Sorry if I offended anyone by my use of "fanboy", but it was amazing the hugely negative spin people put on this without knowing the facts.

It seems this is relatively rampant however, with the way people blindly bash a console they do not own...

Once again, I apologize if I hit a nerve... I don't use the word often, but the word is intended to portray the immature behavior of coming to a place to bash or otherwise spread negative rumors about a particular system.

I, for one, am happy to positively contribute to threads about the X-Box, PS2, or Gamecube if I feel I can. I do not, however, jump on "bad news" or negative speculation about any of the three. If someone asks an opinion of which console to get, I may offer my opinion from my background... (having owned more than one).

Anyhow, please continue... We all are free to voice our opinions...

I agree that this has been a problem in the past, but not in this thread. Show me one instance up above where somebody bashed a console, any console. After that, show that they didn't own the console they were bashing.

I'm referring more to the overly negative speculation on something that seems, in truth, relatively benign...

Look, the guy was canned. You don't leave Microsoft to pursue other projects uless Microsoft releases you from your contractual obligations. I am sure that he had a non-compete clause in his contract with MS if he left voluntarily. But if you get fired, usually those non-compete clauses are negotiated out.

Press releases never say that big execs are fired (unless you commit some legal wrongdoing and the company wants to seperate its liability), it is a fact.

The recent annoucements that XBOX is sucking internationally was the reason for this firing.

It's called a difference of opinions. I don't think it's a big deal either, but I'm not going to call those who think it is a big deal fanboys.

Besides, I don't see any real X-box bashing here. Most of the speculation is that he was fired, rather than resigned. That's not bashing the X-box. People have brought up the X-box's poor international sells. Again that's not bashing because it is a cold hard fact, and relevent in speculating if this guy was fired.

It's amazing how people are willing to believe the spin a company puts on an event.

If things were amiable at Microsoft, and Blackley wanted to work hands-on with games, don't you think he'd do it within Microsoft's first party structure, instead of resigning and pursuing a new venture?

The way it works is executives are paid to "resign" to "pursue new ventures" so the company doesn't have to deal with the headlines that come with firing a person, and the publications of the reasons the person is being fired. Firing Blackley would basically be admitting the XBox is failing.

But pushing him out certainly doesn't bode well for the console. It may mean the situation is worse than we know, or it may mean support inside Microsoft is eroding.

The thing I don't understand is this:

If the guy was being "forced out", why would he continue to do something supporting the X-Box? Why wouldn't he just go somewhere else?

noncompete clause maybe?

maybe he agreed to make at least one xbox game. who knows. In fact until he announces the games he is making we will not know if they are going to be multiconsole or Xbox exclusive. maybe he is going to develop for all three consoles.

Also with the time it takes to develop a game. we will not see his game till next year anyway. What great games has he developed anyway?

perhaps he realizes that his gameplan for the x-box is the reason that it is not doing as well as expected and his leaving is the right thing to do in his mind. Then again he could just see that the xbox could use more games and he wants to make money.

Maybe he grew tired of Bill whipping him.

ahem, Susan Lusty?

It's amazing how some people are only willing to constantly see the negative things about a system they don't own and only discuss those things.

Blackley's involvement with the Xbox was always meant to be short-term. He helped create it, get it off the ground, and now he's moving on to make games (wonder for which system). Yesterday gamespot conducted an interview with him where he went over the reasons for his leaving MS. http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories...862275,00.html It's a good read.

The market situation looks very bad for the XBox right now. You have to really spin the facts to put a silver lining on it. I call them as I see them.

I don't own a GameCube, but it has promising games on the horizon, and it has enough first party muscle that it doesn't need a massive base of installation to provide great games. The N64 was a market disappointment, but it was also the home of some of the best games ever. In fact, I think one could argue that the N64 had more great games than the original Playstation.

The XBox tried to out-Playstation the Playstation. Microsoft clearly expected to come in like gangbusters, wow the market with their technology, and seize a large enough chunk of the market that third parties would develop exclusive games for them. But when they got to the party, everybody already had a PS2, and Sony had a killer Christmas lineup that made most PS2 owners very happy with their choice in consoles.

As a result, Microsoft couldn't sell enough consoles, and now the third parties don't appear to be giving them the exclusive lovin'.

So the way I see it, things look very bad for XBox, and the evidence keeps piling up that all is not well in the house of Gates. As for not owning the console, I'm not putting forth any criticism that requires extensive experience with the console. I'm talking about how it's floundering in the market, and how it can't secure games to sell more hardware.

I'm sure that, for some people, Halo was reason enough to buy the console, and if they never buy another game, they'll consider it money well spent. But the XBox is not a sure bet to provide high quality exclusive content over the next several years, and the Playstation 2 and Gamecube both are.

I can't see how anyone could recommend that someone buy an XBox over either of the other consoles at this point.

So what is there to say that's positive to say about XBox right now?

It has some cool games. Halo was one of my best gaming experiences every, Amped took over my life for a while, and I recently fell in love with Jet Grind Radio Future while renting it. I was also recently awed by the awesome graphics of RalliSport Challenge and found it to be a great game overall. Every port from the PS2 has been improved, sometimes by a lot, sometimes not. DOA 3 has some of the best graphics I've ever seen. Spider Man was best for the Xbox including extra levels. Many people consider Inside Drive to be the best basketball game released this year. I can't wait for Morrowind to come out, it looks great. I love Sega games and especially the ones getting released for the Xbox.

Halo Online is totally awesome, even if you have to do a little work to get it going. I love not having to deal with storing memory, and using the Xbox as a music jukebox rocks. I also love ripping music and putting them into tons of different games. Oh yeah, the DVD player works great on it, I don't notice layer changes anymore and the quality is awesome.

I guess if all you do is look at news or whatever, the Xbox sucks. I guess if you own one it's a totally different story.

Not entirally true.. I "owned" an Xbox. The game I really enjoyed was RallySport being a racer at heart. Other then that I've had nothing since Halo.

I'm a Nintendo fan by heart (duh) so that's probably why its not my grain of salt. Well that and the thing broke, but thats another story that doesn't need to be shared.

I do think people need to stinking chill out. If people are so sure that the PS2 or GC is better, let the sales do the talking. There's no need to bash.

That siad, I do think some people are addressing the sales, and that's all fair and good.

Sorry this post is all over the place. It's not directed at you GP. just me wasting my time.

I know it sucks to see all the negatives about the Xbox, but that is the reality of the situation for Xbox at this time.

There are some positives for Xbox owners. The new Xbox version of the new Spiderman game is great. I rented it on Sunday and I've been playing it non stop. There are other good games out for the system as well, so its not like there is nothing to play on it.


However, there is a dark cloud over the system that is not going to go away anytime soon. I've been through this before with the Dreamcast, 3DO, Saturn, and others. Its frustrating to hear all the negatives, but as long as you enjoy the system it shouldn't matter. Remember that there are real reasons for the negative press and its not just people console bashing for no reason. Don't get mad at people for talking about these kinds of stories. Its news when a system succeeds and especially when it fails. People are going to talk about it and discuss it. It has always gone on that way and it always will. Enjoy the Xbox and don't worry about the current troubles. The Xbox may work through it or it may not, either way it will be a constant subject for discussion on this forum. If it bugs you just skip the topics like this.

As it happens in business, people have contracts and perhaps he had Microsoft over a barrel ( as unlikely as it may seem). This might have been the best way for the two parties to go their seperate ways and have everyone "save face".

I've heard it said that " Microsoft won't allow themselves to fail". That's really not up to them. Clearly they've misjudged the market place. I've read in a few game magazines ( I'm not 100% sure but EGM was one of them) that the PS2 was outselling both X-Box AND Gamecube combined. Evidently someone needed to take the fall for this. And Blekely was that someone.

One of the areas where Microsoft went wrong was, in my opinoin, was marketing the console. They seemingly started saying "Hey guys we've made the greatest console ever and you're going to buy it". If they paid more attention to the actual games things might be different.

After all the greatest car in the world doesn't run without gas.

Robb

For a good car analogy I put this forth:

In the muscle/pony car market there are two main competitiors. The Ford Mustang, and the GM platform offered in the Firebird and Camero.

The GM platform is faster then the competitor, the Mustang.

However, just because the GM platform is faster, it does not mean it sells more. In fact, the line is being cancelled and the Mustang will be on its own for a while.

Why? Because the Mustang is actually a car that the average person would want to drive. The GM platform is much more geared towards hardcore speed fans.

Point is, that there is alot more to this "race" then just the most powerful hardware.

Good analogy.

Don't forget about the Mustang's storied "history" that people are familiar with. Alot of people already have fond memorys of thier first Mustang.

You can probably say the same about the Playstation.


Robb

A cute analogy, except this isn't the automobile industry; it's the videogame industry. It's not just about the cars (hardware), it's about the games. And while powerful hardware alone is not enough to sell a system, the games reflect that power, and ease of development and features attract developers.
And of course, some people like to point to the N64's hardware advantages over the PSX's and the PSX's much larger userbase as the best example of what you're trying to get at, but it was not as simple as "N64 more powerful than PSX". There's a reason many N64 games looked blurry and bland compared to the better of PSX games, and the limitations of the cartridge didn't appeal to many developers compared to the CD.
Hmmm......the games? It currently has a great lineup of games for being on the market for less than half a year (Halo's an amazing experience; Amped is the best and deepest snowboarding game I've ever played; PGR is an extremely high quality and unique racer; DoA3 is a very nice fighter; Rallisport is an AWESOME racer; JSRF is a beautiful and addictive unique game; Gunvalkyrie is a great shooter experience if you can get into it; and those are just the exclusives), and the PS2 doesn't exactly have a plethora of astonishing and unique titles in the works. I'm personally much more impressed with the Xbox's future lineup than the Gamecube's. Nintendo will inevitabley churn out a handful of great titles, but I'm not exactly a huge fan sequels after sequels, and I demand a lot more from a system than a handful of 1st party titles (and while this is just a personal thing, I never liked Zelda, and Star Fox Adv. doesn't appeal to me at all). And then there's its 3rd party stuff, and to be honest I'm not that impressed. What's its next big game coming up? Resident Evil? Sorry, but I played that YEARS ago. It's nothing but an updated rehash of a game with extremely outdated control and play mechanics. I'm surely to get a Gamecube down the road when games like Mario Sunshine (and/or the other Mario game supposedly in the works) and Metroid Prime come out, but there simply aren't tons of games I can look forward to.

On the other hand, The Xbox's future lineup is what I'm most excited about. Microsoft has been able to garner an incredible amount of developer support for the system, and when I look at the Xbox's upcoming library I see a lot more freshness and originality than the other two systems. Easily. Microsoft really is pushing (or should I say 'allowing') developers to take risks and create innovative and fresh content more than the other big two (N and Sony), and that's why you're seeing far less sequels/remakes/rehashes on the Xbox than the other two systems. I like new experiences, not old ones. It's especially good for me considering I love PC games (Western developed games), and my PC sucks....and I'm dead sick of all the upgrading and problems associated with PC gaming.
On what other console am I going to be able to play

Bungie's next games (Project Phoenix sounds like something Bungie should pull off amazingly, and then there's Halo 2)

Morrowind

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge (the original was the best arcadish flight combat game I've ever played)

Midtown Madness 3

MechAssault (finally a mech game with fully destructable environments)

Project Ego (oh god....)

BC

Toejam & Earl III (original was one of the coolest Genesis games ever, and co-op is something sorely missing from the genre)

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Quantum Redshift (former Psygnosis members, makers of WipeoutXL)

Tekki (mech realism and control taken to new heights)

Brute Force

Panzer Dragoon X

Unreal Championship

World Series Baseball 2K3 (been hearing extremely good things)

Kakuto Chojin (former creators of Tobal/VF/Tekken, and are attempting a more natural and innovative control system, something sorely lacking in this genre)

Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter (the seamless transition between controls of a spaceship to the walking-around perspective and freedom your given looks amazing, and contrary to false reports and rumors, Crave has told IGN it's NOT coming to another system (source- Hillary-IGN))

Shenmue II - enhanced

Amped 2 (it's coming rumored with online play. The original was the easily the best snowboarding game I've ever played, and one can only imagine the improvements they'll make)

Strident

Duality

Spliter Cell (okay so it's coming to PS2.......the next year, but it's being designed for the Xbox, and they're attempting much deeper and more realistic gameplay than the interactuve movie that was MGS2)

Loose Cannon (GTA3 with 5x the ambition)

Larry Holland/Totally Game's flight-sim/adventure game (long in development exclusively for the Xbox, coming from them it should be amazing)

Outlaw Golf (first-hand impressions from three sources I've seen all claim it to have an amazing and uniquely challenging golf engine)

Xavier Fox (we've actually seen nothing in-game about it yet, just concept renders, but I've been following it closely and interacting with one of the developers and this is an extraordinarily ambitious platformer. Stay tuned for this one, as it's one to watch out for...)

Kung Fu Chaos (goofy concept- yes. goofy gameplay- nope. I know a couple people who've play tested it and they loved it.)

Shadowun sequel (the original was an AWESOME rpg, and guess who owns the rights to it after buying FASA- Microsoft. The creative director of MS games is also the creator of the original Shadowrun RPG, and vowed that there will be a sequel. Maybe unvieled at E3? Who knows....but I'll be there to find out)

The Unseen (okay so I don't know much about this adventure/RPG, but I've been hearing it'll be a stunner, and with stunning graphics)

some other games

whatever else Microsoft or some 3rd parties have under wraps (many of which will be shown at E3, some promised to be killer-apps)

most often the best version of multi-platform games


Out of every console's current future exclusive list, for what I want, this impresses me the most by far. I couldn't care less if I were the only person in the world who owned an Xbox, as long as these games and more come out. And unlike Sega, if there's any company in the world that has the financial abilities to keep a system on the market, and pay off developers (how do you think Nintendo got Capcom to release their huge franchise on a console with a much smaller user-base than the PS2?), it's Microsoft, so I'll have nothing to worry about.
When I'm sitting in front of my TV playing the games that I want to play, it's not going to bother me at all that more people own a Playstation2 than they do the one I'm playing.

And as for games that will sell system, yes, MS should be doing what they can to get the big franchises, but just remember that many of these huge franchises had to start somewhere without any popular prequels. 'Name' can sell a game, but just as important is marketing and hype.

My "cute" analogy is not to serve as a perfect parellel, but rather only to serve as "insight" to those who feel that the xbox should win simpley because of hardware specs. I think it isn't perfect, but it does draw some good lessons.

Funny how you say that you're a fan of PC games. My opinoin (and it's only my opinoin mind you) is that the X-Box is more of a machine geared toward PC gamers who want to buy a console. Two of the titles that you mentioned "Mech Assualt" and "Jedi Knights of the Old Republic" are or were at one time PC titles.

There is a definite line in the sand drawn between PC and console gamers. Personally I'm not a huge fan of PC games. The majority of them seem to be of the "point, click and watch" or first person shooter variety. Where you see "freshness" in the X-Box lineup I tend to see a lack of variety. Most of the X-Box games I have seen to date do have very "PC feel" to them. There are some very good X-Box titles, but as I've said on another thread right now there is no one " I have to play this or my life won't be complete" game for X-Box. That's a hyperbole of course. But when I look at the X-Box lineup I see alot of racing games, snowboarding, Halo, and Munch. There are the other "multi-platform" titles but if you have a PS2 chances are you are not going to plunk down another $300 to play them on X-Box.

I made a prediction when the X-Box launched in November. I said "I have a feeling in six months Microsoft will start saying 'we need to refocus our X-Box division'". I had no idea I'd be right.

Any what that's just one guys opinoin.

Robb