Grumpy Gurevitz writes: Accessible, casual, open to both males and females and affordable. These are the words the gaming industry has been throwing around ever since the launch of the original ‘chunky DS’.
The argument is that more people than ever are involved in gaming and that videogames have ceased to be the ‘plaything” for nerdy boys and have not only become ‘adult’ (as those boys have grown up), but have also become sources of fun for girls, women and pensioners.
New hardware has been designed to support these potential gamers. Everything from the Wii, Kinect and the huge expansion of the smart phone market which can offer more processing bang than the current DS, has resulted in a wider range of gaming experiences than existed five years ago.
Air Conflicts: Secret Wars debuted in 2011, and later updated for modern consoles. However, it's the PlayStation 3 edition that stands out.
Joy Ride Turbo launched 10 years ago today. The first title was Xbox Kinect exclusive, yet this sequel failed to support the device at all.
Cultured Vultures: "Sadly, not all hardware is created equal, and no matter how much developers might try, some gaming hardware just fails to hit the mark. We’ve compiled a list of 10 gaming hardware fails, and boy did some fail hard."
I would label the Power Glove, Kinect, and that Tony Hawk skateboard more as hardware addons hardware failure would be like the Virtual Boy and one day Stadia.
Kinect was bundled with every Xbox One and inflated the price on an already underpowered and low RAM machine so for the One it wasn't an accessory as much as a white elephant.
Definitely the RROD but that power glove had a lot of issues as well. The Kinect just didn't work
Hardware add-ons are more like RAM or a video card, basically components that enhance capabilities or performance of the computer.
If you really want to get technical the Kinect is more of a peripheral device, kind of like a keyboard or mouse to a computer.
The person in this article obviously is not up on their gaming history....
Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, Coleco Gemini, Commodore 128, Commodore Amiga, Atari 5200, Atari 7800 were all massive failures and in most cases cost their companies participating in future gaming generations.
Sega saturn (successful in Japan) and dreamcast were not failures.
Seems like you're not up on you're gaming history
@Gamer79
How in the world are the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast not seen as failures? They both sold around 8M each, which is much lower than the ~30M that the Genesis had sold before it, and even the Master System before that. They were both the worst selling consoles in their respective generation (PS1, N64 outsold Saturn, PS2, GC, and Xbox outsold Dreamcast). Both of the consoles were incredibly short lived. The Saturn was discontinued in every territory but Japan after just three years. In Japan the console was discontinued after six years. Meanwhile the Dreamcast was discontinued worldwide in 2001 after launching in most territories in 1999 and in Japan in 1998. The failure of the Saturn and Dreamcast lead to Sega pulling out of the hardware market. Which, by the way, all of this occurred when Sega was massively dropping the price of their consoles quickly to compete. Sega was hemorrhaging money at this point.
None of this indicates a successful console. Saying the Saturn was a success because it did better in Japan is like saying the Vita is a success (they both sold around the same amount of units in Japan). Even the Wii U outsold these consoles worldwide.
The picture should be the 360 RROD. When I think of gaming hardware failures that's what springs to mind. Kinect and it's bundled price tag definitely hobbled the already underpowered Xbox One though for sure so I would give it a close second place.
That's not what the author means by failures. It's about hardware that failed in terms of sales (Wii U) or just failed to deliver on its promise (Kinect).
Given that the 360 had a year head start, much easier hardware to develop for, was cheaper, and still ended up in third place I think it qualifies especially when you factor in the frustration and huge losses incurred by RROD.
Selling over 80 million consoles isn't a sales flop. We get it, you don't like Xbox, but that doesn't mean the 360 is suddenly a failure.
Porky....
You know how many people I know bought a 2nd or third 360 due to RROD? Even when MS had to confront the issue with replacement systems, my mates couldn't wait for even the turnaround of sending it in, and waiting for a replacement.,,..,..
If that's how you consider it a win... OK.. but so is having 5 , of which 3 don't function.... Its a win win....mwhahahahaha
"my mates couldn't wait for even the turnaround of sending it in"
You're acting like it would take months. When I sent my 360 in I got a new one literally 5 days later. As soon as MS had tracking confirmation that you sent yours, they'd send a new one to you the same day. No one is going to spend hundreds to buy a new console instead of waiting a week. I swear you guys pull some of the dumbest shit out of nowhere and think people will actually believe it.
Regardless, none of this changes the fact that this isn't what the article is even about.
Porky
"You're acting like it would take months"
Sometimes it could.. FFS.. 'Strya here...
Best turnaround I reckon was 2-3 weeks.....
Either way, My mates experiences still exist.. So Sorry, no point trying to earn Xbox Achievements when it doesn't feature in what was a situation you never dealt with,,,,
3 of my friends would disagree (overall, 10 extra Xboxes purchased)
Regardless.. MS sold a lot of 360's that was due to this reason.. That is sales. Fact
"none of this changes the fact that this isn't what the article is even about."
Headline says HELLO !
Oh and "Sadly, not all hardware is created equal," that's enough to pass this on without taking your article bias into consideration.....
As for the rest.... Ok.. But you've actually gone out of your way to give MS a Pass... Fap on.
Yup, and because of that big fiasco MS had to fork out 1 billion but knowing them I think they're very proud of the 360, it's the only time a MS console reached 80mil+ sales, RROD played a big part of that and a record they will never break again.
So true.. Even when MS accepted they where caught out in the biggest lie of any generation, The wait for a replacement was outweighed by just buying another, and having one be returned as a backup, which, btw, generally failed on first swap.
I own honestly can't believe MS tards are just supporting , or arguing why and what MS did by just dismissing it....
Lol I had the Atari Jaguar, surprised its "competition" the 3DO isn't on the list too, both as "popular" as each other.
Lol same. Played the crap out of Aliens Vs Predator and Tempest 2000 .... aaand that's about it really!!
Agreed, I never actually saw a 3DO make it to retailers in the UK. At least the Atari Jaguar was sold for around 6 months.
It made it to some my brother got one, fared just as well as the Jaguar so most probably hard to find in general.
3do had way better games. Jaguar not so much. Neo Geo sold less than both and yet isnt considered a failure. Go figure.
Stadia is a weird one. It hasn’t sold at all well but in terms of how it works it’s still miles ahead of Xcloud in terms of stability and performance. Xcloud is still a way behind and that needs sorting but it will be in time. Stadia for me is one of those things that will go down as a what could have been moments. With better marketing it could have been a roaring success. I still play it and it remains the best place in my opinion to play CyberPunk 2077. Only platform I have played it on without having any issues at all. The tech is great. The concept is fine. Marketing terrible. Shame really.
The sales model was awful. They should have teamed with an existing player to allow for local and cloud access to games or a gaming subscription service.
It was a strange mess from such a huge company, as I said, as a system it works really well but without gamers it’s nothing. Such a waste,
The Xbox One was Microsoft’s Nintendo Wii U. Undercooked, undersold and just an unholy mess. The thing is with any of these failures is to learn from them and thankfully both Nintendo and Xbox did just that to the benefit of gamers everywhere.
The title of this article could so easily be misinterpreted...
You took your non-nerd wife to a nerd fest? You evil man.
I could probably get my wife to come along to one of these things. Provided I could get hold of some chloroform.
"open to both males and females" Aren't all games open to both male and females? Or is there a secret world of male games... Out of reach to the average female
Gamer? :p
At least his wife gave it a go. It was interesting to hear her observations about Sony and Microsoft's blatant Wii rip-off launch games.