!?!?!?

Hello? View

WRONG. I said it's the GAMES that sell the console. That are games -- exclusive games -- that I want to play, and ONLY the Xbox 360 has it. So I ave to buy the console to play the game.

Take Western RPGs as an example. I'm a big fan of the genre. There are fewer than half a dozen developers that make good Western RPGs. Bethesda, BioWare, Lionhead and Obsidian come to mind right away. And over half of them are exclusive Microsoft developers.

The PS3 has ZERO Western RPG exclusives -- not currently and not in the pipeline. Sony has NO exclusive developers in the Western RPG genre.

So. If I want to play Mass Effect, Fable, Too Human, Sacred, or just any exclusive Western RPG, than I get an Xbox 360.

Sure, you can argue that those games -- NOT all -- will also be available on the PC. The problems are: (a) You have to spend much more money on getting a PC that's even capable of running those games; (b) You have to WAIT, often quite long, for the PC version to come out; and (c) Some won't even come out on the PC. Too Human won't be on the PC because Silicon Knights don't make PC games.

In short, for hardcore gamers, it's the GAMES that drive the sales of console. More importantly, it's the SPECIFIC genres that appeal to particular segments of gamers.

The PS3 is missing out an entire segment of consumers simply because it has nothing to offer in the genre they play. View

If you want to buy an Xbox 360 (to play the games, and it's always about the games,) then buy it from a place where you can also buy a "store service plan". i.e., Best Buy and Circuit City.

The service plan is an "insurance" that lets you take back the product -- in this case, an Xbox 360 -- to the store you bought it from if it's not working in anyway. That way, you wouldn't have to deal with Microsoft's customer disservice and long repair time, which I've read in the official Xbox forums are quite horrid.

Of course, the plan is not free. You have to pay EXTRA to the store for the service plan. That would actually make an Xbox 360 more expensive than the PS3. However, paying extra for insurance is really a necessary expense for buying Xbox 360. In fact, buy the longest plan possible. There are 3-year and 5-year (more expensive) plan. For Xbox 360, you NEED to buy the 5-year insurance plan.

As you can imagine, that kind of service plan is quite popular with the Xbox 360.

Got mine from Best Buy. If my Xbox 360 died on me in five years (and it had,) then I could just take it back to ANY Best Buy and exchange it for a new one. No question ask. If a Best Buy store gives me any hassle, I'll just take it to another Best Buy store and make the exchange there -- the service plan is valid in ANY Best Buy store.

Of course, the service plan is widely available in the US. I have no idea if it's available in Europe. I think probably not -- maybe that's why Europeans are reluctant to buy an Xbox 360 because they know Xbox 360 is prone to breaking, and they don't have the option to buy an insurance plan for it. View

It's quite fun, actually, especially for killing time between classes. View

deleted by mod - View

So what are you gonna do about it? I'd like to see YOU do something about it, ChefDejon.

You should stick to minding YOUR OWN business instead of telling other people what to do -- it ain't your place to tell me what to do or say.

I'd very much like to see how you intend to make me "stick to posting stories." View

if you think price does not matter for mass consumers.

Blu-ray is a NON-ESSENTIAL item. It's a LUXURY item -- it's not oil, food or water -- which means PRICE is the NUMBER ONE factor in determining if consumers are going to buy it.

PRICE is the number one determining factor when it comes to demand of non-essential, luxury items like Blu-ray (and game consoles). That's not just basic economics (in fact, it IS in most Economics 101 textbook). In fact, that's really a common sense. View

There are more people who watch DVD/movies at home than there are gamers -- and PS3 gamers are only a subcategory of gamers.

Most movie buffs will not buy a game console to watch Blu-ray, and most gamers will not buy a PS3. View

With prices like that, Blu-ray ain't gonna replace DVD anytime soon. (Unless the Sony Nazi somehow think they have the right to force everyone to buy a Blu-ray player/PS3 at cutthroat prices and when people don't want it.)

Sure, the player prices will ultimately go down and hit mass market level -- BUT WHEN? Three years? Five years?

Here's the problem for Blu-ray: it's in a race against time. That's because digital download will ULTIMATELY and almost ENTIRELY replace Blu-ray -- most probably in about eight years. It's not the matter of if that'll happen. It's just a matter of when that'll happen.

So, let Blu-ray hits the mass market price level (at what the DVD currently costs) in four or five years. By then, Blu-ray will have only another two or three years of life left -- because digital download will replace Blu-ray soon (if that hasn't already happened by then.) Blu-ray only has a few years of windows of opportunity here (like about eight years.) It needs to capitalize on that short windows, quickly, before digital download takes over. View

What reports??

PS3Center (Victor Dangelo) pretty much just pulled that one out of his arse -- claiming "according to some reports" but never actually giving the sources for those "reports". That site used the exact same tactic for the first BioShock and Mass Effect as well. View

Seriously, I wouldn't want to be caught dead with one of those ugly things. Just look at how uncool and geeky the design of that Mylo thing is. Just look at it!

It's like carrying one of those cheap Chinese ripoffs with you so everyone can see just how tasteless and clueless you are. There's a STIGMA attached to people who carry a Zune or Mylo with them. The cool kids want an iPod and iPhone, not a "Mylo". View

yeah, read earlier that about 150 units took NINE to TEN months to be "sold out".

The customers have spoken, even if the open-source commies don't want to come out of their denial. View

The problem is that most games are just NOT good value for the money I spend -- in terms of entertainment value or dollar-per-hour value.

Just think about God of War: Chains of Olympic -- the moment I know it's FOUR hours of gameplay, I've already decided there is absolutely no way I'm going to pay $40 for it.

So, what if it gets good reviews? It's FOUR HOURS, and I just RENTED it from GameFly, finished it in less than a day, and mailed it back. That's $40 saving. It's as simple as that.

The only people who think $40 for a FOUR-HOUR game is acceptable or argue that it has any sort of "replay" value (play the same game all over again on different setting? -- that's just stupid) are only the Sony fanboys.

The only games I buy are those that are LONG, over 15 hours, and therefore I couldn't rent them because I'd have to keep them for too long. Games like Oblivion and Mass Effect are good buy -- they are good value for the money.

Entertainment-wise, games also do not provide the kind of "high" or "emotional" experience that other media can give me. The two-hour experience spent in a movie far surpass any sort of "peak" experience or emotion the best of game can give me (including that God of War PSP which I rented recently.) I don't mind spending $140 for a 3-hour Celtic Women concert -- because the concert give me the kind of "peak" experience that no game can provide. But I'd never spend $40 on a 4-hour game because it just doesn't give me same sort kind of "high". The experience I spent in a 3-hour Celtic Women concert (or any good concert, or movie) is more intense than any 3-hour gameplay. View

Which means it's the money gamers use to spend JUST on entertainment -- after spending on housing, food, bills, necessities and such.

Which means in terms of entertainment spending, hardcore gamers still spend more on NON-GAMING entertainment over games.

Personally, I spend MORE on movies and music than on games. View

Nothing American survive in Japan because, with very few exceptions, Japan generally makes better, superior consumer products than the U.S.

What do you expect? Should Japanese buy inferior American products just to "prove" a point and make Americans happy? Even Americans prefer Japanese products over American products -- because even Americans know Japanese products are better, more durable and reliable, and often cheaper as well.

iPod and Hollywood movies do well in Japan because they are among the very few exceptions in which American products are better. They are EXCEPTIONS -- in general, Japanese products still totally PWN American products. View

You weren't complaining when God of War: Chains of Olympus got 5/5. You were cheering.

Every time a Wii, DS or Xbox game (deservingly) got a 5/5, little pathetic little Sony fanboys get all angry and whine about how reviewers shouldn't give perfect scores. But whenever a PSP game get 5/5, the exact same group of fanboys are overjoyed and praise the reviewers for it.

So predictably pathetic. View

I'd like to see how this is going to impact sales and market shares. We'll find out soon enough just how big a factor the price is. View

As long as PS3 has 12 or 15 or god-know-how-many buttons on its overly-complex controller, seniors and moms and aunts and little girls are not going to bother with the PS3.

I came from a (hardcore) PC gaming background and just made the transition to console gaming recently. For PC games, I use an intuitive, natural interface == THE MOUSE to control.

When I first used an Xbox controller, my first reaction was "sh!t, too many buttons". And PlayStation controller has even MORE buttons -- which is ridiculous. If I coming from a HARDCORE PC gaming background HATE HATE HATE the overly complex PlayStation controller, there's no way seniors and moms and aunts would ever get around that thing.

That's why they will go for Wii and skip PlayStation 3. And as long as the senior and mom market segments are out of Sony's reach, there's no way the PS3 can realistic outsell the Wii on a consistent basis.

Just common sense: the Wii just has an overall bigger market compared to the PS3 (just think about how many old people and women are out there who would not have bothered with the PS3 controller but would get hooked on the Wii.) View

since online gaming is really where their strength lies. View

I submitted several stories about Anand and Xbox India in the past. View