360 w/Internal HD-DVD, XFire Denied
More clarifications and rumours on the next-gen front today. Eurogamer is reporting that a new version of the 360 may have an internal HD-DVD drive, despite protestations they're doing no such thing from Microsoft. Supposedly Taiwanese manufacturers are being selected for the new version of the console. On the Sony front, they deny that XFire will play an integral role in the PS3's online strategy. Despite the report at 1up yesterday, Sony Online Entertainment is claiming XFire will only be used in some of their titles in a deal separate from the PlayStation Network. From that article: "'We can confirm that Sony Online Entertainment is in talks with Viacom and Xfire for a single, specific PS3 game,' said a spokesperson for Sony in a statement to 1Up. 'However, there are no announcements at this time regarding any discussions between SCEA, Viacom and Xfire,' continued the statement." Which is to say, there may be in the future but they don't want to talk about it now.
Collector's Edition
... is a no brainer. If Microsoft doesn't do it, it's silly. However, they need to be careful, and also possibly keep producing some version of the Xbox360 WITHOUT the drive IF cost is going to be significantly different. Some people just aren't interested.
Starmen.net
MS:
"We want our sales to continue and not drop off while people wait for the next release."
Sony:
"Why would we want something that is in place and works? It's a PS3, 3!!!!!, with a 3 on the end. Pretty cool huh?"
The PS3 looks like it is getting to be a disaster of epic proportions. There is no way that Sony is going to be able to release a good product with a solid online service in two months considering that they haven't sent FINAL HARDWARE to the developers OR have their online service up and running! How are the developers going to test? There isnt nearly enough time to do any kind of integration test with the end user deliverables. This is especially important because it is a new platform with a complex dev environment!
Am I the only one who thinks Sony is rushing things at the last moment, or is this how it went for the PS2???
With the news about the HD/DVD hybrid discs from yesterday, it might not be such a bad idea to do the internal HD-DVD drive. They could then leave it up to game devs to support HD, Non-HD, or both. Assuming that most game devs aren't handicapped, they'll probably opt for using that DVD/HD combo so that those of us with regular DVD drives, can play the same games as those with the HD-DVD drives (and maybe those of us with non-HD will also be allowed to read the text in their games too!)
disclaimer: I've been known to store numbers in my ass for which to dig out when quantities are required.
It's much better than a mandatory high definition drive in the PS3. If the PS3 had a $350 version of the PS3 with a regular DVD-ROM and a Blu-Ray version costing $600, I think a lot of the complaints about price would go away. Even if the Xbox 360 with HD-DVD is $500 or $600, you don't have to buy that version.
I wouldn't want to get one of the formats until I purchased a 1080p TV, which will be no time soon. It seems that a lot of early adopters have been burned by purchases of 720p and 1080i TVs. So if I decide to purchase a Xbox 360, I would probably want one without the HD-DVD drive.
Although it does suck for people who bought one of the current systems with the old and smaller capacity DVD drives, it is good to see Microsoft admitting they made a mistake and making attempts to fix the drive space problem the 360 has.
Too many developers have come right out and flatly stated next gen games need BluRay/HD-DVD sized storage for their games for Microsoft to continue forcing developers to be confined to the ~7gig DVDs currently being used for 360 games.
Today's news:
1. Sony says they're not using XFire. Therefore they're not.
2. Microsoft says they're not using internal HD-DVD. Therefore they are.
With sales of only 3.4 million worldwide, Microsoft really has nothing to lose with coming out with a new console next year instead of just trying to fix the 360.
Include the HD-DVD drive.
Fix, really fix, the numerous hardware failure problems that plague the current 360s.
Get backwards compatibility working.
Get a better graphics system than the very botched one in the current 360, ie. 10meg EDRAM tiling AA/jaggy fiasco we are seeing
And do something hopefully to make the new console appeal to Japanese and European gamers who right now are turning their noses up at the current 360.
...I heard "QUAD DENIED" in my head. Hehehehe...
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
People have been burned by HD TV purchases because:
A) There's a lack of available HD content, and you generally have to pay extra to get the HD channels from your TV provider and
B) The majority of television, which is non-HD, will often look worse on an HD TV than on a standard TV because of the increased screen size and resolution.
Okay, those would be reasons to feel burned by HDTV in general, not reasons to feel burned for buying 720p/1080i versus buying 1080p.
Unless Microsoft uses Toshiba's new three-layer HD-DVD format with two DVD-ROM layers (for Xbox 360) and one HD layer (for additional content on the Xbox 360 Hi-Def).
Yeah, and then some game for Xbox 360 (was it Project Gotham Racing 3?) ran at 600p and scaled up to 720p in high-definition mode.
Didn't stop Nintendo from making dual-mode games that work in the monochrome Game Boy and have extra features on Game Boy Color.