fun to play, but it is not a Next Generation console. It is a reform of an old idea. The Wii is a niche product, and it fits the nitch. It is not in the same category as the PS3 or 360. It would be like comparing a VHS player to a DVD player.
Mark Derail – You should expect to pay more for a more expensive habit. Computers/Gaming/PC or Console gaming is an expensive hobby, and if you are poor, then maybe you should consider something slightly cheaper for entertainment. Maybe Bridge or Checkers?
Now, for the record, Halo 3 broke the entertainment record for the first 24 hours. There was $170 million in sales in the first 24 hours. That to me is enough to state that Microsoft got it right. If you don’t like Halo, move on and find something that is really awful to criticize, because you all look like fools for criticizing the most popular game of the year.
Yeah… all the sales numbers indicate to me is that their are either trade barriers to importing game consoles in japan(which there are) or that the Japanese consumers are racist and will refuse to buy American products no matter how good they are (which they do).
When you factor out the various Japanese trade barriers, the xbox is and will continue to be the overwhelming victor of this generation of game console.
Yey, wii wins Japan(overwhelmingly), Xbox wins everywhere else (overwhelmingly).
It is too bad that the Japanese people will have to suffer playing substandard games this generation, because of their crappy trade policy and their xenophobic attitudes towards Americans(er foreigners).
And stupid me, I switch to Toyota the year the get rated lower than ford by JD Powers.
Jason, I’m a big fan of Halo. We have H1 and 2, but read my post #4. I look at Companies with product like Halo as opportunities to make money. I wouldn’t touch MS now unless they can turn their sloppy business practices and product manufacturing around in a hurry.
A cursory test is to ask secondary school students if they are planning to buy a 360, now that halo is out. I’ve found from those on other platforms and old XBox that Wii is first on the list of upgrades. They were just coming around to maybe risk buying a 360, but were waiting to see if new units have trouble. The disk problem just set that wait time back 6 months. Christmas is in 2 months…
GregA why would Japan want gas-guzzling, low tech polluters imported to their country?
The real question is, can Microsoft do hardware? They can do software and everything else but boxes? Maybe they should buy Apple or Sony?
360 has the highest attach rate. End of story.
#12 – Kind of pitiful, all these “grown-ups” getting so het up about playing games that should be the rightful domain of pre-adolescents.
Comment by Mister Mustard — 9/28/2007 @ 8:55 am
I seem to recall you giving me shit a few days back about being “judgmental”…
>>The rightful domain of anyone is what they choose it to be. The
>>video game industry is increasingly catering to the older
>>generations because they know that they can produce the
>>type of content that the older generations will enjoy, and they do.
{snicker}. I notice you didn’t use the term “grownup”. Wise word choice.
#21 – {snicker}. I notice you didn’t use the term “grownup”. Wise word choice.
I’m both a grownup and a gamer.
Now go out to the woods and eat some granola.
#15 Yey, wii wins Japan(overwhelmingly), Xbox wins everywhere else (overwhelmingly).
Wii wins everywhere. It sells more units per month then X360 for a period of 4 months. Halo has a massive marketing engine and is selling well for now, but the stories of defects are going to kill sales for Xmas. 😛 Meanwhile there is ‘gun’ attachment for the Wii that takes the 2 remotes and holds them in a Tommy-gun-like case. Sounds stupid until you start to play Metroid with it. What cool new game will Xbox have next year? Will it just be more ‘next-gen’ graphics?
Games fort he Wii just keep getting cooler as the features of the remotes are pushed to new levels with each new game.
Count me in as someone who will buy a 360 just for halo 3.
I bought a PS2 years ago just for Gran Turismo
>>I seem to recall you giving me shit a few days back about
>>being “judgmental”…
Yeah. But come on. Video games? Adults? What’s next, Extreme Teeter-Totter?
yeah, how can one compare the last 4 months of data, when one product has been out a year longer?
I bought a wii because my wife enjoyed it. then I just bought myself a 360 because I like to play real games, halo3, and to get some use out of my Hi def TV.
only time i will ever buy another wii game is for a wii zapper game.
#27 – If anyone knows a place where the Wii is dependably available please let me know.
Costco
The Wii “SHOULD NOT” be hard to find anymore, but obviously I don’t know anything about where you live… But in Indianapolis, I could go buy one right now… And if I owned a TV, I would… (I admit it, I like the Wii even though I’m a pretty hardcore PC gamer)
#26 – Extreme Teeter-Totter
You are so wrong-headed that I hardly know where to begin…
… But THAT was mighty funny 🙂
#31 – #10 sorry, but the pc turned into a copy protection/rootkit pond. I wouldn’t buy a pc game today even if they paid me.
Paranoid loon 🙂
#14 no, wii won worldwide. Half a million more units sold, and overselling xbox. Sorry.
And to add insult to injury, doesn’t Nintendo actually sell the Wii at… get this… a profit?
#33 – What poor souls?
From Symantec’s own site:
http://tinyurl.com/32u97e
The recent release of the eagerly anticipated Bioshock game lead to gamers getting another kind of shock. Bioshock is a hybrid first-person shooter/RPG from Irrational Games. A rumor had circulated that the Bioshock game comes loaded with a rootkit. After investigation Symantec can confirm that this is not true.
The rumor seems to have started after Microsoft’s RootkitRevealer found a “SecuROM” registry setting that it found suspicious after the Bioshock game had been installed. SecuROM just so happens to be owned by Sony who after all had started the whole rootkit outrage with their music CDs.
The secuROM installation creates a folder and a registry key with a null character which prevents users from accessing/deleting the key from the registry. This is to assist with disc authentication and piracy. It is however not a rootkit.