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Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player Just for Movies
The Gamerscore blog, an official Microsoft news organ, lays to rest the rumours that the HD-DVD drive might be required to play future 360 games. According to them the new HD drive is solely intended to play movies, and will not be used to accesss game content. From the article: "Since announcing the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player accessory at E3 2006, we've been clear that it is designed exclusively for playing HD DVD movies. It will not play games on HD DVD. At this point, we haven't seen anything to suggest that next-gen DVD formats offer a better game experience than current DVD. What we do know is that these formats will bring added cost to game developers, disc manufacturing, and could even result in added costs and longer load times for the consumer, which would negatively impact the game experience." This is, of course, not to say another peripheral or future version of the console might require such a thing.
The number of gigs worth of data in a game is slightly less important than gameplay, imho. With the new indy developer program, if it actually works like Microsoft says it will, I think this will be a MAJOR bonus for the Xbox 360.
s.clementmonkey@sympatico.ca, remove the 'monkey'.
So the HD-DVD drive for the XBox 360 (a game console) won't play games and Sony's Blu-Ray drive for PCs won't play Blu-Ray movies. What's the point again?
Remember RFC 873!
The artice is not exactly accurate. A better article can be found here.
Rgrds,
Roland
While they are still maintaining that no game content will be accessed on DVD, I have to think they have some plans for promoting the device that would involve gaming. One way to do that would be to have the actual game on a DVD but ship an extra HD-DVD with game extras (like making of videos and so forth) that would be in some kind of premium pack...
Otherwise I can't see how Microsoft can really promote the drive with just the limited selection of movies around at the moment.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
So, just put the content on 5 disks. Really, it doesn't matter. The company with the most games that people want will win.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
I remember in the playstation days there were quite a few popular titles that required switching disks (Final fantasy games, grand turismo, metal gear solid etc.) and I don't own a single game that uses multiple dual layer DVDs for actual gameplay. Maybe I just got lucky and didn't buy one but to me that is a sign that the format is not quite dead yet and we don't need to worry about HD-DVD game content.
MS brings up the point I keep pointing out: Next-gen consoles DON'T NEED next-gen media formats. DVD9 is fine.
Sony is still forcing the Blu-Ray format, although the only reason for it is for Sony to push it's agenda that Blu-Ray > HD-DVD. There's no need for Blu-Ray on the PS3. But it's still there. And you HAVE TO pay that premium price ($200 higher than the XBOX 360) even if you never want to watch a soon to be obsolete video format.
Thank you MS for not forcing HD-DVD on us.
Future ruler of a small Asian-Pacific island
Umm the Wii will be better than ps3 and xbox. screw this HD-dvd bluray crap. the ability to hold more information on a disc for the game does nothing for the game unless the creators add extra content to fill the space. Therfore why would u want ungodly load times on a huge cd? I would rather have a few dvd's with bangin load times. O yeah keep spending 79 dollars for a damn xbox game. or 700 dollars on a ps3. No friggin way
What stops Sony from doing the same. These will be the standard systems for the next 5-7 years. I think that right now it may be hard to fill a blue-ray disk with data for a game, but who knows what will happen in 2,3,5 years? I think leaving yourself the option to add more content cant hurt you. 9 gigs is alot, but imagine the incredible ammount of contect a game in 5 years could have. HD graphics(i assume) takes up lots of space. If you wantted to creat a huge world to explore, being limited by data cant be good. Ive already esen Xbox games hada are a full dual layer DVD, dont tell me you wont ever need more for a 360 game. And as someone else stated, swaping disks just gets annoying.
-EL
If history is an indicator, Sony will stop Sony from allowing consumers to develop homebrew games and apps.
It's not just "a shitty overpriced piece of hardware out of Redmond;" it's one that hasn't even been hacked to run Linux yet!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
In other news: water is wet, the sun is hot, Sony likes money
I think the point is that there are no plans to ship games on HDDVD, which makes perfect sense because only a small percentage of 360 users will have the drive.
Since the HDDVD drive itself is basically a transport and laser, and just sends the raw bytes to the 360 for processing, it seems like it would just take a software update of the 360 itself to enable HDDVD games, should the need arise in a year or three. There's no actual movie-specific logic or hardware in the HDDVD drive; no vc-1 decoder, no surround sound processing, nothing. The drive is just like a hard drive: the 360 tells it what sector to read, the drive reads it and provides the raw data with no interpretation.
So it's not that the drive has some physical limitation that means that it can't be used for games, it's just that there are no plans to update the 360 to run games from the drive.
-b
If I wanted a sig I would have filled in that stupid box.
Otherwise you end up with the Sega CD situation. You've fractured your customer base to those that can play games on a HD-DVD, and those that can not. If by some miracle 35% of all 360 owners buy the HD-DVD add on, just how many games do you think would be produced for it. In this day and age where game production decisions are made by accountants, ("another Madden Game, Sure!", "It's not done yet? Put it on the shelves, we need the cash.") just how many bean counters are going to approve a game that 65% of the potential customers can't buy.
Introducing Microsoft Vacuum 1.0 The first Microsoft product that doesn't suck.
"Otherwise I can't see how Microsoft can really promote the drive with just the limited selection of movies around at the moment."
Microsoft released this primarily to stop people from buying the PS3 because it was the only next-gen game machine capable of playing high definition movies.
Customers now have the choice of a 360, 360+HDDVD, or PS3+BR.
I guess huge games are kind of nice, but they are not cheap to develop. If you spend $100 million making a game, you are taking a huge risk as you'd need to sell 4 million copies to break even, and few games sell so well. It's far better to spend, say, $35 million per game and make three. That way you can take more creative risks and increase your chances of a surprise hit.
So there is a limit to how big a game can be, and we've basically reached it -- how many DVD games run to multiple disks? Sure, there might be a market for one or two games that could have a budget of $500 million and still make a profit, but those are so rare that it's not worth including an expensive drive just for them. Besides, I'll probably be bored with your $500 million, 400-hour masterpiece after a few weeks anyway. Give me a cool game like Advance Wars, made with care by hopelessly obsessive-compulsive Japanese minimax nerds, and I'll be playing it years later.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
"What stops Sony from doing the same."
Sony has a nice track record of not allowing homebrew. Look at the PSP.
I think leaving yourself the option to add more content cant hurt you.
I agree. But gameplay is what makes a game. The N64 had small cartridges while the PS1 had massive CDs. Sure, some developers left, but there were still great games like Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, Goldeneye 007, Perfect Dark, etc.
Also of note is that Microsoft isn't shoving next-gen formats down our throats when it's not necessary. Sony is making everything on Bluray when it could fit on a DVD (afaik). It's just wasteful. In any case, I don't think the PS3 is going to get very far, as a price tag of over ~$300 makes it unavailable for quite a number of people. Really, Microsoft is targetting the right market and seems to be doing things smartly this generation. It amazes me. Personally, I think what the Xbox 360 needs right now is a triple-A title, but other than that is in pretty good condition. The price for the 360 is OK because they're targetting an older audience which has more $$$.
Back on topic though, I don't think Microsoft should limit themselves from putting games on HD-DVD if it's really necessary. I just don't think it's a requirement to make great games.
Thanks, stevo3232
s.clementmonkey@sympatico.ca, remove the 'monkey'.
By the end of the PS1's life, it was clear that 1 CD didn't cut it. Games would frequently come on 2-4 CDs.
Now, at the end of the PS2's life, how many games come on multiple DVDs? I'll wait...
The answer is: none. There are no multi-DVD PS2 games. There's little to no danger of games spilling over the 8GB+ that a dual-layer DVD offers. In fact, more recent games are getting SMALLER as compression techniques improve.
There's no point in forcing people to use Blu-ray on the PS3, it simply isn't needed for games.
It's only needed to try and force people to use Sony's technology. Sony is essentially "bundling" Blu-ray to try and force it into the market using their present market dominance. Fortunately for the market, it looks like it's going to backfire on Sony.
I'd pay for a HD-DVD system if it meant games were longer, had more depth, and gave me much larger worlds to explore. For that matter, give the machines 2gb of RAM (RAM is cheap now) to cache up surrounding areas while you move. That way when you load a new area you have all or much of it in memory already.
Disc size is irrelevant to me unless I get more content. I want a game to last longer, and have more fun things to do. That's why 90% of my 360 playing time has been TES4: Oblivion (with time off to play Ninety Nine Nights for excitement's sake).
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
I don't think microsoft is doing everything they can to make games load faster. Sure, DVDs mean less data is loaded than HD-DVD, but then wouldn't it be better to put the games on CDs instead? And who needs more than 600 MB?
I have freaks! I did something right...
Actually, I've got one and I think that it will appeal to anyone on /. who is sick of upgrading and troubleshooting their PC to play the latest PC games. Granted, that may be a small number around here, and I personally love problem solving, but it takes time away from playing, and of course, posting on /.! I've got mine connected to my PC monitor and so far it is working pretty well, I just need to find a decent USB KVM switch so that I can use my PC keyboard, the Belkin I tried was way too flaky. For better or worse, the 360 is likely going to become the next home for PC games. Microsoft's development tools have made the path the 360 pretty compelling.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
"What stops Sony from doing the same."
The fact that they have no resources to support the homebrew community to the extent MS can. MS has the advantage of being a tools developer for a VERY fricking long while, with a huge amount of experience gained from Visual Studio and all its derivatives. Sony is not a tools provider. Not to mention MS has been running its own very large service networks (Hotmail, MSN, etc) for a long time and are in a better position to support a mass distribution system such as Live.
As for the HD DVD comment... We're at a era in gaming where developers are struggling with skyrocketing costs, and you're here telling them to produce MORE content? Every bit that sits on a disc has to be created by someone, and the larger your game, odds are the higher your costs. Filling a BR disc would take an IMMENSE amount of manpower that simply isn't economically feasible.
Like with the Yaroze for the PS1 and the Linux kit for the PS2, and the Linux distro pre-installed on the PS3's hard drive?
The PSP is an anomaly
Sony has a nice track record of allowing homebrew. Look at the PS1 and PS2.(and soon enough, the PS3)
Yes, I know the PSP doesn't and yes I think they should do some sort of "sandbox" effort for amateur/hobbyist development.
Actually, I've got one and I think that it will appeal to anyone on /. who is sick of upgrading and troubleshooting their PC to play the latest PC games. Granted, that may be a small number around here
I agree. I'm sick of having to buy or upgrade my PC every time a new game I'm interested in comes out.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
From what I read, it's an HD-DVD add-on. Thus, it obviously doesn't change what the original console can physically do.
Does this mean that at some point we can expect an xbox360 HDMI or DVI cable/output, that can support the HDCP content protection necessary to play back HD content protected movies?
Or maybe someone has seen some other pics of the hddvd and there's an HDMI socket tucked round the back ?
Maybe someone who knows more about electronics than me might have some idea whether such a cable could work, given the x360's existing hardware ?
Coz if the HD picture is only available via the HD component outputs (which can't support HDCP), then as a movie player it's of no use whatsoever I reckon...
I suppose if they find games requiring a larger capacity in the future, one way to deal with that would be to bundle either a HD-DVD upgrade coupon with the game, or game coupon with the drive.
You don't have to 'keep' upgrading your PC to play the latest games - any more than you have to 'keep' buying the latest console if you want to play the latest console games. I upgrade my PC about once every two years. I sell all the old stuff on Ebay, and I average about £100 a year max. on these upgrades.
£100 for a new graphics card, (every two years), sell the old one for £50. = £25 a year.
New motherboard: £80ish, sell the old one for £30ish= £25 a year.
New harddrive: £80 (not necessary for new games, I just managed to fill up the old one (don't we all), sell the old one for £30. £25 per year.
etc.etc.
It isn't that expensive at all.
If you're a dumbass who buys a ready built, top of the range PC for £1,000, and then wonders why it's only worth £400 on Ebay in two years' time, then admittedly it's a problem.
If you're able to upgrade your own PC (which is child's play nowadays, with the internet and all) then it's £100 a year.
We are reaching the stage when more powerful graphics cards aren't necessarily needed - you can only take in so much information on a moving image. I don't need to play Painkiller at 1600 x 1200 resolution (and my Radeon 9700 Pro probably isn't up to it), as 1024 x 768 is MORE than enough. As for all the other shite that the graphics card manufacturers keep coming up with (Shader Model 3, or whatever it's called) - nobody actually NOTICES this stuff when you're shooting the crap out of monsters!
Look at Doom 3 - the games almost pitch bloody black half the time, so you can't see anything! Who needs amazing graphics cards to show a 50% black screen?
People are buying shit they don't need. And Microsoft are determined to keep fucking us over with their dumbass 'Aero' interface - what a brilliant idea that was - NOT!
I was so unhappy with my PC loading up Windows quickly and not crashing - so Microsoft decided to make sure it continues to take a long time to load, and crashes, rather than make it load in five seconds, and never crash!
Silly sods...
And by the way - I can't stand console controllers. How can anybody play a FPS without a mouse and keyboard? They were almost tailor made for FPS games, and most other games. The lack of control is incredible when using a console controller.
Everybody keeps saying this but, I'm thinking that one cool use of all that extra space is to, maybe, include a lot of unlockable stuff. As an example, think of the next Final Fantasy. Imagine if they were to include any (or all) of the previous versions of FF (I-XII; maybe not FFII) on the disc and unlock them as you acomplish certain things in the game? The same can applied, I think, to any other game with sufficient history to have previous versions that are considered classics.
Just my $0.02...
"PROFANITY is the inevitable literary crutch of the inarticulate MOTHER FUCKER." -- some PC user
Sorry, that was supposed to read as maybe not FFXI .
"PROFANITY is the inevitable literary crutch of the inarticulate MOTHER FUCKER." -- some PC user
"HD graphics(i assume) takes up lots of space"
PC games have been putting out HD graphics for at least a decade. There is nothing inherent about High-definition graphics taking up lots of space. If you want to have lots of high-res *textures*, sure that eats up a chunk. Doubley-so for Full-motion-video.
But there is no real difference in information quantity between a triangle rendered at 640x780 and one at 1920x1080.
This is, of course, not to say another peripheral or future version of the console might require such a thing
My opinion, is that this perhipheral (should it survive the Blu-Ray battle) will be compatible with future consoles. It only makes sense. It gives added value to the drive (and people will still buy next-gen HD-DVD players, if only for tweak upgrades, so MS will likely still get good profits off the perhipheral despite age). But the point is, that this makes the drive that much more versatile in the future, than say the internal Blu-Ray drive of the PS3, because it's external.
I don't of course, have any "proof" of this or anything, but it sure would make a lot of smart business and media sense, looking forward to next-next gen wars. YMMV, and in full disclosure, I'm likely not getting a PS3, but I'm definitely not an Xbox fanboy. I'm just thinking in terms of better strategy, having an external drive makes it more valuable if the format survives through the next iteration of gaming consoles, especially, if, like the 360, the next Xbox console will process the data through the hardware, and not through the external device.
Is anything stopping people from putting their PS3 games on DVD if they don't need the space of the Blu Ray disk?
http://www.tudumo.com - todo list with tags
I dunno man. MS may be the new coming of Jesus or something, I mean I know they are an awesome company, but Sony has JAPAN. MS may be super-great programmers of wonderful OS "Windows" and they may make a million different proprietary languages for themselves, but we're talking about freaking VIDEO GAMES here. And Nintendo was making the argument that N64 didn't need a cd-rom, because who would ever possibly need that much data-space for a game? Well look how well that turned out...PS with like a million RPG's, and N64 with just few enough that you don't even have to take off your shoes and socks to count them all, you can do it all on your fingers!! Ya I was being sarcastic. Microsoft makes holy crappy OS and it really makes me mad that they are trying to leverage their influence into the video gaming world. Call me old fashioned, but video games and Japan sortof go hand in hand... MS and video games...not so much. I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't feel you give Sony enough credit as to their position or influence in the video game world, and you come across as super duper MS fanboy :)
It's clunky and plugs into the USB 2.0 port and needs it's own PSU. If that is how the HD DVD drive will work for XBox 360, I don't see what all the fuss is about. Games are never going to play off it and indeed no games maker would ever bother when the firmly ingrained default is the DVD format. It would have been far, far better to support HD DVD from the beginning. The XBox 360 is going to find itself hitting problems a few years down the road when games start demanding more capacity, or when the makers want to release a disc with multiple locales on it to save on production costs.
And don't forget YABASIC for the PS2.
And *you* come off as a super duper Sony fanboy ;)
I suggest you familiarize yourself with MS's less commonly known products. Microsoft isn't just Windows and Office, there's a lot in that company that would place the company in a better position to tackle gaming. I say that MS is better able to target homebrew because they've been doing that on the PC for a good long while, with MS Visual Studio Express. They know how to make good developer tools - I've been coding a good frickin' long while, and MSVC is still the best IDE I've used. Supporting homebrew is all about giving indies and average joes the tools to build games on your platform, and I simply don't see Sony being able to do that. They may be able to release specs and open a particular standard, but they don't have the ability to provide tools to the extent MS can.
Video games and Japan go hand in hand? Now you just sound like a hopeless Japanophile. Sorry buddy, but there are a lot more gamers out there than there are Japanese people. Nintendo and Sony may have been large forces in the industry, but there's nothing to say that America is somehow *unqualified* to make a console. That just reeks of "OMFG KAWAII~ NIHON~~~!" fanboyism.
The same way Sony can promote an entire freakin' console even with the limited selection of movies around at the moment.
The differnce is one of purpsose - the HD-DVD drive will only be able to play the very limited selection of titles out now. You'd have to be a very big Serenity fan indeed to play $200 just to play Firefly in HD.
The PS3 on the other hand will be offering a box that can play both games and HD video - so while at first the selection of both will be somewhat limited, there is enough usefulness in the combination to be compelling especially when console owners buy systems for future games as well as current ones.
Also another helpful factor is that the PS3 as gaming and HD video player costs you "only" $500, while the equivilent 360 would be $600 ($400 premium + $200 HD-DVD player).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The problem with what MS points out is that "from software" the creators of Emchant arms has a blurb on gamespot about how they ar running out of space on thier DVD9 disc. So you would rather have the option of not having a next gen movie player... thats great. I would rather have the game devs have the option to have a bigger type of media so they can bring thier gaming goodness to me..... I mean... its really about the game right?
out of box? I remember hearing Microsoft made it a point of not makeing a Keyboard/Mouse combo for the original XBox to keep things fair on Xbox live. There's a 3rd party adapter, but it's not perfect ( I don't think you can invert the y axis for example ). Still, If you could use keyboard/mouse then I won't bother upgrading my PC ever again :)
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Only for EU and UK territories, we NTSC folks never got YABASIC.
Hehe. Thank you Thank you. To be fair I've been studying Japanese for like 3 years now, so ya I guess you got me. But even if I wasn't a Japanaphile...Hmmm how to put this. Nintento, Sega, Turbographix, Neogeo. Who cares I guess I'm old but... um... Ya I stand by my statement that video games and Japan go hand in hand. :)
Microsoft slapping a bunch of computer parts into a pint sized box and announcing "Wowzers we have video game console now" doesn't mean that suddenly they are "in a better position to tackle gaming". Not dissing my country of the USA, I mean we make bad assed games like Doom and Quake but.... Come on man "OMFG KAWAII~ NIHON~~~!" fanboyism? lol... OK I guess I am biased but aren't like 80% of video games actually from Japan? 15 years ago that figure was probably more like 95%.
"I say that MS is better able to target homebrew because they've been doing that on the PC for a good long while". I will introduce you to my other fanboyism: Linux. And it's not just that since abandoning MS 5 years ago my 20 year computing experience suddenly got 10X better...it's that Microsoft's lousy-assed OS did the unforgiveable crime of actually jumping through hoops to go around me being even pretty careful, and it deleted all my stuff. OK long story short Microsoft asked if I wanted to make main hard drive ready for windows...I said yes. So it ignored my 2 gig primary hard drive, and repartitioned my 30 gig secondary hd as a 2 gig hard drive. So ya I had a reason to jump ship, but even so, every day I am glad I don't have to put up with that crap.
Which is why I think you and I are both probably big computer nerds but....we see life in a completely different perspectives. To me "Microsoft" and "homegrown" in the same sentance seems absolutely and completely ABSURD, lol. Uh, ya 50 billion company + "homegrown" lol. I'm not saying that Sony has it either........at this moment if you think X-Box 360 has any way shape or form better homegrown support than Nintendo's upcoming Wii....then you need to check out Wii...Wiiiiiiiiiiiii man hehe.
BTW there are 120 million people in Japan, and you make the statment that there are more gamers out there than that? Well I guess that'd be hard to prove either way but don't like 1 in 5 Japanese own the new DS handheld? That is like 1 in 5 people in the country. How many people in US have super DUPER Microsoft console, and what percentage of that is to number of people here.
MS has a almost complete lock on the PC market, but I will stand by my original statement that video games=Japan, and I think I have explained to you that calling me such a vile fanboy may be over the top!
Of course, I started the name calling!!!! Sorry about that buddy
I hate to continue a dead thread, but this just invited for some response...
Walk into your local EB, pick 100 random games for PC and consoles. How many originate from a Japanese studio? Very few I'd say... Besides the obvious ones like Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid, the VAST majority of games come from good old-fashioned American (and Canadian, and European) studios. It's not "80%", it's more like "10-15%". The vast majority of the gaming you've been doing for the past decade has been American in origin, unless you happen to have a region 2 PS2 and do a LOT of importing.
Your linux fanboyism has nothing to do with this. Ask anyone about Xbox Live (who's actually used it) and they'll tell you that the Xbox Dashboard is one slick little puppy, easy to use, and doesn't fuck up.
Let's look at Xbox360 homebrew. MS is releasing a managed code runtime for the 360, as well as a full IDE that integrates the entire art pipeline into one piece of software, making it trivial to compile your assets directly into the binary blob that will be your distributable. It also lets you, for $99/year, run, test, and debug your homebrew games on your $400 retail console (all the while without destroying your ability to play retail games), and allows you to feed binaries from your dev PC directly to the console. Hell, it also allows you to compile for Windows and Xbox360 at a touch of a button.
Now let's look at Wii homebrew. Suffice to say, it doesn't exist. Nintendo has made the (good) move to offer cheaper dev kits, but we're still looking at $1700 for a dev kit, which is simply an unprotected Wii with debug features (like all dev kits). Code will still be reserved for the expert-level coder, being consisted of complex C++ libs instead of a consistent, managed API. Testing cannot occur on commodity hardware either. Got 2 programmers on your team? $3400 of hardware instead of... $800 of hardware + $200 of subscriptions. The Wii opens the door for low-funding independent developers to get onto the console, but the door is still shut for the average joe.
That's the difference. Check your facts before spouting off about the supposed absurdity of MS and homebrew communities. If you didn't know, MS has always offered Visual Studio Express (a toned-down version of the commercial VS product line) for free so hobbyists can code. It's not as slick as the commercial version, but it's no slouch. Hell, MS has been maintaining the Code4Fun MSDN site for years, which contains specific tutorials, articles, and goes around to university campuses giving lectures and tutorials about amateur game development (with a DirectX bent, but that's understandable). They have in fact been supporting homebrew (albeit on PC) for a very good long time.
Microsoft is in fact in a better position to tackle gaming. They have the extensive toolchain experience that no other company has. While the PS3 was yabbering about Cell low-level opcodes, MS is touting high-level language runtimes that allow you to develop for PC and Xbox for the price of one. The PC-like nature of the hardware only makes it simpler for PC developers to get into the business. PC programmers are easy to find, to commoditize them in the game industry brings up the bottom line, reduces labour costs, and is a win-win for everyone. "slapping a bunch of computer parts" into a box is probably the best thing they've ever done, and is pretty much the same thing the PS3 is doing now. None of the next-gen consoles are as integrated and customized as ye olde SNES or even the PS2, all are now using commoditized, standardized equipment.
As for your game of numbers. Let's play:
- Population of USA+Canada: 330 million, according to the ESA, 75% of American adults play console or PC games. That's about 170 million people.
- Population of EU: 456 million, 25% of whom, according to Google Answers, own a console. That's 114 million people.
- That's a conservative estimate of 284 million people in the US, Canada, and Europe who play
Hiya. I guess it's a dead thread but it still lets us reply, I know after awhile they cut that off. Also, I don't know how much you are benefiting from this discussion, but I at least am learning some things from you, so thanks for taking the time for such a great response! :)
I had to see for myself, and just got back from the local Gamespot. I knew your assertion that only 15% of games was hard to believe...but now I have to admit to you that I was similarly off base by stating 80%. I'd have to say that Japanese games probably made up for like 50% of the games. I hadn't realized that companies like Atari, Sierra, Activision, etc. had regained so much of the market.
I actually own an X-Box and concur with you that it has a pretty good interface.
As far as Microsoft goes, I know that theres all these great games and all, but name the games that come out for Linux. In my opinion, the great ones. Unreal Tournament, any id software game, etc. Being as that is my favorite genre of computer gaming, I'm as happy as a shell with the situation. I was looking at the western games at gamespot, and frankly, they for the most part didn't interest me. I know I know, I'm a fanboy. I pretty much have to admit that you know what you are talking about!
I guess I'm just getting old and out of the loop, but video games are a subject close to my heart. I spent a large portion of my 20's playing on a MUD, over the internet.. Is why I first brought up the PS vs N64 analogy to compare them to X-Box 360 vs. PS3 in terms of storage space. I didn't buy either one of them till a couple years ago.
I do feel your statistics regarding the # of consoles vs. population, while fascinating, do not mean much. First off, you lump PC gamers in with console gamers. In my example, I mentioned a particular console, the Nintendo DS. Roughly 1 in 5 of Japanese own one. Computers are pretty much a given in the USA anymore, of course they are going to say ya I play computer games sometimes, no discertion between that and console in your example. Your example of EU is pretty pathetic compared to Japan, 25% of the population owns a console...whereas in Japan 1 in 5 people own a particular console. I still stand fully on my statement that "Video Games=Japan"....not saying that western games aren't a huge force but for a single country to have such a huge influence on video games...that it isn't possible to just disregard them.
Microsoft has proven time and time again that they are a ruthless company that will use any means to permeate whichever market they choose to. Even with something as irrelevant as a web browser, they used that to further concrete their dominance on the OS market. To be honest with you, in a way I find it offensive that they are trying to squirm their slimy tendrils into the video gaming market. However, it's good for the consumer because we have choices, and prices drop and games get better when there is competition. It's pretty sad though that Microsoft is the only American company that can stand up to the Evil Japanese Game Companies, and I guess I feel a little pride that there is at least one company, even if it is Microsoft. However, it's a love/hate relationship.
Thanks for your time and to opening up my eyes a little bit. I'm glad that you've created such a great relationship with Microsoft and that it works for you!