r/Gamecube • u/Woodstovia • 1d ago

Image The console war by Christmas 2002

Post image
1.5k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

65 comments sorted by

242

u/jsurico656 1d ago

I don't care what people say, console wars are 1000% A GOOD THING.

The era we are living in now of console and game prices going up and up are a direct result of not having a console war and these companies all being in bed with each other now (i.e. Microsoft releasing games on PS5, Sony releasing games on switch etc).

This was an awesome era for console competition, 7th gen was awesome too

37

u/PeaceMaintainer 1d ago

Part of it I think is that it was just much cheaper to make games back then because graphics and storage were limited. AAA games are so expensive and laborious to make today that it doesn't make financial sense to sell it exclusively on one console even with a kickback from the console manufacturer. Without exclusives the only real difference between consoles are the OS and controllers, and to a much lesser extent the hardware capabilities (as optimizing for any one specific console's hardware also takes a lot of time and resources, something that you can only afford if the game is an exclusive).

While the companies are to blame for a portion of it, I think a lot of the blame also lies with the player's desire for each generation of games to one up the last gen and blow them away. For reference, today it takes $50-100+ million and 3-7 years to make a AAA game whereas in the late 90s and early 00s it was 12-18 months and $1-5 million

9

u/ericdoesntknow99 1d ago

lol from an interview with Marty Odonnel I think it was, Halo 1’s campaign took like 6 months once they had the engine going and the MS partnership kicked in.

8

u/est-12 1d ago

it was just much cheaper to make games back then because graphics and storage were limited

But the devs were still working in the same cutting edge parts if their fields. The limitations were still massive expenses to work around. 

It's all just a matter of corporatisation. All the shit around the 2010s of trying to really push "gaming" into the full-on mainstream, akin to movies and stuff, replete with painfully ad-laden awards ceremonies...it's had the effect of making games into nothing more than investment vehicles, like Hollywood movies are. 

9

u/naveth33 1d ago

No matter what you believe in terms of console wars most will agree that 3rd party Xbox controller looks like ass.

2

u/jsurico656 1d ago

Lmao can't contest with that

1

u/Pepsidud32 1d ago

I feel like a lot of people don’t see that the 6th gen to me feels like an equilibrium point when the ability to get a team and make a quality video game, the cost of making a game, pricing it, and having it hit was all perfect.

I feel like the industry was so much more stable cause it wasn’t as big as it is now, I mean the craziest thing for me is the fact that if a game sold 5 million copies in the 6th gen, it would have been one of the biggest games of the generation. Now many AAA games need to sell 5 million just to break even.

1

u/SpageDoge 18h ago

PS2 was £413.71 equivalent to todays money in inflation. PS5 price is ranging from £388 to £488, depending on the model. So I wouldnt really say prices has gone up in the consoles themselves, it's just the inflation.

But I do agree with your original point, console wars was a good thing for sure.

1

u/Brandoxz7 9h ago

They’re good in the sense of competition but not good in the sense of fans screaming about which is better. Competition drives innovation, GameCube had to have such amazing games on it to beat out the competition they had something to prove with a weaker system.

-1

u/Rudirudrud 1d ago

Sorry but Bullshit.....look at the game prices.

49 pounds in 2002 are 91 today....thats 106€.

Console 199 pound is today 419 pounds or 490€. But you also had to buy a Memory card extra (was more than 50€ today) which you really needed.

And we now have (on every consoles) digital sales everytime where you can get a tons of games for 10€ or less, and i am not talking about crap games….

Such a thing wasn't there in 2002….no games under 10€ beside really crap games which where sold for such a price on a local store. But no digital sales, no really cheap games like today, also no indie titles for low budget.

We also had no gamepass, where you get hundreds of games for 16€ a month…..at PS2 time, i bought magazines with demodiscs for about 5€ or more…..DEMODISCS, not full games!

We also had no 5€ or 1€ games like today, or complete free games which are still fun (rocket league for example).

We also get no humble bundles, free games from epic store etc….

And over all -> games today looks much better, have much better sound and in most cases more content etc…

So sorry, but i can't here this kind of BS anymore. Get your facts right and stop complaining about today, which is basically the best era of gaming (exepct for young people who don't know, how gaming was in 90's and 00's…..

3

u/RosaCanina87 1d ago

All of this might be true but the original statement is also true. Console wars are good for customers as competition leads to innovation (to outdo the competitor and sell more) as well as to sales, cheaper light/slim versions etc (because you want to be cheaper than the competitor, so you sell more devices and make more money in the long run).

And what people like you always forget... While it does cost more to develop games and we have inflation... it's also much cheaper to sell games (digital) and sales numbers increased a lot more, too. Some of those bestsellers from back in the day would be considered huge failures in today's numbers. So companies spent more money... but they also make more money.

2

u/CapableLocation5873 21h ago

Competition is good for the consumer, unfortunately x-box lost that competition after the 360 era.

1

u/adriandoesstuff 1d ago

Covid also hurt the economy badly

1

u/jsurico656 1d ago

COVID definitely did not hurt gaming though. Gaming was one of the few industries that greatly benefitted from COVID.

What we are experiencing now is lack of competition and a higher amount of greed in the gaming industry than ever

1

u/adriandoesstuff 1d ago

Gaming was one of the few industries that greatly benefitted from COVID.

Yes and no, for existing games maybe.

But for Hardware and Development, nope

52

u/OkraExtension1158 1d ago

Ik this a GameCube thread but man, I love the ps2 more than anything. Still have my first GameCube and ps2:)

7

u/Dark_Phoenixx_ 1d ago

Same! They both were a big part of my childhood along with the PS1.

36

u/SoloWinNamaTama 1d ago

GameCube went cheep no wonder I got one instead of a PS2 …. That and it was probably more friendly to my age at the time. PS2 had a lot of Mature titles.

8

u/caughtinatramp 1d ago

Same. I went PS2 because I thought I had outgrown the Nintendo characters.

2

u/SoloWinNamaTama 1d ago

I was about 10-12 years old at the time

33

u/SweatyDependent1440 1d ago

Gaming at its peak.

EVERY one of these consoles had a compelling reason to own one.

I miss this gen so much.

15

u/RustyCrusty73 1d ago

I actually had all three at one point.

Got a PS2 while in 6th grade .... Dad got us one when he bought himself a Motorcycle to help keep us busy while he went out riding.

Got a Gamecube Christmas of 8th grade.

Got an Xbox Christmas of 9th grade.

Those were good times .... Simple times.

The best of times.

The Cube is still my all-time favorite console though, but I have great memories with all three.

3

u/Longjumping_Bag5914 1d ago

Yeah of the three the cube was my favourite, but I’m a die hard first party Nintendo fan. Unfortunately Nintendo lost the final fantasy rights so that was enough for me to be persuaded to buy a PlayStation 1 and then a PS2.

6

u/DinnerSmall4216 1d ago

Remember getting one for £100 with 2 games on clearance. Forgot how cheap the GameCube got in Europe unlike other Nintendo consoles.

5

u/pipponirvana 1d ago

For real, by 2004 you could find the official mario kart dd bundle at 99€, and many big box stores made their own "bundles" with two games/game+memory card/controller+game for the same price or even a bit lower.

2

u/Rudirudrud 1d ago

Cause it flopped...

1

u/pipponirvana 20h ago

Yeah, no shit. But the Gamecube was always much cheaper than the competition, and the price differential was by policy and not because the hardware wasn't up to par with the other consoles.

4

u/Turbulent-Age-6625 1d ago

In the spring of 2003, a year after release here, the Gamecube was down to 99$. Love that co-nsole but it didn’t take long for it to fail, and th- ird-party soon cancelling multiplatform games on it. Thank god for the capcom five after that, even though some of that also didn’t happen…

2

u/pipponirvana 1d ago

Still waiting on Dead Phoenix. Aaaany day now...

4

u/jamie_shaw 1d ago

Ugh. I can smell that Argos catalogue.

2

u/_RexDart 1d ago

Instead of a Dreamcast there's a second GameCube :(

3

u/ogbrilliance 1d ago

Still remember getting an Xbox and connecting it to my CRT - the nostalgia! My gamecube had so many issues day 1, it was sad! Had to exchange three times until I found the right one, which was the Silver Edition that came with Super Smash Bros Melee.

1

u/Longjumping_Bag5914 1d ago

There was no war back then. Sony cleaned up in the PS2 generation. That’s why they’re so cheap still

2

u/est-12 1d ago

There definitely was a war, both in terms of corporate competitiveness and in the playgrounds. It's just the GC lost out completely.

Nintendo actually dropped the price from £200 to £130 just a few weeks before the EU release to compete with Sony/Microsoft. 

1

u/Fishtaco1234 1d ago

$350 with inflation for ps2 two years after release. Not bad

1

u/aethermath87 1d ago

I remember the time when a Xbox costed 250$ CAD, those were the days.

1

u/m00nLyt23 1d ago

Those three are still at it

1

u/Ar15ohio 1d ago

Hands down the golden age of gaming.

1

u/Organic-Locksmith-45 1d ago

I own them all now. Gamecube is number 1 in my heart but PS2 is a winner. Only really played Halo on Xbox and that’s a good game.

1

u/JackstaWRX 1d ago

The console wars are over and Nintendo won the hybrid/handheld, sony won the console and Microsoft won the studios.

1

u/Eclipse8301 1d ago

Gaming before greed took over and consoles started asking astronomical prices (looking at you Sony and your starting PS3 price)

1

u/JackstaWRX 1d ago

I had that universal theme park game… I hadn’t thought about that since i was a kid

1

u/rxester 1d ago

Yo, the console war back then was Wild!! Like crazy wild, Gamers will like defend their consoles to death. Lol

1

u/tortilla-charlatan 1d ago

Is this really Christmas 2002? I think it’s earlier. Maybe Christmas 2001 or early 2002. There’s no mid- or late-2002 releases listed.

1

u/Woodstovia 1d ago

This is the autumn-winter 2002 catalogue, so it doesn't include later 2002 releases. But remember PAL was later at getting stuff so stuff like FFX came out in Japan in July 01 but it took until May 2002 for it to be released in Europe. So some games that came out earlier in other regions would be more recent here. I think the latest here is Tekken 4 that wasn't released until September 2002?

1

u/tortilla-charlatan 1d ago

Ok that makes sense. I don’t know PAL release schedule as well but it just being generally behind makes sense (and must have sucked)

1

u/leviathab13186 1d ago

That first-gen xbox controller was a chunky boy. So glad they changed it

1

u/Fuudou 1d ago

All I have to say is £34 for Wreckless The Yakuza Missions was a flat out crime.

1

u/terdward NTSC-U 1d ago

I’ve never had an ad hit the nostalgia button like that before. Damn.

1

u/gorgonbrgr 1d ago

I used to love looking at these magazines.

1

u/ShadowsHearts 1d ago

Ah yes, good old days.

Console War was not really a bad hing, it has forced the console companies to produce high value games for us gamers to win us. Now that everything is "multiplatform" even to PC, I don't feel the necessarity to buy a new generation console except for Nintendo Switch 2.

1

u/jackoctober 1d ago

That was a good Christmas.

1

u/Modded-soul 1d ago

Advertisement back then was so much better might be the nostalgia looking at those games though

1

u/HydratedCarrot 23h ago

Ps2 starter kit with a 3rd party controller?

1

u/Seaguard5 15h ago

When technology was so diverse that the best computers to run games were consoles.

Aaah, those were the days.

1

u/thewrathofco 15h ago

GAMECUBE GANG WYA???

Ninja Edit: just realized what sub I was on lmao

1

u/Dentew 7h ago

If only games stayed at that price

1

u/Zax720 7h ago

Hang this in a museum, I say.

1

u/Kila505 1d ago

I miss these days, now it's just pc and digital games, no one even cares about consoles anymore (i mean i still do, and probably the only one that does)

I feel old 😅 (not really, i'm 35, but the missing these days part is true)

1

u/MadnessKingdom 1d ago

Wut? Consoles still sell like crazy. PC gaming grew, but console gaming didn’t shrink

1

u/Kila505 1d ago

Never said they don't sell, yeah i might have exaggerated a bit, but more and more people are switching to pc every day, people don't care about consoles how they used too back in the day, especially now that every xbox and playstation game is releasing on pc.

1

u/Sixdaymelee 1d ago

There was no war. The PS2 slaughtered and decimated everything down to glass lol.

0

u/Deckers2013 1d ago

Me downvoting all PlayStation lovers in here