Originally posted by AmigaMac
The Xbox was dead on arrival anyways... it will live the same ultimate demise as the NEC TurboGrafix 16, the Panasonic 3DO, the Atari Jaguar and the Sega Dreamcast!
no way...the turbografx, more correctly the PC-Engine, was one of the most successful consoles in japan. the 3do was an attempt at creating a pc-like standard based on which any company could build their version. panasonic and goldstar ended up being the only ones to actually ship, i believe, but toshiba, sanyo and AT&T are said to have had prototypes; still it was a very influential design. the jaguar was even more ground-breaking (first console with a 64-bit design), but suffered the usual catastrophic atari PR. the dreamcast is, well, the dreamcast. it has its own special niche for conversions and 'freak' games, and i know arcade-nuts that would never give their dreamcast away.
no system is dead on arrival. the psx is the best example. made by a company with no prior experience in this particular market, sony could use its immense size to 'force' its system into competion with aggressive advertising and pricing. i remember game magazines that gave the psx no more than 6 months...well they were proven wrong. microsoft is a similar example. they may not have had the expertise to build the über-console they intended to, but they certainly know something about marketing.
that said, i must admit that there are systems that were born dead. anyone remember the nintendo virtual boy, for example..?
(note: i don't own a xbox. i just don't agree with the dominant opinion that the xbox is a bad design, has no future, and is just generally a Bad Thing)
as for rare, yes, that's a true shame. but it just shows microsoft's strategy, which, unfortunatly, has proven to be quite effective. if you can't copy them, buy'em.
just some thoughts
noht
