Xbox 360: Elephants Filling up the Room
Ever heard the term "The elephant in the room"?
It may be defined as:
An obvious and or large problem that is impossible to overlook.
The Xbox 360, despite being quite successful, has several elephants in the room. It's starting to become quite crowded. Microsoft is mostly only picking up the dung piles of one of these "Elephants", being the one that represents the faulty hardware. Why? Because it's the most noticeable to their customers.
Let us take a look at these "Elephants"
- Faulty Hardware (RROD/E74) - The Xbox 360 is well known for a major issue, the RROD. Though not the only issue faced by Xbox gamers, it is the most recognized and most common. Solid research suggests that over 30% of all 360 consoles have faced a fatal error in their lifetime. This is including the young, freshly-purchased Xbox 360s as well, mind you. Whatever the official numbers, I can safely state: THEY ARE TOO HIGH, DARN IT!
- Lack of First Party Developers/Games - In 2007, the Xbox 360 had exclusive titles popping off the shelf. Halo 3, Crackdown, Dead Rising.....such a great year. Dead Rising being a personal favorite. However, 2008 wasn't nearly so great. And 2009 was poor. Sure, it had ODST, GTA4 episodes, Halo Wars, and Left 4 Dead 2. But ODST was short. Halo Wars was too simple for fans of any PC rts. And valve games are a completely different story on PC. What went wrong? Microsoft doesn't have enough first party studios. Some of their best titles this year were third party because Microsoft is too dependent on them.
- Accessories/Peripherals - The Xbox 360 greatly lacks the options of third party accessories and the lack of competition allows them to price things like a 60GB HDD at $100. A simple wireless accessory (I'm not talking about the new one) at $100. A half GB memory card at $50. And it's mostly Microsoft's bidding. For example, they recently used an update on LIVE to render third party HDDs and memory cards useless. Dirty move, Microsoft.
- Wasted Power - In raw factual power, the Xbox is known to have the better GPU to the PS3 (Though the total amount of potential graphical power with the Cell processor taking part of the load, is often debated). So, why are second party exclusive titles like Halo ODST still running in sub-HD, no AA, in only 30fps, being the studio's second 360 exclusive, when the PS3 is getting games running in 720p HD, with 2xAA, running up to an average far above 30fps, rendering such large, attractive worlds and character models like in Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time?
How long can "Zoo keepers" like Aaron Greenberg pick up the dung and dispose of the elephant evidence? I suppose that's a question for history to answer.
Leave a comment if you wish.
Funny how you conveniently forgot to mention Forza 3 in your list of 2009 exclusives. Completely ignoring the 360's highest rated exclusive of the year in an attempt to make the lineup look worse makes YOUR arguement look like a pretty big pile of elephant dung.
Plus, calling ODST, L4D2, and GTA Episodes "poor" is quite a stretch. Exactly what are you basing this OPINION on? I always love how you guys make fun of the GTA4 DLC. I guess paying $20 for a game that has more content than a lot of $60 games offer is somehow a bad thing. After all, aren't you complaining that MS charges too much for other accessories and services? Yet, when they offer a GREAT value by selling TWO great games at discount prices, you consider them "poor".
LMAO! Sony fanboys more interested in 360 games. Forgetting Forza 3 just proves that you know nothing about the 360. So please stop worrying about it so much.
All this hatemongering towards the 360 makes you look very desperate.
How come you'd rather obsess about a console you apparently hate instead of writing about the one you adore?
Oh man, this is pathetic. Good article, gave me a good laugh.
"...when the PS3 is getting games running in 720p HD..."
so what do u know, 720p is HD after all (I already knew this). so many sonyfans here try and convince me otherwise. OrangeCows I better not catch u making any sub1080p comments around n4g!