Xbox Retrospective: Successes and Failures Options

[XanTium]

Xbox Retrospective: Successes and Failures -- Posted by XanTium on November 8 22:11 EST
From igo.ampednews.com:
[QUOTE]
When Microsoft first announced the Xbox, many were weary of what it meant for console gaming. Microsoft was viewed as the big bad wolf, and rightfully so. They had dominated every market they had entered, and fear that they would try to do the same in monopolizing the gaming industry was somewhat warranted. Thankfully Microsoft didn't go around and buy up every third party publisher on the planet. It instead competed by traditional means, and made the Xbox a success through its smart business practices, games, and focus on offering a central unified online gaming service.

Part two of our five day "Xbox Retrospective Week" feature takes a look at where Microsoft went right and where they went wrong with the Xbox.

SUCCESSES
1. The Acquisition of Bungie
2. North American Market Penetration
3. Xbox LIVE
4. The Hard Drive
5. Viral Marketing

FAILURES
1. Lack of Genre Variety
2. No Asian Market Penetration
3. The Cancellation of True Fantasy Live Online
4. The Acquisition of Rare
5. The "Duke" Controller
[/QUOTE]

Read the whole article on igo.ampednews.com (news via slashdot.org)

[gcskate27]

viral marketing a success?
rare a failure?
the duke a failure?

well see on rare, but the duke is the best controller of all time... and how can viral marketing be a successs? i didnt think i was alone in being annoyed by it...

and lack of genre variety? ill assume that means no square...

This post has been edited by gcskate27: Nov 9 2005, 05:09 AM

[mbratton]

rare is no failure. not yet a success, but definately not a failure. even if pd0 sucks, kameo is still alright, and MS can just split up the developers between MGS and Bungie in a wost case scenario.

[tuckerdwz2025]

I Agree I love the DUKE control I can't stand the smaller one in my hands, especially after getting used to the black and clear buttons being up top, but in comparison I have play the xbox 360 at the best buy by my house, and I do like the the feel of the dual triggers like on ps2.

[leorimolo]

wtf->The Cancellation of True Fantasy Live Online

[Peter2028]

I Agree to, The "Duke" controller is the best pad i've ever used, not to small and fits hands perfectly, great d-pad, buttons well placed....

This post has been edited by Peter2028: Nov 9 2005, 06:57 AM

[wolrahnaes]

Agreed. the Duke. I can't use Controller S's because the black and white buttons are so low on the "handle" portion of the controller that my thumbs totally overshoot them. I do not have large hands by any means, so clearly that thing has a flawed design.

I really hope someone creates an Xbox 1 controller that is styled after the 360's with the black and white as second triggers, because it's getting harder and harder to find replacement Dukes when I break mine.

[GLiTcH]

and lack of genre variety? ill assume that means no square... 

come on. all the xbox is good for its FPS n war games lol which most of them suck btw. there were nearly no puzzle game or rpg.. there were some action/adv games but nothing to go WOW over them(only NG). as for the rpg part most of yall will bring up kotor series as being the best the xbox has(which is the only rpgs it had) Fable was good but wasnt an rpg...
and racing games.. yea.. well forza will be the one to choose n pgr....

the only thing that came out of the xbox was Live,Ninja Gaiden n Halo series.....well halo.. lol n dont forget Crimson Skies... these r you AAA games on xbox.. heh

[ksteiner]

The duke controller must be the big fat one well yeah i hate that controller too big for a kid like me. Thats why I never bought the xbox 2-3 yrs ago because of teh controller but i saw the smaller one and i love it!! I love xbox the greatest system ever I will never sell it even if I get the xbox 360. Rare??Thats a great thing you see ps2 has a bunch of games but thats because they had ps1 and their just making the same games all over again with new graphics and a new name. The xbox is an original system i think its too good for the price because your basicly buying a pc and it soo easy to mod and put xbmc and run scripts and all that stuff. The xbox will never be forgotten

[Arius]

Custom soundtracks would make it into the failures for me.

I was really looking forward to that feaure, I like a diffrent type of music to what gets packaged with most games... But the amount of games that actually supported it where slim, and then the ones that supported it well are even slimmer.

I wouldnt have said Rare (IMO one of the best in the business, although they dont pump out 20 games a year, but maybe thats why they are good) and the Duke (dear god I miss my duke now I only have a S) where failures.

[Zaetha]

As I never had a Duke in my hands before, so I can't really say something about it. But Rare a failure? It was a long term investment for the Xbox 360, for god sake! Two first party games from Rare on first day!

And to make Viral Marketing for anything, like win a ticket or something is very lame. It could start a series of ARG's crappy marketing flops. Let's picture that scenario: You play the game like half month, sacrifice yourself to follow it, just to end with the great first price... a Halo 3 watch. Lucky bastard. You are going to have it a week before it goes retail, at 5 bucks. Wow, I envy you.

P.S.: They send you the watch a week before hit stores, it arrives a week later... I'll repeat it. Damn you, lucky bastard.

This post has been edited by Zaetha: Nov 9 2005, 08:10 PM

[GameAngel]

I've been playing consoles since the beginning and the "Big Duke" is the best controller by far and I've got small girl sized hands. I wish there was a third party company option available.

Bring back “Big Duke”

[XBL_SUCKS]

Failures are the Thompson DVD drives, having to buy the over priced M$ DVD Playback kit, lack of free online gamming, pricey customer suport, no HD upgrades with out a mod chip

Successes are: Samsung DVD drive, North American Market, stock 8 GB and 10 GB HD's, great games, HALO, Star Wars KOTOR, Project Gotham Racing, P3 Technolgy inside a compact machine, Cosmetic mods using existing technolgy

Thats just my 2 cents

[rav64]

I'd have to agree on Rare. Most of the people that used to work at Rare during N64-era are not working there anymore and I'd wager that we won't see the Rare that we used to love, once we get our hands on some the new titles, with PDZ and Kameo being on top of the pile.

The multiplayer portion of Conker left me wanting a lot more, it was just sub-par. It's a cool idea in theory, the thirdperson perspective I like but other than a really great looking engine, it didn't feel all that polished. Which of course is weird seeing as how it's been in development for years.

Anyhow, my 2 cents.

[neb15]

the duke had alot of recerch put in to it but it is too big.
now ive bean useing the madkatz micron wierless the s seems big!

they pushed it untill we liked it.... big failure when it was new, but after it was cracked and some sweet games came....

edit: indigo prophicy is a great action/adventure game
custom soundtracks is the best idea ever but not enough games support it and it takes a half hour to copy a cd to the hard drive (WTF is that!!! i can make a dvd in 15 m)

This post has been edited by neb15: Nov 10 2005, 06:46 AM