Wow, you make yourself sound so innocent when you post up these messages. I sure wish I could be like you. In my opinion, your messages are like a Kia salesman trying to sell a car. In your case, you are trying to sell the PS2. So don't make it sound like you have no biased opions.

JoshD, I own a PS2, XBox, and a GameCube. Besides who cares which system last longer. I like them all and that's the bottom line 'cause Stone Cold said so.

You have no idea what you're talking about. I don't even have a PS2 so why would I be trying to sell it? The only next-gen system I currently own is the Gamecube. All I've done is evaluate the facts.

The PS2 has the largest library and has the most A+ games currently. No one can argue that, it's fact. Look at reviews, sells etc.

The GCN has an ok lineup now, and has several games coming out this year that are sure to be hits, as they are sequels to game series that have produced nothing but hits.

The X-box line-up is ok too, but it's geared more towards PC gamers and hard core gamers in general. There's not much there, or coming soon (that's been announced anyway) to sell the X-box to casual gamers.

So as it stands currently, it looks like the PS2 will hold onto it's lead, the GCN will move into second place by year's end, leaving the X-box in third place.

These are just predictions made for the sake of conversation. I'm not trying to sell any particular console. I could care less what someone buys. Look earlier in the thread where I advised someone to buy an X-box if there were enough games they wanted to play on it, as it's unlikely MS will give up this generation.

At any rate, you need to change your rude posting style, or you won't be around much longer.

loganhunter,

It seems like you are the one that does the most bashing. Calling people "PS2 fanboy" or "PS2 lover" to discout their opinions is not necessary here. It seems like the most bias comes not from the pro-PS2 posts but from your posts. If you disagree with a post, then disagree with the POST and stop calling people names.

None of the above four posts are appropriate here. These amount to nothing but trolling. Please do not make any more posts in that nature.

Thanks Namja. This is one of the best threads we've ever had discussing the future and pros and cons of each of the systems. It would be a shame if the thread got locked because of one members responses.

I totally disagree with this comment. I am or at least was a casual gamer and I chose the Xbox to be my number one system over the others. I know a lot of casual gamers that bought the Xbox. They have a great line up of games coming out this year. I really enjoy sports games which I'm sure a lot of other casual gamers do too. I personally think Xbox took these types of games to the next level with a smoother framerate and better graphics. Don't get me wrong, I think the GameCube did a great job with this too. The unfortunate part is, a lot of the sports games are ports from the PS2. I really don't know what else to say without turning this into one of those typical console war threads.

Josh forgot the IMO which should have been heavily used throughout his post, but I simply implied it. One could argue that Mario is as big a niche as anything out there considering it sells itself heavily on nostaglia alone.

I honestly think these console wars would end if people didn't worry about the systems they didn't have. I don't keep up on the PS2 all, other than seeing if it has any good games coming out for it, but what's the point of being vocal about another system anyway? It's irritating for those who do own the system. You don't need to own all 3 systems to talk about them, but if all you do it talk negatively about another system you don't own (ScandalUMD) it sure looks biased and laughable after a while. It seems like it's a have versus the havenots and a way to self-justify not being able to play another systems's awesome game.

I always laugh when someone says they reviewed a game on another system and didn't like it when they actually just played it at Target on the 10 inch moniter for 5 minutes.

I wish there was a forum that didn't have constant console war threads, they get so sickening and tiring. I wish there was a forum that concentrated on reviews and news of specific consoles without someone commenting daily on whether or not the GCN will have any mature games or if the Xbox will survive 1 year.

I come here for the news and reviews, I love that stuff. One thread on console wars is fine, it played itself out, but now we get the same old threads recycled over and over again. Maybe we should start a "One and Only Console Wars Thread" and just have constant discussion there. That would be easy to avoid for those like me who want to.

Namja what do you think?

I disagree. If you have a thread dedicated to Console Wars you are only encoraging Console Bashing which Geoff has made very clear he does not want. I like these discussions because it gives people a chance to voice their opinion on how they see the console market. It is ruined when people just start labeling people just to bring attention to themselves. There are alot of good opinions and observations in this thread, but it has been soiled, which leads us here way off topic. If we could all just learn that, in these kinds of threads everything is opinion backed by facts. Don't take what anyone says personally, because they are only voicing what they see. In the words of Rodney King: "Hey! Stop hitting me with that stick."

Geoff doesn't want mindless PS2 SUXX!!!! console bashing, the more thought out stuff as found in this thread and presented by folks like you and ScandalUMD he seems OK with. That would be the type of stuff that goes in there. If you want to strictly follow Geoff's no bashing mandate, this thread could have easily been closed.

We could call it "Console Discussion" not "Console Wars".

I don't really see a problem. It's not like there's a ton of these threads. It seems like one or two of them pop a month. There are currently two of these, this one and the X-box Sales thread. Namja probably should have merged them together. But with there usually only being one of these threads on the front page at a give time I don't really see a need for a one and only. Namja should just make sure that there aren't duplicate posts.


As for the haves vs. the havenots. I don't think that's the case for most of the people that have been posting well thought out opinoins here.

I post just my opinons based on facts. I like the GCN's price and lineup and future games, and think they are geared more toward the typical Joe Six Pack casual gamer, thus I say that it should take second place.

I don't own a PS2, but I admit that it has the largest lineup and the most A+ games as a result of having the best third party support. I don't bash it to make myself feel good about the great games I'm missing out on.

As for the X-box. I just stated my opinon on it's lineup. It's line up (exclusives only, sports games and what not that are on all three systems don't count as they aren't going to make any one buy one system over the other) seem to be more like PC type games (i.e Halo-FPS, the RPGs like Project EGO sound more like PC/American RPGs, rather than the traditional Japanese RPGs like Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior). Personally, I don't think those are going to sell X-boxes to the casual Joe Six Pack gamer. Nor is online gaming, as most causal gamers don't care about it. Again that's something that caters to the PC gaming crowd.

Why will this affect sales? Because PC Gamers and Console Gamers are two seperate crowds. Sure there are many people who play and love both, but that is only a minority of hardcore gamers, and a very tiny minority of all gamers. Just look at this forum. It's comprised of mostly hardcore gamers (otherwise they wouldn't waste their time on the net posting about video games) and at least 95% of the posts here are on console games. The console gaming market is much larger than the PC gaming market, as a result, MS needs to get some more traditional console games as exclusives. Right now they have DOA3, maybe Oddworld (not really the stereotypical platformer, but still a platformer) some racing games, and Amped that fit this bill. Again this only considering exclusives as multi-system games don't sell consoles. None of these have sold systems like an MGS2, Final Fantasy, GTA 3 etc has Sold PS2s. The future lineup currently looks to be more of the same, while Nintendo has several of it's hit franchises coming out. These have always sold 1 million + copies and should sell equally well on the GCN and as a result get some people to buy GCN's putting them ahead of MS.

Againg I'm not bashing the X-box to make myself feel better about missing out on it's great games, because their aren't any X-box games I'm dying to play, as Halo isn't a big deal to me as I don't really care for FPS's.

At any rate, I though this thread has been interesting and that most people participating have stated their opinions well. I was pleased that it didn't resort to fanboy system bashing/praising. It was a pretty intelligent discussion of the console market.

If you're not interested in discussing the console market (or don't like the negativity toward the X-box since it has all odds stacked against it currently) then avoid these threads. There's usually only one or two of them and they're clearly labeled and easy to skip over.

In my OPINION, ( I don't want to start any wars or anything) The PS2 will prevail as the dominant system on the market and that includes sales in games and consoles. They have a huge gamer base due to the PS1 and a huge head start in sales for the system. Why Gamecube and Xbox desided to launch a year later and expect to take over the the market is beyond me. PS2 also now, with there second gen titles out ( and with a good deal of them being great titles) this only makes it harder for the two other systems to compete. When I say compete, I mean having people wanting to still buy their console. I own a PS2 and a Gamecube and to tell the truth, I only bought the Gamecube because of the fact that Resident Evil moved over to them. Xbox may now be getting a few really good titles out there but a lot of them are games you could have bought for the PS2 6 months ago, and Gamecube is still majority a kid system. I believe they will make a dent in the market as soon as RE, Zelda, Mario and Metroid make an appearance though. ( also, just another thought, but why would a system such as the Gamecube launch without having their big guns out for it, Is another beyond me! ) Then, You have the Japan market. I also believe that the Xbox has bit off more than they can chew. It is extremely tough to crack and the people are very loyal to their two favorite systems.

All in all, probably all three consoles will make it through the war but it will be my prediction that if any system were to fall out first it would be the XBox. They have to make a damn good impression on everyone this time around to even think of staying in the race for the next generation and so far they (besides Halo, have'nt shown us anything earth shattering!)

AND IF ANYBODY WANTS TO CALL ME A FANBOY, GO AHEAD. I'M A FAN OF GOOD GAMES AND I BUY THE SYSTEM(S) THAT HAS THEM.

DARTH GAMER

yeah dude, the PS2 had ALL their big guns released at launch

Who says they were trying to take over the market?

Microsoft

HEY HUH? The PS2 didn't need to. If you had'nt noticed, they had no one else to compete with.

DARTH GAMER

dude, there is always someone to compete with. the PS2 started REAL SLOWLY. the Xbox and the GC have way more quality games avaiable after 6 months than the PS2 did. when both of these systems are a year old, then compare the 2. and i don't think nintendo even thought that it would unseat the PS2 for number one. nintendo develops for its niche of the market. they put out quality titles, always have, always will. MS is new to the industry, and they are learning some lessons about consoles and the gaming industry. but like i said, wait until the GC and the Xbox have had the software lifecycle that the PS2 has, before you judge. thats all.... and also, don't forget how horrible the PS2 launch lineup was... and look where it is now.

okay time for my 2 cents.....

All the consoles do have thier strengths and appeal to different gamers. I'll look at them one at a time.

Playstation 2; So far Sony has a huge lead on the competion. According to an article ( may have been in Electronic Gaming Monthly but my memory is failing me) the PS2 is outselling both X-Box AND Gamecube combined. One of the advantages of the PS2 is the vast game library. Couple that with it's backward compatabilty, and you have a huge selection of games to choose from. Sony is taking the "show" online this summer. Naturally you'll need some add ons, but I'm sure that some won't mind shelling out some extra cash for them.

Gamecube; The Gamecube is the "dark horse" in this race. It does have some excellent titles already, with some good titles coming in the near future (Batman Dark Tomorrow being one of them). The main problem seems to be, and this is only my opinoin mind you, that the gaming audience is maturing and Nintendo has failed to keep pace. At least they have in the past. The Resident Evil "Redux" is a nice step for Nintendo but I'm waiting to see more. Also the system appears to have a disadvantage in terms of "firepower" with the other systems. Even with that in mind, Nintendo still has some great franchises in their stables. I wouldn't count them out just yet.

X-Box; To me the jury is still out on the X-Box. This is Microsoft's first venture into the console territory. And they are bound to make some mistakes along the way. It has been well written that X-Box isn't doing good business in Japan. And that is going to hurt them in the long run. What Microsoft has seemingly done is blurred the lines between console and PC. The X-Box contains a modified P3 processor, Nvidia graphics card, and an 8 Gig HD. It also runs on a version of Direct X, a program used to run PC games. So it comes as no surprise that a few of thier games ( Project Gotham Racing, Obi Wan and Halo) all started development as PC games. Many of X-Box's games also have a very "PC look" to them. What the X-Box lacks is the big name series that Sony has; Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid to name two. Microsoft's marketing strategy seemingly has been " We've made the greatest system ever! And you're going to buy it. Games? It doesn't matter what you play on it." Gamers have responded with "you can't drive a car without gas". The short fall in the game department is going to definitley hurt the X-Box. Can it recover? If they don't hurry and land some excellent titles then the X-Box might be a straggler in the herd. One thing's for sure that controller sure doesn't help.

Well that's it. I hope I've been fair. Remember these are only my opinoins.

Robb

When you say "firepower" are refering to their software lineup?

Actually, that's not true. The GCN hardwares is a good bit more powerful than the PS2 hardware, but not as powerful as the X-box Hardware.

This is why the GCN PS2 ports that aren't half-assed (good examples are NBA Street and NBA2K2) look better on the GCN that the PS2.

Since the three hardware configurations are so different, it's a little bit difficult to figure out which has more "power." My understanding is that PS2 pushes more geometry than Gamecube, but Gamecube supports more texture effects on chip.

I meant in terms of techinical prowess. But as someone pointed out in a later post, the Gamecube has a different architecture which compensates for that.

My bad

Robb