Friday, February 25, 2005

Trip strikes again!

http://xbox2news.com/hawkins.php



This article is like listening to Lennie Small interview Raymond Babbit.

I'm a -fan- of Xbox and most of what it's done for the game industry, but Trip Hawkins claiming they'll own Nintendo in 5 years is about the stupidest thing I've ever heard him say.

No, wait, the stupidest thing I ever heard him say, with regards to the PS2 launch, "It's historic, a mass-market appliance that fundamentally changes society in the way the printing press did. This is a new canvas for humanity that takes us back to our nature."

That's right. He compared a videogame system to THE BIRTH OF THE RENAISSANCE.

Sometime before that he suggested that polygons were "just a fad".

He's also well known for, y'know. Trying to sell a crappy videogame system for 700 dollars.

Amusingly enough, he compared -that- to the printing press -too-.

Of course, the forum goers are pouncing on him already, but to bring things down to reality a bit:

No, Nintendo is never going to be 'owned' by MS. I would be fairly shocked if such a thing were ever to happen.

However, Nintendo would be well served to consider developing games for MS and Sony's consoles rather then developing another system itself. Before you boo me on this, consider something: Sega, for the first time in years, reported a profit after ditching the console business. And they let their games go to crap.

The simple fact of the matter is that you have to have a fairly large level of game sales in today's videogame market to make a decent amount of money off of your hardware. Most of Nintendo's money comes from 1st party projects anyway, so why not publish on other consoles, receive a larger market share for no cost, and I could play Nintendo games without having to spend a hundred dollars on a hunk of plastic that I only power up when a Zelda game comes out?

On top of that, it'd be smart for them to get out while they still have their dignity. Don't go out like Sega did, struggling and bashing your head against an invisible wall of public opinion and stiflingly sparse 3rd party support. Go out with your heads held high.

That's my take on it, anyway.

I'd sure love to see Mario on that Xbox 2.

4 Comments:

Anonymous said...

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10:14 AM  
Chris said...

This post has been removed by a blog administrator.

10:19 AM  
Chris said...

Amusing! I do agree with your sentiments that Nintendo should get off its arse and consider publishing for the other guys. Sure I miss Seag's consoles and all, but to be honest it has always been one of those "Hooha! It's actually cooler than Nintendo, but why oh why does it have such crap games???" kind of feelings. Sega got things right though. Shinobi for the PS2 is testament to that. Of course, living in Japan now makes me have even less interest in the XBOX than previous. It's funny how stores used to have huge gaming rigs in their stores devoted to XBOX games and now you'd be hard-pressed to find the actual XBOX section in a store.

10:20 AM  
Jason Heavensrun said...

Microsoft wasn't worried about winning Japan in the first round. I think their biggest concern was getting a foothold in the primary market (namely, North America) and they did so in a big way. Now that they're settled here, I'd expect to see them make a bigger push in Japan with their next system, especially with all the deals they've been making (snagging Mistwalker, etc)

It should be interesting to see where this thing goes. I don't think Nintendo's odds of going out with dignity are very good at ths point, especially if they push forward with Revolution.

11:07 AM  

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