Does creating a website count? Lots of trigger-finger mouse clicking going on... :)
I used to like a good game of Doom, Unreal, or [dating myself] Duke Nuke'm 3D on my PC after a long day of work. Good way to vent. I tried playing Unreal online one time, and I was summarily shot full of holes by some 13 year old.
Submitted by hipshot on Tue, 02/05/2008 - 11:46pm.
Being abused by 13yr olds is fun..sad but fun. My kids play better than I. I am an old FPS online junkie, and a solo RTS fan.
In fact back in the day... I used to play board strategy games (no RISK does not count), sniff.
Phew i feel better now I came out of the closet on that bad boy.
Submitted by softwarejanitor on Wed, 08/15/2007 - 2:58pm.
I'm not much of a gamer... I don't own a console although I have some of the "retro" mini-controller games with 80's classics. I also "don't do Windows", so about the only "big name" games I have are Unreal Tournament 2004 and Doom 3 (both have Linux versions).
I think creating a website totally counts ! I have every console imaginable: Atari, Nintendo,Nintendo 64, PS1. PS2, Xbox360, Gamecube, etc. Just picked up gears of war ( amazing graphics for those that have never seen it before) for my 360. Besides that, I play a pc game that consumes way too much time imo. and you're right matt, online gaming is 99.9 % ( <-- made up statistic) of 13 year olds that are sometimes just plain annoying. I just ignore it since it gaming helps me take my mind off of things and de-stresses me.
Angie Lee
Veriseo Corporation
Semiconductor Staffing Angie@Veriseo.com
Submitted by softwarejanitor on Thu, 08/16/2007 - 5:09pm.
I've been considering getting a Wii, but nobody seems to have them in stock. Other than that the PS3 seems like a nice system but the price is still a little steep so I think I will wait a while. Prices on PS2 stuff seems to be really dropping now so it might be a good time to pick some up on the cheap. I'm not interested in the Xbox for more or less political reasons.
I just played the new game tonight called "upgrade the website's database and install new versions of the core files." Not as much fun as Barbie Blaster 3D ( <-- slightly made up game), but still just as thrilling.
I need to try a Wii. Maybe then I wouldn't suck so bad at bowling. At least I wouldn't need to wear the red and black two-tone shoe rentals.
Submitted by bhwHodge on Tue, 11/06/2007 - 10:04am.
We play games from time to time at our office. We tend to lean more toward RTS games, and the whole development team gets involved. It's great for team building and blowing off steam.
Hahaha! I loved Animaniacs. Good times in college.
Speaking of college, I was into Descent for a while. I played that one night for way too long (procrastinating homework I imagine), and went to bed with the worst vertigo.
Submitted by ciamele on Tue, 11/06/2007 - 10:19pm.
Unreal Tournament puts vertigo into high gear for me. I used to play that when I was in college as stress relief. As a joke, I named my character "Vanguard Airlines" because I was once on a plane where some scary events happened; when my character killed another, it would say on their screen, "You were killed by Vanguard Airlines." :)
Submitted by softwarejanitor on Thu, 01/03/2008 - 3:31pm.
I downloaded it and it seems to run O.K., I had to install one pre-requisite, the rabbyt library, but it was kind enough to tell me exactly how to do that so it was no big deal.
I took a look at the web site as well and I think I have an idea how to play but I haven't had a chance to get into it yet.
Submitted by softwarejanitor on Fri, 01/04/2008 - 12:34am.
It wasn't any big deal. I am somewhat familiar with Python, but I don't think I would have had any trouble installing it w/o that. All I did was download the tarball, then run the snowballz.py at which point I was informed about the missing library including the command to install it which was simple to cut-n-paste into a Konsole...
Submitted by zratchet on Fri, 01/04/2008 - 7:59am.
I see... so you're on linux (which is what the devs are on too) - personally, I'm on OSX and Windows, but I'm a dev-ish sort too, (producer/designer), its just the Windows crowd I'm worried about :p (no Python or Easy_Install preinstalled :/ )
Feel free to sign up at the snowballz-fans google group I mentioned before... we're going to bring people from there to the focus group.
Submitted by softwarejanitor on Fri, 01/04/2008 - 11:44am.
Yes, my install on Linux was pretty trivial because I already had Python and most of the libraries needed installed. Unfortunately you are probably correct that Windows users are not very savvy at installing software, so you may need to have someone put together some kind of "install shield" looking installer that can automate downloading and installing Python and the prerequisite libraries if they aren't there. It wouldn't be such a problem if Windows wasn't so utterly devoid of features as it comes out of the box. One of the reasons I shun Windows is it is just too much work to install Windows, install all the other stuff I use (most of which comes with distros like Ubuntu or is trivial to select and install from their package management system) or might want and then keep it all up to date and secure. Life is just too short to futz around with Windows.
Submitted by softwarejanitor on Fri, 01/04/2008 - 4:05pm.
One additional suggestion if you want to get a bunch more people playing is to get into the official package system for Ubuntu, that would ease installation for less technical Ubuntu users slightly as well as increase visibility. Ubuntu is one of the hottest desktop and home user distros today.
Submitted by zratchet on Thu, 01/03/2008 - 11:25pm.
Yeah, this is a prototype, so not everything is ironed out yet, and it may be a few months before we get our new version out, but the prototype is basically an real time strategy game.
Submitted by speedydooo on Tue, 01/08/2008 - 3:44pm.
I have recently purchased Xbox360 and have been busy playing Call of Duty 4. I have had PS1 and PS2 in the past and have played combat games but Call of Duty 4 on Xbox360 is a whole lot better. While I would like to see more features in the online gaming, I still love the game. Any fans of Call of Duty 4? You can add me as a friend. Gamertag is speedydoooo.
Submitted by softwarejanitor on Tue, 01/08/2008 - 4:56pm.
There was an article in the Statesman today about how the PS3 had a strong holiday season and boosted Blu-Ray disc. As a side note with the Warner Bros. camp having recently defected from HD-DVD to Blu-Ray, it is starting to look like the battle for next-generation media may be over soon. That may in turn benefit PS3 sales against the XBox 360.
Submitted by zratchet on Wed, 01/09/2008 - 1:12am.
As someone who doesn't have an HDTV (except through PC TV tuners - go Windows Media Center), the media war doesn't really matter to me yet (until they start shipping more software and games other than PS3 games on the format). Don't have the room or the money for one... and I'm not real likely to get a PS3 - not many games I'm interested in, and I just got a 360.
Downloadable movies may be where its at anyway - Netflix, Amazon, iTunes and Xbox Live all offer that now, and YouTube and Joost are fun too.
Submitted by softwarejanitor on Wed, 01/09/2008 - 8:01am.
I don't have an HDTV yet either. I am waiting for prices to come down more before I buy one. I may buy a PS3, but probably not until after I buy a Wii. Would have bought one of those already if I could find one at a decent price and w/o having to buy a lot of extra junk. As I said before, I won't buy an XBox because I don't do business with Microsoft. I'm not a big gamer, and I don't really need a console, but I'd kind of like to support Microsoft's competitors and try to help prevent them from taking over and monopolizing yet another market segment.
Submitted by zratchet on Wed, 01/09/2008 - 12:31pm.
MS personally redeemed themselves to me with the Xbox and 360... though I am liking Vista less and less (though maybe an extra GB of RAM will help :p )
As a gamer and game developer I cannot afford to miss out on a market section, though from what others have told me, I can afford to miss out on the PS3 for now. (PS2 is still going strong)
The only reason right now, and I wish Sony would do this, for the PS3, is as a Linux based VAIO or server. Keep the price, sell it as a VAIO, with Linux installed.
Submitted by softwarejanitor on Wed, 01/09/2008 - 11:15pm.
I'm not sure what, if anything MS could ever do to redeem themselves to me. I've so far been able to afford to mostly ignore them. Life is too short to futz around with their stuff.
Submitted by invidkllr on Thu, 01/17/2008 - 10:58am.
I'm on the 360 mostly now. Call of Duty 4, Halo3, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Star Wars Lego with my kid, Skate. I usually try to keep up with gamer news and events through podcasts and blogs. Gamertag: invidkllr
Submitted by johnlogic on Fri, 01/25/2008 - 3:45pm.
I used to be a gamer: the hardcore old-school kind. (Who else here has owned a coin-operated Pong game?). Working in the biz has all but killed the buzz I got from playing them.
Though I contributed a tiny part to the PS3, my eye is on the Wii.
As for PCs, using Microsoft products has given me Tourette's syndrome and Apple gave me more bad customer experiences than good, so my next PC will likely run Linux (and maybe occassional Windows sessions, neatly contained under Xen). Red Hat looks pretty nice and solves a lot of problems, but I don't know if I can bring myself to pay for free software. Should I dare ask what the Linux game market looks like?
Submitted by softwarejanitor on Sat, 01/26/2008 - 2:45pm.
I would recommend Ubuntu over Red Hat for Linux newbies. I personally prefer Kubuntu which is Ubuntu, but with the KDE desktop instead of Gnome. There is little to no reason to pay for your Linux distro, Ubuntu and Kubuntu are free CD or DVD image downloads. It is easy to set up Wine and the free version of VMWare with Ubuntu since they are right there in the package management system. I've only played briefly with ReactOS (and other Linuxes) under VMWare because I don't have a copy of Windows to run as a guest OS. I've successfully run some Windows software under Wine, but I don't have a lot to try.
As for games, the Linux market is pretty much wide open at this point. There are quite a few free games, but a limited number of commercial games that aren't just ports of games for other platforms. Of the ports my personal favorites are Unreal Tournament 2004 and Doom 3. Unreal Tournament 3 is supposed to have a Linux port "real soon now". I will buy it once the Linux port is available. There were a lot more Linux ports out a few years ago when a company called Loki games was around. They were porting most of the games from Bungee. Then Microsoft bought Bungee and put the kabosh on any Linux ports and Loki was forced out of business. Had that not happened the game market would likely look fairly different.
Submitted by zratchet on Sat, 01/26/2008 - 12:27am.
There are actually quite a few good games on linux and some official and unofficial ports... plus there's always Wine, Crossover or ReactOS. You can actually run Halflife 2 on Linux, just as an example.
Submitted by springnet on Tue, 02/05/2008 - 11:35am.
The only thing that could get me into gaming would be Rock Band on the pc. I have to check and see if it's available. I hear this is addicting and it might be fun for parties.
I want to get into a gaming system but can't decide between the wii, the Xbox 360, or the Sony Playstation. It's a tough choice. Right now I'm leaning toward the wii but i hear the other two may play leapfrog soon.
Submitted by softwarejanitor on Thu, 02/21/2008 - 1:29am.
My choices would be the Wii first, then the Playstation 3, then a Playstation 2... then... What else is there? Colecovision? Sega?
Seriously, if anyone actually ever had a Wii for sale around here I might buy one. That's still, after all this time, the big problem with them -- supply.
Submitted by softwarejanitor on Thu, 02/21/2008 - 12:34pm.
Yep. I thought in xmas of 2006 that I'd just wait until January and there would be plenty... Nope. Roll forward to last xmas, still none to be found... Its 3/4 through Feb now and I still haven't been able to find one w/o strings attached to it. Fry's had some a while back, but you couldn't buy one unless you bought $250 worth of games and acessories (their choice). I don't want one bad enough to pay almost $550 to get out of the store.
Submitted by softwarejanitor on Thu, 02/21/2008 - 1:55pm.
Could be, but it isn't just Fry's. Try to find anyone else in town that has them... And the forced bundle thing is unfortunately a common ploy to increase profit on highly in-demand toys that is also used by other chains like Toys R Us, etc...
Nintendo has been selling almost 2 million units a month according to the Wikipedia article. Despite not having been on the market for as long and even given Nintendo's apparent inability to keep up with demand the Wii has outsold both the XBox 360 and Playstation 3 by a large margin.
Submitted by softwarejanitor on Thu, 02/21/2008 - 1:59pm.
Hmmm... I'd rather buy one from a company I recognize at least if I can't get one locally. I should check online again, I haven't looked in a few months. Last time I tried I came away empty handed.
Submitted by softwarejanitor on Thu, 02/21/2008 - 2:09pm.
Here is an example that it isn't just Fry's doing the "bundle" thing... Perhaps there is merit to Nintendo being behind retailers doing this sort of thing:
Yeah they're preying on little kids who go in there with dreams of a wii and come out crying because the price got jacked from 229 up to 450 and mommy won't spring for it anymore. Bloodsuckers.
Submitted by softwarejanitor on Wed, 04/02/2008 - 10:44pm.
Over a month later and I still haven't been able to find a Wii. All the usual places are perpetually sold out or won't sell a console without forcing you to buy a bunch of junk in a bundle... most of the extra stuff I am not interested in...
Submitted by softwarejanitor on Wed, 04/02/2008 - 10:57pm.
I've read that Nintendo is making and selling almost 2 million units per month, often selling more units than the Playstation 3 and XBox 360 combined... It is interesting to imagine what sales would be if they were able to keep them in stock at any retailers...
Submitted by zratchet on Mon, 02/25/2008 - 7:51am.
PCs will be even more of a gaming system *if* one of the startups I am helping gets their product out. (similar to the Wii controller, but PC plug and play) Our only problem is funding. :( If anyone sees this and knows someone who could help out, contact me thru LinkedIn - we are looking for any contacts we can get. http://linkedin.com/in/zratchet
I used to be a pretty serious gamer, but I just don't have the time.
I dabble in COD4 on the PC and I also bought the Orange Box a few months ago. I pretty much will only buy something on Steam - that way I can install it whenever and wherever and never lose the CD...
Does creating a website count? Lots of trigger-finger mouse clicking going on... :)
I used to like a good game of Doom, Unreal, or [dating myself] Duke Nuke'm 3D on my PC after a long day of work. Good way to vent. I tried playing Unreal online one time, and I was summarily shot full of holes by some 13 year old.
You?
Matt
--
Being abused by 13yr olds is fun..sad but fun. My kids play better than I. I am an old FPS online junkie, and a solo RTS fan.
In fact back in the day... I used to play board strategy games (no RISK does not count), sniff.
Phew i feel better now I came out of the closet on that bad boy.
I still play board games at Great Hall Games here in town.
http://greathallgames.com/
I'm not much of a gamer... I don't own a console although I have some of the "retro" mini-controller games with 80's classics. I also "don't do Windows", so about the only "big name" games I have are Unreal Tournament 2004 and Doom 3 (both have Linux versions).
I think creating a website totally counts ! I have every console imaginable: Atari, Nintendo,Nintendo 64, PS1. PS2, Xbox360, Gamecube, etc. Just picked up gears of war ( amazing graphics for those that have never seen it before) for my 360. Besides that, I play a pc game that consumes way too much time imo. and you're right matt, online gaming is 99.9 % ( <-- made up statistic) of 13 year olds that are sometimes just plain annoying. I just ignore it since it gaming helps me take my mind off of things and de-stresses me.
Angie Lee
Veriseo Corporation
Semiconductor Staffing
Angie@Veriseo.com
I've been considering getting a Wii, but nobody seems to have them in stock. Other than that the PS3 seems like a nice system but the price is still a little steep so I think I will wait a while. Prices on PS2 stuff seems to be really dropping now so it might be a good time to pick some up on the cheap. I'm not interested in the Xbox for more or less political reasons.
I just played the new game tonight called "upgrade the website's database and install new versions of the core files." Not as much fun as Barbie Blaster 3D ( <-- slightly made up game), but still just as thrilling.
I need to try a Wii. Maybe then I wouldn't suck so bad at bowling. At least I wouldn't need to wear the red and black two-tone shoe rentals.
Matt
--
We play games from time to time at our office. We tend to lean more toward RTS games, and the whole development team gets involved. It's great for team building and blowing off steam.
I'm more of a battle strategy fan. My favorites are the PC versions of Axis & Allies and Risk.
Pinky: "What are we doing today, Brain?"
Brain: "The same thing we do every day... TRY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!"
--
Christopher Iamele
Email: ciamele@austin.rr.com
Hahaha! I loved Animaniacs. Good times in college.
Speaking of college, I was into Descent for a while. I played that one night for way too long (procrastinating homework I imagine), and went to bed with the worst vertigo.
Matt
--
Unreal Tournament puts vertigo into high gear for me. I used to play that when I was in college as stress relief. As a joke, I named my character "Vanguard Airlines" because I was once on a plane where some scary events happened; when my character killed another, it would say on their screen, "You were killed by Vanguard Airlines." :)
--
Christopher Iamele
Email: ciamele@austin.rr.com
I run the Austin Independent Game Developers group, and work 8 hours a weekday at a game company, so yes.
RTS and RPG mainly here, and I'm starting a focus group for my indie project.
http://groups.google.com/aigd-general
http://groups.google.com/snowballz-fans
Neither of those links work for me...
What platforms does your indie project run on?
Argh... didn't post the links right:
http://groups.google.com/group/aigd-general
http://groups.google.com/group/snowballz-fans
Sorry about that.
It's python based, so runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux (and anything else Python and OpenGL run on, at least theoretically)
Cool, I will have to give it a try!
I downloaded it and it seems to run O.K., I had to install one pre-requisite, the rabbyt library, but it was kind enough to tell me exactly how to do that so it was no big deal.
I took a look at the web site as well and I think I have an idea how to play but I haven't had a chance to get into it yet.
Also, good that you got it to run, I guess you must be familiar with Python, we've had a lot of people who weren't. :p
It wasn't any big deal. I am somewhat familiar with Python, but I don't think I would have had any trouble installing it w/o that. All I did was download the tarball, then run the snowballz.py at which point I was informed about the missing library including the command to install it which was simple to cut-n-paste into a Konsole...
I see... so you're on linux (which is what the devs are on too) - personally, I'm on OSX and Windows, but I'm a dev-ish sort too, (producer/designer), its just the Windows crowd I'm worried about :p (no Python or Easy_Install preinstalled :/ )
Feel free to sign up at the snowballz-fans google group I mentioned before... we're going to bring people from there to the focus group.
And please look at the blog I posted too.
Hope you enjoy the game.
http://groups.google.com/group/snowballz-fans
http://snowballz.sites.assembla.com
Yes, my install on Linux was pretty trivial because I already had Python and most of the libraries needed installed. Unfortunately you are probably correct that Windows users are not very savvy at installing software, so you may need to have someone put together some kind of "install shield" looking installer that can automate downloading and installing Python and the prerequisite libraries if they aren't there. It wouldn't be such a problem if Windows wasn't so utterly devoid of features as it comes out of the box. One of the reasons I shun Windows is it is just too much work to install Windows, install all the other stuff I use (most of which comes with distros like Ubuntu or is trivial to select and install from their package management system) or might want and then keep it all up to date and secure. Life is just too short to futz around with Windows.
One additional suggestion if you want to get a bunch more people playing is to get into the official package system for Ubuntu, that would ease installation for less technical Ubuntu users slightly as well as increase visibility. Ubuntu is one of the hottest desktop and home user distros today.
read below... threading got a little wierd in this conversation. :p
Yeah, this is a prototype, so not everything is ironed out yet, and it may be a few months before we get our new version out, but the prototype is basically an real time strategy game.
Check out our current dev blog at http://snowballz.sites.assembla.com
We're working on a Windows installer. Personally I mainly use Mac OS X but I have Vista on my system as well.
There is an older build of snowballz available in Gusty, and in the Debian repositories as well.
The main programmers on the project use Ubuntu. I'm producer/designer.
I have recently purchased Xbox360 and have been busy playing Call of Duty 4. I have had PS1 and PS2 in the past and have played combat games but Call of Duty 4 on Xbox360 is a whole lot better. While I would like to see more features in the online gaming, I still love the game. Any fans of Call of Duty 4? You can add me as a friend. Gamertag is speedydoooo.
Hussain Hashim
Hashim Investments, Inc.
http://www.hashiminvestments.com/
Visit my Blog: http://blog.hashiminvestments.com/
Join my Linkedin Network at http://www.linkedin.com/in/hussainhashim
Send the invite to hussain_hashim@hotmail.com
There was an article in the Statesman today about how the PS3 had a strong holiday season and boosted Blu-Ray disc. As a side note with the Warner Bros. camp having recently defected from HD-DVD to Blu-Ray, it is starting to look like the battle for next-generation media may be over soon. That may in turn benefit PS3 sales against the XBox 360.
As someone who doesn't have an HDTV (except through PC TV tuners - go Windows Media Center), the media war doesn't really matter to me yet (until they start shipping more software and games other than PS3 games on the format). Don't have the room or the money for one... and I'm not real likely to get a PS3 - not many games I'm interested in, and I just got a 360.
Downloadable movies may be where its at anyway - Netflix, Amazon, iTunes and Xbox Live all offer that now, and YouTube and Joost are fun too.
I don't have an HDTV yet either. I am waiting for prices to come down more before I buy one. I may buy a PS3, but probably not until after I buy a Wii. Would have bought one of those already if I could find one at a decent price and w/o having to buy a lot of extra junk. As I said before, I won't buy an XBox because I don't do business with Microsoft. I'm not a big gamer, and I don't really need a console, but I'd kind of like to support Microsoft's competitors and try to help prevent them from taking over and monopolizing yet another market segment.
I also just got a 360, but don't play much FPS games... though I will be getting Orange Box for Portal ASAP.
MS personally redeemed themselves to me with the Xbox and 360... though I am liking Vista less and less (though maybe an extra GB of RAM will help :p )
As a gamer and game developer I cannot afford to miss out on a market section, though from what others have told me, I can afford to miss out on the PS3 for now. (PS2 is still going strong)
The only reason right now, and I wish Sony would do this, for the PS3, is as a Linux based VAIO or server. Keep the price, sell it as a VAIO, with Linux installed.
I'm not sure what, if anything MS could ever do to redeem themselves to me. I've so far been able to afford to mostly ignore them. Life is too short to futz around with their stuff.
Also, Age of Empires, Halo, Rise of Nations, and Zoo Tycoon are all great game series published by MS.
I'm on the 360 mostly now. Call of Duty 4, Halo3, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Star Wars Lego with my kid, Skate. I usually try to keep up with gamer news and events through podcasts and blogs. Gamertag: invidkllr
I used to be a gamer: the hardcore old-school kind. (Who else here has owned a coin-operated Pong game?). Working in the biz has all but killed the buzz I got from playing them.
Though I contributed a tiny part to the PS3, my eye is on the Wii.
As for PCs, using Microsoft products has given me Tourette's syndrome and Apple gave me more bad customer experiences than good, so my next PC will likely run Linux (and maybe occassional Windows sessions, neatly contained under Xen). Red Hat looks pretty nice and solves a lot of problems, but I don't know if I can bring myself to pay for free software. Should I dare ask what the Linux game market looks like?
- John
I would recommend Ubuntu over Red Hat for Linux newbies. I personally prefer Kubuntu which is Ubuntu, but with the KDE desktop instead of Gnome. There is little to no reason to pay for your Linux distro, Ubuntu and Kubuntu are free CD or DVD image downloads. It is easy to set up Wine and the free version of VMWare with Ubuntu since they are right there in the package management system. I've only played briefly with ReactOS (and other Linuxes) under VMWare because I don't have a copy of Windows to run as a guest OS. I've successfully run some Windows software under Wine, but I don't have a lot to try.
As for games, the Linux market is pretty much wide open at this point. There are quite a few free games, but a limited number of commercial games that aren't just ports of games for other platforms. Of the ports my personal favorites are Unreal Tournament 2004 and Doom 3. Unreal Tournament 3 is supposed to have a Linux port "real soon now". I will buy it once the Linux port is available. There were a lot more Linux ports out a few years ago when a company called Loki games was around. They were porting most of the games from Bungee. Then Microsoft bought Bungee and put the kabosh on any Linux ports and Loki was forced out of business. Had that not happened the game market would likely look fairly different.
There are actually quite a few good games on linux and some official and unofficial ports... plus there's always Wine, Crossover or ReactOS. You can actually run Halflife 2 on Linux, just as an example.
I have to say.. guitar hero 3 isnt as easy as i thought :P
assasins creed is an amazing game btw for anyone who has a 360.
I prefer PC and Mac games but I also have a 360 and a GameCube.
The only thing that could get me into gaming would be Rock Band on the pc. I have to check and see if it's available. I hear this is addicting and it might be fun for parties.
I want to get into a gaming system but can't decide between the wii, the Xbox 360, or the Sony Playstation. It's a tough choice. Right now I'm leaning toward the wii but i hear the other two may play leapfrog soon.
My choices would be the Wii first, then the Playstation 3, then a Playstation 2... then... What else is there? Colecovision? Sega?
Seriously, if anyone actually ever had a Wii for sale around here I might buy one. That's still, after all this time, the big problem with them -- supply.
Still? They've had that problem for a really long time.
Yep. I thought in xmas of 2006 that I'd just wait until January and there would be plenty... Nope. Roll forward to last xmas, still none to be found... Its 3/4 through Feb now and I still haven't been able to find one w/o strings attached to it. Fry's had some a while back, but you couldn't buy one unless you bought $250 worth of games and acessories (their choice). I don't want one bad enough to pay almost $550 to get out of the store.
So the base price is $300?
No, it was like $259... but you'd also have to pay something like $40 in sales tax.
It sounds like a conspiracy between wii and frys to keep the price up and sell extras.
Could be, but it isn't just Fry's. Try to find anyone else in town that has them... And the forced bundle thing is unfortunately a common ploy to increase profit on highly in-demand toys that is also used by other chains like Toys R Us, etc...
Nintendo has been selling almost 2 million units a month according to the Wikipedia article. Despite not having been on the market for as long and even given Nintendo's apparent inability to keep up with demand the Wii has outsold both the XBox 360 and Playstation 3 by a large margin.
I don't know if these guys are reputable but they're selling wii's for $180 and say they're in stock:
http://datastarsinc.com/
Hmmm... I'd rather buy one from a company I recognize at least if I can't get one locally. I should check online again, I haven't looked in a few months. Last time I tried I came away empty handed.
oops.
$190 the $180 was for 10 or more
details here
Here is an example that it isn't just Fry's doing the "bundle" thing... Perhaps there is merit to Nintendo being behind retailers doing this sort of thing:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=413800
What about the $190 deal, is this legit?
I dunno, almost seems like too good a deal to be true. If you look online most other places are advertising closer to $250.
Here is another link...
http://www.nbc5.com/target5/10433355/detail.html
That one is to the bundling practice at Toys R Us -- looks like it has been going on since 2006.
Yeah they're preying on little kids who go in there with dreams of a wii and come out crying because the price got jacked from 229 up to 450 and mommy won't spring for it anymore. Bloodsuckers.
"I want to get into a gaming system but can't decide between the wii, the Xbox 360, or the Sony Playstation. "
I have all three...
wow, thanks for reminding me how much of a nerd i am.
:)
Or you could look at it as assailing my nerd credentials since I also don't have any of the three yet...
Over a month later and I still haven't been able to find a Wii. All the usual places are perpetually sold out or won't sell a console without forcing you to buy a bunch of junk in a bundle... most of the extra stuff I am not interested in...
I'm surprised they're still out. Can't Nintendo keep up with production? I don't track gaming, so I'm probably out of the know.
I've read that Nintendo is making and selling almost 2 million units per month, often selling more units than the Playstation 3 and XBox 360 combined... It is interesting to imagine what sales would be if they were able to keep them in stock at any retailers...
You have all 3!!! Yeah, I'm still working on uno.
I guess my pc would count as a 4th gaming system.
What is the sun? Does it hurt?
What? If it counts then I have a couple of gaming systems without any game son them.
PCs will be even more of a gaming system *if* one of the startups I am helping gets their product out. (similar to the Wii controller, but PC plug and play) Our only problem is funding. :( If anyone sees this and knows someone who could help out, contact me thru LinkedIn - we are looking for any contacts we can get. http://linkedin.com/in/zratchet
I used to be a pretty serious gamer, but I just don't have the time.
I dabble in COD4 on the PC and I also bought the Orange Box a few months ago. I pretty much will only buy something on Steam - that way I can install it whenever and wherever and never lose the CD...
David Rees
http://reesonance.typepad.com