Console Wars ‘07

Published February 24, 2007 in Technology.

I’m a veteran of the console wars (I picked NES over the Master System, Genesis over Turbografx-16 and Super Nintendo) so imagine my surprise as an owner of the Sexybox 360 (shout out to Gears of War, Madden ‘07) that I’m actually cheering on Microsoft and hoping for Sony to fail. This is a totally irrational, immaterial thing. But its fun.

14 Responses to “Console Wars ‘07”

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1 Mike Cohen
Feb 24th, 2007 at 5:29 pm

I like the Wii. I’m planning to get one soon. It’s great for working out when I can’t get to the gym.
2 Rheinhard
Feb 24th, 2007 at 6:21 pm

Don’t let “Big Brain Bryan” know that a dirty liberal Media matters smear site employee linked favorably to an article on Hotair! He’ll have to be disciplined by Michelle “Our Lady of Perpetual Outrage” Malkin!
3 WhiteWhale
Feb 24th, 2007 at 6:49 pm

You scourolis dog! How dare you besmearch the good name of Sony!?! I have to give props to Microsoft for making some great games and a great system, but Sony has what made Nintendo great: Lasting power and playability. PS3 will lay waste to Xbox360:)
4 Brian
Feb 25th, 2007 at 4:13 am

That’s right O Dub!!! I played the NES and Sega Genesis back in the day, back in the old school, back in the. The Sega Channel with 50 games a month, getting to test drive new games etc etc etc etc. Next was the Dreamcast, the first console to use online play. At the time, I thought it would do better than what was out there (ie Gamecube, N64 etc.) didn’t pan out. Still a great console though, an underrated console, a George Mason type cindarella story, I tell you. I keep hearing about ‘Gears of War’, how good is it?
5 soullite
Feb 25th, 2007 at 7:16 am

What’s the point? the system everyone assumed would be an “also ran” seems to be the winner by leaps and bounds.

And no, Sony doesn’t have what made Nintendo “great”. It used to have the same strategy that made Nintendo the market leader, that is pushing out a massive number of titles and peripherals. Eventually, they switched to the vastly flaws Atari Jaguar strategy: Use untested technology to create a system to massively expensive for most people to afford and watch as everyone buys the “fun” new system instead. Wii is winning the console wars because it’s got a lot of games, and they’re all a lot of fun to play. Shiny techies might be buying the other systems, but Gamers are buying the Wii.
6 Enoch Root
Feb 25th, 2007 at 8:22 am

Viz.
7 WhiteWhale
Feb 25th, 2007 at 8:52 am

Soullite,
Good point. Playstation(with the PS3) has abandoned this winning strategy but the market has put an emphasis to make a bold leap. I have to say that Nintendo makes all the right moves but in my opinion, they started just making kiddie games. I am also skeptical of the Wii controller. I just wonder if Nintendo is just reaching for a niche market.
8 Lettuce
Feb 25th, 2007 at 10:36 am

You think you can control MIcrosoft, but you can’t even hope to contain them.

Rooting for MIcrosoft is rooting for stagnation should they ever get a significant enough foothold.

Smart move. O.
9 StarkyLuv
Feb 25th, 2007 at 11:42 am

I’ve always been a Sega man. Master System, Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast. Even had a Sega CD, 32X, Game Gear, etc.

But I’m old school. I go back to the 2600, Colecovision, Odyssey II, Intellivision, Vectrex

But I’ve always had a Nintendo console except a Gamecube. Had Playstation but never a PS2.

XBOX and Now 360. I’m just loving the games on 360 so far and we’re about to get hit by some awesome RPGs with Mass Effect and Blue Dragon.

Also, buy Crackdown, NOW!
10 Oliver Willis
Feb 25th, 2007 at 1:32 pm

Gears of War is awesome. Let’s just say that there are few things in videogamedom as satisfying as chainsawing a guy. And yes, Nintendo has clearly made a decision to be the “kids” gaming system. I’ve heard pretty much nothing but good about the Wii, but don’t think I’ll put any money there.
11 Dr. Anatole Gavage-Huskanoy
Feb 25th, 2007 at 4:48 pm

The Wii’s great for groups of people. If you want single player (or internet), and you don’t like Zelda, you made the right choice. But I’m quite happy with the Wii.
12 Duros62
Feb 26th, 2007 at 12:12 pm

Hey, I’m still happy with my PS2.
I’ve had NES, SNES and Nintendo 64.

I’m in no hurry to change at this point.
13 soullite
Feb 26th, 2007 at 2:55 pm

I’d wager money that by the end of the year more Wii’s will have been sold than X-box 360’s and Ps3’s combined. You can call it a kids system. I’ll continue to call it a fun system. It’s the only one of the three I’d actually play with my friends while they were physically with me. I don’t really get the “kids console” thing, that seems like a bias that’s held over from the Gamecube.

I’m no nintendo fanboy. I don’t like Zelda. I don’t like Mario. It’s not a franchise thing. The Wii simply has better games. High Definition is certainly noticeable, but I’d rather have an enjoyable game than a beautiful one. It’s easy to think of it as a gimmick. But Gimmicks get boring, the Wii doesn’t.
14 mike in dc
Feb 26th, 2007 at 2:55 pm

Still haven’t bought a next-gen console, probably because I still haven’t bought an HDTV yet. Not much point without one, as far as I can tell.

Sony does seem to have screwed itself though:
too late to market
too expensive
not enough games at launch
no A-list games
tough/expensive to develop for