E3 2011 is behind us. How did each company perform? The grades are in.
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.
Xbox 360's Kinect had flopped yet Microsoft insisted on mandatory Kinect for Xbox One, driving the price up and alienating their potential customers.
the tech was pretty damn good but their focus on making it the centerpiece was not. Had they opted to keep it as a secondary or even tertiary device, it may have found new use for AR/VR.
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Their focus was marketing metrics. Information gathering for targeted advertising. Also "event curating" or head counting for special TV events. If MS had had their way with always online and mandatory Kinect pre COVID, as and during it they'd likely be turning into dominant presence in many Western homes. Be getting subsidized by Disney and other streamers as well as the NFL.
Thing was, Kinect as an actual game system, its games, just weren't ready. MS moved on it too soon. Thankfully.
Sorry but it was incredibly bad for gaming. The thing barely worked as intended and the games were broken shovelware. And let's not forget all the lies from Xbox to try and sell it. What happened to Milo?
It's like Xbox it's a perpetual lying machine.
I had almost forgotten about Milo. It looks so unbelievable in retrospect. How did anyone believe it?!
Kinect requirement, TV focused, DRM, and $100 buried Xbone before it even stared.
I think Kinect was the worst of the bunch. They reversed DRM overnight and try to play down the TV stuff when they realised it made them look disinterested in gaming.
Kinect stuck around for six months, preventing sales and making more and more people upset when they dropped the Kinect and the price.
Don't forget the inferior hardware which affects their game development to this day.
And the constant boasting and lying that hasn't change very much to this day.
I was kind of excited for the kinect. It had potential. That was until i tried it at one of their Microsoft store. The thing was so laggy and worker who was there, had no clue what he was doing. It kind of made rethink about buying an Xbox One with Kinect.
I had already been turned off of the idea by Kinect for 360. Even when it worked, the games were bad and showed no potential.
Wii made you understand what they were going to do with it within about 10 seconds of Wii Sports. It went on to become a bit of a joke but at least it worked and had a purpose.
The damage to the Xbox brand was so hard that til this day they are just the last place brand in the market.
That has to do with repeatedly failing, having to reaffirm only to again fail at creating a competent flow of decent games.
@PrimeVinister:
Until Game Pass and BC are mentioned. Only for the point to be missed.
thats because they dont know what they want to be. A gaming console, Television, or a gaming service?
@kayoss:
They wanted, expected, to be Steam. To have everyone coming to them and paying for the privilege. That's the exact mentality on display when they tried to push always online.
Its sad because the Xbox one version of Kinect was actually pretty solid. Not for motion games, I couldnt care less about those, but for the other features that are now commonplace in the gaming ecosystem. Things like voice control and optional motion features in games. Stuff that Sony did with the PS camera was pretty sweet and they could have done some of that stuff with Kinect.
The tech was pretty sweet when implemented right though. Who remembers the implementation in Dead Rising 3?! You could lure zombies away by saying stuff into the kinect, it was a bit hokey at first, but it actually enhanced the game significantly once you learned all the different voice commands. There was and still is nothing else like that!
The focus on TV seemed to be an issue for people, but the TV pass through had some real potential. They could have had cable companies giving the XBone out instead of cable boxes! I understood what they were trying to do, but they needed to show the games too, and thats where they lost the core gamers. Being able to jump right to a sports event or TV show with out leaving the console was actually a pretty cool thing. I spent many nights switching between NHL games or TV shows and jumping right back into my games seamlessly, just by telling Kinect to do so. It was better than people care to admit, but I loved it!
People say XBone had no games, but on launch I got Dead Rising 3, AC Black Flag, Watch Dogs, Killer Instinct, Battlefield 4, Forza 5, and Ryse. That was actually a pretty solid lineup in hindsight! Then later on it got gems like Quantum Break, Dead Rising 4, Sunset Overdrive, Gears 4 and 5, the Ori games, Rare Replay, Forza Horizon 3/4, State of Decay 2, ReCore (SUPER UNDERRATED GEM), Halo 5, Halo Wars 2, and all the great 3rd party stuff as well! I dare anyone who sat on the Xbox One to go back and give it a shot now.
It was actually a pretty great console all things considered. Yes the PS4 had better 1st party stuff, stuff that MS just couldnt top or even compete with, but there are some really great games that a lot of people missed out on that they would probably really enjoy if they actually played them. Thats why I recommend a Series S and Gamepass to a lot of people, as its a great way to get an awesome lineup pf games for super cheap!
The author's piece is on par with 99% of the fan kids that will say anything to smear the 360. Thank god..we ACTUALLY saw the conference for ourselves to prevent the flat out lies used during the smear agenda.
Basically, he took anything Micrsoft used on stage and tried to add his personal negative spin and use as much mis-information to get his point across.
Check the brilliant quotes..
'Mass Effect 3 take longer to say the dialogue than to select it with the controller'
LMAO..so when was the mantra 'FASTER with Kinect' coined by ANYBODY. The point of adding the voice integration was that it adds an additional level of immersion into the game and games like Kinectimals actually proves that talking without a headset and having the game characters react does just that.
What the author didn't mention (because it's a positive of course) is that Kinect actually reduces play time at the heart of Mass Effects gameplay..the combat. Before you would have to pause the game and input exactly what you wanted the characters to do..unpause..and what the character react while you tried to control what your character does. Now you can naturally direct the characters to move and use their individual powers without being pulled out of the game.
Micrsoft NEVER said that Kinect will be a mandate to be used in ALL future titles. What he said was where it made sense like navigation using voice commands would likely be used. mainly because Kinect does all the work of decoding voice riyght form the hardware. The developrs do NOT have to program it in. Which is why it makes sense moving forward. Bioware already stated that they would never have done Kinect usage if it was a 'tacked on' experience. But of course the haters WIll try to paint that picture.
'The Kinect Star Wars game looked atrocious. There was sometimes a 2-3 second response delay to the demonstrator’s movements'
Because it was FAKE..as evey Star Wars presentation has been thus far..it's a vid 'lip-synched' by the presenter.
'The two guys playing football in Kinect Sports Season 2 was utterly embarrassing. Why wouldn’t someone just go outside and play real football/catch rather than pretending to in their living room?'
UTTER FAIL..Please tell us why we pretend to play NFL, NBA, Golf, etc. in our living rooms by pressing but and using controllers instead of going 'outside'. Why does Nintendo attempt to use those same types of motion controls for the Wii? Motion Sports' football is an actual blast, which is why you see it in Kinect Sports and ultimately Madden in 2012.
'Not putting online multiplayer in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is a total bonehead move. The main reason people wanted am updated version of Halo was to play multiplayer over Xbox Live, something that wasn’t possible with the original.'
What an idiot..They CLEARLY stated that they are using at press 8 original maps from the original Halo: CE. Not only that you now play co-op over Xbox Live in the original campaign for the first time in history. Not to mention with the press of a button..play with the original graphics or the updated Reach overhaul.
Look it's fine if you hated the Microft conference. But if you have to lie to get your point across, then it's clear that it's just another fan kid who has a site and is fighting the good ol' console war agenda.
Grade of this sire E3 article: F-
Evil
Just because his reporting isn't solid and contains misinformation doesnt give you the right to insult him... Morale standards aside you are feverishly defending EVERYTHING microsoft does... You have yet to aknowledge the fact that the number of high profile exclusives has dwindled and all of microsofts focus is on the kinect which despite your arguments in the contrary is a casual fun fest... If you are giddy for kinect then by all means go crazy but as for the majority of gamers we demand then kinect sports and dance games...
This is way too easy..
It's so interesting that you are trying to call me out for 'insulting people' and 'defending everything Microsoft'?
Ok..let's put the mirror in front of YOUR face..
When another auther made his synopsis of E3 and YOU didn't agree with him..what did YOU write..
'Seriously?? Wow the article was "OK" until the nintendo portion.. He comes out and says the WII U is definently more powerful then the ps3 and 360 but then says the specs werent revealed.... Umm How do you know its more powerful then? Speculation, someones a closet nintendo fanboy and his bias bleeds through his writing.... I voted this nonsense down'
These are YOUR words..
So wait a minute..didn't you just write this to me
'Calling people idiots and even debassing their character because their opinion differs from you makes you the one in the wrong... I have yet to say anything about your character or attack you in a personal way.. I simply pointed out the fact that your sensationalist way of reacting to someones honest opinion makes you no better then the people that your speak down on from your high perch... Learn some humility...'
Ohhhh..I get it..it's do as I say not as I do..please tell us from YOUR high perch..when are YOU going to learn some of that SAME humility?
It get's better..You want to act like I’m defending everything 360..when someone wrote an opinion piece titled 'Why I’m not buying a PS3'..CLEARLY his OWN personal opinion..look what YOU wrote in response..
'Is it me or is this Opinio... err I mean "NEWS" article rife with the stench of a fanboy who is hiding behind thin excuses for why his fanatacism wont let him buy a ps3?
It just goes to show that subliminal fanaticism is rampant in this country'
I rest my case..you clearly dont practice what you preach. In fact you throw huge stones from your very brittle glass house. I could go in..But at the end of the day..ANYONE can see through this blatant hypocrisy.
See it ALL the time here on this site..people say ANYTHING to fight the console agenda..but as usual it's internet ducktales
I could easily retort the rest of your statements..but why..you lost all credibility..we know were your negative energy comes..
Evil