sellthekids
11-21-2002, 07:47 AM
since i know most of you guys would prolly miss this article:
from 11/21/02 WSJ - Personal Journal section
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Xbox? PlayStation? GameCube?
A Grown-Up's Guide to Games
By KHANH T.L. TRAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
A lot of parents are discovering it's time to bone up on Grand Theft Auto.
In the past few years, three major players have come to dominate the home videogame market: Sony Corp., which makes two different version of its PlayStation; Microsoft Corp., purveyor of the Xbox; and Nintendo Co., father of the hand-held Game Boy and now the higher-end GameCube, which hooks up to a TV. With so many machines and thousands of pieces of software -- including some controversial games such as Sony's popular car-thief series -- deciding which if any game machine to buy for your child can be a bear.
Not every machine has parental controls, for example. Some of the hottest games can be played only on certain hardware. And then there's the issue of price. The Xbox (Microsoft) and PlayStation 2 (Sony) both sell for $199 -- so which is better?
The emergence of all these machines has led to a war for control of the nation's living rooms. At the moment, Sony is the clear leader, with its PlayStation 2 outselling the Xbox four to one. But Microsoft, the newest entrant, is spending gobs of money to try to turn the tables. And all three key makers, while not making outright price cuts for the holidays, are offering other come-ons to juice sales.
One trend this year: deals that bundle hardware and software for a single price. That could work nicely for parents who don't know the difference between Mario and Madden. (Both are portly fellows who have games named after them, but one is a fictitious moustachioed plumber, the other a real ex-football coach.) Other incentives involve rebates and prizes. A sample: People who buy two games based on Nickelodeon shows can get a free SpongeBob SquarePants carrying case for their Game Boy.
A side-by-side comparison of the major machines shows some significant differences -- everything from the type of people who buy them to the games that work on them. Sony's strongsuit, for example, is that it has many more games on the shelves than other makers. The PlayStation 2 also doubles as a DVD player.
Microsoft's machine is the only one that comes with parental controls built-in. By year end, it will also have the most online games. That lets players go up against any other person on the Web instead of having to play their best friend for the hundredth time.
Where does Nintendo fit into the mix? It has long been a favorite among younger kids, because of its Mario Bros. and Pokemon series. But it has had less appeal among the older set partly because it lacks a DVD player.
The companies are trying hard this year to broaden their reach. Sony, for instance, is offering more games for kids and teenagers, including Ratchet & Clank, a sci-fi adventure game where the player uses a variety of high-tech gadgets. Microsoft, meanwhile, is veering off into a new domain by focusing heavily on online games. And Nintendo is pitching for older players, with titles like Resident Evil Zero, a zombie-bashing horror game.
Record Year?
The holiday season is a crucial period for the U.S. videogame industry, which generates about half its annual revenue during the final quarter. Despite the general economic downturn, sales of hardware and software are already up 25% this year, and the industry is on track for a record year, according to NPDFunworld, a market-research firm. Analysts say consumers may consider home-based games a way to cut back on entertainment expenses. Still, some surveys suggest shoppers could grow tighter-fisted with their videogame spending in the next couple of months.
One way companies are trying to break through that barrier is with "bundling," a sort of value-meal approach that packages hardware and software together for less than the two parts sell for individually. Bundling also saves parents the hassle of having to scour aisles for products that they may know little about. One example: For $199, Microsoft is selling an Xbox machine and two programs -- Sega Corp.'s Jet Set Radio Future in-line skating game and the Sega GT 2002 racing game. Microsoft says consumers are essentially getting two games free, since the Xbox alone costs $199. A caveat: Bundles usually contain games that were released earlier this year or even last year.
The Decision
For parents, here's what the game-machine decision boils down to: You can play more than 350 games on the PlayStation 2. Some will only work on the PlayStation 2, such as DDRMAX Dance Dance Revolution, where players dance on mats to mimic moves they see on screen. (Mats sold separately.) One downside: Operating its DVD player with a hand control is unwieldy.
While the Xbox lacks Sony's selection of games, its parental controls may sway some families. This feature is particularly important because Microsoft is simultaneously targeting adult players with new games that weave murder and robbery through the storylines. (Games come with audience-specific labels: "M" for mature, or ages 17 and up; "T" for teen; "E" for everyone and "AO" for adults only.)
Microsoft's other selling point is that by year-end it says it will have as many as 14 games that can be played online. The catch is that you need a high-speed Internet connection and a $50 starter kit from the company to take part.
Nintendo, maker of the other major console, the GameCube, churns out lots of games that are popular with kids. At $149.95, it's cheaper than PlayStation 2 and Xbox, and is the most compact of the consoles.
Nintendo also makes the hand-held Game Boy Advance, which has little competition. But remember, hand-helds are a different beast. They have none of the online potential, and can't play DVDs. On the upside, they are great for car trips.
Some of the videogame deals this year come with memory cards and additional hand controls thrown in. But do you really need these things? Depends on the machine, and the games you want to play. A memory card is essential if you are halfway through a game and want to save your place. Xbox is the exception; it has a hard drive onto which data can be saved. An extra set of controllers is important in, say, a sports game if a player wants to duke it out against another person instead of vying against the console's artificial intelligence. Keep in mind that some games are made for only one player.
For the price-conscious shopper, there's another option: the original PlayStation, which has the lowest price ($49.99) and an even larger library of games than the PlayStation 2. Companies are still making new games for the seven-year-old PlayStation, including the latest installment of Activision Inc.'s Tony Hawk skateboarding series and Electronic Arts Inc.'s Madden NFL professional football line. "To be honest with you, I don't think [PlayStation] is going to go away in a hurry," says Nick Shepherd, executive vice president at Blockbuster Inc., which sells and rents videogame machines and software.
Write to Khanh T.L. Tran at khanh.tran@wsj.com
Updated November 20, 2002 11:59 p.m. EST
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why a $10 Cable Has Upset
Nintendo's Young Customers
By MICHELLE HIGGINS and KHANH T.L. TRAN
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Some of Nintendo's most important customers -- people like 13-year-old Michael Quinn -- are getting steamed about a $10 cable.
Michael likes Nintendo so much that he got his mom to stand in line at 8 a.m. to buy him the new GameCube TV console when it came out last year. So when Nintendo recently started selling a cable to connect the GameCube to his other Nintendo machine, the Game Boy Advance hand-held, he wanted it for his birthday.
"I thought it would be a huge step up," Michael says. Instead, it has been a letdown.
The ability to connect the two devices was supposed to be a hit with kids -- and is core to Nintendo's marketing strategy. The goal: persuade more players to buy both machines, instead of just one. Players with a cable could get new games, and also the ability to download stuff into the hand-held -- things other kids on the playground couldn't do unless they had both devices, too.
But some customers say Nintendo promised too much and hasn't delivered. As recently as six months ago, there were only three games that took advantage of the cable. Today, nearly a year after GameCube was launched, there are just 22, although at least five more are expected next year. But most of these games require you to buy two copies of the same game -- one for the Game Boy, and another for the GameCube -- costing nearly twice as much.
It's just a "big marketing gimmick," says Gregg Keefer, a Jacksonville, Fla., toy maker who was so annoyed by the shortcomings he has posted derisive messages on Internet chat rooms about it.
George Harrison, a senior vice president at Nintendo's U.S. unit, says the company has received fewer than 200 calls from consumers regarding the connectivity. He says the company usually gets more than 60,000 inquiries a week about its products. Nintendo adds that a small percentage of callers asked when more games featuring connectivity would be available.
Some game reviewers are skeptical of the cable's usefulness. "There's no real added value," says Erik Bondurant, a 19-year-old reviewer who has tested the system for some game Web sites. For example, Sonic Advance and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle -- the first titles to take advantage of the cable link -- use it to move special animal-like creatures, called Chao, back and forth between the GameCube and Game Boy. Neat, but "it didn't really make the game better," Mr. Bondurant says. The cable also lets players use the Game Boy as an extra controller for the GameCube.
One sign of trouble in Nintendo's strategy is that just last month, the company scaled back its forecasts for shipments of GameCube and Game Boy Advance machines in its fiscal year ending next March because of slumping global sales. Earlier this year, the company also cut the price of Game Boy Advance and GameCube by as much as a third. Microsoft and Sony have cut their prices by similar amounts on their Xbox and market-leading PlayStation 2 machines this year as well.
Nintendo says it is optimistic about holiday sales of both systems in the U.S. as it prepares to release a slew of games that can't be played on competing Xbox and PlayStation 2 game systems.
All this connectivity -- including two new gizmos that are designed to connect Nintendo players and machines to each other -- is elemental to Nintendo's strategy to regain an edge in the videogame wars. Nintendo has a lock on the market for hand-held games -- its two main rivals, Microsoft and Sony, make no hand-held machines at all. But Nintendo is battling cash-rich Microsoft for second place in the game-console business behind Sony and its PlayStation 2. The cable was supposed to help drive those sales by encouraging players to buy both the hand-held and the GameCube console.
The connectivity between the devices is so important that Nintendo's former president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, created a special fund of roughly $170 million to help game developers make games that take advantage of the link between the hand-held player and the TV console. If Nintendo doesn't soon release more titles that impress gamers, the company could lose momentum during the important holiday season when game makers generate sales and buzz for their products. The U.S. game industry makes about half of its annual revenue in the last three months of the year.
Still, some players remain hopeful that the cable will catch on. Gene Poole, a diehard Nintendo fan who has been playing its games since 1985, is taking a wait-and-see approach. "The No. 1 reason I've stuck with Nintendo is they tend to release [games] more slowly than competitors. But they tend to be better quality," says the 28-year-old from Alberta.
On his holiday wish list: Metroid Prime, which came out this week. Nintendo promises it will have "sweet special features" when used with the cable, including a new armored spacesuit for the game's main character to wear.
Write to Michelle Higgins at michelle.higgins@wsj.com and Khanh T.L. Tran at khanh.tran@wsj.com
Updated November 20, 2002 10:11 p.m. EST
from 11/21/02 WSJ - Personal Journal section
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Xbox? PlayStation? GameCube?
A Grown-Up's Guide to Games
By KHANH T.L. TRAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
A lot of parents are discovering it's time to bone up on Grand Theft Auto.
In the past few years, three major players have come to dominate the home videogame market: Sony Corp., which makes two different version of its PlayStation; Microsoft Corp., purveyor of the Xbox; and Nintendo Co., father of the hand-held Game Boy and now the higher-end GameCube, which hooks up to a TV. With so many machines and thousands of pieces of software -- including some controversial games such as Sony's popular car-thief series -- deciding which if any game machine to buy for your child can be a bear.
Not every machine has parental controls, for example. Some of the hottest games can be played only on certain hardware. And then there's the issue of price. The Xbox (Microsoft) and PlayStation 2 (Sony) both sell for $199 -- so which is better?
The emergence of all these machines has led to a war for control of the nation's living rooms. At the moment, Sony is the clear leader, with its PlayStation 2 outselling the Xbox four to one. But Microsoft, the newest entrant, is spending gobs of money to try to turn the tables. And all three key makers, while not making outright price cuts for the holidays, are offering other come-ons to juice sales.
One trend this year: deals that bundle hardware and software for a single price. That could work nicely for parents who don't know the difference between Mario and Madden. (Both are portly fellows who have games named after them, but one is a fictitious moustachioed plumber, the other a real ex-football coach.) Other incentives involve rebates and prizes. A sample: People who buy two games based on Nickelodeon shows can get a free SpongeBob SquarePants carrying case for their Game Boy.
A side-by-side comparison of the major machines shows some significant differences -- everything from the type of people who buy them to the games that work on them. Sony's strongsuit, for example, is that it has many more games on the shelves than other makers. The PlayStation 2 also doubles as a DVD player.
Microsoft's machine is the only one that comes with parental controls built-in. By year end, it will also have the most online games. That lets players go up against any other person on the Web instead of having to play their best friend for the hundredth time.
Where does Nintendo fit into the mix? It has long been a favorite among younger kids, because of its Mario Bros. and Pokemon series. But it has had less appeal among the older set partly because it lacks a DVD player.
The companies are trying hard this year to broaden their reach. Sony, for instance, is offering more games for kids and teenagers, including Ratchet & Clank, a sci-fi adventure game where the player uses a variety of high-tech gadgets. Microsoft, meanwhile, is veering off into a new domain by focusing heavily on online games. And Nintendo is pitching for older players, with titles like Resident Evil Zero, a zombie-bashing horror game.
Record Year?
The holiday season is a crucial period for the U.S. videogame industry, which generates about half its annual revenue during the final quarter. Despite the general economic downturn, sales of hardware and software are already up 25% this year, and the industry is on track for a record year, according to NPDFunworld, a market-research firm. Analysts say consumers may consider home-based games a way to cut back on entertainment expenses. Still, some surveys suggest shoppers could grow tighter-fisted with their videogame spending in the next couple of months.
One way companies are trying to break through that barrier is with "bundling," a sort of value-meal approach that packages hardware and software together for less than the two parts sell for individually. Bundling also saves parents the hassle of having to scour aisles for products that they may know little about. One example: For $199, Microsoft is selling an Xbox machine and two programs -- Sega Corp.'s Jet Set Radio Future in-line skating game and the Sega GT 2002 racing game. Microsoft says consumers are essentially getting two games free, since the Xbox alone costs $199. A caveat: Bundles usually contain games that were released earlier this year or even last year.
The Decision
For parents, here's what the game-machine decision boils down to: You can play more than 350 games on the PlayStation 2. Some will only work on the PlayStation 2, such as DDRMAX Dance Dance Revolution, where players dance on mats to mimic moves they see on screen. (Mats sold separately.) One downside: Operating its DVD player with a hand control is unwieldy.
While the Xbox lacks Sony's selection of games, its parental controls may sway some families. This feature is particularly important because Microsoft is simultaneously targeting adult players with new games that weave murder and robbery through the storylines. (Games come with audience-specific labels: "M" for mature, or ages 17 and up; "T" for teen; "E" for everyone and "AO" for adults only.)
Microsoft's other selling point is that by year-end it says it will have as many as 14 games that can be played online. The catch is that you need a high-speed Internet connection and a $50 starter kit from the company to take part.
Nintendo, maker of the other major console, the GameCube, churns out lots of games that are popular with kids. At $149.95, it's cheaper than PlayStation 2 and Xbox, and is the most compact of the consoles.
Nintendo also makes the hand-held Game Boy Advance, which has little competition. But remember, hand-helds are a different beast. They have none of the online potential, and can't play DVDs. On the upside, they are great for car trips.
Some of the videogame deals this year come with memory cards and additional hand controls thrown in. But do you really need these things? Depends on the machine, and the games you want to play. A memory card is essential if you are halfway through a game and want to save your place. Xbox is the exception; it has a hard drive onto which data can be saved. An extra set of controllers is important in, say, a sports game if a player wants to duke it out against another person instead of vying against the console's artificial intelligence. Keep in mind that some games are made for only one player.
For the price-conscious shopper, there's another option: the original PlayStation, which has the lowest price ($49.99) and an even larger library of games than the PlayStation 2. Companies are still making new games for the seven-year-old PlayStation, including the latest installment of Activision Inc.'s Tony Hawk skateboarding series and Electronic Arts Inc.'s Madden NFL professional football line. "To be honest with you, I don't think [PlayStation] is going to go away in a hurry," says Nick Shepherd, executive vice president at Blockbuster Inc., which sells and rents videogame machines and software.
Write to Khanh T.L. Tran at khanh.tran@wsj.com
Updated November 20, 2002 11:59 p.m. EST
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why a $10 Cable Has Upset
Nintendo's Young Customers
By MICHELLE HIGGINS and KHANH T.L. TRAN
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Some of Nintendo's most important customers -- people like 13-year-old Michael Quinn -- are getting steamed about a $10 cable.
Michael likes Nintendo so much that he got his mom to stand in line at 8 a.m. to buy him the new GameCube TV console when it came out last year. So when Nintendo recently started selling a cable to connect the GameCube to his other Nintendo machine, the Game Boy Advance hand-held, he wanted it for his birthday.
"I thought it would be a huge step up," Michael says. Instead, it has been a letdown.
The ability to connect the two devices was supposed to be a hit with kids -- and is core to Nintendo's marketing strategy. The goal: persuade more players to buy both machines, instead of just one. Players with a cable could get new games, and also the ability to download stuff into the hand-held -- things other kids on the playground couldn't do unless they had both devices, too.
But some customers say Nintendo promised too much and hasn't delivered. As recently as six months ago, there were only three games that took advantage of the cable. Today, nearly a year after GameCube was launched, there are just 22, although at least five more are expected next year. But most of these games require you to buy two copies of the same game -- one for the Game Boy, and another for the GameCube -- costing nearly twice as much.
It's just a "big marketing gimmick," says Gregg Keefer, a Jacksonville, Fla., toy maker who was so annoyed by the shortcomings he has posted derisive messages on Internet chat rooms about it.
George Harrison, a senior vice president at Nintendo's U.S. unit, says the company has received fewer than 200 calls from consumers regarding the connectivity. He says the company usually gets more than 60,000 inquiries a week about its products. Nintendo adds that a small percentage of callers asked when more games featuring connectivity would be available.
Some game reviewers are skeptical of the cable's usefulness. "There's no real added value," says Erik Bondurant, a 19-year-old reviewer who has tested the system for some game Web sites. For example, Sonic Advance and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle -- the first titles to take advantage of the cable link -- use it to move special animal-like creatures, called Chao, back and forth between the GameCube and Game Boy. Neat, but "it didn't really make the game better," Mr. Bondurant says. The cable also lets players use the Game Boy as an extra controller for the GameCube.
One sign of trouble in Nintendo's strategy is that just last month, the company scaled back its forecasts for shipments of GameCube and Game Boy Advance machines in its fiscal year ending next March because of slumping global sales. Earlier this year, the company also cut the price of Game Boy Advance and GameCube by as much as a third. Microsoft and Sony have cut their prices by similar amounts on their Xbox and market-leading PlayStation 2 machines this year as well.
Nintendo says it is optimistic about holiday sales of both systems in the U.S. as it prepares to release a slew of games that can't be played on competing Xbox and PlayStation 2 game systems.
All this connectivity -- including two new gizmos that are designed to connect Nintendo players and machines to each other -- is elemental to Nintendo's strategy to regain an edge in the videogame wars. Nintendo has a lock on the market for hand-held games -- its two main rivals, Microsoft and Sony, make no hand-held machines at all. But Nintendo is battling cash-rich Microsoft for second place in the game-console business behind Sony and its PlayStation 2. The cable was supposed to help drive those sales by encouraging players to buy both the hand-held and the GameCube console.
The connectivity between the devices is so important that Nintendo's former president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, created a special fund of roughly $170 million to help game developers make games that take advantage of the link between the hand-held player and the TV console. If Nintendo doesn't soon release more titles that impress gamers, the company could lose momentum during the important holiday season when game makers generate sales and buzz for their products. The U.S. game industry makes about half of its annual revenue in the last three months of the year.
Still, some players remain hopeful that the cable will catch on. Gene Poole, a diehard Nintendo fan who has been playing its games since 1985, is taking a wait-and-see approach. "The No. 1 reason I've stuck with Nintendo is they tend to release [games] more slowly than competitors. But they tend to be better quality," says the 28-year-old from Alberta.
On his holiday wish list: Metroid Prime, which came out this week. Nintendo promises it will have "sweet special features" when used with the cable, including a new armored spacesuit for the game's main character to wear.
Write to Michelle Higgins at michelle.higgins@wsj.com and Khanh T.L. Tran at khanh.tran@wsj.com
Updated November 20, 2002 10:11 p.m. EST