Apparently the war is in full force and Microsoft’s Don Mattrick is ready to poke the flag in the ground and call it a sure fire victory (in so many words). He said he’s “willing to declare here today that Xbox 360 will sell more consoles worldwide this generation than PS3” (eurogamer)
They’re either not seeing the Wii as a competitor or are trying to avoid that evil word considering the growth of the tiny little console in the market. After telling the audience the Xbox 360 has already outpaced the PlayStation 3 and Wii he failed to mention the one-year head start the 360 had over its competitors.
There are, of course, bonuses to talking figures when you were first out of the gate. The interesting facts, which won’t present themselves for years now, will be the end unit sales figures for Wii, 360 and PlayStation 3 when all boxes are end-of-life’d. We’re sure to hear each side declare victory when they’ve decided when the war actually ends. In Microsoft’s eyes, the console war will probably end when they release the next-generation box, barring the fact that they should wait at least one year before claiming the title.
You can’t argue with the facts, Xbox 360 is doing very well in the United States (if we ignore Japan). The Nintendo Wii has sold 8.8 million units to the Xbox 360‘s 10.3 million units. How many units did the Xbox 360 have sold around the same time Nintendo boasts 8.8 million? Probably a bit less.
Press can be a great thing when you have numbers to play with and figures to skew. Oddly enough, if some of us are any indication, we’ve purchased multiple Xbox 360’s because of dead systems. Sure, we’re stupid for actually doing it, but those figures will work into the total units sold for the Xbox 360 hardware sales. Imagine, their failing systems may have actually boosted sales figures a bit; probably not statistically significant but funny non-the-less.
We can’t wait to see what type of numbers Sony and Nintendo are going to fling out. If we ask each competitor, we’re sure they’ll say we’re going to win the console war. Nintendo may just ask, “what console war? We just make game hardware” and you can’t fault them there!
Much better microphone Jonah.
@ RTS’s aren’t dying – just waiting
So scaling down is an issue, apparently … Well, you can always push up the minimum spec, and leave the lower end PC market for indies.
I agree with Jordan, blaming the hardware instead of acknowledging the lack of balls/cojones is not fair.
@UK: Wii U sells just 34,000 pieces of software in January
😛 this is a big surprise indeed, taking into account the huge library of games available for WiiU.
On the other hand, WiiU doesn’t have the market share that other consoles have.
@thatgamecompany had been bankrupt when Journey shipped
Speaking of cojones, these guys had it.
As for a small design doc, well, not entirely bullshit. You can do it the Agile way, with lots of cards, each describing a development story. So yeah, technically you do have just a one page document, but the entire description of the design will take plenty of cards to compensate.
@QOTW:
Not sure, to be honest, I wasn’t a fan of RPGs. Then STALKER came (Steam labels it as an RPG). Warcraft III had RPG elements in it, but it was still an RTS. I also enjoyed Fallout 3, but that was after STALKER.
Some encouraging words for Paul: hope you get a job.
@KOTOR
I loved it. I actually prefer the Old Republic era than the whole Anakin timeline.
@RTS are undead
In my opinion a genre never dies. Few years back people were saying that 2D games were dead. Since then we had some brilliant 2D entries. Terraria. Trine. Same thing will be with RTS. They just need the right conditions for a return. A brave studio that will make a new classic and start an RTS uprising.
@Segsbox 360
I think Microsoft tried to buy everything at some point. I definitely remember Microsoft wanted to buy Nintendo during it’s Gamecube days. If Microsoft would buy Sega, the Dreamcast might have had a chance. Microsoft would flood it with cash and support.
But history chose otherwise. Probably for the best.
@At Wii U sales
If there is one thing I am sure off is that in February there will be at least one Wii U unit sold in UK. Mine. That’s right. I now own 2 Nintendo branded bricks. My £300 Monster Hunter emulator.
@Assassins Creed
Milk the cow while it’s alive and pray it does not turn into a bull.
@QOTW
First RPG I ever played was Phantasy Star 2 on Genesis. It’s funny cause I could never complete it because Russian cartridges shipped without memory and you had to finish the whole game in one sitting. The first RPG I properly enjoyed was Pokemon Emerald. I played a few RPGs before it but they were nothing compared to Emerald. That and Final Fantasy X.
The demo of Journey does not do it justice. I too tried the demo in mid-2012 and was underwhelmed.
Then over winter break, I decided to listen to the great reviews and give the game a shot. Actually bought the disc. It was an amazing experience. The gameplay is very basic, but the immersion and creativity levels are way high.
By the way, you can solo the whole game. It’s only an option to interact with others (who you will not see in the demo). Everyone looks the same, but has unique musical sounds they make. You can only communicate through musical sounds, and so interacting with others becomes this amazing experience, because you are doing most of the interactions in your own imagination!