Slashdot Mirror
The 360 - Online, Japan, HD-DVD
Lots of tidbits about Microsoft's next-gen console floating around this week. On Monday, the company revealed that almost 60% of 360 owners are now using Xbox Live. GameDaily discusses what is making their setup so dang popular. Major Nelson's Sunday podcast included a lot of details on the 360's approach to HD-DVD. HD Beat has the rundown on what was said, including the inevitable Sony smack-talk. Finally, Gamasutra has a feature on the 360's position in Japan. A group of analysts debate whether or not the system even needs Japan in order to be a success. From this last article: "I don't think that American gamers are enamored [with] Japanese product because it comes from Japan; rather, I think Americans like good games, regardless of the country of origin. Microsoft doesn't need Japanese development to succeed in the U.S.; it needs good games, period."
Yeah americans do like good games as opposed to games from a particular country. But you'd be foolish to think that a game developer familiarity with their countrymen's likes and dislikes doesn't help sell games in that country. US games developers are generally more in tune to the US game market, and Japanese Game developers are generally more in tune with the Japanese game market. Microsoft might not need Japanese developers to sell more consoles in the US but it's pretty clear that they'll need them to sell more consoles in... Japan.
Collector's Edition
I am totally with the "good games". Now, I don't games as much as I used to, mostly because of the lack of time I have in my life now. But the little time I do have, I find myself trying to decide which game sucks the least. I'm not going to get into details about liking game X or thinking its better than Y. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I'm finding quite a few games that are hardly entertaining anymore. On the other hand, I've been playing the crap out of my NES/SNES rom stash. I think its time for a GPX2.
Can all fish swim?
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
I agree... doesn't *everyone* have Silver by default? This just means that 60% of 360 owners have it hooked up to the internet, right? I wouldn't mind knowing how many are putting down money for it. Either way, Gold is a good bargain if you want to play online. MS just needs more Co-op / MP games worth the $5/month.
Perhaps, the 360 and PC get more posts because they actually exist in the hands of consumers. I'm sure the upcoming console from (insert favorite console mfg. here) will get more play when people actually are actually holding one in their disfigured-from-years-of-controler-gameplay hands.
On an unrelated note, what in (deity of choice)'s name is a FUD?
My rantings, only longer and with better spelling..
On each one of these stories that is not really a story, apply the "zonked" tag (click on the little triangle next to tags). At the end of the year we can all search for "zonked" stories and have a good laugh.
On this story, my main beef would be the HD-DVD link doesn't really talk about the 360 HD-DVD support at all, it's just general information about the HD-DVD format.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Why ask American analysts about the Xbox in Japan when you could ask some actual Japanese people? They have games journalists over there, how about getting their opinions?
I quit!
I picked up a xbox360 shortly after launch, of which I was excited about the aspects of XBox Live. I signed up for the free 30 day trial, which converted into a full account after the 30 days if it's not canceled.
I plugged in my credit card and my xbox live gold account was activated. About 2 months later I started getting errors on my login when I would turn on my xbox360. I remembered my wife having lost her debit card, the bank re-issued new cards to us and that the information on the card was changed and I need to go back and re-activate my account with my new card. I tried through the xbox360 interface and kept getting an error message, but I was told by a friend that I would probably need to just do it from online.
So I went to xbox-live and signed in, and added in my new credit card and immediately (without asking), I was charged $15 for 2 months of service that was missed (Fair enough), my balance was $0 though and I still couldn't login to my xbox-live account. If I used a service, I don't have a problem paying for it. This wasn't Microsoft's fault my debit card was reported stolen.
It took a lot of searching, but eventually I found the 800 number and called customer service. I was promptly in touch with a live person after a few menu choices, with almost no wait. Now at this point, I was starting to get a little annoyed as the whole thing seemed like a strange run-around for what I would perceive as a common problem. The person on the phone immediately told me that my account was cancelled due to non-payment, and even after explaining the situation he told me that though my account is in good standing that they where not able to re-activate my account and if I wanted to have an xbox-live account I would need to create a brand new account. I had started to get frustrated at the situation and articulated to the customer service rep how I felt about the policy of perma-locking an account after a default on payment. Despite the non-malitious nature of the situation, I was shocked that they would refuse to re-activate the account. The person on the phone kept repeating "Sir, you have to see this from Microsofts point of view.. you missed 2 paymenhts", which only upset me more.
This was INCREDIBLY frustrating as anyone who has a xbox-live account would understand that there is a potentially large time investment and how frustrating this situation would be. I have many friends that have my old xbox live account added, all my 'accomplishments and gamerpoints' (the way xbox tracks your success as a gamer) would be gone. It would be similar to having a World of Warcraft account that after a lapsed payment is locked or deleted, never letting you back in unless you bought a new account and gave up all your progress in the game.
After this experience, I refuse to pay for xbox-gold membership (Silver is free, and this would of never happened had I started with a silver membership). And I would STRONGLY warn anyone who is considering either upgrading to a gold account, or buying a new xbox 360 and getting a new xbox live account to consider that it's very possible and likely that you will have your account locked and be forced to start over with a new xbox membership.
BUYER BEWARE
From TFA:
"I don't think that this is [Microsoft's] fault. They have tried as hard as they can to succeed, but cultural bias has precluded success."
Now, I'm not saying that it's easy to make a name for yourself in the Japanese market. However, it's hardly impossible. One need only look at the success of Disney and the iPod in Japan to see that foreign companies can do well. It takes more than "trying hard", it takes trying right. If a brick wall only 3 feet across were laid in Microsoft's path, they'd bang their head into it until it crumbled rather than walk around it like sanity dictates. Microsoft may have touched on things they need to do to capture the hearts of Japanese gamers, but they certainly haven't shown they understand well what they should be doing.
The unfortunate truth these analysts dance around is the long term problems Microsoft faces if they can't make inroads into Japan. If Nintendo and Sony are allowed to repeatedly capture the Japanese market with no contest but each other, they will both have an unchallenged supply of resources to combat Microsoft with on American and European soil. If Microsoft can only fight on the defensive their only hope is for the Japanese market to dry up, leaving Nintendo and Sony without their reserves. Unfortunately for Microsoft, Nintendo has done a decent job of revitalizing the Japanese market. With both Sony and Nintendo having records of previous US market dominance, Microsoft NEEDS to be able to take a significant portion of Japanese marketshare or they will eventually lose by attrition.
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
What the hell are you talking about?
Where to go to apply a tag to a story - other people seem to have figured it out OK.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley