21st February 2003, 3:37 PM
Quote:Originally posted by lazyfatbum
How could Nintendo never be on top again? Businesses rise and fall constantly, it's their nature. The PSX was scraping the barrel before they invested tons of cash in marketing for FF7. After that, Sony and their 3rd parties realized that showing pretty graphics or game content didn't matter, you just had to make the commercial funny or hip. When I was working at Babbages during the lauunch of FF7 we had hundreds of people returning the game because they thought it was like Zelda. I would try to explain to them what an RPG is and people didn't get it. Sony continued to market it as a movie, showing clips of FMV, and before you knew it the game was #1. The first truely succesful RPG in the states. It was that one game that made the PSX a hit with mostly kids and some older teenagers (over 15) who bought the game because of hype, and continued playing because of the action and the adult themes without EVER having played an RPG before or even knowing what an RPG is.
Final Fantasy 7 was only the catalyst in Japan (although other Square software also helped). The PSX took off because of it's (commercially) amazing years during 1997/1998, in which a slew of games really got them going (Final Fantasy 7, Crash Bandicoot 1/2/3, Resident Evil 1/2, Tomb Raider, Ace Combat 2, Final Fantasy Tactics, Gran Turismo, Tekken 2/3 etc. etc.) while Nintendo really only had a few large selling games to help them (Mario Kart, Zelda, Mario, Goldeneye, Pokemon Stadium)
Final Fantasy was only a part of the boom, particularly in America where other games sold just as well, or better.
The agressive marketting of these games is obviously what got them over the line. But a single game (or peripheral) was not the case.
Quote:In Japan, no one wanted an XBox. They wouldn't even consider it. As soon as XBox Live was released, it has almost overtaken the Gamecube. And along with marketing, many of the XBox titles that were ignored are now selling in high volumes. One could predict that the XBox will eventually overtake the PS2 and any future consoles from Sony, worldwide. A perepheral for online play = Final Fantasy 7...? It could be. It happened before.
XBox Live is a huge seller for Xbox in Japan? Is that why XBox is now being outsold by the GameCube by approximately 5,000 unites (latest Japanese charts)? And why this year in Japan, GameCube has sold 150,000 and the XBox has only sold 30,000 units? Why was it only one week when XBox was competitive with the GCN sales wise?
I'd be willing to bet that XBox Live was only a small part of it, particularly considering the REAL reason XBox sold at all that week was Phantasy Star Online. Those crazy japs.
Quote:Now we just wait and see. But saying a company can never be on top again in it's industry is just dumb.
I just don't see it happening, is all. Particularly with so much speculation that Nintendo will be going 33rd party (albeit, fanboy driven - I don't think it'll happen)
Quote:What if it was Nintendo that brought out Gamecube Live?
Would hardly have made a difference. Particularly with no games supporting it :p
Quote:How long do you think it would take Nintendo to reach an installed userbase of 16,318,000 from 3,664,000? that's 12,654,000 Gamecubes to be sold. So let's say it took 2 years to reach 4 million, that's 2 million a year. So in 6 years the Gamecube would have caught up with the PS2. And if there was a game or perepheral that pushed more sales, that number could be cut in half. These are the same numbers that Microsoft and Nintendo are going through right now.
Sure, but it's not going to happen. :(
All of Nintendo's big hits have been released. Zelda sold well, for it's first week, but it's hardly being a consistant system seller (Japan), Metroid (USA) sold well originally, but it's dropped down also.
The only thing I can see from either company would be Halo 2 that will sell massive amounts of systems (surpass the PS2, possibly, for a week or so). Although, I certainly hope Zelda will push the GCN past the XBox (at the very minimum) once it's released in the US, but I can't even see that happening.
If i had a dollar for every time i ran out of hair in the middle of a spoon making contest id only eat your children with a side of slaw and THOSE ARENT PILLOWS!!