Slashdot Mirror
An Xbox 360 Peripheral Rundown
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has been talked about its future plans at GameFest in Seattle, and revealed that its Xbox 360 Live Vision camera will ship next month with a free game, TotemBall, which uses gestural technology to control an on-screen avatar, much like Sony's EyeToy games. In addition, the camera will also be used for facemapping technology in Activision's World Series Of Poker game." Gamespot is reporting on other, equally interesting peripherals for the Xbox 360, many of which have come up in recent rumormongering. They discuss the price point for the HD-DVD drive (probably about $200), support for 1080p (likely), a new media jukebox for the console (quite possible), and the likelihood that Microsoft will release a new controller designed specifically for FPSes (would make sense).
I hate to knitpick, but how can the included game be "free" if you have to buy the camera to use it?
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
Can someone release some more ps3 pictures (Just color some up with ms paint or something), so these guys can go back to wacking off to their pictures while we play some games and get on with it?
The only console peripherals/accessories I remember taking off at all were the rumble pack and memory expansion for the N64. Everything else was either bundled with a certain game (and generally only used with that specific game) or was sold with the intent of being useful in lots of games, but never really was any good with any game. Hell, even the lightguns were only useful for a few games, and usually didn't work quite right.
Accessories are rarely ever successful because game developers rarely ever want to take the risk to require that their game use a certain accessory, unless that accessory has already become widely popular. The ones they do take a risk with often only add some minor improvement or novelty to the game; the game would otherwise be no different if the user did not have the accessory.
Everything I say is a lie. Except that... and that... and that, and that, and that, and that... and that.
In addition, the camera will also be used for facemapping technology in Activision's World Series Of Poker game.
It's really too bad, because this sounds like an excellent use of technology and will make for a great poker game. Too bad no one will play it, because there is almost guarenteed no realmoney involved.
If Activision wanted to make a mint off this, they would allow you to deposit real money into an account associated with your Live account, so you could play in tournaments online for real cash. This would put them into the same space as Party Poker etc, except the Activision software would be way more advanced and would draw in more players probably.
Of course, they would never do this since it would be illegal in the US. Maybe a European only version of the game?
They claim the support for 1080p is "likley" with a special cable - but then say there is no HDMI in sight.
1080P does not require a special cable, it could use the existing component output of the 360. If the 360 could support 1080p, why would it not have done so before now? If 1080p is to be supported at all, it would seem to be soley by the HD-DVD drive althoguh there they run into the problem that the AACS standard used by both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD mandates no video signal greater than 1080i for analog output of signals - possibly they may drop that aspect of the standard though just as ICT has dropped out of sight from titles put out by movie publishers.
Even at $200, it still seems to me that uptake of the external HD-DVD drives would be low unless some games (or at least game content) makes use of the drive.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Hey! There are tons of homebrew games that people are just dying to play on their new systems!
Like... emulators!
and Tetris clones!
and, um... emulators that let you play Tetris clones!
For more information, click here.