Microsoft isn't so bad once you get to know them

[Prophet Hero]

Originally posted by buffgod
What about the idea that The xbox has greater power on all levels interms of the video game console platform. Has nice highly unused Hard drive and is now 149$. Developers like the infrastructure of the xbox etc. I mean they did put out a nice product comparitavely. Don't you think if reseident evil and final fantasy and other greats came out on the xbox it would be the prefered system to have. I feel that comsumers are being short changed because of hard ware short coming of ps2 and game cube.

Surely you don't believe 'power=best' regardless? Power is great, but think how many Xbox developers actually use it. At the moment Tecmo is the only developer that's really pushing the Xbox. In fact you even mentioned that the Xbox has a "highly unused Hard drive (sic)".

I believe that it's the games that are important and not the machine itself regardles if it's from Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony.

If Resident Evil and Final Fantasy did switch to Xbox then sales would increase because those are two very popular franchises. People would buy an addtional console or migrate from other platforms because of the games.

I completely disagree with your last point. I think consumers are short-changed when they're offered tired gameplay, sloppy programming and poor controls - hardware has nothing to do with it and certainly not the "short coming of the ps2 and game cube (sic)"

Plus, if anyone is being short-changed at the moment it's Xbox owners in particular. It's the Xbox that doesn't get many games that exploit it's potential. It's the Xbox that gets lazy conversions. Therefore, you should be pointing the finger of blame at developers rather than the PS2 and Cube.

If the PS2 or Cube version of multi-format title is weak, perhaps because of hardware shortcomings you say they have, then it's up to the Xbox arm of the developing studio to produce a conversion that fully realises the Microsoft machine's power, right? Or would it be easier and just to port over the PS2 version, spending less money and making a bigger profit? You simply cannot blame the weaknesses of the PS2 and Cube in this instance.

Namco has provided the best example of how to approach multi-format titles with Soul Calibur II. It can be said that the PS2 is the weakest (graphically) of the three and that the Xbox is visually superior to the Cube, but has the consumer been short-changed? I don't think so. Every SC fan gets an excellent version of the game regardless of what console they own and if you own all three machines you get to choose what bonus character you prefer.

I think a more fair comment is that all console owners are short-changed when developers don't strive to get the best out of each of the three consoles. Like the Xbox, the full power of the PS2 and the Cube is rarely exploited - it's only when you get real experts behind titles (usually first party and second party developers with the exception of Hideo Kojima and Capcom's RE4 team) that you see the power of these consoles and the results are stunning, e.g. MGS3, RE4.