Late Adoption

kakomu

kakomu

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Hello all.

For the past decade and a half, I've owned a fair share of video game consoles, but the majority of those consoles were late adoptions. I started my gaming with a Gameboy in 1990. I'm assuming that I started gaming way later than most of you, since you all mention that you started at ages 3 and 4 (which I did not). Anyways, Game Boys have been the ONLY consoles that I've really kept somewhat up to date with, having owned most of them short of the Game Boy Micro (I've owned a Gameboy Brick, Pocket, Color, Advance and SP). However, for every other system, I've either had a tenuous relationship with it (because it was at my Dad's house), or I've bought it midway, or late through the product cycle. This includes the Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast (bought it 1.5 months before Sega announced they were dropping the ax), Playstation, PS2 (bought it about 1 year ago) and Gamecube (just got it yesterday in the mail for cheap). My Step Brother and I had an NES and SNES at my dad's place which I really didn't play all that much, since I wasn't there as frequently.

Anyways, The point I wanted to make with all of this is that I always picked up consoles at the tail end of their run because everything is much cheaper. Citing current day examples, I bought all but 3 of my PS2 games for under $20, and have been able to trade a ton of them and cycle through a collection (I think it's around 35 games, now). For the Gamecube, save for a few games on my list, I can find most used for under $20, and with Next-Gen consoles looming over the horizon, people are unloading all of their GC games on to their trade lists to prepare for buying another console that is coming up (I've been offered so many games on GameTZ and TGN...however, they keep asking for games I don't really want to give up).

I suppose I can blame my lateness in video game on two main things: A) Being really cheap (either from not having a job and being a student.) and B) Just not keeping up with gaming news (I find most gaming news to be boring and most gaming reviews to be boring and contrived). The latter meaning that until a sufficient amount of info flows my way, I just don't care too much about the newer consoles or games.

Now, except for the gameboy, it seems pretty damn easy to find used games dating back to the system's launch. I made copious use of EB Games $8 and cheaper bin for games I didn't play when they launched (dead to rights, MGS2 and THUG come to mind). GBA games are, of course, much harder to find (limited print runs being one of the biggest culprits, but are, nevertheless, not too expensive.

I think the point I wanted to eventually get to is: How many of you are late adopters and how many of you MUST have the games and systems new NEW NEW!?

Personally, except for being that guy who has old systems hooked to the TV, I find nothing wrong with it (still have my DC hooked up). Most of the hit super-awesome games reach $15-$20 (with many reaching less). Others seem to think otherwise (I think of the people that lined up to buy a PS2 and an Xbox 360), and I'm not sure why.

I, personally, may actually become an early adopter for the Revolution. The price certainly is right, and I can play all the Gamecube games I'm certainly going to amass in the next month, or so.

So, everyone, what is your take on late vs early adoption? For one? Against the other? Switching around? Thoughts on timeliness and such?
 
I genreally am an early adopter and then unload the new system when it still brings in close to reatil or more. This way I get to be a part of the hype then sit back and let the crap get sifted through by others.. Then 2 years in i pick up the system againa dn go from there.

Currently I have a SNES mini, CUBE, & DC hooked up. I have had 3 xboxes and 4 ps2's over this generation as well as 2 GBA Sp's. The only ssystem i seem to keep are Nintendo and I think its because of two reasons.

A) recently they havent had as high of resale demand thus lowering my break even point.
B) I generally like the slower flow of games for the system (exception being the DS so many games but the price is easy)

The revolution will be bought on day one if it is at the
 
I haven't been an early adaptor since the N64 due to the cost and lack of real reason to upgrade at launch. I bought both my DC and PS2 some 2.5 years after they were launched and far cheaper than originally.

That will change, however, when the Revolution comes out next year so long as it's less than $200, or $250 with a bunch of extras included.
 
I'm a late adopter too. Not end-of-life-cycle late, but I certainly don't buy early. Picked up my PS2 two years after release, and grabbed a GC about a year ago. In both cases there were more (cheap) titles available a few years in, and I was less concerned about kinks in the hardware. I'll wait at least a year before buying any of the next-gen consoles.

I was also a late adopter with the NES, Genesis, and N64, but that was more because of money (the lack of).
 
The only systems Ive ever gotten at launch were the N64 and the Gamecube.


As a child, I never had money for a system at launch (single working mom and all that) When I got my first job, I used my first couple paychecks to buy a NES system, but it had been out for a few years already. And until I graduated college, I never had money for multiple systems. I went from Atari 2600 to Commodore 64, to Nes, to SNES, and then I finally started to get all the systems that were out, and even to go back and collect older systems that i had missed out on when they were new.

There are still some systems Ive never owned, and some of those are surprisingly common and affordable. For example, Ive never owned a Sega Genesis or a single game for it. Ive never owned any version of the original gameboy, brick, pocket, or color.

And now I make alot more money than I ever did before, but Im also married, so Im right back in the same boat, and cant afford to buy any of these new systems at launch. I may try to preorder 2 ps3's and flip one on ebay to help finance the one I keep when they come out tho, and I will probably grab a revo at launch, cos its cheaap, and cos Im a pretty big Nintendo fan.
 
I almost always buy the newest gameboy around launch or on launch. With the systems being backward compatible it wasn't as hard to plunk down the coin. Other than that the only system I bought at launch or near the launch was the PS2. I really dug the PS1 and I liked that it was backward compatible. I probably could have waited but they were hard to find and I saw it in the store so I grabbed it. Oh wait I got a nearly free PSP (Thanks to TRU 90% off and the EB trade-in deal) but I have since traded it in.

The best thing I remember though was shoveling snow and doing a paper route to get my own NES. That was awesome when I got it!

I really don't think being an early adopter is worth it.
1. The high cost
2. Lack of games and cost of games
3. Older gen has its best games and become cheap

I've always been pretty late to the game for the most part. I only got an N64 and a Dreamcast about a year ago. I got a Cube when it dropped in price but now I have the most games for that and its my favorite system. I think now more than ever I can wait on the next gen as well....backlog backlog backlog.
 
I buy most of the Nintendo systems at launch, because they are usually afordable, and guaranteed to have amazing Nintendo made games.

I eventually buy every other system that comes out, either when a killer ap I want comes out (Marvel Vs Capcom 2 made me buy a Dreamcast for about 200 dollars at the time, for example), or when there is a nice price drop or 2 (Devil May Cry and a price drop to 200 dollars made me get a PS2 about 4 years ago). So usually, I'd say a midrange adopter.

I will definitly be buying a Revolution on launch though, and I don't even know if it will be any good. But it is Nintendo, and (Virtual Boy not included) I have never been dissapointed.
 
I've been an early adopter (mostly Nintendo) in the past, but a year or two into the N64's run I dropped gaming altogether until early '04 when I picked up an Xbox. Basically I just had to have Mario 64 so I went with the N64. I wasn't even gaming when the current gen stuff dropped and therefore couldn't have been an early adopter.

Haven't picked up a 360 and really don't intend to anytime soon. I might get a PS3 near launch, but my bet would be I'll wait on that as well. I doubt I'll buy a Revo until it is a dead system and therefore very cheap. Both the N64 and Gamecube did not satisfy me in terms of the game line up and I have to assume that will continue with the Revo. But if the controller really does bring a slew of original (and fun) games I could change my tune.
 
I guess you could call me a "late adopter". My previous console was a primitive Atari VCS. Then I upgraded to a PS2, completely skipping over the Super Nintendo and N64 generation!

I figure it's just a game - why waste hundreds of dollars buying the New Thing, when the old one is still fun.
 
As far as this pending generation goes, I will be a late adopter for a number of reasons:

1) My embarrassingly towering backlog of games for the current generation of games (weeps softly at even the thought of it)

2) The realization that there is exactly one title released thus far on the Xbox 360 that holds even a remote level of interest in me (that being Condemned: Criminal Origins), making it VERY easy to wait for next Christmas when the price is ready to drop and there might be some, oh, I don't know, actual INTERESTING titles I'll want to shell out for?

3) The speculation that the Playstation 3 might retail as high as five hundred bucks at launch. Forget that; I'll be more than happy taking a year off to wait out the price drop on that nonsense. What is this, the Neo-Geo?

I've only been an early adopter twice; I got my PS2 about six or eight weeks after launch, by luck, and I was actually the first person in my entire hometown to own a Nintendo 64 thanks to my mom working in receiving at the time, not only holding me one of their console allotment but somehow getting the okay from upper management to let me buy it four days before the official launch.

Early adoption is also so much more risky. Why shell out the absolute highest price that anyone will ever pay for a piece of hardware when you'll also never have a higher chance of manufacturing glitches and bugs being present? Whether it's dust under the screen or dead pixels on the PSP or the constant disc read errors of the PS2 or the reported freeze-up problems with the 360 or the faulty Thompson drives in the original Xbox, there really isn't a compelling enough reason to make me buy a console before at least a half year has gone by and the kinks can be smoothed out a bit.
 
I'm always a fairly late adopter. First console I ever got was the SNES in late '96. That's what, like four or five years late? My grandma always liked to give me and my little bro money for no reason. So one time we brothers teamed up and decided to take our Grandma money, throw in some extra, and buy a refurbished SNES that the local Gamestop was advertising.

I was content with the SNES and my PC for a while, but one day I read a preview for the PS1 port of Street Fighter Alpha 3 and something just snapped inside me. I decided right then and there that I would soon buy a PS1. It came to pass in May 1999, when I picked up a refurbished PS1 (from the same location I got the SNES from) and, appropriately, a copy of SFA3. A good four years after launch for that one.

I was getting over a tough breakup in late 2001, and instead of turning to the bottle I decided to buy a Dreamcast off of eBay (one of those times where you just gotta do yourself a FAVOR, you know?). This turned out to be the perfect time because game prices were dropping like crazy and the games were still available at most stores.

I got PS2 in 2002, from a friend who somehow ended up with two (long story). I'm not sure if I should count that though, since I didn't actually BUY it.

I got GameCube late 2003, when one of the better EB's around here sold me the Zelda bundle a few days before its official release date. That was actually the first console I ever bought new.

XBOX I got in late 2004, oddly enough it was the mutli-platform Mortal Kombat Deception that put me over the edge. I just decided that I wasn't compromising on that game... PS2 version would not be the best, and I had to have the best! My XBOX lust had been quietly brewing for a while though, so I didn't buy it JUST for MKD. This ended up kind of like the Dreamcast for me, where I buy a TON of games for the system in a very short time. The games aren't being clearanced like mad, but I'm a CAG now, so the deals balance themselves out. So I was three years late with my most recent console... not as late as my first two, but it's been my fastest-growing game library by far (again, thanks to CAG).

360 and PS3 will definitely be late if I get them. But like many others here I'm considering buying the Revolution at launch... that'll be a first for me if it happens.
 
The only system I bought at launch, and technically I didnt buy it my parents did, was the original NES. When I started buying systems for myself I never did so at launch. I noticed a trend starting with the 3DO that if you wait you will be rewarded. I can only think of a handful of systems that are still at or around their original launch price. And dont get me started on the software, always cheaper to wait.
 
Agree with the OP, late adoption is the way to go. The only thing you risk is that a great game that you want might become scarce by the time you finally purchase that system. I haven't bought a Gamecube yet but I know I'll probably give myselfs fits looking for Ikaruga when I do finally adopt the Gamecube.
 
My first system was the SNES, which my parents got my brother and I for Christmas many years ago.

After that came my Gameboy Color (along with Pokemon Red), which was a Christmas gift a few years later.

My brother got an N64 for his birthday, and for a long time that's all we had and needed. Two friends would come over, and the four of us would play Goldeneye, Mario Kart, Perfect Dark, or Beetle Adventure Racing.

After that my brother and I got our Gameboy Advances on launch day (I got purple, he got clear purple). I sell my GBC to get my GBA.

A month later in July of 2001 I got my PS2. I bought it a few days before my birthday, so most of my birthday gifts were Playstation related (I remember getting a PS2 and PS1 memory card, Final Fantasy IX, and Timesplitters 1).

Then on November 18 2001 I picked up my Gamecube. I was the first person in line, and EB forced me to preorder the system with three games. I got Rogue Leader, Luigi's Mansion, and Wave Race.

Flash forward to 2003. In July I pick up my Xbox, because I don't want to wait a few months to play Knights of the Old Republic. I also get Halo, but I only play the first level, and then go to finish KotOR before I touch Halo again.

Sometime in 2003 I get a GBA SP. I got the black GBA SP, but I don't remember when in 2003 I got it.

The summer of 2004 I bult my gaming quality PC. Before I had to use my dad's desktop or my laptop, neither of which were very good at playing modern games. I also bought a PSX for my room.

In January of 2005 I bought my DS, after trying out the DS's owned by my friends. Over the next few months we play Mario 64 multiplayer several times a week while killing time at school.

Currently I plan on picking up a Nintendo Revolution at launch, and wait some time before I pick up my PS3, Xbox 360, and PSP.
 
Middle of the road, Not to late into the cycle of a console however not to early as to where their is only 5 games and a controller is $2,000. I got my PS2 after two years on the market, my xbox after a year and my GCN after a year and a half on the market. I got my DS about 9 months into the life. I mainly wait for good games when buying a console then prices.
 
i'm a very late adopter - from the Snes, I got a ps1 after the ps2 was released and i just got a gamecube abou a year ago.

though i did get a ds very very recently so i dunno.
 
I mostly have gotten only the nintendo systerms at launch. (Can't get my hands on a Revolution soon enough!!!!) nes. gameboy brick. snes. n64, gba. gba sp, ds.


However I did pick up a dreamcast at launch. (No regrets there one of my favorite systems ever)

I also got a psp on launch at midnight (Kinda regret it since there were only 3 titles I really enjoyed for about 6 months) even now the games have trickled off, I can't think of any that I'm really anticipating.
 
I bought my XBOX last winter and have over 50 games. Ive got to say that due to xbl its one of the best systems I have ever played. The only recent PS2 game that Has kept me is RE4
 
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