For me the biggest question is why was the cord so FUCKING SHORT.
I recently bought a pair of Dreamcast controller cable extensions. Best hardware investment on the platform ever. I can actually play Dreamcast while sitting in my couch now.
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Which console launch was executed the best, and why?
- Thread starter ScOULaris
- Start date
For me the biggest question is why was the cord so FUCKING SHORT.
I recently bought a pair of Dreamcast controller cable extensions. Best hardware investment on the platform ever. I can actually play Dreamcast while sitting in my couch now.
your original post was launch "window". I've edited above to actual launch day (I was there.. heh). Not that the above list isn't just amazing.. But yeah, SNES launched in the US with 5 games. Personally I find launch "window" bullshit. You get this shiny new system, you couldn't be more excited, and you don't give a flying shit about games coming out in "4 ridiculously long months".. ESPECIALLY over the holidays when you have a ton of time off.
a little more leeway for games out within like 6 weeks of launch.. but you just gotta draw a line somewhere.. so might as well draw it at launch or within the first month at most.
I think ps4 is going to go down as the best in corporate strategy. I would love for the inner workings of the ps4 and xb1s creation, business and technical decisons etc to be made public one day, and be presented as a business case for an MBA Thesis. It would be such a cool study.
Sony needed a hail mary, and pulled of a combo of skill, trickery, and luck to pull it off, and signs point to they did.
XB1 and PS3 will be the worst in strategy, likely since both were rushed out the door.
Sony needed a hail mary, and pulled of a combo of skill, trickery, and luck to pull it off, and signs point to they did.
XB1 and PS3 will be the worst in strategy, likely since both were rushed out the door.
I had a controller extender, but when I went to use it after having it put away for a few years I found it no longer worked.
GalacticSushiman
Member
lol. JPN was a horrible godzilla game and a broken version of Sonic Adventure.. So yes, DC possibly holds both best and worst launches of all time simultaneously.
LOL, yeah right, Luigi's Mansion destroyed Halo
GCN had:
Luigi's Mansion (criminally underrated until Dark Moon came out)
Rogue Leader (arguably the best graphic demo on ANY console at the time)
Super Monkey Ball (incredibly well reviewed and at the time possibly the best party game)
THPS3 (JUST released at the time. XBox had THPS2)
Wave Race: Blue Storm (still one of the best racing games)
XBox had:
Halo
DOA3
PGR
Obviously Halo is in there.. but overall the GCN top tier lineup was more well rounded and contained more than one game that are looked back on fondly and as truly great games.
Doug Heffernan
Member
In retrospect, probably Dreamcast. It offered a great thing, just nobody noticed.
I think they kept increasing the production (at some point they were producing 2.1m consoles per moth) for more than a year and still couldn't satisfy demand. By August (9 months after launch) it had surpassed the 360 sales that was launched a whole year before.
sixteen-bit
Member
NA DC launch was hot fire.
MikeE21286
Member
DREAMCAST
Why?
Soul Calibur
NBA 2k
NFL 2k
/story
Why?
Soul Calibur
NBA 2k
NFL 2k
/story
"it couldn't capitalize" was sadly out of Sega's hands. I had TWO friends who worked to find a DC that holiday season. ALL other friends were "Wow, that looks good. But I'm waiting for the PS2."
I mean even Sega's marketing was great at the time.. They just couldn't dethrone the Sony mind share machine. and I mean damn, Sony was just friggin massive in mind share at the time...
Had everything i wanted. Also amazing launch titles.
Damn, I've never seen that box before. Makes me want to go out and buy one right now.
The Mana Legend
Banned
The Wii and it's not even close. It had the hype, the marketing, the sales, and the games.
The PS2 had the hype, the marketing and the sales, but it did not have the games.
The PS2 had the hype, the marketing and the sales, but it did not have the games.
I say either Dreamcast (The launch library was so good) or Wii (Those few months were INSANE, and it was coming from the lukewarm response of the Gamecube).
As far as my favorite launch, (But it wasn't executed well AT ALL) the Saturn.
"Hi E3, you want to know the launch date for the Saturn? It's today."
It was the dumbest and most glorious decision they could have done.
As far as my favorite launch, (But it wasn't executed well AT ALL) the Saturn.
"Hi E3, you want to know the launch date for the Saturn? It's today."
It was the dumbest and most glorious decision they could have done.
American NES launch, no contest. It was just the aftermath of the 1983 crash, Consoles were not seen as electronics, they were toys that needed to be sold under the toy industry rules. Nintendo had a big hit with Donkey Kong, but were virtually unknown to the masses.
Nintendo had to offer stores a 100% refund on unsold consoles that 1985 christmas because no one wanted the risk of selling videogame systems. I don't think we will ever see that amazing combo of perseverance, timing and guts Arakawa and Yamauchi showed that year.
Nintendo had to offer stores a 100% refund on unsold consoles that 1985 christmas because no one wanted the risk of selling videogame systems. I don't think we will ever see that amazing combo of perseverance, timing and guts Arakawa and Yamauchi showed that year.
ZombieSupaStar
Member
I worked at Babbages at the time where I actually started answering the phone with, "Thank you for calling Babbages where we are sold out of he Playstation 2, this is ZombieSupaStar, how may I help you?"
I also remember playing ssx, smugglers run, and crappy madden forever it seems, oh and watching dvd's. Thing got more use as a dvd player its first year than a game system.
Dreamcast launch was awesome though, We would demo nfl2k all that fall and people would just stop and stare, some bought systems because of it, by yeah, there was a lot of "waiting for the ps2" back then. At my high school I wrote for the school paper, and did a huge page on the ps2 stuff upcoming (had hardware specs in there, dvd playback, games, ps1 backwards compatibility, pretty much everything) Had quite a few guys asking me about it in the halls back then, lol.
A lot of launch title discs were defective, werent they?
Had everything i wanted. Also amazing launch titles.
GillianSeed79
Member
If we are talking about the "best executed" launch as opposed to generally what was the best launch, I'd say it's a tie between the NES launch in North America and PS1.
With the NES, it was more of a roll out than a launch. They were entering a market where console gaming was essentially dead and retailers didn't want to touch consoles with a ten-foot pole. I believe even Atari turned down the exclusive distribution rights for the NES in the U.S. Nintendo, instead, had the balls to roll out the NES in New York before taking it across the U.S. The rest is history as they say.
The PS1 launch was also one of the best executed IMO. Sony wasn't known for gaming back then and it was still essentially a two horse race between Sega and Nintendo. Countless other electronics manufacturers tried to cash in on the video game market with hardware with abysmal results. Not only did Sony successfully launch hardware in a market previously dominated by Sega and Nintendo, it also had an impressive launch lineup and a steady flow of launch window games. Sega stumbled with the Saturn at a time when they could have taken advantage of Nintendo's choice to stick with expensive cartridges and floundering third-party relations. Sony not only fostered strong third-party relations out of the gate, but offered competent, easy to develop for hardware. The hardware was also relatively easy to find on store shelves.
I think you could argue that the Wii had one of the best executed launches as well, considering it was going up against the HD twins but managed to set the world on fire with an affordable price and mass market appeal that resulted in prolonged console shortages. The only reason I would say it wasn't the best executed is because they couldn't meet demand. The same goes for the PS2. The demand for the PS2 was insane and the shortages were even more crazy.
Just talking about generally great launches, I think the Dreamcast is hard to beat. It came in much cheaper than its predecessor and had a great launch line up and supply.
With the NES, it was more of a roll out than a launch. They were entering a market where console gaming was essentially dead and retailers didn't want to touch consoles with a ten-foot pole. I believe even Atari turned down the exclusive distribution rights for the NES in the U.S. Nintendo, instead, had the balls to roll out the NES in New York before taking it across the U.S. The rest is history as they say.
The PS1 launch was also one of the best executed IMO. Sony wasn't known for gaming back then and it was still essentially a two horse race between Sega and Nintendo. Countless other electronics manufacturers tried to cash in on the video game market with hardware with abysmal results. Not only did Sony successfully launch hardware in a market previously dominated by Sega and Nintendo, it also had an impressive launch lineup and a steady flow of launch window games. Sega stumbled with the Saturn at a time when they could have taken advantage of Nintendo's choice to stick with expensive cartridges and floundering third-party relations. Sony not only fostered strong third-party relations out of the gate, but offered competent, easy to develop for hardware. The hardware was also relatively easy to find on store shelves.
I think you could argue that the Wii had one of the best executed launches as well, considering it was going up against the HD twins but managed to set the world on fire with an affordable price and mass market appeal that resulted in prolonged console shortages. The only reason I would say it wasn't the best executed is because they couldn't meet demand. The same goes for the PS2. The demand for the PS2 was insane and the shortages were even more crazy.
Just talking about generally great launches, I think the Dreamcast is hard to beat. It came in much cheaper than its predecessor and had a great launch line up and supply.
No. No way. That's not logical possible. Unless my memory fails me, Wii shortage last longer, and it still sold more than PS2. (at launch that is)
GillianSeed79
Member
I think you misunderstood me. Obviously, the Wii shortages lasted longer than the PS2. What I mean to say was that the shortages for the PS2 were crazy considering the demand and that it was a follow up to the PS1. I just don't think you can either rank the Wii or PS2 as the best executed, since I personally think prolonged shortages are not a good thing for a new console. Sure it's great for the manufacturers, but as a consumer supply being able to meet demand is an important factor for me.
My personal favorite was the Saturn launch. I ran out to Electronics Boutique the minute I found out. Finally getting to play Virtua Fighter and Daytona at home was tremendous.
If the plan was to surprise everyone, it was executed perfectly. Definitely wouldn't work these days with all the internet leaks and social media.
If the plan was to surprise everyone, it was executed perfectly. Definitely wouldn't work these days with all the internet leaks and social media.
The RROD alone should prevent the 360 from ever being considered a good console launch. If anything it should be considered a disaster.
BennyBlanco
aka IMurRIVAL69
Definitely the dreamcast for me. Never have I been so hyped for a new console. The launch games were great too. Still remember booting up SC for the first time and being completely blown away.
For myself and my gaming friends, Sega had burned a lot of bridges with SegaCD, the 32x, and most of all the Saturn. I wasn't going to roll the dice on a Sega console.
Parmenides
Banned
Wii is the fastest selling console ever. There will never be another system like the Wii.
PS2 sold 25M in 12 months (18 months in JP). There's nothing you can do except wait until you can offer better hardware. XB + GC sold almost 30 million units in NA partially because they were more powerful.
In summary, the outcome of the sixth generation was decided long before the PS2 was launched. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy, much like the PS3 comeback.
PS1 was printing ludicrous amounts of money for publishers and developers; Sony had little trouble convincing third parties, particularly in Japan, that the PS2 would be by far the best platform to foster growth during the next generation, regardless of release date. The PS2 destroyed the DC,GC and XB in terms of exclusive content (hint: Japan + GTA). And Sony did not take its success for granted, so the PS2 was released at $299.
PS2 sold 25M in 12 months (18 months in JP). There's nothing you can do except wait until you can offer better hardware. XB + GC sold almost 30 million units in NA partially because they were more powerful.
In summary, the outcome of the sixth generation was decided long before the PS2 was launched. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy, much like the PS3 comeback.