Are console wars good for gaming?

[Video_freak]

Competition is good for the reason Shiaoran said:
no Monopolies.

[SSaxdude]

Competition killed the Dreamcast.

[Video_freak]

Competition killed the Dreamcast.

True, but that's because it came out too early. Sega could be huge right now if they had released later...

[Shiaoran]

Sega killed Dreamcast.
If they didn't had disposed of Saturn too soon, thus releasing Dreamcast too soon. BUT Dreamcast is still used by many. THEY said that Dreamcast was dead. They could still be one of the great console makers, and there would surely be a 7G Sega console in the works or already released.
I doubt that Microsoft will say that 360 is dead one year from now just because it was released one year before the other consoles.

How could other companies have killed Dreamcast? What it didn't had that others do?
I've yet to see a cooler memory card than VMU.
No console can take some of Dreamcast's merits. Dreamcast was the first console to go online. Dreamcast was the first 128bit console.
Just to say a couple.

[Video_freak]

I give many props to Dreamcast too, Shiaran.

[slik da relic]

Sega is the reason EA's Madden is so good. the 2K series had equal gameplay, better online play, and better commentators. plus it was 20 bucks... b4 them, 989's original Gameday for the PSOne made EA scrap Madden for a year... the punx... competition is always good, no matter what it is. it makes companies and individuals get off they azz and put in work. its the reason why they cram alot of features in games and consoles. and cars and tvs, etc for that matter.

da relic

[onetwentyeight]

SEega hasn't released anything worth playing since the death of dreamcast. MS filled the void and we were back to a three way battle with little rest. nintendo's all who's left for me. other than some psp homebrew and psp apps, i only play my dslite these days. a new pc i built over xmas rid me of any x360 cravings (pc oblivion), and my PS2, GCN, and xbox haven't even been turned on in months (my saturn and dc are really dusty).

[moogster66]

How about if we think in terms of software wars, not console. Everyone agrees that it's not the console that wins the battle, but the software. That is why war is good. The console manufacturers need the software to sell the console. We talk about how the companies take losses on the hardware, and make it back on the software. The Dreamcast was a revolutionary system. But where was the "One" title that sold the system? I guess I would say Soul Calibur. But I don't think one fighting game will get the job done. The consoles have to be cutting edge so that the developers have the best hardware to develop, and run their software. That is why war is great. It keeps us all with new technology and better graphics, and better games. Well, sometimes better games anyhow.

[razorak]

Competition is good, but when it goes too far it becomes bad especially if they lose sight of their objectives, where i come from, gaming consoles are only going in one direction, getting more and more expensive. If the competition becomes too intense and all of the companies start bring in the 'big guns' which would of course burn a bigger hole in a consumer's pocket, the product becomes less affordable. When sales go down or are bad to begin with, prices also go down to reduce losses. Their competitors are then forced to lower their prices as well in order to follow the prices to remain attractive to the public. Competition to the extent of obliteration is definitely bad, the gaming industry is more or less one of the largest industries in the world. Could u imagine the impact of a company like Sony or Microsoft being closed down? i don't mean any offence but the Cold War was due to intense competition and look where that got them...

[Apoklepz]

I would say competition is good for gaming in some ways, because companies then strive to bring out better and better games...It's bad in the sense that maybe a pretty new system isn't exploited as much as it should be and all of the sudden, rival companies decide to release technology that's leaps and bounds ahead of that system, making gamers in general abandon it and go with the more tech-savvy console. *Cough*Cough*dreamcastsonyplaystation*Cough*Cough*
In my opinion, it's pretty sweet though, when a hot game gets released for everybody to enjoy on all consoles, but with a few variants on each console....Take Soulcalibur II as an example. Same game, few variants, and there's still competition to see what console can put out the best of this game. In my opinion, the GC creamed all other consoles in that particular game.