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Xbox Live Goes Online
abhikhurana writes "
Internetnews is reporting that Microsoft has launched Xbox Live
broadband gaming service. To access Microsoft's service, Xbox gamers
have to buy a $49.99 starter kit, which includes 12 month's worth of
access to the Xbox Live service and a headset kit for voice
communications. Microsoft said that about 16 games with online play
capabilities will be available by the end of the year.
So has anyone already tried it? If so, what do you think about it?"
Microsoft appears to have been keeping the Xbox afloat for some time now despite a less than stellar performance. Does anyone else think that Xbox Live is what they're betting the farm on?
As with all good ideas involving technology they hardly reach outside of the US, Japan or europe.
In Australia the X-Box is doing okay, still lagging behind the PS2 though. Such a service may never reach our shores, it's a shame because there would be a market here for it.
I guess it would depend if the market was big enough for Microsoft.
Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
I have been playing since the beta and I have found that the service is really good and fun. Moto Gp is a fun game on Live, but MechAssault is a whole different world of fun. XBL runs pretty nicely because of all the broadband users. A much better experience that some online gaming on the PC.
$49.99 fee -$5.00 estimated headset value =$44.99 or ~$3.75/month
Who would pay to play online with games that would either:
1) An action/sports game that would lag so bad as to be unplayable.
2) Be a RTS game with too low of a resolution on a TV to be playable (Warcraft III, Empire Earth, etc)
3) Be a FPS played with a GAMEPAD, instead of a keyboard and mouse.
For about $500, comparable to what you'd spend on an Xbox, you can put together a PC that can do far more, plus play online games that are far more fun than anything on the Xbox.
The Xbox is really just a kid's system, as well as a system for those who are not computer literate. Internet functionality on a console system is just a cheap hack, not a viable basis for an industry.
To be quite honest, nothing earth shattering here.
You're right, and that's going to be an even bigger problem in Europe & Japan for them. Why?
Let's have a look at the games:
MechAssault
Unreal Championship
Yeah, they'll do allright.
NFL 2K3
NBA 2K3
NFL Fever 2003
Eh? wha? No chance of selling anywhere outside the US.
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
Whacked!
GR will do nice , as most players will have played cs....Whacked, I have no idea about actually.
Moderation: +4. Modded 70% Funny and 30% Overrated. 100% Saturated.
xbox has an ethernet port in the back of it. if you can feed it a net connection, then you're on.
$44.99 or ~$3.75/month
The median American family with Internet access has dial-up at $20/mo. Xbox Live requires cable or DSL at $40/mo. To that $4/mo month we must add the estimated $20/mo for an upgrade from dial-up to (e.g.) MSN broadband. So if the median American family with Internet access buys Xbox Live for the kids, it'll cost $24/mo or $288/year.
I don't know about you, but the fact that Xbox Live doesn't work with dial-up prevents me from considering buying it.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I mean... is it because it's Microsoft? Take a minute with me and let's imagine something.
Imagine if a company called Penguin Soft created a console that is very similar to what Xbox is. The console is entirely based on Linux. Exact same specs like the Xbox but run Linux instead. Would you still hate it? I don't think so... you would be praising it as the best invention ever! A huge Linux success!
Xbox is very cool... regardless of the fact that Microsoft made it. And I KNOW if it was a linux based console, you'd all love it in an instant.
Very sad... if only people were fair and mature...
Frankly, I'm somewhat glad that MS has forced broadband in this product. There's nothing worse than paying the $40 a month for broadband, mostly for gaming, just to get on some awesome CS server where within minutes a bunch of losers with dialup come on and ruin the game for everyone.
By at least setting the bar to broadband they have excluded some gamers, but they will have improved performance for everyone left.
It works fine here in the UK on a Univerity dorm connection. If you are able to get out of your Uni network on port 3074 you should be okay. I tested it for a friend before the service went live using a little perl script listening on that port running on an off-campus machine.
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
Awesome! Now I can buy an Xbox, then buy Ghost Recon, then pay monthly for Microsofts online service which is the only place I can play it with other people!
Oh wait, I forgot. I already paid ONCE for this game which I can use on my computer with much faster hardware to play online with other people for FREE as much as I want.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
Patching isn't an option for Halo, purely because it doesn't have the hooks in the code to look for patches. So while they could easily write one, when you put the disc in the drive, it would not check the HDD for the patch and thus make the whole exercise useless.
Some people say that they should allow patches in some situations. I don't agree. Morrowind (US version) is buggy beyond a joke, but if they let them patch that then where do they draw the line. Similar to letting Bungie patch Halo. Can all developers then release a game and later add the Live! feature whenever they like?
c'mon guys, this is a console not a PC. We have been over this
--- The one with all my ramblings http://www.veebs.com
Um, identity verification so they can properly ban you should you start causing trouble?
Feel free to also throw around whatever privacy/conspiracy issues you may have... but really I imagine it's about being able to keep track of who their users are in some way. God knows they have enough experience with useless identity verification from Hotmail.
Absolutely this would be a real useful feature and could quickly gain strength. The problem for MS is that PS2 is much better positioned to take advantage of this if/ when it takes off.
It's the Network effect at play.
There are 30mu+ PS2's out there vs for 3.5Mu+- Xbox. Sony have sold more than 1Mu adapters for the PS2 in the last few month, and if they wanted they could team up with a company like IDT and be offering a "Longdistance telephony game" in a few months.
Help fight continental drift.
In reading your comment, something occurred to me.
The only live capable game I have at the moment is Mech Assault, which is a great game, but I was hoping for a couple more play modes, including Co-Op.
One of the most popular FPS shooters is still Half Life because of the Counterstrike mod. Gamers took a basic game and changed it completely to become the kind of game that they wanted. With an XBox, this isn't going to happen because Microsoft has to keep tight control over the game licensing. If they don't they can't make back all the money they lose on selling the boxes. Furthermore, to even begin writing games you have to buy their SDK which is very expensive for an amateur developer.
This was one of the promises of the Indrema game console that was making me really look forward to its release which will now never happen.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
I think it's great the PS2 and XBox now have their online gaming abilities. Each has their own advantages and disadvantages, and I think there's definitely room for both.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
Difference there which I see the typical /. AC cannot notice.
If you hack your X-Box you're knowingly [hopefully] trying to defy MSFT. Whether you should be allowed to [I think so] is not the issue here. The issue is whether MSFT should respect you as a user on the live service.
What I was trying to originally establish is if you hack your box then MSFT has every right to ban you from their service because I'm rather certain the TOS has something todo with that.
Why do you AC's think the world revolves around yourself? Sure you should be able to hack it, but no, the company shouldn't help you steal from them [because lets be honest the majority of people are not interested in putting Linux on a gaming station, you could for instance, but Linux on a normal desktop...]
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
I don't MEAN to be a bitch here... but if the shoe fits...
Anyway... exactly who made you arbiter of "what console gaming is supposed to be about"?
I'm not a supporter of M$ or the Xbox (although I have to honestly admit it is a nice console and some of the games are pretty damned good, but that's beside the point), but your statement is a bit presumptuous on your part. As with most activities, console gaming is what console gamers want or make it to be. There is no 'Big Book of Console Gaming' with a set of rules for what is and is not console gaming.
Having said that, FWIW I'm a Mac user and I prefer Gamecube. I say that in anticipation of some paranoid troll saying I'm some M$ stooge.
- I am made of meat.
his(or her) point wasn't that the thing sounded like walkie talkies. The point was that why would you want to interact with people who tell you:
u suxxors n00b.
or Ur mom sucks my c0ck and so on.
Now imagine actually speaking to these people.
You've heard of TCP/IP, I hope?
However, this ignorance of online culture is not the main reasion Live is going to fail. Live will fail because Microsoft have also chosen to ignore console culture. Ask any twelve year old what multiplay gaming on a console means to them and they will say having your mates around for a quick bash of tekken 4. People are not going to spend god awful amounts of money to get owned by poeple they have never met. People who play consoles are not the type of people who will go online to play video games, PERIOD (sega proved this with the dreamcast). At best you are looking at someone porting evercrack for the masses and Sony are already well ahead in that game. The fundamental mistake Microsoft have always made with the XBOX has been considering it to be just another computer. Someone need to tell them that they are as different as a skateboard is from a Automobile. Console people != PC People. PC culture (which they have chosen to ignore anyway) != Console Culture.
The final nail in the coffin of Live is the prior need of a broadband connection pretty much insuring you are marketing to people who have a computer already, why wont they simply play counterstrike.
XBOX LIVE is just a half arsed gimmick that aint going to safe the XBOX. What MS need to do is provide some innovation in games, not attempt to throw money at it or go around telling everyone that it represents a new paradigm shift for console services, but I guess, considering it cames from Microsoft, it was doomed from day one then. IMHO.
btw is it just me but aren't there too many XBOX stories on slashdot, I mean this horse looks to be pretty dead to me.
Pianist : Some jerk whos taught themselves how to type in rhythm