Any idea why? Cynically, my first thought is “because a Game Cube costs $100 and a PS2 costs $180 if you’re lucky”, but I suspect the answer is slightly more nuanced than that*. Did Nintendo think its 20-odd (warning: I was born in the 80s, so I don’t know how accurate that number is) years of suriving on its own without having others make its games … did they think that would basically seal their security in the console part of the gaming industry? Did their egos get overly big from being the Game in Town (for as long as that lasted), and as a result they maybe didn’t think they had to try so hard? Did the PS2 and/or XBox folks make a risky business venture that panned out? “With our powers combined, we can wipe out Nintendo” type deal? It seems a little naive to me to think that it just ended up that way, but then nobody pays me to know this stuff.
Unrelated to that, any idea what Blizzard North or Flagship Studios are doing? I know Bliz North was supposed to be promoting some sort of Warcraft thing (I haven’t been into that game since the original; nothing against the game, I just got into Civ2 instead of Warcraft and its subsequents), but Flagship Studios have been remarkably silent on their main project, which AFAIK initially worked well to get people interested, but when there’s no news there’s not much beyond “Wonder what they’re planning” to speculate on. I haven’t seen a screenshot or character layout or anything. Makes me wonder if the guys over there got in over their heads, or alternately if they’re trying out something new and don’t want anyone to be able to mimick them until their product is sufficiently close to release that nobody’ll be able to compete for a month or four.
Any idea (or am I barking up the wrong tree?) if the price for a PS2/XBox is gonna go down in the foreseeable future? It’s been $180-200 for a while now, and I’d been expecting at least a slight drop in price, but no such luck. For that matter, is the current $35-$50 per game (average, of course, as some games can be as low as $15, but they tend to be rather bland) trend going to diminish at all, or are we soon gonna be seeing $55.99 and $59.99 games? I don’t exactly have a silver spoon to throw at these games, and while my work is noble it ain’t bringin’ in 6 figures, or even upper 5.
Last question: back in the day (a few years ago, or something, Iunno. Anything before 1995 or so is a blur to me), Virtual Reality was being hailed as the Next Big Thing in gaming/technology/etc. Short of playing a VR game in an arcade, where the machinery is slightly more expensive than in your average home, or seeing it being played in a movie, is there any reputable hint that we’re gonna be seeing this type of thing in the near future, or is the current trend more along the lines of “Let’s see how small we can make this so A) folks will lose it and have to buy a new one and B) it’ll cost less to make/ship, meaning more in our pockets”?
*We have a Game Cube, and it’s not just because it looks like a box. Cost $150 with a decent amount of gear. I’d have spent $250 for the same amount of gear if’n I’d got a PS2.