heres a question that gets mixed reviews whenever brought up... rumors are that Xbox 2 is in development and possibly will be ready for realease by early 2004... if this is true, is this a wise move by microsoft? some eagerly anticipate the release of the "next console" while others fear it... by bringing out another console so soon after xboxes launch, does microsoft walk the fine line of crushing the confidence of its current game market share? will people lose faith in the "we're here to stay" slogan... i mean look at what happened to sega... people stopped buying sega machines because they were replaced by bigger better models faster than you could buy them... i mean, although im no play station fan, it has won the confidence in people by investing in current models rather than bringing out new ones... what do you think? should xbox 2 be so eager to appear or should microsoft pump all its energy into its current machine?

Well, I read in EGM magazine that both the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 2 were slated for a 2006 release. That would make a whole lot more sense, if you ask me.

The rumoured transformation of the Xbox into a home entertainment hub is real, and will launch this year, according to Prudential Securities analyst Hans Mosesmann. Speaking to EBN, Mosesmann claimed that he'd picked up sufficient information at CES to confirm that the device, the HomeStation, will be given the go-ahead. HomeStation will be based on the Xbox, but will in effect be a cheap combination entertainment system and home gateway, including video recording and DVD. Adding the necessary capabilities to to Xbox isn't exactly going to be hard, given that it's a modified, closed, proprietary version of a PC anyway, so the only real constraints on launching it are manufacturing capacity and tactics. Presuming that Microsoft successfully rolls out Xbox in Europe and Japan, and meets demand, then an announcement leading to a HomeStation launch around Q3 this year would make most sense. If Xbox is a success, and if Microsoft can successfully transition it to HomeStation, then the company will have pulled off a spectacular and highly lucrative stunt. Many home users will be using closed boxes owned and specified by Microsoft for games, music, video, email, internet access etc, and Microsoft will be in a strong position to add "secure PC" features that will allow it to sell music and video, and to roll the .NET strategy out into the home. Pricing for HomeStation will however be an interesting issue. Xbox follows the games console model whereby manufacturers make their money back out of games sales, but the use of HomeStation for other purposes as well will muddy matters. Does it get subsidised, and if so, how confident can Microsoft be that it can make money back from music and video companies, or other .NET partners?

good point, it would be an incredibly difficult market place to control... on one end you dont want to limit access to the number of companies willing to invest in such an ambitious venture and at the same time you would need to somehow control nearly all content delivered if they wanted to make profit from it in the same way that they do from game sales.... in effect, they would either have to create and control all forms of media delivered through the xbox, which is somthing that i feel msoft would'nt realy be interested in getting involved in as that would require an incredible amount of financial backing to launch and maintain until it 'took off' per say, or, and this i think would be the more popular option with msoft, to contract out media 'channels' to various 3rd party investors like, for example, HBO to provide film content, virgin to provide music content... etc. by doing this, they could make profit by a. the providers of media content and b. the user. this could actualy work out very well if done properly. internet access could be provided by MSN, who in turn would be able to generate more $$ from advertisers, seeing as they would now be able to sell the added benifit of an entire 'new & unique' focused market. we would be pay an ad-on price of $x.00 per month for these aded services, or payout subscription to service providers that interest you as an individual... realy, the either way the potential is truly vast...

http://www.bigbluebox.co.uk:8080/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1134&perpage=20&pagenumber=1 Just because it's sort of on topic. We talk about the release date in there too. Last page.

2004 would be way too soon.

That would make sense.

Microsoft officially said that it was coming out in 2006. If Xbox2 comes out the same time as PS3 and pushes more power than ps3 then xbox would become the #1 selling system then. But if xbxo comes out a year after ps3 its gonna be the same thing, xbox lagging behind sony. Microsoft probably knows the best strategy with a 2 BILLION DOLLAR BUDGET they can do anything they please. Oh yeah and xbox live is gonna cotinue through with xbox 2. So you wont need to sign up for another serviuce or any ****t like that. As you have noticed i didnt mention nintendo bcause i think they alreayd out of the competition.

I have heard that Nintendo is going the way of sony and will begin to release they're games for other consoles...it was in this months OXM infact...

! ! ! !

The way of sony and releasing their games on other consoles eh? Interesting. Apparently Kameo is going to be massively multiplayer. That would definitely be interesting.

Originally posted by slayr0 I have heard that Nintendo is going the way of sony and will begin to release they're games for other consoles...it was in this months OXM infact...

DONT YOU MEAN SEGA!:confused:

Originally posted by Lagwagoneer The way of sony and releasing their games on other consoles eh? Interesting. Apparently Kameo is going to be massively multiplayer. That would definitely be interesting.

sorry i meant sega too many ss confuse my fragile little brain

I too believe Nintendo is going down the tubes, but I give it it's props for the production of the Super Nintendo. When another console can achieve the greatness that was the Super Nintendo we will all be very old and very frail.

yeah SNES was really great...SNES I sollute you!

nothing can beat the SNES, and nothing ever will, ever. the NES comes close, but no one will ever get closer. ever.

notice my repitition of the word ever.

I had the SNES, the Sega Genesis, and the TurboGrafx 16, and I think I got the most fun out of my Genesis. Don't ask me why.

Well, the SNes was better, specially for the PRGs. It was the golden era There was even a Super Mario RPG, made by Square (very very cool, and when mario went through a special courtin in a special castle, he would turn 8 bits Super Mario, look to himself, do a "WTF" face and run back on the curtain and stay normal. Swweeeeet.). But still, the consoles that rank high in my consideration, are both PSX1, and DC. PSX1 cause of the sheer number of lawbreaking games that came out (MGS, GT, etc) and DC for the amazing fun I had playing it 4 player way. DOA2 CD almost melted inside my DC And DC, had PSO, etc online which also ranks hihgh. XBox is very very close to them both in my consideration, and will no doubt surpass them when Live comes out.

super mario rpg is one of the best rpgs ever. they grasped the true concept of old enemies fighting together for a common goal.

as i said before, the FF's for the SNES owned, after that i stopped liking them...Super Mario RPG was tons of fun as well, its almost hard to find a SNES game that isn't fun, though im sure plenty exist I dont think I own any SNES games that weren't at least at some time tons-o-fun The Xbox is great too, and once Live comes out it just mine go right up next to the SNES! Lets just hope Live is as good as we all hope, and the games that come out for it willl be good(hope)!

For it's time, SNES was excellent. And yes it did have a whole lot of blockbuster games. And those games for it's time was the best. However, most of them suck/dated now. It's next gen now. I don't think any other console will have as much gamer acclaim than the SNES. It is the fist console that marked videogames as a true entertainment media.

...perhaps he's too young to understand?! mabye he was deprived an snes?! I dunno but when i first got SNES i was in heaven, and when Mario Cart for SNES came out oooooh yeah that was nice, and when i got the Zelda for SNES that was true bliss as far as gaming goes, and i am yet to play a console game that has addicted me as much as that Zelda did! UC will probably change that though....

my first system was the nes then the snes (mario rpg was such a great game) then i moved on to the playstation and i would have to say the best game ever before the xbox has got to be final fantasy VIII. I then bought an N64 after my brother broke my psx playing spyro and i hated the n64 so badly. the controller was crap, the games sucked crap besides goldeneye, zelda (which was over rated) and perfect dark, the system used cartreges which limmeted the game. you had to buy rumble packs, there was like no good rpgs and all this other stuff. needlesss to say i gave it to my brother.

snes does not suck now...maybe a little dated but it will never suck

Correct. That's what I said more or less. And I think it's more than a little dated. But tell me, if a new SNES game came out right now for $49.95, would you buy it as opposed to a new xbox game? I highly doubt it. If you guys complain about "crappy animation and jaggies and such" on the PS2, where exactly would that leave the SNES?

...perhaps he's too young to understand?! mabye he was deprived an snes?!

Maybe you are too young to understand. I started with the Nintendo, then SNES, then Playstation, then Dreamcast, and now Xbox. I was there when Street Fighter and MK first appeared in the arcades. And I can definately tell you though SNES was great, and probably caused the greatest amount of entertaiment back then. However, it is dated now, and dosen't give that same quality of entertainment. And though those games are still good and fun, accept the fact that there are better systems out now. There's no denying it. I wouldn't believe that a single one of you are playing the SNES more now than any other console. Much respect to the SNES but, I'm on a new console now. BTW, Dreamcast had better fighters.