|
Editorials 
Random Mumblings of a Babbags Employee
- By Rob
Schlicht
The other day, I was walking by a local Babbages, with a fellow staff member. We decided to go in and take a look to see when a few PC games were coming out, and when we got inside the small boutique, I had a thought: Why don’t we find out if they’re taking GameCube pre-orders?
I asked the employee behind the counter, expecting him not to know much of what I was talking about, and I was right. He had no clue, but then he did something I didn’t expect. He turned to two other staff members, and asked, “Hey, are we taking pre-orders for XBox and GameCube?”
The other two staff members came forward, and started actually discussing the new systems with us. None of this is to be taken as fact, since this is just what I heard from some employees, but since it’s pretty interesting, and it’s been a slow news week (other than that whole Gameboy Advance thing, of course, since mine hasn’t arrived yet), I’ll post some of the things I heard from them.
XBox, through a combination of a smaller number of consoles than PS2, as well as higher demand, will be much harder to get next November
XBox will cost between $400-$500 at launch
Their pre-order list for XBox is already full (they only have 50 on the list, since they’re not sure of how many consoles they’ll get)
GameCube will be $150 at launch, this September
GameCube will have more consoles available than Dreamcast, Playstation2, and XBox launches combined
10 million systems at launch, 5 million have been manufactured already
Every GameCube launch title has been in development for at least 18 months
Launch titles include: Mario and Luigi Games, Pokemon, Dinosaur Planet, Eternal Darkness, Metroid, SSX: Special Edition, Madden 2002, Retro’s RPG, Too Human, NFL2K02, Football 2002, Thunder Rally, Tekken Tag Tournament, Ridge Racer V, Rogue Squadron 2, Perfect Dark 2, 1080 2, WaveRace 2, and others
Legend of Zelda will be released two months after launch. The engine is complete; they are now working on storyline.
Gameboy Advance will have no region lockout, as it is illegal to lock out cartridges through software, and a physical lockout would remove compatibility for GBC games
And there you have it. This employee seemed to know a great deal about the industry (he was 18), and was up to date on current news. Now, I’d like to look at the points he made.
First off, I’m skeptical that XBox will be harder to find than PS2, unless Microsoft can get less than 250,000 to market at launch. Sony did everything right in making sure the whole world wanted a Playstation2, and I don’t see that happening with XBox, especially if it costs more than $300.
I don’t know what price Microsoft plans to place the XBox at. $400 seems about right, but I personally think it’ll be $300, to compete with PS2, which will probably be $250 at that point.
I hope that the GameCube comes out for $150, though I doubt it will. It is possible, but I think Nintendo would prefer to set it to the normal $200 launch price. As for the September launch date, that’s been something I’ve been pondering... what if it is true? I know there was a retraction printed after that interview “confirming” the new date, but Reuters is known for solid news reporting, I doubt that they’d botch a translation like that.
GameCube is being manufactured already, so it could easily beat out all other launches, whether or not it can get 1,000,000 out on launch (around the total for the other three launches) is debatable. The 10 million figure sounds very wrong, but it could have been an error on the employee’s part (missing a decimal point). Their pre-order list for GameCube wasn’t full, I’m not sure if that’s because there haven’t been 50 people asking, or if it’s because they have a much larger list for the console, anticipating more units.
Every GameCube title being in development for at least 18 months? Very likely. Launch games are all coming from first and second parties, with a few by the biggest third parties out there as well.
Of the launch titles, the list seems pretty accurate. Wave Race and 1080 are looking like they’ll be available at launch, as will Namco and EA’s PS2 launch lineup. Football 2002 (the Retro football title) has been canned, and Thunder Rally has been indefinitely delayed, but that was to make sure Metroid and the Retro RPG was ready for launch. The inclusion of Madden 2002 and NFL2K02 make it seem even more likely as launch titles. The only real question I have is about the Mario and Luigi games. In my mind, this makes Luigi’s Mansion a certainty, but what would the Mario game be? Mario Kart, Mario Party, another spin-off? Or would it be Mario’s Mansion, and have some sort of link-capability with Luigi’s Mansion? Interesting, to say the least.
The Legend of Zelda two months after launch? I have a very hard time believing that. The engine may be finished already, but it will be tweaked a lot between now and it’s release, I’m thinking next Christmas season. I’d love to be proved wrong, though.
As for the GBA deal, I’m sure there will be no region lockout. I don’t know about the legality of locking out cartridges, I thought it was always done physically just because it was easier, and impossible to do with optical discs.
Remember, these are all just rumors, and not well-substantiated ones at that. I thought they were interesting, though, and thought I’d share them.
|
 |
|
QUOTE: |
| "GameCube will have more consoles available than Dreamcast, Playstation2, and XBox launches combined" |
|
