flair

maybe its a full color version of the Virtual Boy?

Gizmo

Virtual Boy 2 - Electric Boogaloo

PixyJunket

Oh well.. I still have an open wallet for whenever they release the next Nintendo.

KissyFurNYC

Now Nintendo fans, please don't jump down my throat when I say this. I have or owned every system out there except for Vetrex. I love console games. I am old school and love the Big N to death. But ask anyone who has read the book : ' Game Over ' : ; Nintendo is in the latter stages in the process of being humbled. It has been a long drawn out process. Nintendo is a whale of company and Sony is a shark. Nintendo takes forever to effectivley guage and correct their position in their marketing. The next gen console must be marketed toward adults. Period. I has to be sexy. It has to record DVDs, have Tivo like functionality, wireless controllers and of course be able to connect to a online network. (This insipid game boy connectivity they are forcing onto kids instead of having a Mario Kart hooked up for online play is mystifying and infuriating. No one is buying their method of connectivity.)I dont see them being susccessful. This could because all the games are starting to look alike. Still I give them 2 more generations till they give up and make games only or focus on successes like the Game Boy series (which basically is a license to print money). I have never understood why they dont diversify to become like a Sony or a Panansonic...why dont they enter other steadier markets like I dunno- CD players or other electonics to suppliment their wildly cyclical console business. Oh well we shall see.

flair

Umm, they already have the BEST wireless controler on the market right now. Also, if they decide to make something that records dvd's, has a tivo function, irons your socks, etc. I will not spend the extra cash to buy it. I think that if sony/ms decide to go that way, and not offer a machine that just plays games (I have heard tons of rumors about everything, so its an if), and charge $500+, they are not going to get very far next generation. I would agree that online play is a key factor for some people, and should gain in momentum next generation. Nintendo's wait and see stance works for now, but I doubt it will next generation.

I am just adding my opinions here, not jumping down your throat (shang tsung wins).

curtis0620

I don't want my game system to record or play DVD's, that's what a DVD player/recorder is for. I just want it to play good quality games. That's what my gamecube does.

PixyJunket

x 1,000,000

BeckysBoy

Amen Curtis. An all-in-one box may do a lot of things, but it does them all poorly. I thought DVD playability in the PS2 and Xbox was lame 3 years ago and I think it's lame today. A $75 DVD player will do a infinitely better job of playing DVDs than a gaming console will.

Hell, they've got oven/refrigerator combos now...Doesn't mean it's a good idea. Just one more thing to break. Would you be more inclined to buy a Lexus if they told you it makes toast?

joshd2012

That is where you are wrong. When the PS2 was introduced with DVD playability in Japan, it was the most inexpensive DVD player on the market (at least, that is what news reports were saying at the time). Some people purchased the unit just as a DVD player with no games. Sony recognized the need for an inexpensive DVD player and filled the void, as well as providing a video game system. It effectively dominated two huge markets at the same time which is one of the many reasons the PS2 is the best selling next-gen console.

Xbox had no choice but to offer the ability in order to try and compete with Sony. By that time, DVD player prices had dropped significantly and it was no longer the feature it was before. I agree that now it is very trivial to have the option, but at the time Sony came out with the idea, it was a huge success. Calling it "lame" now is fine, but when it first came out, it worked better than Sony could have imagined.

Josh H

Huge .

Lame, over priced all in one machines will be enough to make me quit gaming if there are no cheaper gaming only alternatives. I don't want to pay extra for features I'll never use as I either don't need them or all ready own vastly superior stand alone equipment.

As for the news, I say we'll see little more than the system design and some tech demos next year, with the system probably coming out fall 2005, or possibly slipping to 2006.

Josh H

He's not wrong. He just said he thinks it's lame, not that it didn't have an impact on sales.

There's tons of moronic joe six packs that just wanted a DVD player and didn't care that the quality sucks compared to even lower end standalone units.

balancer

and as far as Nintendo 'diversifying' into home electronics, that has to be the craziest suggestion I've heard. All of the electronics companies, especially SONY have been hemmoraging money all year in that area. Seems like the only place to make the money is in gaming, and they are trying to get the other products to the consumer when they buy the game system.

UAIOE

I find it odd that people will look down upon a systems ability to play DVD's, yet say nothing about its ability to play music cd's.


If the systems didnt have DVD playback and still used DVD games people would be bitchin' about how thier PS2 doesnt have DVD playback.

Josh H

They suck as CD players too.

You just don't here much about it because by the time the PSone came out everyone already had at least one CD player, so it wasn't a selling point at all. When the PS2 came out, DVD players were no where near as commonplace, so it was marketed as a plus.

Personally, I have no problem with DVD/CD playback as it has little or no effect on cost. I just don't want to see stuff like Tivo, DVD recording, etc that will make the console more expensive added in (unless they offer a cheaper gaming only alternative, in which case it's a moot point).

jeffdsmith

A device with DVD capability will always cost $20 slightly more then one that doesn't. At least from a manufactoring side.

RoQuEr

Is that the lisencing cost to use the DVD standard?

I don't see why you guys are all worked up by limited functionality. If the console already has a DVD drive and supports 5.1 sound, its no big deal adding dvd-player funtionality, and its not all that different. If a console comes with a HD, networking abilities, and its own OS, there is no reason it can't support secondary functions besides playing games. Just because it wasn't made to do 1 specific thing does not mean that its bad at doing it.

Josh H

Not totally true. The licensing fee only applies if the System can play DVDs right out of the box.

With the X-box, you have to buy the remote, so the license fee is applied to the remote, rather than the console.



1. I mainly care because I don't need, or already have, hometheater stuff so things like tivo, dvd recording are either things I don't want or already own.

2. Not bad for joe six packs, but to date no all in one thing is as good as stand alone equipment. It's just cheaper and more convenient for those who don't know better or don't care about superior A/V quality.

A great example is those DVD player/surround sound receiver combos. No one that knows anything/cares about hometheater quality would buy one of those over a decent stand alone player and receiver.

Michael Corvin

I think the extra costs come in with Dolby Digital 5.1. Royalties or something. I remember reading way back when that was the reason N went with ProLogic II, it was a cheaper alternative.