Even though I have been able to resist from getting myself a PS2, despite all the wonderful titles for that platform, this may convince me to get it:
Yeah, read that on Renai Games Yahoo! Group. It kinds of makes me interested again to start again my japanese class!
Now, it reads spring 2004. How often announced titles becomes vaporware? Not that I want it to become vaporware but I recall seeing demo graphs from certain games and nothing so far (Doukyuusei 3 and Kakyuusei 2, IIRC).
I thought Kakyusei 2 did come out. Anyway, something to think about is Doukyusei and Kakyusei are some of the most expansive games ever. If memory serves, Doukyusei had some 15 girls normally (classmates, after school activity people, teachers, etc.) and at least 1 secret character that you had to find. Not to mention that you have at least 1 male competition (who will do things to ruin your reputation, or try to woo a girl that you’re interested in.) That many paths means a lot of code… so maybe they’re still programing them.
It would be really pimpin’ if To Heart: 2 were ported into English.
Personally I am not optimistic about the 2 elf games…they have been talking about it 5 years ago.
I trust Leaf’s reliability on game releases much more than Elf. I honestly doubt To Heart 2 will become vaporware; at least they revealed the staff/artists info for that title which means they are actually working on it unlike elf which is pretty much theoretical BS with no concrete info. Mike Thomas may be right about programming issues, but it’s been at least 5 years so I doubt they have done anything practical with the 2 titles. But we will see…
[This message has been edited by Lamuness (edited 05-30-2003).]
Well, elf makes announcements, but no release dates. Leaf does both… and I don’t recall them either having delays (or significant ones at least) on their scheduled releases…
Also, elf’s releases those past years are quite average and surely NOT the level of their old games. OTOH, Leaf’s games are still as good as they used to be.
Surprised squeak
http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2003/1580.html
Oh, that’s…nice. Having never played the original before, I’m not sure what to make of this news. (Is this good or bad, really?)
Well why I can’t really talk about the original subject (I’m a Xbox fan, & own a gamecube that I don’t play other systems just don’t interest me)…
I do have to say… Gesh, RPGfan has changed alot since hte last time I wandered onto their site… I remember when… Oh well uh I should just stop now that would be a long walk back through time… I will add though that I once applied for a job there…
Gosh, if you’ve waited this long, might as well wait for PS3.
No, I don’t know when it’s out, but I heard it went right into development the moment 2 was out the door. Not a surprise really.
Frankly, if companies were smarter, they’d make these babies upgradable. Maybe they’re planning too. All I know is, I don’t like having to buy a new machine every few years. That’s why I dig on computers much more. BUT… that’s neither here nor there or on ZEN’s couch.
Made in DNA
Well since I do happen to know when the PS3 is out (since it’s part of my job away from the net to know such things), I’ll toss out my info on the matter:
PSX (heavily modified & super expensive PS2 with DVD-burner, PVR, & Sat tuner) is coming out end of this year in japan, with a release sometime next year for america… Intially speculation puts it at almost $1k in the US though (don’t remember the figure posted in Yen)…
PSP (PS-series handheld which uses UMD optical discs to store games & should almost rival the first playstation in graphics capability) is expected to rleease sometime next year in Japan & late next year in the US…
PS3 (next gen PS-series console with memory stick support, & many other rumored features which may or may not hold as much fact as the Memory stick support) is scheduled for launch in late next year (or possibly early 2005) for the japanese market & ‘sometime’ in 2005 for US rlease…
Oh & in case your wondering…
Nintendo’s next sytem (name still to be decided) is scheduled for soemtime in 2004 (if you believe their incopotence since they said this while saying that this would be in response to the launch date of the PS3 from Sony).
Microsoft’s next system (which from most sources will have no problems playing Xbox games & is rumored to be called the ‘X2’ in house at least) is set for launch to compete directly with the PS3, though is likely to launch when the PS3 launches in japan (while the ‘X2’ will launch in the US). Some other rumors also add that the ‘X2’ will offer PVR support similiar to the PSX’s, but with a normal system intro price…
Oh & Made in DNA, the console industry revolves around a ‘standard’ spec of hardware & planned obsolesence… So don’t hold your breath on ‘upgradable’ systems any time soon…
quote:
Originally posted by Made in DNA:
Frankly, if companies were smarter, they'd make these babies upgradable. Maybe they're planning too. All I know is, I don't like having to buy a new machine every few years. That's why I dig on computers much more. BUT... that's neither here nor there or on ZEN's couch.Made in DNA
No, that would be a bad idea. Very bad idea. People have tried to merge consoles with PCs before. Never worked and probably won't for some time.
Right now any PS2 game works in my PS2. Any GC game works in any GC (unless they have a memory expansion thing). Upgradable systems would destroy this and would introduce hardware conflicts, uncertainty, and other PC ickiness into consoles that they have wisely avoided up until now.
Aside from that, consoles are in large part marketed towards people without a lot of disposable income. Thus the cost of any given upgrade is going to mean not many people will have it; so any games made for it are automatically restricted in their audience. For an example of this, see the Sega CD. So now you've got a chicken-and-egg problem, where people won't buy the peripheral because there aren't any good games, and there aren't any good games because no one owns the peripheral.
Both of these drawbacks mean that peripherals VERY rarely, if ever, ever have more than a few games supporting them. They're just not good business sense.
Now I gotta go to work.
[message deleted]
[This message has been edited by Quasi Dogma (edited 06-07-2003).]
quote:
Originally posted by Shadow99:Made in DNA, So don't hold your breath on 'upgradable' systems any time soon...[/B]
Never planned to.
quote:
Originally posted by Nandemonai:
No, that would be a bad idea. Very bad idea. People have tried to merge consoles with PCs before. Never worked and probably won't for some time.Right now any PS2 game works in my PS2. Any GC game works in any GC (unless they have a memory expansion thing). Upgradable systems would destroy this and would introduce hardware conflicts, uncertainty, and other PC ickiness into consoles that they have wisely avoided up until now.
Aside from that, consoles are in large part marketed towards people without a lot of disposable income. Thus the cost of any given upgrade is going to mean not many people will have it; so any games made for it are automatically restricted in their audience. For an example of this, see the Sega CD. So now you've got a chicken-and-egg problem, where people won't buy the peripheral because there aren't any good games, and there aren't any good games because no one owns the peripheral.
Both of these drawbacks mean that peripherals VERY rarely, if ever, ever have more than a few games supporting them. They're just not good business sense.
Now I gotta go to work.
This is where I must disagree on all points. It's completely possible. We have the technology to put people on the moon, for god's sake they can build an upgradable console.
For people without disposable income? What do you consider a machine you have to throw out and all it's games with it? Sounds pretty disposable to me. In fact, it sounds like an outright waste.
Best regards,
Made in DNA
Mm…me want.
http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2003/1646.html
Exactly how do companies go about deciding which console they would use for their re-release? The PSOne’s growing obsolete, especially in the face of the imminent launch of the PS3; the Dreamcast, as a console, is…well, not dead per se, but is way on its way to oblivion. Yet companies still release games on those consoles.
Well it’s not that they couldn’t. Historically add-on upgrades fail miserably i.e. cd drive for sega. So there is no incentive for them to to develop an upgrade. Plus hardware become dated rather quickly. And upgrading the board or cpu is not something that can be easily accomplished just by slapping on an extra piece of equipment and that normally fails miserably also i.e. sega 32X. See it’s easier to develop a whole new system and make it backwards compatible i.e. ps2 than it is to create some kind of upgrade to the origional machine. Plus it’s great marketing when you put out a brand new system instead of some attachment for your previous system. So it’s not in the companies best interest to upgrade their old equipment. the development costs would be better spent on developing the next console. Plus it get’s us consumers to buy the new HW and software because now we need games for this new machine.
Also the developers would totally hate it if the consoles were upgradeable. You see developers like knowing exactly what they have to work with. They don’t have to do what pc developers do and go with GCD on HW. They can concentrate on exploiting to the fullest what the console can do. That is why alot of games on console looks so nice eventhough the HW is really a lot less powerful than what’s out there for the computer. The Xbox is using a 800 mhz celron and the PS2’s cpu is like 200mhz. Plus you don’t have to spend as much time to debug as eveyrone has the same system specs so they don’t have to test on like 100 different systems.
Consoles are a totally different world than PCs. They’re closer to an appliance, like a blender or an on-board computer. Several important facts:
1) It costs almost as much to upgrade/repair, say, a refridgerator as it does to buy a new one. Most people don’t repair them, they just buy a new (better) one and get rid of the old one.
2) They are expected to be extremely reliable. People don’t want to have to reboot their on-board maps when they’re trying to drive. People don’t want to have to worry about the hardware in their game console either.
3) Making something upgradable makes the entire unit as a whole more expensive to manufacture. The console market is extremely cutthroat in its hardware pricing.
There are a lot of good technical and economical reasons why upgradable consoles are a terrible idea. Just because you CAN does NOT mean it’s a good idea.
Before I started hanging out on the Peach Princess bbs I had quite a lot of frustrated anger directed at, well, the entire Japanese manga/anime/game importation industry for not importing all the good stuff, like (say) Kanon, Air, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, Sakura Taisen, the Crest of the Stars novels…the list goes on and on.
Fast forward to this BBS, and I’ve learned a lot about the reality of the situation I had never known. And it now makes a lot of sense…I can understand why these things haven’t crossed the ocean yet. There are a lot of really good reasons why such-and-such property stays in Japan. You can’t just say “we have a global economy, plenty of people can translate…just sign a couple of papers, we’re there; why haven’t we got everything we fanboys want?”
quote:
Originally posted by Jeffrey:
Mm...me want.http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2003/1646.html
Exactly how do companies go about deciding which console they would use for their re-release? The PSOne's growing obsolete, especially in the face of the imminent launch of the PS3; the Dreamcast, as a console, is...well, not dead per se, but is way on its way to oblivion. Yet companies still release games on those consoles.
?
The PS3 is not "imminent". There hasn't been any official announcement of even a "we expect to launch by" date, much less a firm date...so the console is at least a year, probably closer to 2, away. In Japan. Tack on another year or so for the US release.
The Dreamcast IS in fact dead. Buried. History. Sega's abandoned support for the console, retailers are doing their best to GIVE them away...
As for your question...I can think of a few good reasons why games continue to come out for the Playstation:
1) PS1 is supposed to be easier to write good code for than the PS2.
2) PS1 games are less technology-intensive (read: one generation behind) and so can be more quickly belted out.
3) The PS2 is backwards compatible so anyone with a PS2 could buy the game. This is NOT true of any other non-handheld and a big reason the PS1 is just dead, but not buried.
4) Licensing fees and disc manufacturing costs for the PS1 are likely less.
quote:
Originally posted by wanfu2k1:
Well it's not that they couldn't. Historically add-on upgrades fail miserably i.e. cd drive for sega. So there is no incentive for them to to develop an upgrade. Plus hardware become dated rather quickly. And upgrading the board or cpu is not something that can be easily accomplished just by slapping on an extra piece of equipment and that normally fails miserably also i.e. sega 32X. See it's easier to develop a whole new system and make it backwards compatible i.e. ps2 than it is to create some kind of upgrade to the origional machine. Plus it's great marketing when you put out a brand new system instead of some attachment for your previous system. So it's not in the companies best interest to upgrade their old equipment. the development costs would be better spent on developing the next console. Plus it get's us consumers to buy the new HW and software because now we need games for this new machine.
Also the developers would totally hate it if the consoles were upgradeable. You see developers like knowing exactly what they have to work with. They don't have to do what pc developers do and go with GCD on HW. They can concentrate on exploiting to the fullest what the console can do. That is why alot of games on console looks so nice eventhough the HW is really a lot less powerful than what's out there for the computer. The Xbox is using a 800 mhz celron and the PS2's cpu is like 200mhz. Plus you don't have to spend as much time to debug as eveyrone has the same system specs so they don't have to test on like 100 different systems.
I'm not talking about add-ons I'm talking open the sucker and replace.
Made in DNA