Microsoft is assuring that the Xbox will die a quick death

[vniow]

Well, maybe they don't to dominate the gaming market that bad.....

Microsoft has changed the internal configuration of its Xbox game console, a move intended to thwart hackers and lower manufacturing costs.

Word of the changes began spreading on sites devoted Xbox hacking, with some buyers of recently manufactured Xbox units complaining that mod chips designed for the original console won't work now.

Microsoft Xbox spokeswoman Molly O'Donnell confirmed that the company had made minor changes to the console's configuration as part of ongoing efforts to "increase security and reduce overall costs."

Reduce costs? Maybe, but you can't say Microsoft and security in the same sentence while keping a straight face.
This may also be the result of their search to hire a hacker.
Sux for those few of you who actually like the Xbox, modding game systems is part of the fun.

click

[Mr. Anderson]

Originally posted by edvniow

Sux for those few of you who actually like the Xbox, modding game systems is part of the fun.

considering that the 'mods' are just for using illeagally copied games, I can't see this being all that surprising. And I'm sure its just a matter of time before someone comes out with something that bypasses these fixes....

D

[AmigaMac]

The Xbox was dead on arrival anyways... it will live the same ultimate demise as the NEC TurboGrafix 16, the Panasonic 3DO, the Atari Jaguar and the Sega Dreamcast!

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by dukestreet


considering that the 'mods' are just for using illeagally copied games, I can't see this being all that surprising. And I'm sure its just a matter of time before someone comes out with something that bypasses these fixes....

D

Mods also allow you to use foreign games i.e. early releases from Japan. At least for the PS2.

[spinner]

Originally posted by MacBandit



Mods also allow you to use foreign games i.e. early releases from Japan. At least for the PS2.

A friend of mine had a PS1 with a mod chip and it allowed him to play foreign games as well as burned copies of games. Let's just say that he didn't buy a lot of games.

[allpar]

What you fail to take into account is the fact that Microsoft rarely admits defeat, and there is no reason why they should. They have infinite money at their disposal. MSN has been stumbling along for years and I have NO doubt that it will eventually replace AOL as the #1 ISP in the nation...and the world...and that the rest of 'em will eventually fail except for the cable companies and a few locals (MAYBE). When people saw the market share for Word, they laughed at Microsoft's challenge to WordPerfect...same as they did with Excel vs Lotus 1-2-3, MS networking vs Novell, MS small business accounting, Windows 1.0 and 2.0, Windows web servers, and a huge number of others. Don't forget that MS owns enough media to control the opinions of the masses... and if they took off the gloves, it would be far worse than at the moment, where they just influence MSNBC, NBC, MSN, a bunch of analysts, eWeek, and anyone else who they advertise with.

Wonder whatever happened to that antitrust suit? Seems to have disappeared from the public eye.

[NatronB]

Originally posted by AmigaMac
The Xbox was dead on arrival anyways... it will live the same ultimate demise as the NEC TurboGrafix 16, the Panasonic 3DO, the Atari Jaguar and the Sega Dreamcast!

Whenever I hear someone knock Xbox, I smile, and happily return to slaughtering the Covenant masses....

Then I think of Halo 2, and smile again.....

[Soma_Addict]

i find it extremely comical whenever an Xboxer defends their system of choice with only one game. two if you count the sequel. it is like saying that a band is very good although they are only a one hit wonder. a one hit wonder that bought another band so that they could have exclusive rights.

paying a ton of money for other peoples creative efforts does not sound like a solid business practice to me.

[Chisholm]

Anybody want to buy my Xbox? It has Halo an a Tony Hawk game and a 5 year extended warranty from Circuit City. Maybe 4 hours of use total. Cheap...

[BongHits]

you'd be hard pressed to find a better (more profitable) business model than MS...the only company making more money is the Saudi Arabian Princes oil company, and that's just because the US (wealthiest nation) is nearly 100% dependant on oil from this region (i realize their is oil in alaska and venezuela, but not nearly as much.)

[NatronB]

Originally posted by Soma_Addict
i find it extremely comical whenever an Xboxer defends their system of choice with only one game. two if you count the sequel. it is like saying that a band is very good although they are only a one hit wonder. a one hit wonder that bought another band so that they could have exclusive rights....

have you played Halo?

I love my Mac, but it doesn't play Halo, and neither does yours...

[AssassinOfGates]

In case you havent heard, Halo is comming to mac, so its worth the wait, especially since Bungie originated on Mac. Shame M$ bought it. And shame that M$ bought RAREware. Damn now GC wont get Perfect Dark 2 or any other RARE games after starfox and donkeykong. Instead, they will be brought to Xbox, just like DOA3 and halo was. Im seeing another anti-competetion trend here, and I hope the DOJ can get up off their corrupt asses and actually prevent yet another monopoly in the making.

[iwantanewmac]

Originally posted by AssassinOfGates
In case you havent heard, Halo is comming to mac, so its worth the wait, especially since Bungie originated on Mac.

Uh yeah.
Halo "has been coming to the mac" for ages......
Damn I wouldn't wait for a game.......

[dongmin]

Originally posted by NatronB


have you played Halo?

I love my Mac, but it doesn't play Halo, and neither does yours...

As soon as Doom 3 and UT 2003 comes out, Halo will be a distant memory for hardcore gamers...

[peterjhill]

thread rehash

We have been down this road before, but I wil say that I will buy an Xbox when Halo2 comes out. I have finished the first one, and love it. I have seen the trailer for the next one, and am very excited. Other games are just gravy to me. A decent racing game and I will be happier.

I am not an avid console gamer, though. At least not since I got married ;-) At the current price of the machine, it is a great deal.

[Kid Red]

Originally posted by BongHits
you'd be hard pressed to find a better (more profitable) business model than MS...the only company making more money is the Saudi Arabian Princes oil company, and that's just because the US (wealthiest nation) is nearly 100% dependant on oil from this region (i realize their is oil in alaska and venezuela, but not nearly as much.)

All good (debateable) things come to an end. MS lost like 15 billion last quater or something that knocked Bills income down some. His and MS's time is numbered IMO and I am excited about Apple's future.

[Angelus]

Its a shame to see Nintendo letting go of Rare.Granted they havent been on the radar much over the last year(with the exception of starfox adventures) but they created some of the best and most unique games on the N64.Goldeneye was a masterpiece with infinite replayability. Then when Goldeneye seemed to be loosing its edge out came Perfect Dark,another tour de force.I was looking forward to playing PD2 an all but now i guess it will be XBox exclusive.Its a shame cos Rare have real talent and they put so much effort and attention to detail into their games. I loved their attitude in that they cared little for release schedules simply because they werent willing to release a game unless it was perfect(pardon the pun).

Anyways that my two cents on the matter.

P.S does anyone here remember Blast Corps for the N64?What a game!

[Soma_Addict]

have you played Halo?

I love my Mac, but it doesn't play Halo, and neither does yours...

yes i have played Halo and it is a pretty good game. the physics engine is very well done. but paying $340(system and two games +Tax) dollars into the pocket of a company that i do not respect and have a hard time supporting just to play 2 games(Halo and Halo 2) is a bit much.

i guess it comes down to how badly one needs to pay for entertainment.

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by allpar
What you fail to take into account is the fact that Microsoft rarely admits defeat, and there is no reason why they should. They have infinite money at their disposal. MSN has been stumbling along for years and I have NO doubt that it will eventually replace AOL as the #1 ISP in the nation...and the world...and that the rest of 'em will eventually fail except for the cable companies and a few locals (MAYBE). When people saw the market share for Word, they laughed at Microsoft's challenge to WordPerfect...same as they did with Excel vs Lotus 1-2-3, MS networking vs Novell, MS small business accounting, Windows 1.0 and 2.0, Windows web servers, and a huge number of others. Don't forget that MS owns enough media to control the opinions of the masses... and if they took off the gloves, it would be far worse than at the moment, where they just influence MSNBC, NBC, MSN, a bunch of analysts, eWeek, and anyone else who they advertise with.

Wonder whatever happened to that antitrust suit? Seems to have disappeared from the public eye.

I really doubt there is anyway that MSN can ever compete agains AOL/Time Warner in money. Also I've been waiting for Sony to get pissed and just buy Microsoft. Microsoft does not have a lot of money in the big scheme of things they just have a lot of money for a software only company.

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by Soma_Addict
have you played Halo?

I love my Mac, but it doesn't play Halo, and neither does yours...

yes i have played Halo and it is a pretty good game. the physics engine is very well done. but paying $340(system and two games +Tax) dollars into the pocket of a company that i do not respect and have a hard time supporting just to play 2 games(Halo and Halo 2) is a bit much.

i guess it comes down to how badly one needs to pay for entertainment.

I refuse to play Halo for 1 reason. I drooled over Halo for 2 years in the Mac magazines then Microsoft bought Bungie and they said they wouldn't bring it to the Mac. Then they said they would but where is it. This really makes me despise Microsoft. They knew they were buying the #1 maker of Mac games and they new Bungie had a winner on there hands so they screwed us all.

[noht*]

Originally posted by AmigaMac
The Xbox was dead on arrival anyways... it will live the same ultimate demise as the NEC TurboGrafix 16, the Panasonic 3DO, the Atari Jaguar and the Sega Dreamcast!

no way...the turbografx, more correctly the PC-Engine, was one of the most successful consoles in japan. the 3do was an attempt at creating a pc-like standard based on which any company could build their version. panasonic and goldstar ended up being the only ones to actually ship, i believe, but toshiba, sanyo and AT&T are said to have had prototypes; still it was a very influential design. the jaguar was even more ground-breaking (first console with a 64-bit design), but suffered the usual catastrophic atari PR. the dreamcast is, well, the dreamcast. it has its own special niche for conversions and 'freak' games, and i know arcade-nuts that would never give their dreamcast away.
no system is dead on arrival. the psx is the best example. made by a company with no prior experience in this particular market, sony could use its immense size to 'force' its system into competion with aggressive advertising and pricing. i remember game magazines that gave the psx no more than 6 months...well they were proven wrong. microsoft is a similar example. they may not have had the expertise to build the über-console they intended to, but they certainly know something about marketing.
that said, i must admit that there are systems that were born dead. anyone remember the nintendo virtual boy, for example..?
(note: i don't own a xbox. i just don't agree with the dominant opinion that the xbox is a bad design, has no future, and is just generally a Bad Thing)
as for rare, yes, that's a true shame. but it just shows microsoft's strategy, which, unfortunatly, has proven to be quite effective. if you can't copy them, buy'em.

just some thoughts

noht

[elohim01]

From MacBandit:

"Also I've been waiting for Sony to get pissed and just buy Microsoft. Microsoft does not have a lot of money in the big scheme of things they just have a lot of money for a software only company."

Geez, you would think a mac user would have more sense to do some decent research and discover that Microsoft has a net worth of over triple that of Sony.

People these days...

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by elohim01
From MacBandit:

"Also I've been waiting for Sony to get pissed and just buy Microsoft. Microsoft does not have a lot of money in the big scheme of things they just have a lot of money for a software only company."

Geez, you would think a mac user would have more sense to do some decent research and discover that Microsoft has a net worth of over triple that of Sony.

People these days...

Do you not know that Sony is owned by deep pockets in Japan. Every face company that we deal with from Japan is. Panasonic is owned by Matsu****a etc..

Jeez

[pretentious]

This whole 'Xbox' fiasco should just go and prove to the rest of the world that Microsoft cannot make a worthwhile product, esp. in the hardware dept.. Can anyone say 'WebTV'?


BTW I think I read somewhere that Apple had made some type of its own game console, but I can't seem to find any more information on that. (Maybe it was all in my head?)

[dwishbone]

apples console was called the Pippin.
good concept. lots of flaws. bad timing and PR.