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The Shadow of Kong
The BBC is reporting that the makers of the Kong game recommend against purchasing the 360 version of that title. The article states that an Ubisoft rep, Yves Guillemot, stated that the 360 version is just too dark to play well on a non-HD screen. However, Voodoo Extreme got in touch with Ubi for the official party line, and they had something very different to say. From the article: "Ubisoft is actively investigating isolated reports of resolution issues on specific plasma screens, which should be easily resolved by adjusting/increasing the settings. Ubisoft believes that King Kong offers one of the best gaming experiences available on the Xbox 360 and encourages gamers to check it out for themselves."
Ah well, it is a good laugh.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Yves Guillemot is not just a "Ubisoft rep.", he's the CEO (being one of the Guillemot brothers, who founded Guillemot - videogames - and Hercules - hardware).
As long as you can still see the barrels Kong throws at you, I don't see the problem.
Oh, never mind, since I missed checking the Post Anonymously button.
;)
Mod me down as flamebait -- unless you think it is insightful..
This is a sig. Deal with it.
In addition, these consoles are marketed worldwide. The only country with a remotely significant HDTV acceptance ratio is the US, and even here it hasn't caught on as quickly as many have expected. The "HD era" is little more than a buzzword in Japan and Europe.
You're arguing that people are going to shun hidef technology -- that it won't catch on. It isn't happening.
People want that fancy HDTV -- they're just waiting for the price to drop or are waiting for their current set to "expire" before replacing it. All HDTV's don't cost > $1000 either.
25% of the TV's sold in the US were hidef in 2004. Estimates for 2005 are roughly 50% of the TVs sold. And it is looking like sales of hidef TV's will reach critical mass in 2006.
I can't see what universe someone can argue that HDTV is just a "fad" that is going to go away.
There are roughly 100 million households in the US. Using your 2004 penetration estimate of 10%, that means 10 million households have hdtvs. Nearly 25 million tv's are sold in this country every year. If we assume 50% of the hidef TVs sold make it into "new" households, penetration during 2005 will reach 16%. By the end of 2006 we're looking at 25%. By the end of 2007, penetration should be at around 36%.
One in every 3 customers will have a hidef tv in their house when the Revolution sees it's first Christmas in the states. And this is completely ignoring the demongraphic data (which would suggest that the consumers being targeted are more likely to have a hidef set than not).
I can't see how anyone can argue that it is an advantage to be selling a new console that doesn't support hidef when 1 in 3 possible customers could take advantage of it -- especially when your competition supports it.
25% of the TV's sold in the US were hidef in 2004. Estimates for 2005 are roughly 50% of the TVs sold. And it is looking like sales of hidef TV's will reach critical mass in 2006.
Percent of sales of TVs means nothing, because people do not buy a new TV every year. Hell, most peopole buy a big TV maybe once every 15 years.
Every single person who came of age in the 90s and spent $500 or more on a 32+ inch TV is *not* going to rush out and replace it with an HDTV until absoltely necessary. Why? Theres a multitude of reasons. First of all, they're 40-some years old now with kids to feed, and don't have thousands of dollars of disposable income to drop on a luxury item. Second, they dont give a shit, to them their current TV is just fine.
Main point - the percent of TV sales in any given year is an infentessimal amount compared to the number of TVs in current use. Hell, I have two 14 inch TVs in my house from 1982-1984 with cable boxes, one on the porch and one downstairs. Why should I have go out and blow $800 bucks on two HDTV-compat. models of simmilar size? You think twice the res makes a huge difference on a 13" screen? You think I can fit a TV any larger on my porch? Think again.
One in every 3 customers will have a hidef tv in their house
I would like to know what this statistic is based on - but even if it is true, it still means that 66% of households will *not* have an HDTV. You think any government will piss off 66% of its voting base to push some technology they are not ready for down their throats? It would be political suicide.
And one more point - all those people in that 66 percent,the ones who wont have HDTVs when the Revolution comes out? All the ones with kids to feed, middle class, etc? Thats the Revolution's target market - cheaper console, lots of kids. Nintendo has never marketed to the 16-24 year old market like the Xbox, they target the 6-18 year old market. You still think it's such a bad move?
This is Ubisoft. When they realize something is too dark that means you're in deep shit. Even "bright" games like Beyond Good & Evil and Rayman 2 are unplayable without turning up the brightness a lot, their definition of "dark" must be close to Doom 3.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.