Slashdot Mirror
3 Million in Xbox 2 Sales At Christmas?
Forbes has a look at the upcoming release of the Xbox 2 console, from Goldman-Sachs. Speculation is put forth on the unit's cost as well as how it might do in sales. From the article: "The research firm, which rates Microsoft at 'outperform,' expects Xbox 2 to be available for retail sale in October or November at a retail price of about $249 to $299."
HDTV is not expensive anymore. My mom just got a 32" HDTV for about $500, which is about $100 more the the average standard def 32" TV. HDTV is not just for the rich anymore.
Last March, Forbes acknowledged the multimedia aspects of the PSP, but failed to recognize those aspects as significance, saying it did "little else" than play video games. Also, the article was dated April 8, 2005, a full 2 weeks in the future from when it was published.
Now, just because I don't think they know anything about video games other than historic sales figures and stocks, that doesn't mean they aren't reliable for business news. They're just a little sloppy in the games department.
In 2006, the US gov't will require all TV broacasters to use digital HD format. HDTV sales will be going through the roof next year, and this is the perfect time for MS to take advantage of that.
;)
As the parent mentioned, the 32" 16:9 is smaller vertically than the 4:3 32". I really wish companies would quit using the diagonal dimensions to make consumers just go "Wow! a 32" screen" even though it's the same size as a regular 25" vertically (just guessing). They need to just tell us the width by height instead. I'll probably end up trying to wait off a year or two with a cheap HDTV convertor until prices go a little further down though
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
The idea that a development kit for a console should be done like a PC game development kit was a radical idea upon X-box's entry upon the industry. It just wasn't done like that, and yes, Eastern culture's infuence had something to do with this fact. SDK's were made to accomodate the hardware, not the developer's. In the end, no matter how complicated a development kit is developers who are familliar with it and talented enough to use it as the tool for the proper task will create great work with it.
Of course, this also means that developer's who become too familir with it so as to produce work without having to put much effort into it may do this instead. So developer's kits are only a small piece of the picture.
The developer's themselves and liscencing strategies will make or break these systems. With this consoles this has largely been the case for forever. A new development process will not deter a good development house from creating good titles. A bad development process, however, may corner the entire industry into a pattern of handling certain features in games only one way. It isn't nesscarily bad for the company, but it would likely bad for the industry.
I just hope that there are development houses out there that will dedicate themsleves and take time making launch games so that they can learn the subtle differences in the systems. The games will take longer to make, which is a bad thing in the games industry, but the games will be better. I'm tired of seeing developers do easy things that get them a lot of oohs and ahs and credit for a little bit of nothing. Developers: make better games!!! Use your tools to the fullest.
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.