Next-gen console comparison

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

This is why a game like GTA will never do well in Japan...

GTA:SA topped Japanese sales charts when it was released over there early in the year. It sold something like 200K+ in its first week.

Meanwhile, we in the States don't really care what type of game it is. We buy FPSs, RTSs, RPGs, sports, puzzles, and anything Japan will throw at us. If we can tolerate a game like Katamari Damacy, why the hell can't Japan try out some of our stuff?

There are a few issues at play here, IMO.

1. Microsoft are a US company entering into a foreign market that is pretty resistant to foreign products. This is a big deal, but not quite a dealbreaker, I think.
2. Microsoft have mismanaged the Xbox brand spectacularly poorly in Japan. Their marketing has been appalling, and there have only been a handful of titles developed for the Japanese market.
3. On that - the hesitancy of Japanese gamers to buy Western games - there are another couple of issues.

One thing that is hard to realise when you're in a culture is just how culturally specific the media developed within your culture actually is. When you say, "for example, why do the Japanese HATE first-person shooters", as though it's bizarre of them to do so, you're ignoring how incredibly Western, and particularly Northern American, most FPSes actually are in their design and particularly aesthetics. They're missing a character you can look at, have incredibly byzantine control schemes (that we're all used to, so we don't appreciate how difficult they are. Halo 3's control scheme uses EVERY SINGLE BUTTON on the controller: all four face buttons, all four shoulder buttons and triggers, both sticks, as well as clicking both sticks, plus the d-pad and start and select buttons), and almost to a one look like every testosterone-charged 15 year-old boy's war fantasies come to life. FPSes are, I imagine, probably the equivalent in Japan as Japanese dating sims are over here. Maybe they're awesome but they're too damned foreign to work.

Uh, I can't remember what my original point was. Back to work!

[Julius Seeker]

Microsoft has had trouble in all markets with the exception of North America, the UK, and Australia. In many non-English European markets, and Japan, even the PS3 is beating out 360 sales; although both are still doing quite poorly in sales.

Zeus: VGcharts isn't a very good site to go by for hardware sales. Looking at the Xbox 360, it shows North America with sales of about 1 million units higher than what NPD is reporting. It also shows Japan with sales about 40K higher than what Enterbrain is showing (it may not seem significant, but 40K sales takes around 4 months to achieve for a Microsoft system in Japan). As for sales, Microsoft hasn't released anything except shipment numbers since around the launch of the console. I am also not convinced that Xbox 360 will get much past Xbox (if at all), for example, last April Xbox sales were 295K, this April they were 174K, which is a significant drop. I am not sure why you think sales have been "pushing 200k+ units per month" this year, when NPD reports that it has only exceeded 200K for the first two months of this year. I don't think Halo will make a very big splash in the sales either, when Halo 2 was released for the original Xbox, holiday season hardware sales were not higher than the previous year.

[Nev]

Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_Miyazaki, the person/event that has a significant affect to the type of stuff you see from Japan.

Well, we have our serial killers over here, too...for cultural reasons it doesn't seem to stem the violent media though...

That is pretty horrifying though.

[Zeus]

Zeus: VGcharts isn't a very good site to go by for hardware sales. Looking at the Xbox 360, it shows North America with sales of about 1 million units higher than what NPD is reporting. It also shows Japan with sales about 40K higher than what Enterbrain is showing (it may not seem significant, but 40K sales takes around 4 months to achieve for a Microsoft system in Japan). As for sales, Microsoft hasn't released anything except shipment numbers since around the launch of the console. I am also not convinced that Xbox 360 will get much past Xbox (if at all), for example, last April Xbox sales were 295K, this April they were 174K, which is a significant drop. I am not sure why you think sales have been "pushing 200k+ units per month" this year, when NPD reports that it has only exceeded 200K for the first two months of this year. I don't think Halo will make a very big splash in the sales either, when Halo 2 was released for the original Xbox, holiday season hardware sales were not higher than the previous year.

I know, that's why I had all those other links to substantiate what was on VGCharts rather than taking it for face value.

Sorry, they're averaging about 215k per month (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3159628), it was meant as an average and not a month-by-month thing. And it does look like it'll go over $200k for May according to the analysts (look at Gamespot for the article).

Halo 3 will be to 360 what Halo 1 was to the Xbox. Add GTA4 into the mix and you're definitely gonna get some units moved even without a price drop. I still think they'll pass the original Xbox based on my previous hypotheses. [/i]

[Don]

I'm willing to bet GTA sold a lot less in Japan compared to here, though.

And there's no major Japanese developer I can think of that ever developed a game that's remotely similar to GTA in its premise. I think the only games where you're allowed to gratitously kill and maim stuff has to involve Samurais. If I recall Onimusha was pretty bloody, but even then I think technically all the guys you're fighting are demons so it's okay to chop them up to bits because demons = bad. Even a game like Dynasty Warriors that basically involves chopping hundreds of guys up, they never said you actually killed those guys (it's always like you defeated X) and the stuff you kill magically dissolve into nothingness with no blood whatsoever.

The Miyazaki incident caused a backlash, ala the usual 'this guy went nuts because of the stuff he was watching' thing, not unsimilar to, say, Columbine, but on a much greater scale. This is why Shonen Jump does not have any content that can possibly be negative, which plays a signficant part into Death Note's early demise because after L is gone, it is deemed that this manga obviously does not teach anything positive to kids and it ended shortly after.

[Kupek]

A lot.

What he said.

[Eric]

I'm willing to bet GTA sold a lot less in Japan compared to here, though.

And there's no major Japanese developer I can think of that ever developed a game that's remotely similar to GTA in its premise. I think the only games where you're allowed to gratitously kill and maim stuff has to involve Samurais. If I recall Onimusha was pretty bloody, but even then I think technically all the guys you're fighting are demons so it's okay to chop them up to bits because demons = bad. Even a game like Dynasty Warriors that basically involves chopping hundreds of guys up, they never said you actually killed those guys (it's always like you defeated X) and the stuff you kill magically dissolve into nothingness with no blood whatsoever.

The Miyazaki incident caused a backlash, ala the usual 'this guy went nuts because of the stuff he was watching' thing, not unsimilar to, say, Columbine, but on a much greater scale. This is why Shonen Jump does not have any content that can possibly be negative, which plays a signficant part into Death Note's early demise because after L is gone, it is deemed that this manga obviously does not teach anything positive to kids and it ended shortly after.

Oh come on, Death Note wasn't THAT unpopular, it got 2 live actions movies both of which had a very high Japanese gross, and an anime series.

[Don]

Compared to Hikaru No Go? It's drawn by the same guy. The story in DN wasn't all that great but it was no worse than HNG, and HNG is basically about a game most people have no interest in it to begin with.

[Nev]

Microsoft has had trouble in all markets with the exception of North America, the UK, and Australia. In many non-English European markets, and Japan, even the PS3 is beating out 360 sales; although both are still doing quite poorly in sales.

European sales are hardly considered to be a market driver, dude. I'm not sure Norway counts as a major gaming market - or even France.

Not that these markets should be ignored, but winning North America (which the 360 has done, penetration-wise) is a lot like taking and holding Asia in a game of Risk. You may or may not actually have what it takes to win the whole game, but you're going to have a lot of resources coming in at that point, all the time.

[Julius Seeker]

Microsoft has had trouble in all markets with the exception of North America, the UK, and Australia. In many non-English European markets, and Japan, even the PS3 is beating out 360 sales; although both are still doing quite poorly in sales.

European sales are hardly considered to be a market driver, dude. I'm not sure Norway counts as a major gaming market - or even France.

Not that these markets should be ignored, but winning North America (which the 360 has done, penetration-wise) is a lot like taking and holding Asia in a game of Risk. You may or may not actually have what it takes to win the whole game, but you're going to have a lot of resources coming in at that point, all the time.

In North America, two holiday seasons and 18 months later Xbox 360 has 5.4 million sales and currently a less than 15% total market share, and ranking 5th overall for hardware sales rate (behind DS, Wii, PS2, and PSP); this is hardly winning the market. The PS2 has sold 44 million units in Europe (as opposed to 46 million in North America and 24 million in Asia/Other territories), hardly an unimportant market. All in all, it is just not doing that well on the market, and probably never will.

[SineSwiper]

1. Microsoft are a US company entering into a foreign market that is pretty resistant to foreign products. This is a big deal, but not quite a dealbreaker, I think.

Yeah, I've noticed that. Is it WWII? Are they still sore about that?

2. Microsoft have mismanaged the Xbox brand spectacularly poorly in Japan. Their marketing has been appalling, and there have only been a handful of titles developed for the Japanese market.

Probably not enough bizarre cartoon characters or random Engrish phrases in their ads.

They're missing a character you can look at, have incredibly byzantine control schemes (that we're all used to, so we don't appreciate how difficult they are. Halo 3's control scheme uses EVERY SINGLE BUTTON on the controller: all four face buttons, all four shoulder buttons and triggers, both sticks, as well as clicking both sticks, plus the d-pad and start and select buttons)...

There is no shortage of complex controls in Japanese games. There's plenty of button usage in Zelda, Metroid, many RPGs, games like Zone of the Enders, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, absolutely all fighters, etc., etc. And control schemes vary per game. We play them for a bit, get used to them, and it sticks. The same applies for every single game that we or Japanese have played.

I don't think controls are the issue at all.

[bovine]

I thought the japanese didn't like north american games because you never get to kill god in the end.

[Don]

Ravages of Time, a manga of the 3 kingdom period, was one of the first (perhaps only) manga that is serialized on a major Japanese manga weekly that was drawn by a guy that was not Japanese (author is in Hong Kong, I believe). One of his Japanese fans wrote to him: "I didn't expect foreigners to be able to do an interesting interpretion of the 3 kingdom period." Note that the 3 kingdom period occured in China, not Japan.

Japan is quite economically closed for being a world economic power. While this doesn't mean it doesn't have its share of foreign stuff, getting into the Japanese market is certainly a lot harder compared to virtually anywhere else. Japan might very well be the only country in the world where World of Warcraft is not the #1 MMORPG by sales. I'm not even sure if there's a Japanese version of WoW.

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

Probably not enough bizarre cartoon characters or random Engrish phrases in their ads.

I'm noticing some hostility towards Japan here. Is it WWII? Are you still sore about that?

There is a tendency in all markets to favour local product; Japan appears to be particularly insular, but insularity is not a trait unique to Japan.

Microsoft needed to have particularly good marketing to get past this insularity, and the fact is that their marketing wasn't good, or even average. It was bad. They just don't get Japan. If Sony's marketing in the US was as bad as Microsoft's has been in Japan, they'd tank almost as badly there.

I don't think controls are the issue at all.

Controls aren't the issue, but they are an issue. And no doubt that Japanese games have their own bizarre control schemes (MGS, what the fuck: worst, most complicated control scheme ever), but those control schemes are employed in genres that the Japanese market is comfortable with. Controls in FPSes are just another barrier to entry into a completely foreign genre.

And the fact is that this genre-hostility is not a Japanese, or even national thing: it was, what, 15 years before Japanese RPGs were accepted into the Western gaming mainstream, right? And I identify myself as a console gamer, and PC games (particularly PC FPSes), don't speak to me. I recognise that games like UT and Quake are good, but I can't imagine ever liking them.

[Eric]

Compared to Hikaru No Go? It's drawn by the same guy. The story in DN wasn't all that great but it was no worse than HNG, and HNG is basically about a game most people have no interest in it to begin with.

HnG was all about pretty boys. heh.

[Julius Seeker]

And it does look like it'll go over 200k for May according to the analysts (look at Gamespot for the article).

It's only 154K for May according to NPD. I guess those analysts still aren't very good at their jobs.

PS3 dropped in sales yet again, this time not very far, it dropped to 81K units narrowly beating out the GBA which sold 80.5K units. At this rate, PS3 won't even make 250K sales for the entire spring quarter =P

Despight the terrible numbers from Xbox 360 and PS3, there IS a plus side to this month: "Sales of game consoles grew 79 percent to $221.4 million from the year-earlier period, while console software rose 31 percent to $274 million, NPD said. Nintendo had the most popular console game with ``Mario Party 8.'' Sony's new machine continued to struggle in software sales, failing to place a single game in the top 10." -Bloomberg.

[Zeus]

And it does look like it'll go over 200k for May according to the analysts (look at Gamespot for the article).

It's only 154K for May according to NPD. I guess those analysts still aren't very good at their jobs.

PS3 dropped in sales yet again, this time not very far, it dropped to 81K units narrowly beating out the GBA which sold 80.5K units. At this rate, PS3 won't even make 250K sales for the entire spring quarter =P

Despight the terrible numbers from Xbox 360 and PS3, there IS a plus side to this month: "Sales of game consoles grew 79 percent to $221.4 million from the year-earlier period, while console software rose 31 percent to $274 million, NPD said. Nintendo had the most popular console game with ``Mario Party 8.'' Sony's new machine continued to struggle in software sales, failing to place a single game in the top 10." -Bloomberg.

Yeah, they weren't off by a bit, were they? They were off by about 25%. Dumbasses.

As I've said before, the real battleground will be this Xmas. Summer is always slow as hell, it's never really an indication of much. There's nothing even coming out that's worth anything on any system. The Wii should be solid through the summer as they catch up to demand, but I'm wondering when that will start to taper off. But once Halo 3, MGS4 (Sony better pray that comes out, it's their only big exclusive for Xmas), and Mario Galaxy come out, we'll see where the real interest in the systems lie.

[Julius Seeker]

And it does look like it'll go over 200k for May according to the analysts (look at Gamespot for the article).

It's only 154K for May according to NPD. I guess those analysts still aren't very good at their jobs.

PS3 dropped in sales yet again, this time not very far, it dropped to 81K units narrowly beating out the GBA which sold 80.5K units. At this rate, PS3 won't even make 250K sales for the entire spring quarter =P

Despight the terrible numbers from Xbox 360 and PS3, there IS a plus side to this month: "Sales of game consoles grew 79 percent to $221.4 million from the year-earlier period, while console software rose 31 percent to $274 million, NPD said. Nintendo had the most popular console game with ``Mario Party 8.'' Sony's new machine continued to struggle in software sales, failing to place a single game in the top 10." -Bloomberg.

Yeah, they weren't off by a bit, were they? They were off by about 25%. Dumbasses.

As I've said before, the real battleground will be this Xmas. Summer is always slow as hell, it's never really an indication of much. There's nothing even coming out that's worth anything on any system. The Wii should be solid through the summer as they catch up to demand, but I'm wondering when that will start to taper off. But once Halo 3, MGS4 (Sony better pray that comes out, it's their only big exclusive for Xmas), and Mario Galaxy come out, we'll see where the real interest in the systems lie.

Well when the analysts predict 220K and that number turns out to be 42% higher, that's just showingf that they haven't done any research other than looking at 360 sales last year (which did 220K).

I don't think the holiday season will really shake things up at all, mainly because I don't see how PS3 and Xbox 360 are going to be nearly as hot gift options as Wii or DS Lite. Even though Brawl, Galaxy, and Prime will be the top games, they won't be the only hot gift items that are out for the Wii. The Mario and Sonic Olympics themed game slated for November will be a massive seller (I can see it easily exceeding Metroid), Wii music will be a popular title, Raving Rabbids 2, along with Fire Emblem: Goddess of Dawn (which I am really looking forward to), and Disaster Day of Crisis (the first Monolithsoft/Nintendo game for the Wii).

As for Wii sales slowing down...... Coming off last months top seller (Mario Party which released at the very end of May, and with two quite large titles: Resident Evil 4 and Pokemon Battle Revolution coming out in the next two weeks, Mario Strikers and the controvercial Wii-controlled Manhunt 2 in July, and then leading into Wii-ified Madden, Space Station Tycoon, and Metroid in August.... I don't think Wii sales are going to slow down this summer. Just my opinion though.

As for DS, I don't think much needs to be said about it, it's loaded with popular RPGs, Adventures, platformers, party games, and strategy/simulation games. It will easily take #1 overall this year again. I'm predicting more than 10 million ww will sell for November and December alone (which might be some sort of record if it happens).

[Nev]

Microsoft has had trouble in all markets with the exception of North America, the UK, and Australia. In many non-English European markets, and Japan, even the PS3 is beating out 360 sales; although both are still doing quite poorly in sales.

European sales are hardly considered to be a market driver, dude. I'm not sure Norway counts as a major gaming market - or even France.

Not that these markets should be ignored, but winning North America (which the 360 has done, penetration-wise) is a lot like taking and holding Asia in a game of Risk. You may or may not actually have what it takes to win the whole game, but you're going to have a lot of resources coming in at that point, all the time.

In North America, two holiday seasons and 18 months later Xbox 360 has 5.4 million sales and currently a less than 15% total market share, and ranking 5th overall for hardware sales rate (behind DS, Wii, PS2, and PSP); this is hardly winning the market. The PS2 has sold 44 million units in Europe (as opposed to 46 million in North America and 24 million in Asia/Other territories), hardly an unimportant market. All in all, it is just not doing that well on the market, and probably never will.

I have been out-facted and am not ashamed to admit it here, actually. Good job on that. With numbers like those, I guess European dev should indeed be a market driver, if it isn't already...

[Nev]

This is why a game like GTA will never do well in Japan...

GTA:SA topped Japanese sales charts when it was released over there early in the year. It sold something like 200K+ in its first week.

Meanwhile, we in the States don't really care what type of game it is. We buy FPSs, RTSs, RPGs, sports, puzzles, and anything Japan will throw at us. If we can tolerate a game like Katamari Damacy, why the hell can't Japan try out some of our stuff?

There are a few issues at play here, IMO.

1. Microsoft are a US company entering into a foreign market that is pretty resistant to foreign products. This is a big deal, but not quite a dealbreaker, I think.
2. Microsoft have mismanaged the Xbox brand spectacularly poorly in Japan. Their marketing has been appalling, and there have only been a handful of titles developed for the Japanese market.
3. On that - the hesitancy of Japanese gamers to buy Western games - there are another couple of issues.

One thing that is hard to realise when you're in a culture is just how culturally specific the media developed within your culture actually is. When you say, "for example, why do the Japanese HATE first-person shooters", as though it's bizarre of them to do so, you're ignoring how incredibly Western, and particularly Northern American, most FPSes actually are in their design and particularly aesthetics. They're missing a character you can look at, have incredibly byzantine control schemes (that we're all used to, so we don't appreciate how difficult they are. Halo 3's control scheme uses EVERY SINGLE BUTTON on the controller: all four face buttons, all four shoulder buttons and triggers, both sticks, as well as clicking both sticks, plus the d-pad and start and select buttons), and almost to a one look like every testosterone-charged 15 year-old boy's war fantasies come to life. FPSes are, I imagine, probably the equivalent in Japan as Japanese dating sims are over here. Maybe they're awesome but they're too damned foreign to work.

Uh, I can't remember what my original point was. Back to work!

Just for what it's worth, I found the Halo controls convoluted too! And I just have to say that this struck me as one of the most rationally argued posts evar around here.

Props to the Bee!

[Zeus]

It's only 154K for May according to NPD. I guess those analysts still aren't very good at their jobs.

PS3 dropped in sales yet again, this time not very far, it dropped to 81K units narrowly beating out the GBA which sold 80.5K units. At this rate, PS3 won't even make 250K sales for the entire spring quarter =P

Despight the terrible numbers from Xbox 360 and PS3, there IS a plus side to this month: "Sales of game consoles grew 79 percent to $221.4 million from the year-earlier period, while console software rose 31 percent to $274 million, NPD said. Nintendo had the most popular console game with ``Mario Party 8.'' Sony's new machine continued to struggle in software sales, failing to place a single game in the top 10." -Bloomberg.

Yeah, they weren't off by a bit, were they? They were off by about 25%. Dumbasses.

As I've said before, the real battleground will be this Xmas. Summer is always slow as hell, it's never really an indication of much. There's nothing even coming out that's worth anything on any system. The Wii should be solid through the summer as they catch up to demand, but I'm wondering when that will start to taper off. But once Halo 3, MGS4 (Sony better pray that comes out, it's their only big exclusive for Xmas), and Mario Galaxy come out, we'll see where the real interest in the systems lie.

Well when the analysts predict 220K and that number turns out to be 42% higher, that's just showingf that they haven't done any research other than looking at 360 sales last year (which did 220K).

I don't think the holiday season will really shake things up at all, mainly because I don't see how PS3 and Xbox 360 are going to be nearly as hot gift options as Wii or DS Lite. Even though Brawl, Galaxy, and Prime will be the top games, they won't be the only hot gift items that are out for the Wii. The Mario and Sonic Olympics themed game slated for November will be a massive seller (I can see it easily exceeding Metroid), Wii music will be a popular title, Raving Rabbids 2, along with Fire Emblem: Goddess of Dawn (which I am really looking forward to), and Disaster Day of Crisis (the first Monolithsoft/Nintendo game for the Wii).

As for Wii sales slowing down...... Coming off last months top seller (Mario Party which released at the very end of May, and with two quite large titles: Resident Evil 4 and Pokemon Battle Revolution coming out in the next two weeks, Mario Strikers and the controvercial Wii-controlled Manhunt 2 in July, and then leading into Wii-ified Madden, Space Station Tycoon, and Metroid in August.... I don't think Wii sales are going to slow down this summer. Just my opinion though.

As for DS, I don't think much needs to be said about it, it's loaded with popular RPGs, Adventures, platformers, party games, and strategy/simulation games. It will easily take #1 overall this year again. I'm predicting more than 10 million ww will sell for November and December alone (which might be some sort of record if it happens).

See, I"m still not really convinced that the Wii will necessarily have the legs in the long term. Sure it'll do well this year, the lineup of titles is too good, but it may also be the time where you see the PS3 really pick up steam with some good marketing. You're starting to see rumblings from the Sony execs actually admitting they have crap and need to do more. We HAVE to see something this Xmas from them and they know it.

And you don't want to underestimate the power of Halo in this market (Halo 2 is still played a lot on Live). The 360 is the wildcard here. We know it's garbage in Japan, that's never gonna change. But in NA, which we know is the biggest market, it's doin' pretty decently, even if it's losing ground. But if it outsells the Wii from October to March, can the Wii catch up afterwards? It might not, especially if we see price drops from the other two, which is the main advantage for the Wii right now.

Don't forget, I'm a Nintendo fan and I loves my Wii. But I'm still not convinced they're going to win in the long run regardless of how well they're doing now. Japan they'll likely be tops, but even you pointed out, that's the third market now. That's why I"m sayin' let's see where they end up after this Xmas and how they do. It'll be a much better indication after we see how they fare against the Halo and likely a price drop from both systems.

The DS has already beaten the PSP this generation, no doubt, but I'm actually surprised at the PSP's staying power. They don't have much in the way of games (no real system seller and only about 10 titles you'd really die for IMO) and yet they're still doing decently. They may not win, but it's a good business for Sony. You can't really call it a failure if they end up with 30-40 million worldwide at the end of the system's life. It's just that the DS will end up with 2-3 times that.

[bovine]

in response to your psp comments.

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=236

[Blotus]

It's been a long, sucky road for the PSP but that thing is really starting to get awesome games. There's already two GTA's, MGS: Portable, two decent Megaman remakes, and people seem to like this Puzzle Quest. On the way: God of War, FFTactics, and Rondo. Not to mention it's a hackable portable media player and capable of playing ROM's.

I've said it before: I'll be picking one up some day when the price is low enough.

[Zeus]

It's been a long, sucky road for the PSP but that thing is really starting to get awesome games. There's already two GTA's, MGS: Portable, two decent Megaman remakes, and people seem to like this Puzzle Quest. On the way: God of War, FFTactics, and Rondo. Not to mention it's a hackable portable media player and capable of playing ROM's.

I've said it before: I'll be picking one up some day when the price is low enough.

And that's the thing, there are really good games for it, but is it really worth it for the extra coin, especially if the DS is 40% less with 4 times as many games?

Need to drop to the DS price and it becomes worth it IMO

[Blotus]

All things being a matter of taste, I'd rather own a PSP once GoW, FFT, and Rondo are released. Dawn of Sorrow was awesome, and New SMB and Kart were good (although MKDS was no Double Dash), but the DS doesn't cater to my tastes as much... although Hotel Dusk is definitely something I'd like to try.

[Zeus]

All things being a matter of taste, I'd rather own a PSP once GoW, FFT, and Rondo are released. Dawn of Sorrow was awesome, and New SMB and Kart were good (although MKDS was no Double Dash), but the DS doesn't cater to my tastes as much... although Hotel Dusk is definitely something I'd like to try.

Don't forget the FF remakes. They look great too.

I can't really disagree with you, it really is a matter of taste. It's a little more limited on the PSP in terms of selection (well, a helluva lot more), but it's finally starting to get a library that's worth the cost of the system, especially when you look at what's coming by the end of the year (I'm dyin' to get Rondo as well, it's a great game; I had a ton of fun with it and I'm sure I will again).

Have you tried Portrait of Ruin? Just curious what everyone thinks of it compared to Dawn. I actually picked up Aria of Sorrow not too long ago and finally beat it (spectacular game) and haven't found the time to get to Dawn yet, but I really want to (Elite Beat Agents caught me; getting close to beating that on Hard Rock mode).

It's getting worse and worse for me in terms of finishing games. I have about 5 on the go at any time (Rainbow Six Vegas, Gears, Elite Beat, Guitar Hero 2, Zelda Wii right now). And I just picked up Wario Ware and Paper Mario for Wii and I really wanna play those. I gotta start finishing them....

[Blotus]

Haven't tried Portrait of Ruin, but I'd sure like to. I had to sell my DS before that came out. I keep forgetting about Aria and Harmony. I meant to get the 2-in-1 pack when that was released... It will probably look like crap on my TV (big) using the GBA player I have though.

Dawn of Sorrow is definitely worth it. In the same league as Symphony for sure.

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

Just for what it's worth, I found the Halo controls convoluted too!

Just to clarify, I think Halo's controls are basically perfect for a console shooter. But they're definitely not welcoming to newcomers.

It's been a long, sucky road for the PSP but that thing is really starting to get awesome games.

Tell me about it! I haven't about-faced on a console like this since the first Xbox. The PSP is getting a lot of good stuff.

[Zeus]

Haven't tried Portrait of Ruin, but I'd sure like to. I had to sell my DS before that came out. I keep forgetting about Aria and Harmony. I meant to get the 2-in-1 pack when that was released... It will probably look like crap on my TV (big) using the GBA player I have though.

Dawn of Sorrow is definitely worth it. In the same league as Symphony for sure.

That 2-in-1 pack is pretty rare now and it's a little expensive. If you really want one, I can look for ya. I'll need to know whether or not you care about having the book and box or if you'll take the game only. If I do find it, I can probably get it for $20 or under. I got my bud one for $17 a ways back.

Personally, I couldn't play Harmony, it pissed me off. The Metroidvania games have always been open-ended, but that one was cryptic on where to go next, it was irritating. Poorly designed castle. I just stopped playing it. It's the only Metroidvania I haven't beaten.

I can Portrait now for $25 or less. If you ever get a DS again, let me know.

[Julius Seeker]

How much is Nintendo dominating Japan? And how good have they been for the videogame industry there?

http://wii.ign.com/articles/801/801285p1.html

-The rate of sales for software units per hardware unit sold on the Wii is higher than it has been for any other system in over a decade
-Nintendo is the #1 publisher with 21 titles in the top 50, #2 is Namco with 4 titles.
-The highest ranking non-Nintendo system is the PSP which has 11% of the hardware market with PS3 having 4%, and Xbox 360 1.7% (or about 15% of the market, combined, for the competitors).

[Eric]

So I got a PS3 and X-Box 360 today.

:0

[SineSwiper]

Uhhh? What? Both? Did you have to take out a loan? What reason did you give the bank?

[bovine]

be sure to post your gamertag

[Zeus]

So I got a PS3 and X-Box 360 today.

:0

I got a Vectrex, Neo Geo CD, and Philips CD-I over the weekend :-)

[Blotus]

Eric, I don't know who lied to you but I'm pretty sure there are no DBZ, Naruto, or otherwise anime-inspired games on the 360.

Sorry.


lol

[Eric]

Eric, I don't know who lied to you but I'm pretty sure there are no DBZ, Naruto, or otherwise anime-inspired games on the 360.

Sorry.


lol

Hey that's not true, check out Naruto: Rise of the NINJA!!!!

OH YEAH ANIME AWESOMENESS.....

>_>

[Blotus]

Ah...... enjoy!

[Eric]

Ah...... enjoy!

I won't give you the satisfaction!

[bovine]

on the topic of that naruto game...
LINK!

[Eric]

on the topic of that naruto game...
LINK!

And that is fucking awesome, my only gripe with this game was that I'd have to deal with the American voices, and I can't stand Naruto's dub voice.

[Blotus]

What sold you on the system?

[bovine]

bump due to reminder...

dear eric,

I was fiddling around with my ps3 and realized that you had bought one of these little gems a while back... so what is your PSN name and also since you have a 360, what is your live gamertag? It would be a shame not to voyeuristically watch what game you are playing. I didn't want to post in the sticky thread in fears of making it less streamlined and pretty, so you'll have to deal me injecting this dead thread with some phoenix down.

[Zeus]

bump due to reminder...

dear eric,

I was fiddling around with my ps3 and realized that you had bought one of these little gems a while back... so what is your PSN name and also since you have a 360, what is your live gamertag? It would be a shame not to voyeuristically watch what game you are playing. I didn't want to post in the sticky thread in fears of making it less streamlined and pretty, so you'll have to deal me injecting this dead thread with some phoenix down.

There's a sticky for that now, isn't there?

[bovine]

I didn't want to post in the sticky thread in fears of making it less streamlined and pretty, so you'll have to deal me injecting this dead thread with some phoenix down.

look at me , I'm quoting myself

[SineSwiper]

Too fucking bad. Use the sticky, or I'll ground you to your room!

[Zeus]

I didn't want to post in the sticky thread in fears of making it less streamlined and pretty, so you'll have to deal me injecting this dead thread with some phoenix down.

look at me , I'm quoting myself

I know....I was kindly trying to say "use the sticky to find his names there, dumbass". Also since it'll likely not be picked up by Eric here anyways.

[Blotus]

I didn't want to post in the sticky thread in fears of making it less streamlined and pretty, so you'll have to deal me injecting this dead thread with some phoenix down.

look at me , I'm quoting myself

I know....I was kindly trying to say "use the sticky to find his names there, dumbass". Also since it'll likely not be picked up by Eric here anyways.

Change the topic name to "Naruto vs DBZ hentai RPG for PS3 OMG!"

[Eric]

look at me , I'm quoting myself

I know....I was kindly trying to say "use the sticky to find his names there, dumbass". Also since it'll likely not be picked up by Eric here anyways.

Change the topic name to "Naruto vs DBZ hentai RPG for PS3 OMG!"

Did somebody ring?!

Jokes aside, the X-Box I got was broken, lol. So I'll probably pick one up again for ze holidays, see if I can find any good deals.

I set up the PSN thingy, and got Warhawk, got my ass pounded and my shit pushed in and cried, then went out and bought Assassin's Creed.

I'll post my PSN username in the thread later.