Slashdot Mirror

I found 10 pages of games at http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/catalog.aspx?WT.sv l=nav

No, those are not all facts, you can play multiplayer online, you just don't have special skill matching options, etc. http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/memberships/

It's great to see Microsoft continuing to add backward compatibility. I'm really looking forward to playing JSRF again, but unfortunately if looks like it doesn't work on PAL systems yet :-(
If you have a sufficiently high constitution, wade through the discussion at http://forums.xbox.com/11825595/ShowPost.aspx.

Xbox Live? Xbox Dead more like..

Xbox 360 Guitar Hero 2 Xbox Live patch bricking many consoles.

http://forums.xbox.com/ShowPost.aspx...ostID=11717 177

http://www.destructoid.com/red-octan...se-30996.ph tml

http://forum.guitarherogame.com/Defa...=posts&t=17 747

Surely all these are not isolated cases...

The movies aren't HD quality because even with average cable/DSL speeds the bandwidth required would be prohibitive. Don't expect to see super high quality downloadable movies until we have fiber to the home.

Two things:

1) We already have fiber to the home. But it doesn't take fiber download speeds (which aren't much higher than cable, which is fiber most of the way) to download HD.

2) We also already have HD downloads.

Apple is simply behind Microsoft, for once. No other way to put it. No use making apologies for Apple, either.

Personally, I don't think any of these download services are going to matter in the slightest until the rights issues get worked out - and that means more than signing a deal with a major studio. That doesn't automatically bring all that studio's movies onto a download service, because most of these movies never had download rights negotiated in the first place. Remember the early days of VHS? That's what we're in right now with digital downloads. It's going to take decades for all of these rights to be renegotiated on a film by film basis.

Until that happens, most people are just going to keep using services like Netflix with its 70,000 titles (Netflix is an example of the success of the "long tail" - almost all of those 70,000 films are checked out at any given time), including HD-DVD and Blu-Ray if you want high-def. They also offer digital streaming, though their selection is limited, just as iTunes and Xbox Live is.

I'm just hoping that Wii can get some ports of High Quality (TM) X-Box 360 games! :-D

With the use of live.xbox.com, it should be fairly trivial to integrate your friends list with any instant messenger program that's either open source or pluginable. So, let's find some programmer to do it!

• Microsoft Zune
• SanDisk Sansa e200R
• Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP)
• Sony Walkman (Walkman)
• Sony Ericsson phones such as the P990, K800, and the Walkman-branded W series music phones such as the W950 and the W810 support MP4 files with audio encoded using AAC-LC, HE-AAC v1 and HE-AAC v2.
• Palm OS PDAs
• Nokia Nseries multimedia phones
• Sony PlayStation 3
• Windows PCs

Microsoft should least survive a slashdotting:
http://assets.xbox.com/en-us/games/g/grandtheftaut oiv/grandtheftautoiv.zip

Rockstar, well their website doesn't usually:
http://media.rockstargames.com/flies/1280x720.zip

Streaming the 720p trailer to an xbox360 looks really good, here's some more HD wmv files:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/musi candvideo/hdvideo/contentshowcase.aspx

Nope, the headset is still wired, according to this promo pic.

It's funny how the promo pics never show the power brick. I wonder if it's black instead of the original's gray. Also, what is that short cable that's between the HDMI cable and the component/composite cable? I can't really tell as the resolution is too small, and it doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere. Looks like it has a red RCA jack, a yellow one, and maybe S-video?

By the way: obligatory Penny Arcade strip

However, I am somewhat surprised MS isn't pricing the Elite at $400 (current price for Premium bundle) and reducing the price of the Premium bundle. The Xbox 360 has been out for about 16 months, right? The costs of other components have come down significantly since then. I also assumed that more video downloads ($6 for new HD movies) from their popular TV/movie download service would offset some of these added costs.

I guess MS doesn't want to keep losing money on each console sold.

I think you missed the joke. Whoosh!

Will the 360 let me stream stuff from my computer and my neighbor's computer?

Yes, though not at the same time: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox36 0/digitalmedia/pc.htm

Note that the Xbox 360 uses 2.5" notebook hard drives, which cost more per GB than 3.5" desktop hard drives. A quick Newegg search returned $30 for 20GB (current Xbox 360 size) and $80 for 120GB (future size).

I mostly agree with your comment, though. I'll be surprised if MS prices it above $400 (price for current Premium bundle). It's been about 16 months since the 360 was launched, so I think a price drop (or improved versions) seems like a reasonable expectation. They're also gloating about the Xbox 360's TV/movie download service, which includes high-def. The additional costs of the 120GB hard drive could be offset by video download revenues.

i wont sweat it. people can drink the kool-aid all they want, facts are facts. i've owned every playstation and xbox console. if i am not allowed to criticize the xbox BC, who is?

we cant bury our heads in the sand. a promise was made, and now they are backing away from it and telling us that we dont know what we are talking about. i just want what was promised to me as an investor into the xbox brand. i dont want to hear criticism of a company that [even at their worst] has provided BC for 2300 more titles than MS has been capable of.

instead, how about more proof? these from MS itself.

--

"Our goal remains to get every game to be backward compatible. The only things influencing what games we're working on are how popular the title is, and how easy it is to make backward compatible. Several original Xbox games on the list already have Xbox 360 counterparts."
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibil ityfaq.htm

"Xbox.com: What criteria do you use in choosing which Xbox games will be backward compatible on Xbox 360? How far back into the Xbox game library are you going to go?
Todd: When we say Xbox library, we mean the entire Xbox library. This ranges all the way from our launch in 2001 up to games that haven't even shipped yet.

Xbox.com: By what date do you plan to have all original Xbox games backward compatible?
Todd: We're continuing to work hard to certify as many original Xbox games to work on Xbox 360 as possible; we'll be adding to the list regularly."
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibil ityqa.htm

"...the company eventually plans to support the entire catalog for the original Xbox on the Xbox 360."
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051112-5558 .html

i wont sweat it. people can drink the kool-aid all they want, facts are facts. i've owned every playstation and xbox console. if i am not allowed to criticize the xbox BC, who is?

we cant bury our heads in the sand. a promise was made, and now they are backing away from it and telling us that we dont know what we are talking about. i just want what was promised to me as an investor into the xbox brand. i dont want to hear criticism of a company that [even at their worst] has provided BC for 2300 more titles than MS has been capable of.

instead, how about more proof? these from MS itself.

--

"Our goal remains to get every game to be backward compatible. The only things influencing what games we're working on are how popular the title is, and how easy it is to make backward compatible. Several original Xbox games on the list already have Xbox 360 counterparts."
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibil ityfaq.htm

"Xbox.com: What criteria do you use in choosing which Xbox games will be backward compatible on Xbox 360? How far back into the Xbox game library are you going to go?
Todd: When we say Xbox library, we mean the entire Xbox library. This ranges all the way from our launch in 2001 up to games that haven't even shipped yet.

Xbox.com: By what date do you plan to have all original Xbox games backward compatible?
Todd: We're continuing to work hard to certify as many original Xbox games to work on Xbox 360 as possible; we'll be adding to the list regularly."
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibil ityqa.htm

"...the company eventually plans to support the entire catalog for the original Xbox on the Xbox 360."
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051112-5558 .html

They are definitely doing cross-platform matchmaking. FASA and Microsoft announced a while back that Shadowrun will have this feature.

It already does.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/d/doomxboxlivearca de/

I'm a big fan of action games where you can level your dude too.

Then you should check out Crackdown, which comes out next week. The demo is crazy fun.

However, for those who do need more space why not throw a bone to the 360 owners (Even Core System owners) and let us stream it from our PC?

They do. http://www.xbox.com/en-US/pcsetup/alldownloads.htm

(Alternatively, if you have a 'Media Center PC', you don't need to download anything.)

And the 'core system' can have a Hard drive snapped into it; takes about as much time as changing the battery pack on the 360 controller (seconds). Since the drive is trivially replaceable, it's no big deal to swap disks, or to offer a bigger replacement drive.

Hmmm... website http://www.xbox.com/

Shill, anyone?

You mean Windows XB? Could "Games for Windows" be a ruse to lock up Windows the way consoles have been locked up since the NES?

You download the video and you can view it on your console with any profile. In addition, you can download and view any video on another console as long as you're signed in to Xbox Live®with the profile you originally downloaded it with.

This is from xbox.com. So as long as your family member had a 360 you would be able to download the movies you purchased on their 360.

What is Windows XB other than a target for game ports?

What media center stuff is included in Vista for the 360? Is it something beyond Windows Media Player 11's ability to stream audio and (limited) video?

Why does my Xbox360 still require bizarre router settings to connect wirelessly to my router? Oh yeah I forgot, Microsoft does not care.

"Bizarre router settings"? Like what, turning on UPnP? Oh noes, GRC says the interweb will hax0r my b0x0r if I use UPnP! Never mind that routers enable it only on the internal interface ...

What would you prefer Microsoft to do? Tell all of the NAT users out there that they're SOL for playing games if they don't want to forward ports manually? They had a problem, namely allowing NATed users to directly connect to peers, and they solved it with the correct solution, namely using UPnP to dynamically request port forwarding on an as-needed basis. I'm sorry that the routers you bought (which, BTW, probably weren't from the list of routers supported directly by Microsoft, and if they were then why didn't you try calling 1-800-4-MY-XBOX?) suck so much. Next time, do your research. Hell, it's easy enough to get UPnP working flawlessly on a linux server acting as a router. I've been doing it for over two years now (obviously with my original Xbox, since the 360's only been out for just over a year). While I'm running wired now, when I wrote that entry I was using wireless. In fact, I've never had a problem with my Xbox or Xbox 360 recognizing my wireless AP. The only problem I've ever had was with NAT, and that was completely solved with the UPnP daemon.

Until the whole world moves to IPv6, you're going to run into issues like this more and more often. You can take the Nintendo approach and force users to forward ports by hand (seriously, that's what you have to do with the Wii -- it's a good thing there are no multiplayer online games yet), or you can use technology that was designed to solve this problem (among others, of course) -- UPnP.

Quite simply, this is why the Wii will come on top. There is no way you can do that with an XBox 360 or a PS3.

True enough, but there are other ways to suck them in.

Quite simply, this is why the Wii will come on top. There is no way you can do that with an XBox 360 or a PS3.

True enough, but there are other ways to suck them in.

Quite simply, this is why the Wii will come on top. There is no way you can do that with an XBox 360 or a PS3.

True enough, but there are other ways to suck them in.

Quite simply, this is why the Wii will come on top. There is no way you can do that with an XBox 360 or a PS3.

True enough, but there are other ways to suck them in.

Quite simply, this is why the Wii will come on top. There is no way you can do that with an XBox 360 or a PS3.

True enough, but there are other ways to suck them in.

Quite simply, this is why the Wii will come on top. There is no way you can do that with an XBox 360 or a PS3.

True enough, but there are other ways to suck them in.

Or even better, have companies create games to help advertise their companies, and release them cheap.

Ever heard of Sneak King?

A lot of the responses to my post seem to be saying that shovelware is getting the nod over fan-favorites because they were easy to emulate or some such nonsense. That *may* be the case, but that's not why gamers were pissed.

They were pissed because Microsoft is on record as saying that they prioritize games based on how they've sold. So regardless of how easy it was to develop the emulator, the suggestion is indeed that shovelware that sells well makes the cut, obscure classics are ignored. Call it bad PR if you want, anyone who takes gaming seriously as a hobby can tell you: this is remarkably short-sighted.

Five years from now, is anyone going to say "Hey, let's play some Monster Garage on the 360"? Even though it was a popular television show, and probably sold like hotcakes despite being a sub-par game, probably not.

But five years from now, I promise that there will be people who want to return to low-selling classics like Phantom Dust and Panzer Dragoon Orta.

AFAIK, XInput has the ridiculous requirement of needing the 360 PC Controller to function at all. That may have changed since I first looked into it at it's release (times change after all...) but if it hasn't, it's really nowhere near a good replacement for DirectInput.

XInput works with keyboards and mice as well (for example, see the Spacewars demo game that's included with XNA Game Studio Express for keyboard support). As for joysticks/gamepads/other controllers, that's up to the developers. They should be able to write their own XInput drivers. Xbox 360 controllers already have a driver available that should work with the Xbox 360 wired controller (also called the Xbox 360 PC controller, exact same product with different packaging), any third-party wired 360 controllers (I haven't tested this, mostly because 99% of third-party controllers suck), and now also the 360 wireless controllers with the Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver (good luck finding one in stores, as they're currently relatively rare).

close but no cigar. I know you want to drive your anti-Xbox point home, but at least get your facts straight. It's around $50 US for the annual gold membership. I pay that price because it keeps (most of) the cheaters out and my experience that much better.

It's pretty disingenuous of you to not mention that you're referring to the Core configuration, which has no wireless capability or hard drive.

If you buy a Core system for $300 and actually want to save your game or have XBox 1 compatibility, that's an additional $100 for the hard drive add-on, putting you up to $400 (Microsoft really wants you to get a hard drive). Along with a game, that's $450, and at that high of a price, you may as well just shell out for the Premium configuration at a whopping $400, which is $450 if you include a game.

And after all that, you still have to pay Microsoft money every month just to be able to play online. Microsoft currently has no plans to make Xbox Live free, while Sony and Nintendo will offer it totally free.

Of the three consoles, I actually consider the Xbox 360 the most overpriced. Nintendo can justify their price with the built-in WiFi, 512MB flash storage, and remote control, while Sony can cite Blu-Ray and the Cell in contributing to the cost of the PS3. I really think the 360 will be in trouble in the next two years when Sony sorts out its supply issues and everyone else picks up the Wii as a cheap primary or secondary console.

It's pretty disingenuous of you to not mention that you're referring to the Core configuration, which has no wireless capability or hard drive.

If you buy a Core system for $300 and actually want to save your game or have XBox 1 compatibility, that's an additional $100 for the hard drive add-on, putting you up to $400 (Microsoft really wants you to get a hard drive). Along with a game, that's $450, and at that high of a price, you may as well just shell out for the Premium configuration at a whopping $400, which is $450 if you include a game.

And after all that, you still have to pay Microsoft money every month just to be able to play online. Microsoft currently has no plans to make Xbox Live free, while Sony and Nintendo will offer it totally free.

Of the three consoles, I actually consider the Xbox 360 the most overpriced. Nintendo can justify their price with the built-in WiFi, 512MB flash storage, and remote control, while Sony can cite Blu-Ray and the Cell in contributing to the cost of the PS3. I really think the 360 will be in trouble in the next two years when Sony sorts out its supply issues and everyone else picks up the Wii as a cheap primary or secondary console.

How many ways are there to say it? Sony is stupid.

You would think it would learn from its mistakes. It tried to push out its proprietary format with Betamax, and it failed miserably. (I know, I know, "superior format" and all that, but it doesn't change the fact that VHS won the battle of the formats in consumers' living rooms.) It tried to push out its proprietary format with the MiniDisc, and it failed miserably. It tried to push out its proprietary format with UMD, and it failed miserably. Now, it is trying to push out its proprietary format with Blu-ray.

How many miserable failures is it going to take for Sony to realize something that, at least to me, is pretty freakin' obvious and stupidly simple: people do not want to get locked into proprietary formats controlled by one company. The thing that's so maddening is that when Sony does embrace non-proprietary formats, they have wild success. Their Walkman products sold like there was no tomorrow. Their CD and DVD consumer electronics have always been well-respected.

It's more than a little ironic, I think, that while Sony is trying desperately to convince people that they should be buying a PS3 for the Blu-ray drive, in fact, people are avoiding the PS3 specifically because of the Blu-ray drive! I mean, I don't know many people who actively don't want a Blu-ray drive, but it is definitely, at least indirectly, responsible for their woes:

• The Blu-ray drive is heinously expensive. People don't want to pay over $500 for a gaming console, even if they can also watch a few movies on it. If they had sold it without the Blu-ray drive, it would be much more competitive with the Xbox 360 and the Wii.
• The Blu-ray drive is hard to manufacture, which is causing Sony's dismal supply. If they had sold it without the Blu-ray drive, they could have made a lot more of them, and average little Timmys all over the world could have one under their Christmas tree instead of only the little Johnnys who happen to have parents that are very, very rich.
• There wouldn't be a so-called "format war" which has turned into, basically, Sony vs. the rest of the world. Getting people to switch from standard DVDs to high-definition DVDs is already going to be a daunting task, since there's not that much addition of quality and people are generally happy with DVDs. Still, I think it could have been pulled off if all manufacturers, publishers, and marketing companies were on board with a common format. As it is, though, people aren't going to invest in a new library of movies as long as there's any question over whether they'll have to throw it away. No one wants to end up being the only person on their block with a Betamax player. And their squabbling in this delicate time when they should be pushing a new common format will allow alternate media delivery mechanism creep up and make both formats obsolete. (Online delivery of HD content, anyone?)

I could go on listing items, but you get my point. Everyone that said and signed on with, "I have an idea, let's use the PS3 as a launching platform for Blu-ray!" should be fired, because they just don't get it. People will buy a game console that happens to also play movies, but they're not going to be force-fed a whole new movie format just to own it. And I may end up eating crow for saying it if history proves me wrong, but I think that when all is said and done, people are really going to resent Sony imposing such a high premium on their gaming for something that has nothing to do with gaming. I really think that five or ten years from now, people are going to look at Sony's die-hard pushing of Blu-ray at the expense of its consoles as the thing that killed its dominance in the gaming console market.

It's too bad, too. Nintendo, while clever, just isn't set up to own the hardcore gamer market. And while I'm not big fan of Sony, I'm certainly not a big fan of Microsoft, either. Still, it looks like Sony is bound and determined to hand Microsoft the console victory crown on a silver platter with this foolishness.

http://www.xbox.com/NR/rdonlyres/2CC82B8F-4600-49B 8-B2EF-1495EF289014/0/vidhalo3tvadhi.asx

Streaming media straight from the source. Don't know or really care if it's in HD.

Nis

If you look at the Xbox 360 Component HD AV Cable", you can see they have a special connector at the xbox end of things, it outputs both audio and video.

Wouldn't it be possible for them to make a new cable that has a HDMI or DVI connector on the other end? I would guess that port outputs digital and it's converted in the cable to whatever formats they need. For example the above cable's has a toslink plug for digital audio - it plugs right into the cable's connector, not the xbox.

The other thing that makes me think this is possible is that Todd Holmdahl said in an older interview, that "We're poised to hit the sweet spot of the HD market at launch and as the market matures, and we will provide an HDMI for our customers when it makes sense.".

The PS3 does not even have all advantages than you mention.

Final fantasy is out for the Xbox360 and there is an HD-DVD player out for the 360 as well. According to this link, HD-DVD has more titles, higher sales, and better titles than Blu-Ray titles but its still too early to tell which of the two formats, if either, will dominate.

There's already another, Football Manager 2006 requires it as well, although it's a bit more obscure as the Xbox 360 version is only available as a PAL version.

On a randon tangent, I think the European Final Fantasy XI box only says it's 60Hz Only, not that the HDD is required, although it was the first game I noticed with a 60Hz only icon that matches the HDD required one.

Remember, SUN makes money on hardware.
Novell and Microsoft do not.

or has it?
Blu-Ray can hold much more data.
They'll release the 50 gb dual layer.

Sure HD-DVD has more backwards compatibility but consider the metaphor that knowledge of history books doesn't guarantee winning a war: intelligent quality does.

I read on xbox's website http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/xbox360/whyhddv d.htm
that the only unique reason Microsoft chose HD-DVD was its greater durability. But Microsoft is undermining that durability is a trivial consideration and that Blu-Ray disks are going to hold up on par with HD-DVD in taking the common scuffs.

Sony has got to think THIS is good timing. ;-) Can't hurt but then again, the press seems to be missing this.

http://forums.xbox.com/7765866/ShowPost.aspx

And if this REALLY is only less than 1% of users, man alot of those "less than 1%" got online to report this. Notice how many pages/posts in such a short time. Maybe all of the "less than 1%" are active members of this particular forum. Right, "less than 1%".

LoB

hey, they can't keep it from happening by 'mistake' to their own products, I'm sure they'd find a way to make this kind of thing happen in a 'partners' Linux product.

This is actually kinda funny considering Sony is about to release the PS3. And it couldn't have happened to a more deserving company.

http://forums.xbox.com/1/7864073/ShowPost.aspx#786 4073

Actually, after browsing around their website, apparently they put the "do! do! do!" in English. The whole part listed on that page is "do! do! do! shiyou ze!", the last part being roughly translated as "let's do together!", with the "ze" particle emphasizing masculinity. They probably should have at least used "yarou ze!", since yaru, a more active "do" in Japanese, is the verb usually used for "play" as in "play video games".

Although, the latter point is pretty easy to explain away with Sony's much forgotten development platform for homebrew games, the Net Yaroze.

Little bit of Japanese perspective I guess. ^_^

There are 116 games showing on Xbox.com, I guess some of those could be unreleased, but I wouldn't have thought 50 of them where pending release. I wonder if gamerankings.com only list the ones they have reviewed?