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Darc Requiem on 17 April 2011
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loves2splooge said:
Darc Requiem said:

You seem to view the gaming industry as stagnant. That isn't the case. The Xbox had terrible support from Japanese third party developers. The 360 has had strong support from Japanese third party developers. The year head start was key to that difference. Before you mention moneyhats, MS was throwing more money around during the Xbox era than the 360 era, hell they tried to buy Nintendo, Sega, and Square Enix outright. The difference was that they didn't have the headstart to gain a foothold.

The Xbox brand was always associated with the 12-34 male demographic. So titles that appealed to this demographic like Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, etc. fit well with the Xbox brand. So the Xbox was able to take advantage of the advantages of being a first mover, having a platform that is easier to develop for and a cheaper console. I don't see the Nintendo brand winning over this same demographic like the Xbox brand has (actually I shouldn't say that because they probably will counter with $500-600 consoles and make a repeat of the whole PS3 situation again....)

Also the first mover advantage doesn't always work out. Look at the Dreamcast. Way more powerful than the PS1. But ultimately Sony fans decided to wait it out for the PS2. And after the PS2 hit it's stride after a slow start, the Dreamcast was annihiliated. I don`t see the so-called "core" gamer rushing out to buy a Wii 2/HD so that they can play a graphically richer ports of games they already enjoy on the Xbox 360/PS3. That's now how the Xbox beat the PS2. The PS2 software support had to dry up first for the Xbox to take advantage. I don't see Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, etc. releasing exclusively on Wii 2/HD. I just don't. These weren't exclusive on the 360 either but the PS3 launched at freakin $600. So as long as MS and Sony don't feel the urge to wave their dicks around and rush out a $500-600 console, they have nothing to worry about. Demand won't die for the Xbox 360 and PS3 anytime soon. I have a feeling that MS and Sony will screw things up anyway though. With Sony's insistence to make the same mistakes over and over again ($250 PSP launch, $500-600 PS3, $250 PSP Go launch, NGP probably costing an arm and a leg), who knows.

Dreamcast died because Sega ran out  of money. Among other things, like Sega pissing off Western and Japanese retailers and developers with their mishandling of the Saturn. It's launch in the US and it's early shuttering in Japan. They were 2 billion dollars in debt when they launched the Dreamcast. They were so short on cash they actualy cut the Dreamcast's RAM and fill rate in half.

As for you Xbox comments, you seemed to have completely missed my point. The Xbox went from having poor Japanese support to it having strong support in one generation. They did so because of the year head start. That's what gave MS the opening to strengthen their third part support. Sony and MS would be stupid to give Nintendo such an opening.