Monday, Jul 3, 2006
I won't be writing much here at GameSpot from now on as I've started to work for a Swedish online gaming site, so my focus will go there from now on. I'll still check up on this site and what all of you are writing, GameSpot is still a place filled with interresting people (=
Sunday, May 21, 2006
As Sony's PS3 seems to become a monstrosity in price, size and technology Sony is also facing a major loss in market share due to the pricetag simply being too high for the casual buyer. Sure, the technologyfreaks and Sony loyalists will buy the machine, but the casual gamers that go into a store and see $600 pricetag may very well go for the Wii or the Xbox 360 instead. Sony also had trouble with their controller and had to cave in to public outcry, ending up with a souped-up DualShock with a borrowed tilt function. Why do Sony have these troubles, they're the dominating force right now, shouldn't they have the resources to make the perfect machine? Well, it might just be that they're suffering from the burden of a titan...
Nintendo the titan
Just as the titan Atlas had to carry the weight of the heavens on his shoulders major dominating companies ends up struggling with the weight of the heavens on their shoulders. A quick look at history reveals this to be true, back in the 90's Nintendo was by far the dominating force in the console biz. Nintendo has grown to the proportion that they considered themselves able to dictate their own path without taking market progress in consideration. When Sony, the new kid on the block, launched their PlayStation utilizing the CD-format Nintendo stubbornly went ahead with the cartridge format with which they had become the market leader so long ago, and as history told they lost a majority of their market share to Sony because of the cartridge-based N64. With the GameCube Nintendo gave the industry a smaller system, barely more powerful than the PS2 which had already been on the market for some time. They had a dismal number of titles ready for launch and then hardly any new releases for six months. Nintendo, the sleeping titan, is now awaking to smell the trouble they're in. They've realized that they can't, and don't want to, compete with Sony and Microsoft when it comes to specs. They've realized that they have to do what they once did, reinvigorate the market with something new, something Nintendo.
Sony the titan arises
With the success of the PlayStation and the PlayStation 2 Sony rode into the market and laid siege for a long time. In came Microsoft, and suddenly Sony had a competitor that did what Nintendo didn't, they combined a powerful system with a PR-machinery that rivaled Sony's. As the dominating market leader Sony feel that they have to best Microsoft technology-wise to keep their position as the market titan. The problem is that they're not giving the public what they demand, a reasonably affordable system with good graphics. Microsoft has given the market this, but Sony is bent on stuffing all the technology they can in the PS3 to keep it "true next-gen" as they've stated. They have a point in that the PS3 will still be an advanced machine far longer than the Wii and the Xbox 360 will, but then again we need it now, not five years from now. They claim that apart from being a powerful console system the PS3 is also a very cheap Blu-Ray player ... true, very true, but the next-gen DVD-format hasn't been decided yet, and there are still extremely few Blu-Ray movies available to purchase, and the ones available are very pricey. All the power Sony have had to stuff into the PS3 in order to enable it to run games in 1080p resolution is going to be wasted in the early years of the PS3's lifespan, because the number of people with TV's that can utilize such a resolution is dismal at best. Sony has grown in the console business to a degree where they're too big to move fast enough to follow the flow of the industry. Another company is making fast strides where Sony once ruled.
Microsoft the new-old kid on the block
Microsoft entered the console market with a console that was really just a slimmed down PC, but it was what the market wanted at that point, and Microsoft has gained a solid ground as the new kid on the block that means business. But in another area Microsoft is anything but a new kid on the block, the software business. Microsoft made the right moves in the late 80's and enjoyed the results in form of total market domination as a result. Now, more than twenty years since the first version of Windows was released, Microsoft is struggling with the weight of the heavens on their shoulders. Windows has become such a titan of titans in the operating systems area that it can't support it's own weight. Microsoft, due to them being a market king for such a long time, has to maintain backwards compatibility with older versions of Windows since so many businesses rely on older versions for their software, and this has led to the code base of Windows growing to monstrous proportions. It has been reported that the code base for the next version of Windows, Windows Vista, has grown by 40% simply because of the need to maintain backwards compatibility. Microsoft continues to struggle with making the code base stable enough for day to day use, and time and time again they run into problems. Apple started with a fresh new code base with their Mac OS X and kept the old version of Mac OS as a separate system the user can load when necessary, something they could do since they didn't have countless of businesses relying on them to create a all-in-one solution for them. Microsoft doesn't have the benefit of being the underdog, and so they struggle under their own weight.
What can they learn?
So is there a lesson to be learned here? Is there a magic solution to keep a market titan from falling into this trap? Probably not, a company that doesn't pay heed to the market shifts is doomed to suffer a loss. Nintendo has realized this and is going in the right direction in their console business, Sony is on the verge but can still be saved by the fact that they've got a console for the future. And Microsoft has filled a position that needed to be filled, so the future looks bright for them. And Windows ... well we'll just have to see it released first before we can say how they did there.
Nintendo the titan
Just as the titan Atlas had to carry the weight of the heavens on his shoulders major dominating companies ends up struggling with the weight of the heavens on their shoulders. A quick look at history reveals this to be true, back in the 90's Nintendo was by far the dominating force in the console biz. Nintendo has grown to the proportion that they considered themselves able to dictate their own path without taking market progress in consideration. When Sony, the new kid on the block, launched their PlayStation utilizing the CD-format Nintendo stubbornly went ahead with the cartridge format with which they had become the market leader so long ago, and as history told they lost a majority of their market share to Sony because of the cartridge-based N64. With the GameCube Nintendo gave the industry a smaller system, barely more powerful than the PS2 which had already been on the market for some time. They had a dismal number of titles ready for launch and then hardly any new releases for six months. Nintendo, the sleeping titan, is now awaking to smell the trouble they're in. They've realized that they can't, and don't want to, compete with Sony and Microsoft when it comes to specs. They've realized that they have to do what they once did, reinvigorate the market with something new, something Nintendo.
Sony the titan arises
With the success of the PlayStation and the PlayStation 2 Sony rode into the market and laid siege for a long time. In came Microsoft, and suddenly Sony had a competitor that did what Nintendo didn't, they combined a powerful system with a PR-machinery that rivaled Sony's. As the dominating market leader Sony feel that they have to best Microsoft technology-wise to keep their position as the market titan. The problem is that they're not giving the public what they demand, a reasonably affordable system with good graphics. Microsoft has given the market this, but Sony is bent on stuffing all the technology they can in the PS3 to keep it "true next-gen" as they've stated. They have a point in that the PS3 will still be an advanced machine far longer than the Wii and the Xbox 360 will, but then again we need it now, not five years from now. They claim that apart from being a powerful console system the PS3 is also a very cheap Blu-Ray player ... true, very true, but the next-gen DVD-format hasn't been decided yet, and there are still extremely few Blu-Ray movies available to purchase, and the ones available are very pricey. All the power Sony have had to stuff into the PS3 in order to enable it to run games in 1080p resolution is going to be wasted in the early years of the PS3's lifespan, because the number of people with TV's that can utilize such a resolution is dismal at best. Sony has grown in the console business to a degree where they're too big to move fast enough to follow the flow of the industry. Another company is making fast strides where Sony once ruled.
Microsoft the new-old kid on the block
Microsoft entered the console market with a console that was really just a slimmed down PC, but it was what the market wanted at that point, and Microsoft has gained a solid ground as the new kid on the block that means business. But in another area Microsoft is anything but a new kid on the block, the software business. Microsoft made the right moves in the late 80's and enjoyed the results in form of total market domination as a result. Now, more than twenty years since the first version of Windows was released, Microsoft is struggling with the weight of the heavens on their shoulders. Windows has become such a titan of titans in the operating systems area that it can't support it's own weight. Microsoft, due to them being a market king for such a long time, has to maintain backwards compatibility with older versions of Windows since so many businesses rely on older versions for their software, and this has led to the code base of Windows growing to monstrous proportions. It has been reported that the code base for the next version of Windows, Windows Vista, has grown by 40% simply because of the need to maintain backwards compatibility. Microsoft continues to struggle with making the code base stable enough for day to day use, and time and time again they run into problems. Apple started with a fresh new code base with their Mac OS X and kept the old version of Mac OS as a separate system the user can load when necessary, something they could do since they didn't have countless of businesses relying on them to create a all-in-one solution for them. Microsoft doesn't have the benefit of being the underdog, and so they struggle under their own weight.
What can they learn?
So is there a lesson to be learned here? Is there a magic solution to keep a market titan from falling into this trap? Probably not, a company that doesn't pay heed to the market shifts is doomed to suffer a loss. Nintendo has realized this and is going in the right direction in their console business, Sony is on the verge but can still be saved by the fact that they've got a console for the future. And Microsoft has filled a position that needed to be filled, so the future looks bright for them. And Windows ... well we'll just have to see it released first before we can say how they did there.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
I just got my copy of Final Fantasy: Advent Children, so impressive! Only downside is that it's a region 1 copy, so I have to watch it on my computer since my playstation 2 isn't modchipped. It seems like my option now is to buy a region free dvd-player since I don't want to mess around with my ps2. It'd be great if I could find a solution for the ps2 like the Freeloader you can buy for the GameCube, but for regions instead of games. Does anybody know of such a thing?
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