Console release fever...
 

With the various big companies releasing information about their next generation consoles there's been rampant speculation about pricing, specs, and all the other inevitable buzz that accompanies such news.

All of the buzz has gotten me to thinking about what happened the last few times a console was released. I remember my brother and I forcing our dad to just about every store in our town and eventually driving to another town just to get an N64 when it came out. The only game we could get was Waverace 64 (an excellent game that I probably wouldn't have bought otherwise, so I'm glad for that), and we didn't get anything else until Christmas day just because it was so hard to find things.

Flash forward to the PS2 release. There was a shortage of consoles and prices skyrocketed. People who were able to get the consoles were selling them on eBay for $500 and getting a tidy profit. I was out of console gaming at this point, but my brother jumped in and got my dad to shell out $500 for a PS2. An utter waste of money if you ask me, but he just had to have the latest thing.

Why do you think people are willing to pay so much extra just to have their console on the first day? I can see buying consoles to re-sell, but for the most part I wait until a couple of years into a system's life when the price has dropped and there's a general consensus on which games are good and which are turkeys (plus most of the good games are on the $20 rack at that point).

Perhaps my attitude change is just because I've made the switch from having my parents pay for everything to paying on my own between the latest set of consoles, but release fever seems silly to me. What are your thoughts?

I got my PS2 when the price dropped to $150. Now, all the good games are only $20. But if everyone was like me, then the companies wouldn't get any money, and they would either make crappy games or make no games. So we actually rely on people that buy consoles for $500 on the first day.

I've never been one to go "for the first day". I waited until the price for my PS2 dropped to 200 and then bought it. Everyone I know had to get it a second time anyway becaues of the memory-buildup that the early PS2s were glitching with.

If you ask me, it's a bunch of parents or a bunch of preppies looking to get the next big thing ASAP so they'll maintain their image. Or a hardcore gamer throwing a paycheck into entertainment.

Either way, I don't care about it. I'll save myself money and a great big headache by just waiting. It's not like Halo or Smash Melee or Zelda or DDR or Ninja Gaiden lose their fun by another processor hitting the market.

I've never bought a system on day one, though I did pay $300 for my PS2 shortly after it came out. I buy all too many games when they come out though, instead of just waiting six months for them to drop down to half-price.

me either got my systems after a year or two has passed by..i may be late but i still enjoy the games

Daecrist: Your dad sounds like an awfully nice man.

I tend to wait at least a few months after the new console is out before I'll even consider getting it. Usually the first half-year or so of games aren't too exciting anyways. I actually ended up buying a PS2 just a month or so after it was released though. Funny story, I ended up going to a nearby Shopko and happened to walk into the electronics section JUST as they were stocking a brand new PS2, which as mentioned were in very short supply. I begged my dad to buy it, swearing I'd pay it off.

I mostly never did.

Looking back, I feel kind of bad.

Waiting some time is a good idea, I'd imagine. I've never actually done it (my last console was the N64, and I got that on day 1), but I think it makes a lot more sense. Especially in the case of the N64, which experienced a 100 € (muhahaha) prize drop some months after release and, looking back, had virtually no worthwile RPGs, my favoured genre. That's the kind of stuff no one knows right away.

As for the current ones, I'm saving up for a PS2 (it has Final Fantasy, it has Metal Gear Solid, it has GTA, I'm sold) and could imagine picking up a gamecube, if only for Eternal Darkness, which I'm told kicks ass. That and the little critter is ridiculously cheap as well as of comfortable size. In a few months Kellogg's are probably going to enclose it with their cereal.
The X-Box I can live without though. Can't think of one single game I need to have that's X-Box exclusive.

Ninja Gaiden? Halo? DOA? Crimson Skies? Star Wars: Kotor?

Not to mention Fable.

Mirai: Halo is on PC (albeit the port isn't perfect, but its been much-improved with patches). Knights of the Old Republic is also on PC.

Ninja Gaiden is a fairly good one, but I know I personally wouldn't care that much for DOA or Crimson Skies. Fable is also a good one, though its been kind of shot down with that old anti-hype campaign lately.