/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.9194024]

What made the OG Xbox such a massive success?

[Anonymous No.9194039]

Great exclusives (Halo, Ninja Gaiden, the list goes on...), no jarpigs and weebshit, superior graphics, dont have to deal with shitty memory cards, fantastic online experience.

[Anonymous No.9194042]

It wasn't.

[Anonymous No.9194058]

It was such a massive success its competitor sold 6 units for every 1 Xbox.

[Anonymous No.9194060]

>>9194024

Basically it was a surprisingly powerful "PC in a Box" with a 733MHz Intel Pentium III, which was comparable to a laptop CPU in 2001, but does have some custom modifications. The Graphics core is a GeForce 3 ti with an extra shader unit that bumped it up to GeForce 4 territory. 64MB of RAM. By specs alone, it is a much more powerful machine than the PS2 or the GameCube.

Outside of that, Microsoft money hatted some big exclusives like Halo, and a massive marketing campaign behind it. The machine didn't fail. It attracted a lot of PC developers for sure.

[Anonymous No.9194067]

>>9194024
>massive success
Financially, it lost 4 billion dollars, so it wasn't a "massive success" however it was a success in the long term since it solidified Microsofts position in the videogame market. Still one of my favorite consoles. Xbox Live was amazing, great complementary to PC Gaming at the time since so many games were unique enough along with broadband only online play.

[Anonymous No.9194071]

>>9194024
>a massive success
Uh

[Anonymous No.9194072]

>>9194058
Yet outsold Nintendo even when the Gamecube was in production for an additional year after the Xbox's production ended in 2005.

[Anonymous No.9194079]

>>9194072
It also outsold the Dreamcast

[Anonymous No.9194083]

>>9194079
I mean, that's not saying much. Dreamcast was dismal in sales for the two years it was around. The hardware for that thing was so puny compared to what the Xbox could dish out (ex: 16mb compared to 64mb of ram).

[Anonymous No.9194085]

>>9194072
It only outsold it by 2 million.

[Anonymous No.9194089]

>>9194024
Halo, M$ promoting the hell out of it and getting all the Sega properties once the DC died.
I would have really wanted them to make it backwards compatible for the DC but I could see why they didn't want to do that given the whole GCD thing

[Anonymous No.9194097]

>>9194085
Right, as said, that was including the additional year of production. Xbox stopped hardware production by August 2005, a few months prior to the release of the 360 since they wanted to focus on that alone. Nintendo kept the Gamecube production going for far longer to Feb 2007.

[Anonymous No.9194104]

>>9194089
> getting all the Sega properties once the DC died.
Those Sega properties didn't sell as well as they'd hope. Shenmue 2 barely sold anything. Jet Set Radio Future had to be bundled with GT Rally 2002 and sold with the Xbox.
Backwards compatibility can be costly to a system and the Xbox was already costing MS $200 a unit per sale.

[Anonymous No.9194114]

>>9194024
The Xbox was the most successful non PlayStation home Console since the Super Nintendo

[Anonymous No.9194117]

>>9194085
It still outsold a console by a legacy competitor with a bunch of great exclusives(I don't care what hyperbole people want to make about the Gamecube,they were still great games), as a new competitor with less big name exclusives

[Anonymous No.9194136]

>>9194117
On top of a very murky reputation. This was Microsoft we are talking about, from the early 2000s.

[Anonymous No.9194170]

>>9194104
Well yeah of course. Why would anyone want to play Shenmue 2 if they never played Shenmue 1? If it was backwards compatible it would have made sense, or else they could have ported it and made it a doublepack.

[Anonymous No.9194212]

[Anonymous No.9194229]

>>9194024
Most of the people I knew had an Xbox, though there were some who had a PS2. Nobody had a GameCube

[Anonymous No.9194230]

>>9194024
Because the released it a year earlier than their competitors refresh cycle. They had a Christmas all to themselves.

[Anonymous No.9194237]

>>9194024
Microsoft threw a shit ton of money at it to establish their position,it actualy made a big financial loss.

It outsold the gamecube by a small margin but nintendo made profit.

[Anonymous No.9194240]

>>9194024
Reminder that the PSOne, the slim revision of the first PlayStation that came out during summer 2000, outsold every console in the sixth gen except the PS2
As for the Xbox specifically not only was it not selling particularly well but it was also a massive moneysink for MS and it had a massive piracy scene.
You could buy a commercially produced Xbox with CPU and RAM upgrades with a modchip in 2004 before the Xbox was even discontinued.
The only part of the Xbox that could be called a success is that by the end people knew that the term Xbox had something to do with video games.

[Anonymous No.9194242]

What should've sold the Xbox was a surprising variety of exclusives of games, good hardware for the generation, solid build quality, and being modifiable.
What really sold the Xbox was Halo and Xbox live. Its unfortunate but that's what rose to the top and what basically influenced the brand going forward. The 360 early on had a nice variety too, then the brand just became multiports it seems

[Anonymous No.9194243]

>>9194104
Sega would have done better on PS2 or GC but not sure those systems could handle Future, surely not GC.

[Anonymous No.9194251]

>>9194104
>Jet Set Radio Future had to be bundled with GT Rally 2002 and sold with the Xbox.

What I never got was, the game seems to have bombed, but they made a bunch of new printings for the Sega GT bundle.

[Anonymous No.9194275]

>>9194024
It wasn't just Halo that made the Xbox a massive hit. There was a little game called Fable that also boosted the Xbox's sales

I remember Fable coming out during the same time as Halo 2. 2004 was probably the biggest year for the Xbox

Also Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which is still the greatest Star Wars game ever

[Anonymous No.9194304]

>>9194024
Its size.

[Anonymous No.9194369]

>>9194242
Multiport was a big deal when gaming PCs were expensive as sin.

[Anonymous No.9194530]

>>9194024
having more games than gamecube and dreamcast. Also their target was USA market whichi is the biggest one (eventhough I hate the USA) but let's get real they are THE playerblase. ( PS2, GBA and PC) were kings but xbox managed to get among they

[Anonymous No.9194608]

>>9194369
Obnoxious old PC users never grasp this. You had a PC back in 2001 that blew the xbox out of he water? Thats cool. I was 14 and wasn't able to build a PC back then.

[Anonymous No.9194625]

>>9194024
was it? i'd say the 360 was sure but i didn't even know this was a thing until last year, i mean anecdotal maybe but still

[Anonymous No.9194650]

>>9194625
How old are you?

[Anonymous No.9194658]

>>9194275
Yes, these are the exact games that really cemented the Xbox's popularity over in my neck of the woods too. It was a really popular console with Americans, and even before all of these games showed up the marketing campaign that Microsoft was running was at least running circles around Nintendo's over here.

[Anonymous No.9194814]

They actually tried with the first Xbox and the 360

[Anonymous No.9194937]

>>9194814
>and the 360
I've become a bit nostalgic for the 360's early years and I do consider it the best console of the 7th gen but I don't know if I'd go that far

[Anonymous No.9195129]

Lat time I posted here was when these consoles weren't retro and there was no place to talk about this generation.
Good to see that they have changed their mind

[Anonymous No.9195354]

>>9194937
I am as well for 2005-2008. Before MS revamped the dashboard and got rid of the blades. I stopped caring for Xbox by mid 2009 though since I had a second issue with my console and just focused on the PC since Steam was starting to pick up steam *no pun intended* and games that weren't common on the PC were starting to get releases there.

[Anonymous No.9195360]

>>9195129
I feel like anything that isn't before Gen 7 is retro. As in anything not meant for Widescreen HD tv's in mind. Gen 6 was that last generation where it does fit the mold since they do not look good on modern displays

[Anonymous No.9195841]

Gaylo

[Anonymous No.9195846]

>>9194104
You're just upset because PS2 didn't get gunvalkyrie or panzer dragoon orta

[Anonymous No.9195850]

>>9194024
It was sold at loss, Microsoft lost millions selling that console, but they could afford to do that

[Anonymous No.9195854]

>>9194024
Money

[Anonymous No.9195856]

>>9194369
>>9194608
How bad was PC gaming in 2002?

[Anonymous No.9195859]

>>9194072
If GameCube had gotten Grand Theft Auto it would have sold maybe a few million more too.

But R* hated Nintendo like lots of 3rd parties

[Anonymous No.9196006]

>>9194024
Halo
obviously

[Anonymous No.9196768]

>>9196006
You forgot about Fable, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Ninja Gaiden, Counter-Strike, Morrowind, Dead or Alive 3, and Project Gotham Racing

[Anonymous No.9197175]

>>9194230
You’re thinking of the 360. The original Xbox launched alongside the GameCube in 2001.

[Anonymous No.9197185]

>>9195856
Pretty dead overall. Console gaming dominated the sixth gen.

[Anonymous No.9197736]

Kung Fu Chaos made sure it beat everyone else

[Anonymous No.9197782]

>>9196768
Exactly 10 people played CS on Xbox.

[Anonymous No.9198054]

>>9197185
>Console gaming dominated the first and second gen
ftfy

[Anonymous No.9198071]

>>9194024
Was The PS Alternative And The Follow Up To DreamCast

[Anonymous No.9198616]

>>9198071
Absolutely not true. PC gaming hit a major lull in the late 90s through mid-00s. Honestly, multiplat releases for Windows gaming didn’t even hit parity with consoles until late into gen 7 into gen 8.

[Anonymous No.9198619]

>>9198616
Oops, meant for >>9198054

[Anonymous No.9198625]

>>9195859
wasn't the mini disc capacity also a major issue?

[Anonymous No.9198748]

>>9198625
They managed to fit GTA III and VC via the Stories games onto the PSP which has similarly sized discs. A major issue would probably have been the controls, as the Gamecube controller has a sever lack of inputs (like clicky analog stick buttons, no select or left Z button, garbage D-pad). GTA SA was already utilizing all the buttons on the PS2 controller for some kind of critical gameplay function.

[Anonymous No.9199452]

>>9198616
Very much so this, and it should be mentioned that game developers were not making their games with Windows in mind unless the PC was specifically the main platform for them. Hell, you still had some really shitty ass controller support for PC versions of games all the way up to 2005-2006, some console to PC ports infamously dropped controllers altogether (FUCK YOU FABLE) and featured "exclusive" mouse and keyboard controls instead.
It's really funny because GFWL of all things is what helped encourage developers to make the PC version of their games more in line with the console versions. Microsoft wouldn't even have made XInput the standard for PC controller drivers without this push.

[Anonymous No.9199460]

>>9194060
For me this was the key.
As soon as the mod chips came out I was able to create a high quality emulation and media player well before this was a thing for most people.
Kids these days don’t understand how good this was at the time.

[Anonymous No.9199473]

>>9195360
7th gen is starting to show its age.
It probably wont be too long before majority of online stuff is shut down.

[Anonymous No.9199543]

>>9195856
It was perfectly fine. If you wanted to play the best version of any game it would have been on PC. Unreal Engine 1 pretty much meant all those PC games would be multi platforms but obviously consolized PC games be very much scaled down.

2000s mostly due to high speed internet had a huge boom of realtime competitive online gaming. Game mods were nuts and you couldn't navigate the internet without seeing a machinema series being referenced.

Anyone who says consoles were where it was at is severely deluded and was not connected to the any of the exploding online gaming activity.

[Anonymous No.9199565]

>>9199543
There was a much bigger divide between console and Windows gaming during the sixth gen. Nowadays every AAA multiplat title comes out for Windows at the same time as consoles, but that wasn’t the case at all back in the early 00s.

[Anonymous No.9199585]

>>9199565
Yes, every year that passes multiplatform game development engines become a more unifying factor in gaming. It started in 2000. It started with PC based engines and it continues with PC based engines. That is the opposite of a divide, that is a unification... It is pointless for me to even try to list all of the PC/PS2/XBOX games because they were too numerous.

[Anonymous No.9200030]

>>9199585
It’s also weird to think that Microsoft was still keeping certain franchises Xbox exclusive well into the seventh gen rather than releasing everything on both platforms at the same time like they do now.

[Anonymous No.9200069]

>>9194024
xbox live bought online gaming to normies like - like I used to be growing up.

[Anonymous No.9200338]

>>9194024
Probably good business plans and people that cared about games. To the end user, it was just all the compelling games made for it that are appealing. The foresight that brings videogames forward.

>>9194304
It's also kind of dense too.

[Anonymous No.9200376]

>>9200338
The Xbox library gets unfairly shit on. It had a pretty great mixture of Japanese and western titles. Obviously the PS2 got more Japanese-oriented stuff, but the Xbox library was solid.

[Anonymous No.9200510]

>>9195856
>How bad was PC gaming in 2002?

PC gaming had some classics around that time which are still played actively today. As I recall in 2002 I was mostly playing Quake 3, Thief, Red Alert 2, Heroes III, and started getting into emulators since it was around that time that I got a decent PC that could get most of them running fine.

>>9198616
>>9199452
>PC gaming hit a major lull in the late 90s through mid-00s.
lol, this is bullshit. Quake, Starcraft, and World of Warcraft all came out within that period; they were the first games to be played as e-sports and MMOs. PCs just had games designed for PC controls, not for controllers, like a shitfuckingload of FPS, RTS, and simulator titles (Sims, Rollercoaster Tycoon). Plus beyond that you still had all the multiplat and EA titles like yearly new Fifa and Need for Speed, which all were the best on PC. Consoles didn't even have proper online play until xbox live which didn't come out until after Halo CE.

[Anonymous No.9200519]

>>9199565
>There was a much bigger divide between console and Windows gaming during the sixth gen.

I can't really remember any big sixth gen titles that didn't have PC ports, other than a lot of shovelware, fighting games, Gran Turismo, or Beltan Zipper Grindan Adventure MCMXCVII.

[Anonymous No.9200705]

>>9200519
I’d say the main difference back then was how long it took for PC ports to come out. For example, GTAIII came to Windows a year later in 2002 and Halo: CE took a full two years to finally get a port in 2003.

[Anonymous No.9200728]

>>9200030
Its not that weird when you think the rebuttal to buying the Xbox since the debut was claiming everything was on PC or other consoles

[Anonymous No.9200786]

>>9200376
I don't think anyone who knows much about it at all would shit on it. It's quite good, and my guess is people who talk a lot of shit don't really know it well and are going more along the lines of the "Microsoft bad" thinking that some gamers have.

[Anonymous No.9201228]

>>9194024
Live. Most young people have no idea how amazing live was when it first came out.

[Anonymous No.9201252]

>>9195856
Its not that PC gaming was bad, its that
The bad thing about PC is how often the ports could be shit compared to the console versions(or entirely new games), plus how arcane computers were to most people, and expensive back then. There were still plenty of great PC games and an active online scene, but it'd be hard as fuck for most normies or kids to keep up(and that's a lot of what /vr/ was back then)

[Anonymous No.9201281]

It failed to sell well in Japan, therefore it was a failure.

[Anonymous No.9201301]

>>9201281
I’d say it was more a case of shifting focus. The N64 sold well primarily in North America so Nintendo didn’t bother as much in their home country with the GameCube since they had their handheld division to fall back on.

[Anonymous No.9201302]

I had completely lost interest in video games for the few years leading up to the XBOX launch, but when it came out I happened to go see an old friend who was playing KOTOR and immediately I felt the want, no, the NEED to play it so I drove straight to Best Buy and picked one up. No regrets, between that, Halo 1/2, and Soul Calibur 2 I got my money's worth.

[Anonymous No.9201360]

Pretty sure the console itself sold at a loss, but man the Xbox had a killer fucking library and always the best port of multi platform games as well.
Sega went ham on it to, we'll never get Sega output of that quality ever again.

[Anonymous No.9201361]

>>9201302
PGR2, Forza 1&2, PSO and Cap vs snk 2 were my big games. Probably wouldn't have cared for any of them as single players.

[Anonymous No.9202358]

>>9201252
>There were still plenty of great PC games and an active online scene, but it'd be hard as fuck for most normies or kids to keep up(and that's a lot of what /vr/ was back then)

This, plus:
First world = Primarily console gaming
Third world = PC and piracy