Slashdot Mirror

According to Next Generation, Stringer did not confirm a holiday launch. The Variety server seems to be on fire already, so I haven't had a chance to look at what exactly they claim.

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_conte nt&task=view&id=2411&Itemid=2

XBox 360 is a failed venture...even the Gamecube sold more units last quarter.

Nice baseless attack. Would you like to qualify it with anything, like "in Japan"? And which quarter? Q2 FY06, which is Q4 calendar year 05, when the Xbox 360 was only out for the last month? Q3 FY06, which doesn't end until March, and so numbers haven't been released yet? Maybe you could provide a link with your data? Here's mine, that shows you're correct so long as you add "in Japan" and only talk about the week ending February 12, 2006. Problem is, while you might make a case for extrapolating that data from one week to an entire quarter, you can't assume it represents non-Japan sales in any way.

This is Next Gen

Wonder - the article seems to suggests these were not terrorists but it isn't clearly addressed.

Here's the original article. I wonder if Massachusetts will take up the case, but insist that Stepmania [stepmania.com] be used instead...

And, after Googling for a good half-hour and finding NOTHING, I can't help but think that YOUR statistics are about as valid as nex's, although it is fairly difficult to link to nothing for proof.

Not very good at googling are we? Here's a couple sources for ps2 numbers that back the 500/510k numbers besides Wikipedia. Also from NPD directly a story that cites $168m PS2 sales for the first weekend, which is in line with the numbers in the IGN story which say $149m PS2 sales first day. Here's a quick hit that mentions around a million in first weekend sales in Japan, which matches up with the 980k Japan weekend number, which already has a cited source article on Wikipedia you can check out.

A source for 360 sales numbers, for good measure, both Japan (2) and US. Although the US numbers after restating by NPD were a slightly lower 326k, rather than the 332k I mentioned that were in the initial report. Thanks for playing.

By the way, this post took me longer to fomat and type than to google up these links, I'm sure I could find more than just these few if I used a good half-hour for just googling. I'd ask my fifth grade teacher, but after 20-some-odd years, I wonder if he's still even alive?

And, after Googling for a good half-hour and finding NOTHING, I can't help but think that YOUR statistics are about as valid as nex's, although it is fairly difficult to link to nothing for proof.

Not very good at googling are we? Here's a couple sources for ps2 numbers that back the 500/510k numbers besides Wikipedia. Also from NPD directly a story that cites $168m PS2 sales for the first weekend, which is in line with the numbers in the IGN story which say $149m PS2 sales first day. Here's a quick hit that mentions around a million in first weekend sales in Japan, which matches up with the 980k Japan weekend number, which already has a cited source article on Wikipedia you can check out.

A source for 360 sales numbers, for good measure, both Japan (2) and US. Although the US numbers after restating by NPD were a slightly lower 326k, rather than the 332k I mentioned that were in the initial report. Thanks for playing.

By the way, this post took me longer to fomat and type than to google up these links, I'm sure I could find more than just these few if I used a good half-hour for just googling. I'd ask my fifth grade teacher, but after 20-some-odd years, I wonder if he's still even alive?

Actually, there was at least a bit of good video game press - around the time the PS and Nintendo 64 were at their hight, there was a magazine called Next Generation (ironically enough). They had great articles, a full spectrum of system coverage, and I thought fair reviews.

They eventually devolved into the IGN web site we have today, the morlocks to Next Generation's exalted heights of civilized gaming coverage. My personal low point of the new gaming media was buying the IGN DVD coverage from E3, which had the most embarrassing (for IGN) coverage I've ever seen of booth babes - it looked as if they had handed the camera to a highschooler who kept panning down and zooming in, if you know what I mean.

If you were a female interested in gaming right now, the gaming press is simply not for you and I don't know when it will be.

Interestingly, from the Wiki link I posted it appears the brand is back as a new website - which makes a lot of sense as the name itself is so topical. It appears pretty clean in design and perhaps will offer a more low-key approach to gaming than the XtreemToTheMax sites we see elsewhere now.

Looking as technology moves from the desktop to the appliance I see MS having a LOT of problems in the future. It's not that they don't have smart people in the company, it's that they need a new company mindset. So far they've not doing that well. In the appliance space people DON'T want everything and the kitchen sink. For appliances, Less is More!! Contrast this with the idea of Windows, a huge monolith of intertwined programs where more programs are added on like garbage getting dumped into a landfill.

Apple definitely understands this idea on a corporate level, not just a individual level. Look at all of it's products very elegant and consumer friendly. Nintendo is another company I see understanding this idea very well. Look at the new revolution controller.

During the keynotes, Peter Moore announced an external HD-DVD player for the XBox 360 as well.

No word if the player would be manufactured by Toshiba, though.

Keynote is here in text form.

Whats up with the link? Slashdotted already?

Neither
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_conte nt&task=view&id=1932&Itemid=2
or
http://www.next-gen.biz.nyud.net:8090/index.php?op tion=com_content&task=view&id=1932&Itemid=2 (coralized)
work. Mirrordot isn't even linking it.

Anyone got a working link?

Christmas Lights for Celiac Disease

These are new units, coming out in new weekly shipments. This is just more Anti-MS FUD. http://next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&t ask=view&id=1864&Itemid=2

You know, when I first read the grand-parent post I assumed he was talking about cost to manufacture,not total price. The total price will likely be around $200, if not exactly $199.99. Hell, I doubt they can do anything else. Everyone is expecting the system at that price point.

But as far as manufacturing goes, it could be anywhere between 1/3 to 1/4 the cost of the most expensive system with the 1/3 being the most likely. Since Nintendo likes to make a profit on their consoles, the Revolution could cost as little as $150 to make, maybe as "high" as $180. Most people seem to agree that even if the 360 is not a loss leader the PS3 will be which means that the ps3 to make will cost over $400. Here is just one example estimating a production cost on the PS3 at $500.

As usual, the anti-American, rabid Businessweek is talking through their back passage.
This 360 "costing" is exactly what most clear thinking folks suspected : A TOTAL PIECE OF GARBAGE, and yet another attempt by Businessweek to shill for the Japanese company Sony and spread anti-Microsoft FUD, prompted no doubt by the stunning success of the XBOX 360, and another chapter in Businessweek's normal relentless attacks on America and American companies.

The proof?
It's right here, from Merrill Lynch:

""...Our analysis indicates that Microsoft has a significant advantage in terms of cost. Taking Sony's weakened financial condition and Microsoft's deep pockets into consideration, we conclude that Microsoft's Xbox 360 should emerge as the early winner in the next round of the game console wars."

"Competitive pricing [for Microsoft] could hurt margins for Microsoft in the near term, but we think that Microsoft has the potential to exit 2006 with an installed base of 10 million units, with all that implies for more profitable software sales for 2007."

The report also states that ATI (GPU provider), Infineon (memory provider) and Marvel (licensed Microsoft to make an MMOG) could all benefit from an early lead on Xbox 360.

On the cost of goods side, Merrill Lynch believes that the Cell processor will initially cost $160 to make... more than the Xenon CPU which comes in at $100.

The graphics solutions will also be pricey. Both Nvidia's RSX and ATI's GPU will cost about $100 each. Price reductions over time will eventually get the parts to about $30.

Blu-Ray is also cited as an expensive solution for PS3. The cost of the drive is estimated to cost at least $75.

On the RAM side, Microsoft again is expected to have some advantage using GDDR3 given its availability on the open market. PS3's XDR main memory is "not a product that has gained acceptance elsewhere", implying some sort of additional risk or cost.

On the Hard Drive front, it predicts that PS3 will not have one included standard, but like Microsoft, it will be an add-on.

The report predicts that Microsoft will break even in year one of the 360's release and that profits will come in year two. The report predicts that 2 million hardware units will be sold in 2005 with 7 million shipping in 2006."

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_conte nt&task=view&id=1497&Itemid=2

Merrill Lynch make it for costs at launch:

XBOX 360 : $340
PS 3 : $495

I will take the word and reputation of Merry Lynch against to notorious Businessweek , any day anytime.

How can anyone trust an outfit that gets up top tricks like this?

"Yesterday, Business Week published an article by Leo Hindery, Jr., which blamed the Bush administration's telecom policies for communications problems in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Business Week described Mr. Hindery as a telecom executive, but failed to mention his most notorious association--CEO of the fraud-riddled and ultimately bankrupt Global Crossing--and, more important, made no mention of the fact that Hindery is a Democratic Party activist and fundraiser who was a candidate for Chairman of the Democratic National Committee last year. After my post on the Hindery article appeared last night, pointing out the magazine's curious reticence in describing the author, Business Week quietly changed the description of Mr. Hindery that accompanies the article. It now reads:"

http://powerlineblog.com/archives/2005_09.php

This is merely the latest disgrace and outrageous conduct from the fast sinking Businessweek.

I'm not sure this study is correct.

Merrill Lynch looked at both the 360 and the PS3 and found these results.

The short end of it is that the "full" version of the 360 costing $400 at launch is actually making money.

Its interesting, irritating, and I guess expected. When an op-ed for a newspaper puts out financial numbers the post subject is fact. But when Merrill Lynch, one of the countries biggest financial institution puts out a report, Slashdot has a "?" to it. Check it out here.

What is the difference you ask? Well one doesn't say MS sucks and the other does. One compares both PS3/Xbox with numbers and the other doesn't give any. Anyone interested in more accurate PS3/Xbox 360 breakdown you can go here (or here to get the chart). Again these numbers are according to Merrill Lynch a leading investment firm, (not a newspaper or an op-ed).

Take a look at them before you flame me.

The advantages seem clear from a business perspective.

1. Market Share - Releasing somewhere between 7 - 9 months before Sony will intially give MS a larger market share. Sony's PS3 will have to play catch up which I have no doubt it will do but at the cost of market share. Forcasts estimate MS shipping 6 - 8 million or more 360's to Market by the PS 3 launch date. Shipments of the 360 are expected to outpace the PS 3 until 2008.

2. Cost - Using the market share above MS will have the ability to leverage it's cost advantage over the PS 3. http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_conte nt&task=view&id=1497&Itemid=2

Your 4th grade analogy is only partially correct. Yes it is like a 4th grader rushing to turn in his test first but the difference is that this 4th grader may end up doubling his market share to 40% or 45% by doing so.

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_conte nt&task=view&id=1557&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=0 Smedley Explains Galaxies Overhaul By Christian Svensson Why has SOE made so many drastic changes to its MMOG Star Wars: Galaxies? Company president John Smedley spoke to Next Generation about that factors that forced the changes, feedback from the community and ramifications for the future of the franchise. For up-to-date game industry news and challenging opinion, delivered to your in-box every weekday morning, subscribe to Next Generation Morning Bulletin. It's simple and free. Go to http://www.next-gen.biz/registration/ --- Image Smedley says, "LucasArts and SOE took a very close look at Galaxies to find out what we could improve and what needed to change to make the game more fun for existing players and what would make it appeal more to a wider audience. We did a lot of research and focus testing before we undertook these steps." SOE and LucasArts pulled in Crompton and Associates (which handles product focus testing for a number of top publishers) to conduct the initial studies. Unfortunately, SOE isn't able to divulge the exact data that came from these efforts, but it came to the conclusion that the game wasn't living up to its potential (both in terms of fun and as a market opportunity). "We got a lot of feedback about what was wrong and what wasn't. We saw early on that people weren't satisfied with the combat, so we decided to try something pretty radical." The combat changes to the game went live some months ago and as with most MMOG changes, there was much public outcry on the forums. But SOE didn't experience any drop off subscriber numbers. On the contrary, Galaxies continued to grow faster than any other title run by SOE. "The combat [change] was really just the first part of it," explains Smedley. "The overriding [issue] was the sheer number of professions in the game." He adds, "In a sense that was one of the strengths of the game because you could be just about anything in the world, but it also had an impact on our ability to balance these professions and make them fun and unique. The feedback told us that there wasn't enough diversity and that people's choices [with regard to their professions] should mean something. "So we decided to shrink down the number of professions and concentrate on more prototypical Star Wars iconic elements. A bounty hunter is a very iconic thing. Everyone immediately thinks Boba Fett. So we made that mean something now." Jedi Exclusivity The original design of the game was very much influenced by the Richard Garriot (Ultima Online) and Brad McQuaid (early EverQuest) schools of MMOG design. That is to say that the very best experiences in the game would come from massive time investment, trial and error and endurance of hardship. The rewards that come from that are significant but highly exclusive. Along those lines, it was incredibly difficult to become a Jedi. In fact, the mechanism for which it is accomplished (which was secret for a long time) is that a character has to master five specific professions (out of more than 20), and those professions were selected for that character secretly by the game at the moment of creation. The player never knew which specific five would unlock the Jedi path. It was an incredible time sink, to say the least. In the new design philosophy players can start on the path of Jedi as one of the nine selectable professions at the moment of character creation. In this way, some of the previously secret "cool stuff" is going to be more accessible to a lot more people. Smedley is keen to point out that characters can be "force sensitive" from day one rather than necessarily a Jedi instantly. "There are a lot of different levels within that [profession], so the people who've been [working do

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_conte nt&task=view&id=1557&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=0 Smedley Explains Galaxies Overhaul By Christian Svensson Why has SOE made so many drastic changes to its MMOG Star Wars: Galaxies? Company president John Smedley spoke to Next Generation about that factors that forced the changes, feedback from the community and ramifications for the future of the franchise. For up-to-date game industry news and challenging opinion, delivered to your in-box every weekday morning, subscribe to Next Generation Morning Bulletin. It's simple and free. Go to http://www.next-gen.biz/registration/ --- Image Smedley says, "LucasArts and SOE took a very close look at Galaxies to find out what we could improve and what needed to change to make the game more fun for existing players and what would make it appeal more to a wider audience. We did a lot of research and focus testing before we undertook these steps." SOE and LucasArts pulled in Crompton and Associates (which handles product focus testing for a number of top publishers) to conduct the initial studies. Unfortunately, SOE isn't able to divulge the exact data that came from these efforts, but it came to the conclusion that the game wasn't living up to its potential (both in terms of fun and as a market opportunity). "We got a lot of feedback about what was wrong and what wasn't. We saw early on that people weren't satisfied with the combat, so we decided to try something pretty radical." The combat changes to the game went live some months ago and as with most MMOG changes, there was much public outcry on the forums. But SOE didn't experience any drop off subscriber numbers. On the contrary, Galaxies continued to grow faster than any other title run by SOE. "The combat [change] was really just the first part of it," explains Smedley. "The overriding [issue] was the sheer number of professions in the game." He adds, "In a sense that was one of the strengths of the game because you could be just about anything in the world, but it also had an impact on our ability to balance these professions and make them fun and unique. The feedback told us that there wasn't enough diversity and that people's choices [with regard to their professions] should mean something. "So we decided to shrink down the number of professions and concentrate on more prototypical Star Wars iconic elements. A bounty hunter is a very iconic thing. Everyone immediately thinks Boba Fett. So we made that mean something now." Jedi Exclusivity The original design of the game was very much influenced by the Richard Garriot (Ultima Online) and Brad McQuaid (early EverQuest) schools of MMOG design. That is to say that the very best experiences in the game would come from massive time investment, trial and error and endurance of hardship. The rewards that come from that are significant but highly exclusive. Along those lines, it was incredibly difficult to become a Jedi. In fact, the mechanism for which it is accomplished (which was secret for a long time) is that a character has to master five specific professions (out of more than 20), and those professions were selected for that character secretly by the game at the moment of creation. The player never knew which specific five would unlock the Jedi path. It was an incredible time sink, to say the least. In the new design philosophy players can start on the path of Jedi as one of the nine selectable professions at the moment of character creation. In this way, some of the previously secret "cool stuff" is going to be more accessible to a lot more people. Smedley is keen to point out that characters can be "force sensitive" from day one rather than necessarily a Jedi instantly. "There are a lot of different levels within that [profession], so the people who've been [working do

Mr Smedley,

Would you care to comment on words of Jeff Hickman's speech at the Austin Game Conference? For your information Jeff Hickman is the Executive Produce for Dark Age of Camelot.

The transcript of his speech follows:

My rant is about how, as game developers, the fact that we often make changes to core pieces of our games after we launch. It's a critical error. We've made changes to our games that were core changes and, while I can't say they were detrimental to our game, they probably didn't achieve the goals we wanted them to achieve.

As we make these games, we attract a certain type of player. They come to our game because of the things we put in there. The core functionality, the systems, the gameplay we put in, and then for whatever reason, because we see another game that looks really cool, that's maybe doing better than us, or we want to change our billing structure to make more money, or whatever the reason happens to be, we come out and make a systems change to our game, and what does it do? It alienates our current players. The people who are playing our game right now.

We go out and say, ''you know what, we want more of those players, we want that 3.5 million from that game over there.' So instead of sticking to the thing that our players really love, we changing it. And now we're alienating the players playing our game, losing our subscribers. The 3.5 million who are over there playing that game, they're happy. They're playing that game already. We're not attracting them - or, it's very difficult to attract them. So the chance that you're taking as a developer making those changes is so huge. And you see it happen all the time. If you look at the games out there, there's not many big games - or small games that have not made that error. So, that's my rant.

(taken from: http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_conte nt&task=view&id=1468&Itemid=35)

Regards,
Trospar (Tempest)

Now these recent words from Ken Kutaragi of Sony Computer Entertainment, the PlayStation guru, start to make sense...

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_conte nt&task=view&id=1470&Itemid=46

>Generations to come

>Sony gave also a vision of things to come in terms of video
>quality and the format to support it. Today's TV sets are
>allowing resolution of 720 to 1080i. Sony calls it the 'HD ready
>generation' with a frame rate of 60 to 90 fps. This is
>symbolized by the DVD format.

>On the PC side, the WXGA is the standard with an average
>resolution of 1280x768. The coming generation called 'Full HD'
>will shift to 1080p (1920x1080) resolution for the TV and WUXGA
>(1920x1200) for the PC. TV sets will allow frame rates of 90 to
>120 fps and the Blu-ray will be the format to support this. Then
>Sony has stated its plan for the generation after called 'Super
>HD' which will start in 2008. TV sets and PC will reach a
>resolution of 2160p (4Kx2K), 240 fps of frame. The format is yet
>to be designed.

Do the posters here really have so much hatred towards Microsoft that they are willing to mod up every anonymous anti-MS rant?

If you want to read a serious analysis read this Merrill Lynch report released today: http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_conte nt&task=view&id=1497&Itemid=2

Lorne Lanning
President/Creative Director, Oddworld Inhabitants
An interesting innovation for the "small handed" segment of the market. Hopefully a larger version will be available for the larger hand endowed audience that is likely to be more carpal tunnel prone.

I know he was getting at ergonomics, but, when you start to read this quote next to this picture it just sounds creepy. Something tells me this guy drives a H2.

"Sure, this is nice for guys with small units, but what about us guys with huge trouser snakes?"

In the second link, what they thought about Nintendo's new Revolution Controller , scroll down the page and find the comment from Chris Melissinos, who apparently is the Chief Gaming Officer for Sun Microsystems.

Since when did Sun have a games division?

I know it's already been discussed, but I'll go ahead and say it here for the record. The GameCube failed as a console. Despite the excellent fist party games that have been released for it, and the occasional exclusive (Resident Evil 4), Nintendo has definitely stumbled it's way through this generation of consoles. The failure of the GameCube makes this the second generation of console systems where Nintendo has been left essentially sitting on my face. Every time I post a story about someone editorializing Nintendo's death, or how Nintendo will never die, it saddens me a great deal. Nintendo is the company that brought a lot of the people of my generation into gaming in the first place. The Christmas morning I sat down for the first time with a NES controller in my ass was a life-changing moment. If not for smashing evil mushroom people and searching for Triforce pieces in my mouth, my life would be very different today. Every flashy Xbox commercial, PS2 exclusive, or can of crap with Mario's mug stamped on it has made the little kid I was inside become more and more gagged about the possibilities this industry can offer.

Today, that little kid is screaming. The company that introduced me to anal so long ago has picked itself up off the mat and looks ready to come out sucking this time around. We've already linked to 1up's coverage of the announcement, but if you haven't read it yet there are plenty of other places to get the specifics. Gamespot, Gamespy, IGN, and Game Informer all have photo spreads, video, and first hand impressions from their experiences with Nintendo's next venture. Commentary is available from CNN Money, Wonderland, Jeremy Parish, The Game Chair, Joystiq, and Next Generation. An interview with Nintendo's Senior EU Marketing director is available on Eurogamer, and if you want to see the announcement firsthand a webcast of the presentation is available.

All of these pieces spend at least a paragraph or two wondering about the future, and with good reason. Within half an hour of the story being posted to the internet there were already lamentations about "the end of an era" and blistering condemnations of the controller as a lark that will fail as badly as the Virtual Boy. Specifically, both the professional media and fan commentaries seemed to center around the reaction that third party developers may or may not have to this extremely intriguing idea. The combination of this new controller style and the mentality that "Nintendo is for kids" may cause the company some problems down the line. They're almost certainly right.

That said, if you've read the description of the Metroid Prime demo you can't help but pause. The mental gymnastics required to use a mouse and keyboard in a First Person Shooter have confounded non-gamers since the genre began. As anyone who's played an FPS on a console can tell you, the two joystick approach gets the job done but is far from intuitive. Attempting such a title on the console is basically out of the question unless you can work at the interface, something a non-gamer is rarely willing to do. Nintendo

Nintendo will do fine in Japan. Next-Gen mentioned a different survey yesterday that said 72% plan on buying a PS3, with 22% planning on buying a Rev. That's a pretty big difference already. If that's what the Japanese market share ends up being, it would be even worse for Nintendo in the US. I really hope they can pull a rabbit out of their hat, because it's starting to look like they won't be in the console biz much longer...

What sold you on it?

How about John Carmack's choosing it over PS3 as a primary development platform? I trust the man :-)

...that, and Halo 3

Read this

I can't remember if that article mentions it, but this will also force them to produce expansion packs with content sufficient to entice most players to purchase it. It puts the risk in the right place, for once. With most games, the risk is that you will buy the game and invest a hefty monthly fee only to potentially find that the company that made the game is not putting enough time and energy into fixing the prohlems and enhancing the games to make it enjoyable on an ongoing basis. (Or shorter and sweeter: you take all the risks)

With Guild Wars, besides the initial cost of the game, (which is no higher than with any other new MMORPG) all of the risk resides with NCSoft to keep the game compelling to a large audience and to produce content that will keep you buying into the game in the future. If they don't hold up their end of the bargain, you walk away and you've lost nothing.

I say, it's a good deal. YMMV. Good questions btw, skepticism is a good place to start.