Any early adopters around here?

[Agent 57]

Hey all,

I was pondering last night and found myself kind of wanting to get in on the ground floor of the next generation of consoles - well, with the 360 at least, anyway - but I can also see a couple of problems with that.

My first concern is the price. Whenever somebody has asked me lately what I'm planning on doing with regards to the next gen, my first answer has been "I refuse to pay more than $200 for a console," which I think is a pretty reasonable attitude to have, considering how drastically console hardware tends to drop in price (when I bought myself my GC and Xbox, I paid $150 less than their launch prices for each of them) - meaning that if I simply wait, I'll be able to follow my maxim no matter how expensive a console is at launch.

<i>Possible solution: Ask for the 360 for Christmas. I could even try to convince my family to all pitch in for it together, considering that's all I would really want at this point (Aside: anyone else noticed how you find yourself wanting fewer and fewer things for Christmas you get older?).</i>

My second concern is the launch games. I was second in line at EB on 9/9/99, and picked up one excellent game (Soul Calibur), one good game (NFL2K), one decent game (Air Force Delta), one "meh" game (Trickstyle) and one utter piece of shit (Blue Stinger). On the other hand, when I bought my cheapo GC and Xbox, I walked home that day with Metroid Prime, Wind Waker, Monkey Ball 2, KotOR, Panzer Dragoon Orta, DOA3, and Jet Set Radio Future - all excellent games.

<i>Possible solution: Do I really need to worry? The 360 launch should end up happening with a maximum of hoopla and plenty of promising games...I'm finding it kind of hard to believe that with gaming being the high-stakes booming business it is these days that a company would allow a sub-standard title to make its way to the shelves in the early days of the console, <b>especially</b> on launch day.</i>

Any thoughts on the next gen from you guys?

[Nev]

I really ought to know this, but I don't. I'd just pick a few review sites, stay on top of the news, and see what the 360 launch title lineup is looking like.

As far as substandard launch titles, I don't really know, again, but my tentative guess would be that you can totally have substandard launch titles. When a console launches, I think companies are often scrambling for titles to fill out the launch. Something substandard is totally possible as long as a company can say "We have 20 launch titles" instead of 5, and I doubt that's changed, only because it's getting hard to get good development talent in the gaming industry (from what I know), especially on something like a brand-new console. Microsoft may be trying harder on something like that, but I really don't know. Again, I would just say stay on top of the review sites...

[Zeus]

Personally, I console myself (pun not intended) with my other games systems until the newer ones come down in price. Launch games are never hard to find and there are tons of good games coming out for the older consoles. It might be different for me due to the sheer amount of games I own, but it just doesn't make sense to come in too early. The price will drop one way or the other and you've got perfectly adequate games for the systems you already own (who doesn't have a backlog of games to play?), so just wait it out for a year or so and you'll be able to get it used for about half the price of the new at launch (haven't bought a new system since the N64 in 1996).

But that's me. I know some people want to play the latest and greatest, if you do and you know you'll get good mileage out of it, go ahead. Even if it is $500 US, if you're going to get 500 hours of gameplay out of it, it's worth it. That's rather cheap entertainment

[Agent 57]

I know some people want to play the latest and greatest, if you do and you know you'll get good mileage out of it, go ahead.

See, there's the thing. I know that the smart way to go about a new console is pretty much the way I went about things with the GC/Xbox - wait until it falls drastically in price and then snap up the cream of the first-gen crop - but the problem is, an interested gamer who spends any amount of time online is going to get swamped with references to the latest and greatest everywhere he goes.

Forums, gaming sites, webcomics, GameFAQs, non-gaming sites, even pop culture references - <i>everybody's</i> talking about it. (Call it Penny Arcade pressure instead of peer pressure.) It's pervasive and insidious and gets under your skin - well, my skin anyway. Last time it happened to me was when half the Shrine was talking about RE4, I knew I wanted it but was working on MMZ3 at the time, but eventually I couldn't take it any more and I went out and got it.

Kind of embarrassing to admit that I can be affected by something like PA pressure, but there you have it.

Even if it is $500 US, if you're going to get 500 hours of gameplay out of it, it's worth it. That's rather cheap entertainment.

Well, that's why I'm thinking of pulling off some sort of Xmas deal. But isn't the MSRP only going to be around $300 at launch? Would MS be insane enough to price the 360 that high?

[Tortolia]

I haven't bought a console close to/at launch since the SNES.

It works pretty well for me.