So here comes: THE XBOX!
While the Xbox managed to sell out on its launch day. Most gamers welcomed the Xbox with the ease a middle age man welcomes a proctological exam. Microsoft's brash system with its bulky, massive design and impossibly giant controllers perplexed the gaming community. But it didn't take long for it to win over the doubters either, thanks to a little game called Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo launched the Xbox into gamers hearts and into the mainstream gaming fold.
I for one, was wary of the Xbox. I play sports games, so I'm immune to the effects of First-Person Shooters. My beloved PS2 and I had been through so much; through it, breaking down on me than me being forced to buy a new one which inevitably also broke down on me. (I wish I was lying...) It wasn't long before I decided "fuck it..." and bought an Xbox, used off my friend for 200 bucks that came with a few games and an extra controller. Score!
The Xbox was a true beast, NOTHING could stop it. It's disc tray even looked like it had its own set of testicles. That's how well put together this machine was. Macho Man could've given it a Savage Elbow from the top rope and it would've destroyed his elbow. If you threw the xbox into a mosh pit, it awesome display of brutality wouldn't just obliterate the moshers but the band as well. The Xbox is a modern marvel of computer engineering. Something gamers should be proud of. (Not to mention that it could be rather effortlessly modded and turned into a gaming pirates dream! Throw in a larger hard drive and your Xbox has just turned into a literal LIBRARY of video games from past and present! Though, I never modded mine, honest!)
(These two cars were pwned after being struck by my xbox)
Now as I ranted about in another blog entry... It wasn't long before my Xbox became obsolete. The gaming scene was changing, evolving, and you needed to open your wallet big time if you wanted to get in on the fun. The Xbox 360 was born!
Its EVERYTHING the original Xbox is not, its the 360!
It was everything the original Xbox was not, it was sleek, stylish, and the odds were 50/50 that your new 360 had a manufacturing defect and would need to be replaced. How did the Xbox fall from a mammoth of the gaming industry that could simultaneously defeat Superman and The Incredible Hulk to some mincing Polly of a machine that can barely play the games it's designed to run without glitching, freezing, scratching the shit out of the discs or red-ring-of-death-ing? (and yet, still surpassing the PS3 in sales? But that's a whole other can of worms...)
I will tell you, GREED. They had to preempt the Sony PS3 beast and Nintendo's innovative "Wii". They needed to be the first on the next generation scene. They only began production on the 360 a mere 69 days before its release date. If that's not a recipe for disaster I don't know what is! They released the 360 Elite in sync with the release of their flagship title Halo 3. The Elite was supposed to have done away with the manufacturing inefficiencies that caused the original 360 to malfunction. There should've been a serious initiative for the Elite in the event that your shitty 360 pro malfunctioned (The odds were pretty heavy that they did. They offered a futile $50 dollar rebate for the Elite provided you met their requirements...)
It wasn't until after this that I experienced a bit of deja vu. I bought a 360 off my buddy for 200 dollars, came with a couple games and an extra controller. His 360 was of course of the original run and It had an astonishing go of things before eventually dying on me, but I took care of that.
So I can't help but wonder, where the hell did things go wrong? Was it when they decided that the 360 needed to be beautiful or was it when they had the bright idea to start production less than 3 months before the release date of the machine?
It's no doubt that when history is said and done with the 360 it will be looked at as a success. It's sold over 39 million units world wide and earned Microsoft hundreds of millions of dollars. Their Xbox Live format is really the most innovative internet console gaming utility right now, you have to pay for it but the benefits are worth it, and it's no doubt earning Microsoft some admirable coin on the side. I really wish, though don't expect, that Microsoft will learn from the mistakes of the 360 but if they've learned anything its that...
1) It doesn't matter if we rush a poorly manufactured product because the Xbox 'brand' is strong enough to stand on its own.
2) If we have a big problem, we can just slap an extended warranty that covers only one of the many defects with our product (The Red Ring). That shitty band-aid will pretty much do the trick.
3) Since Sony's alienated their core fan base with ineptitude in marketing and Nintendo is hell bent on appealing to the niche 'family' market. We're now the mainstream gaming system and can do whatever the fuck we want.
I am NOT looking forward to the 'next gen' as I've previously pointed out, and I really worry to see what kind of put-together-in-a-few-weeks piece of shit Microsoft will throw at us next. My only hope is that Sony has learned from its many millions of dollars worth of mistakes and manages to put out a quality product that will effectively fuck whatever Xbox is put out right in its stupid ass. Then again it's a virtual guarantee Sony will take whatever they're selling, package it with some truly shit games and sell it for at least 100 dollars more than the competition is selling its inferior console for. So let's just give up on hope of Sony dominating the gaming industry ever again.
Until next time, may the force be with you!
PEACE!
1 comment:
Heh. Maybe Steve Jobs will set his sites on a gaming console industry after he's finished his necro-tech programming on the rotting zombie that is the music industry and he figures out that tablets are always going to be a fringe market. It could actually be interesting to see Apple play in the gaming arena. Though I do consider it pretty unlikely.
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