Get Me Coffee

oh yea 120 shines That is almost next to impossible 95 down 25 more to go

Gromit

I don't think the press release is much of an indicator, but I think all 3 consoles will do well this holiday season.

The PS2's only problem might be market saturation, but I don't think they've come close to selling as many PS2s as they sold PSXs. Microsoft and Nintendo will start to see the results of their quality releases hitting the market, so they should both do well.

Haven't we already established that the market will support 3 systems?

Fatman

Well PS2 has gta3, vice city, square games...but that has not gotten me to go and buy a ps2. I don't feel the need to purchase something that is just going to collect dust. I have my computer, my x-box and maybe this holiday I'll pick-up a gamecube to play some zelda and metroid prime. I just don't see what's the big deal with the ps2 never cared for it. My has all three systems and the ps2 gets the least play. No to mention whenever I'm at Best Buy there's someone picking up an xbox.

Groucho

Targeting "young children" and targeting "families" are two very different things. Games like "Elmo's Alphabet" target young children, in that there's nothing there for mom and dad. Games like "Mario Sunshine" target the whole family in that the everybody from age 6 to 60 can enjoy it...kids enjoy the colorful settings, and adults enjoy the solid gameplay and retro characters.

No question that Nintendo skews for a younger audience than , but they dont' leave adults in the dark either.

Aghama

Ding ding ding.

Most "gamers" already have at least one system, the vast majority a PS2. The market left for PS2 expansion is the casual gamer, which heavily outnumber the hardcore gamer, which were likely the focus of this poll. Doesn't anyone remember the big gamefaqs poll that determined that the Xbox would fail?

arvras

You guys can't seem to accept the fact that xbox will come close to catching up with sony but will not be able to because sony is ahead by one year.
Most people will buy xbox this holiday season because it has better graphics, u get a DVD playback kit with a $30 mail in rebate, it will have online gaming and many AAA titles.
Some of which are:
Splinter cell
Ghost recon
Blinx Time sweeper
ToeJam & Earl
metal gear solid
shenmue
panzer dragoon orta
kakuto chojin
Tork
house of dead 3
unreal championship
Sega GT

Plus its price is similar to PS2 but it has so many features and it has games that will please both adults and kids. One more reson no need to buy memory cards.

s}{ammer

arvras, ps2 plays DVDs rigth out of the box so no rebate required, it has many more AAA games than xbox and many ps1 games to choose from not even to mention all the good games coming out right along side those you list for xbox, while the xbox has a built in ethernet you still have to pay $50 to use xbox live and the ps2 allows dialup users and broadband using a $40 adapter and the games are free to play after you buy them. You still need memory cards if you want to go play at a friends house.

Why try and compare the xbox and PS2? They are both great and there are a lot of reason to own both. By the way, it is looking like gamecube is the one with the best lineup for the second half of the year.

tygloalex

I think the results are probably pretty accurate. A lot of people won't be picking up a ps2. For the simple reason that a lot of people already have a ps2. The x-box has x-box live coming up and that will generate some saless, and the gamecube seems (to me) to be falling behind. Seriously, I know they are breaking the image, but I equate Gamecube with children's game.

finbogg

...and I didn't accuse anyone of saying anything anti-Xbox and/or anti-MS. I just find it humorous that when a survey comes out, and it shows results that certain people don't like or agree with, they automatically assume it's rigged. Also it seems to me this happens more often with surveys that show the XBOX doing well.



Second, I don't feel the survey was ever portrayed as representing the "mainstream"

"The study also revealed that the majority of Gigex visitors are avid gamers who have been playing video games for 6 years or more (73%), play 20 hours or more a week (24%), and consider themselves to be advanced (44%) gamers."

Personally, I don't consider this type of gamer "mainstream"

Icculus

There is no chance that the Xbox will even come close to catching up with the PS2. It's not just that one year head start that's holding back MS, the PS2 has been selling more than the Xbox this year as well.

Groucho

I agree that it's a pipedream to think that either Xbox or Gamecube will ever match PS2 in terms of total units sold. Not in USA, not in Japan, not anywhere. However, the NEXT generation is anybody's ballgame.

el_jer

Since the quality of new games matches if not exceeds similiar genre offerings from PS2 and GC combined with a pretty decent library of current titles I can't see why anyone would buy the PS2 over the Xbox. The only competition would be from the GC with regards to a younger audience of gamers. Speaking of which, even though EB is not suppose to promote a specific console the sales clerk did say that the choice lately has been between the XBOX and GC in terms of new owners for the reasons I just stated.

I bought an XBOX on day one and I admit I was really po'd at first due to the lack of variety but I knew that when I got into it. Luckily HALO tided me over. It just felt weird buying technology that was dated. Although back then there were many factors leaning towarded the PS2.

This is not a bash on the PS2/GC or lovefest for XBOX. Its just seems sensible after a year. The market will ultimately decide come this winter. Given the economy it will be an uphill battle for all three companies.

TheAllPurposeNothing

Personally, I really don't have much faith in GTA: Vice City as a big seller. It just seems like a "been there...done that" affair. It will probably sell well initially, but fade as quickly as State of Emergency. I see a mild to weak Xmas for the PS2. Just seems to me Sony is being overly lazy, trying to rest on their laurels, and they will pay for it.

Mind you...if GTA3 becomes Greatest Hits fodder, that will boost PS2 sales somewhat. But not enough to lead the pack.

Xbox has a great line-up, but it is built largely on sequels to games from unsuccessful Sega systems. Even if the games exceed expectations quality-wise, it will be harder to woo a parent of a 9-10 year old to the joys of House of the Dead 3 or Unreal Championship. And nothing says "Buy Me" to the uninitiated.

I'm definitely seeing this a Nintendo's Xmas. I think the Gamecube sales will be brisk, aided by the family friendly line-up. But more so, I really think the big seller will be the Gameboy Advance. I hear more kids saying they want that than one of the larger consoles.

So I'm guessing:

1. GBA
2. Gamecube
3. PS2 (if, and only if, GTA3 enters the Greatest Hits line)
4. Xbox

PS2 will still have a larger stake in the market. But don't expect Sony to come away from the season happy.

Groucho

If you want to talk system sales you got to look at Joe Sixpack the Casual Gamer, not hardcore folks that are surveyed here. They are the bread and butter of the business, and if Microsoft wants to dominate the industry they need to cater after those people.

Joe Sixpack doesn't care about polygon count or hires textures or broadband. Joe Sixpack goes into Walmart and sees that the PS2 has more games than both the Xbox and Cube combined. Plus, all his friends have one and he can borrow from them. Plus it plays all his old PS1 titles so he can get rid of that console.

We can pretend that Xbox is objectively the best console, but the fact of the matter is that it's all subjective. Everybody is looking for something different...your tastes don't apply to the rest of the gaming community.

sniper308

Here's a question: Does Sony really care if they sell a lot more actual PS2's this season? More likely they care if they can utilize their installed base of units to sell more games this season. If they can turn that install base into 2 or 3 more games sold per installed console I think they would be happy, since that is where the true money is.

arvras

What system will you buy if they are the same price (xbox &ps2)?
A system which has superior graphics
a built in ethernet for fast online play
a hard drive so no more memory cards unless you play at your friends house
better titles this holiday season
for dvd playback u get a $30 rebate so it doesnt cost extra
Xbox's dvd playback is better you have to admit
xbox's one time charge of $49 for online against ps2 charges for every game and slow online gaming with puny 56K modem

You guys tell me which system would you buy?
If you choose ps2 there's something wrong with you

jiggyblau

Your points are valid but your last remark is silly. From your perspective, there'd be a lot of dysfunctional people roaming the malls this holiday season. What if you had a PSO and tons of games you still enjoyed? What if you don't care about online play? What if PS2's graphics were perfectly fine since your last system was a Genesis?

The forum is great for opinions, but don't call others stupid if they don't agree.

By the way, I have an XBOX.

Kellehair

Among other things, you neglected to mention the 100s of PS2 games and 1000s of PSX games you can play on the PS2.

ScandalUMD

When I was 10, I thought Mortal Kombat was the coolest thing in the world because blood squirted all over the place and you could rip people's limbs off. Since then, I've seen a lot of violent games, and I've come to the conclusion that a game doesn't have to be colored in browns and greys and red spurts of blood to be "mature."

In fact, I'd say there's nothing particularly mature about your average splatterfest, it's just not appropriate for kids.

I assume you haven't noticed the tongue-in-cheek drug references scattered throughout the Mario games, and most evident in Mario Sunshine. If the magic mushrooms aren't enough, there's a big yellow submarine docked in Ricco Harbor.

Mario is an extremely challenging game; most of the shines are more difficult than the harder GTA3 missions. Further, kids aren't the bread and butter for Mario; gamers are. Kids who are 12 right now were 6 the last time a Mario platformer came out. I can't imagine Mario means very much to them. Games, like every other medium, target the 18-34 market. Mario Sunshine demands precise timing and exceptional hand-eye coordination. It's gaming at its finest, and if that's just for kids, then save your money for the new Mortal Kombat.

ScandalUMD

Xbox probably has superior graphics capabilities, but games look as good as the developers make them look. If most Xbox games are being ported up from PS2, then the better graphics will be negligable.

The built in ethernet is nice, but you have to pay to use it. Sony sells the ethernet, and you don't have to pay to use it.

The Xbox hard drive is cool. Let's see if developers will actually use it to provide post-release goodies. I agree with Kellehair that they won't. It's in the industry's interest for you to buy games, tire of them, and buy more, rather than playing the same game.

Better titles for the holiday season. Well, that's pretty subjective. The Xbox has some good looking games coming up this year, but PS2 has some formidable weapons in Vice City, Kingdom Hearts, and the $20 lineup of quality games. Gamecube has Mario, Metroid, Starfox, and Resident Evil. Xbox has Panzer Dragoon, Brute Force, and Toe Jam and Earl. The Xbox games are good for current Xbox owners, but probably won't sell a lot of systems against the competition's high-profile brand names.

PS2 also has EA Sports online, and regardless of some gamers' conviction that Sega Sports is better, EA continues to be the leader in sports gaming. This probably hurts the Xbox. And PS2 does not charge for every game. MMOGs will cost extra, and will cost extra on Xbox as well, probably. The rest of the games are free so far. Nobody's paying for Socom and Madden. I've said before that pay-for-play won't work for online gaming. The Sony system at least has the potential to foster online as a free addition, as it is in PC games, rather than a way to milk gamers for monthly fees.

But, as a basic rule of thumb, I'd say online Madden and GTA:VC will be sufficient to sell plenty of PS2's this year, and if there's something wrong with those people, well, whatever.

Gromit

I have both, but if I had to choose, I'd easily take the PS2 without even having to think about it.

"better titles this holiday season"

I'd say there's something wrong with completely subjective statements like that.

How is the Xbox DVD playback so much better?

Good grief, haven't we covered the "PS2 charges for every game" to death already?

I really don't understand why you care what system people buy. Why don't you just buy both? Are you that insecure about your hardware purchase that you feel the need to insult those who decided to buy the one you didn't?

Tamrok

Publishers want you to buy their game, not someone elses. By offering new content (levels, skins, etc.), they can continue to drive sales of the original product. Why else do you think that Half-Life still sells? It's because of all the free content available for download. It's already a proven model in the PC industry and there is no reason why it won't work for consoles, too.

Aghama

...none of which are compelling me to buy an Xbox. Gromit is right, totally subjective.

Aghama

Because in the PC industry most of the add-ons are created by the mod community.

Tamrok

And thus there will not be downloads for consoles? Is that the point you're trying to make? Pardon me if I'm unconvinced...