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SCEA President Hypes PS3 Shelf Life Over 360
kukyfrope writes "Sony Computer Entertainment America President Kaz Hirai recently talked to San Jose Mercury News about their upcoming console. His argument is that, by waiting to deliver Blu-Ray and performance hardware, even at a high price, the PS3 will be in greater standing than the Xbox 360 in the long run. Hirai also takes a cop-out on the amount of hype surrounding the PS3 hardware performance saying, 'It's all about the games. We all know that [...] This is a console that is here for the long haul and is not on a five-year cycle. Microsoft is coming out with an HD-DVD accessory for HD movies as an add-on only a year after they launched: that is exactly the kind of thing we don't want to do.'"
When Microsoft or Nintendo release a new console, Sony will have to anyway. People will move to the newer consoles because they'll have the impression that Sony isn't going with the times. Consoles nowadays seem to be released in cycles (i.e. N64, PS1, Saturn then Dreamcast, Gamecube, Xbox and PS2), and Sony will have to keep up with this regardless or risk losing fans.
If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards... Checkmate.
What do you mean "Sony Hypes shelf life"? In the article he claims that based on Sony's 10+ year market history, they can predict what will happen again. I don't see how this is "hype" at all. Hype gets me excited about whats coming by making big promises or revealing cool stuff. All this is is market forcast.
And over there we have the labyrinth guards. One always lies, one always tells the truth, and one stabs people who ask t
Then I can sit in a corner and play with my Wii for a year or two, waiting for the PS3 price to go down and library to build up, then that awesome shelf life means that I'll still be able to get lots of use out of it.
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Microsoft is coming out with an HD-DVD accessory for HD movies as an add-on only a year after they launched: that is exactly the kind of thing we don't want to do.
Makes sense to me. It didn't work particularly well for Sega with the SegaCD and the 32X. Add-ons for consoles just generally don't go over too well.
Chicken fried butter sticks? Do
It is possible for MS to start shipping 360s with HD-DVD (or Blu-Ray if they wanted to) built in if that's what the market decides is necessary, you know. Of course, they wouldn't be able to put games on the new format unless they wanted to say "screw you" to the previous 360 owners
Not really, especially if you can upgrade current Xbox360's with the HD-DVD drive to play those games. I don't suggest MS do it this year or 2007, but even if you had to buy the HD-DVD attachment at $200 2-3 years from now to play certain games, (most likely less by 2008-9. Prices on HD-DVD drives should be below $100 by then unless the unlikely event that the format goes under) It's still alot better than having to pay for the HD drive up front at it's inital release value. This is especially true when it's a good bet that no game within the next 2 years will use that extra Bluray space for anything other than "HI Def FMV". So even if an XBOX360HD hits the shelves with the HD-DVD drive built in sometime in 2008, as long as there's a reasonably priced upgrade path for the original 360, it shouldn't be a big problem.
This is another example of why I like the idea of user Replacable optical drives in consoles. In the last generation, the Optical drives were the weakest link in the consoles. Having a user replacable one would solve this problem outright. If your DVD-ROM dies in your PS3 or 360, replace it either under warranty by just removing and sending the drive, or get a new one at gamestop for $100 or less. It sure beats buying an entire console every year or so, especially if your a heavy console gamer like most of my friends are.
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Yeah, Sony is thinking about four or five years from now... but they're not thinking about games. You missed the boat, son. If space for game content was the purpose, they could have dropped blu-ray and gone with HD-DVD, which would have made it at least a hundred bucks cheaper. However, the PS3 is about pushing Blu-Ray. They saw all the people who bought the PS2 over competitors because it could play DVDs and thought they would accomplish the same thing here, but as we have covered previously (and frequently argued about) the situation with HD video is ENTIRELY different from the VHS to DVD shift.
Most games for PS3, even if they are on Blu-Ray, will not use more than a DVD's worth of content. The other ones could be saving space by using a more advanced video codec for cutscenes, taking advantage of the PS3's vast processing power. Finally, using multiple DVDs is still cheaper than using a single Blu-Ray, and will be for QUITE some time given the current cost of Blu-Ray, and the very very low yields.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Hello again.
People like to think that Microsoft will not deliver games on HD-DVD, because it would anger current owners.
Microsoft have repeatedly confirmed that they will not ship games on HD-DVD.
No-one wants multi-disc games, publishers as well as gamers, but they simply won't be necessary, even on DVD, for the vast majority of games.
What takes up the most space on a disc? Not gameplay code, or even textures. It's cut-scene video - and there's many ways of reducing that. Faster, multicore CPUs can use better compression algorithms (lower bitrates or resolutions are also possible, in a pinch). Game-rendered cutscenes take a fraction the space, are already popular, and getting more practical all the time. Even HD textures aren't a big deal - they can be compressed on disc with better algorithms too, and similarly, procedural (or procedurally-modified) textures are fast, popular and ever more practical with today's GPUs.
In the PS2's day, MPEG2 cutscenes were all the rage (and early PS2s couldn't even read dual-layer discs), but we've moved beyond that now. When faced with long cutscenes, a PS3 developer may have the space to be lazy, but a 360 developer has the devkit tools to be efficient.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?