Again, there is absolutely no reason you can't use both. None. You may choose not to, but you are still perfectly capable of having both DX9 and DX10 capabilities.
You think 9% of gamers is too low to mess with, but Mac/Linux gamers (not just users), which is bound to be even lower, is worth it somehow? Your logic confuses me.
No one says they're mutually exclusive. Hell, doesn't Valve make games which gracefully degrade to DX8/7? Should be no trouble to make a game which supports DX7/8/9/10, as long as you're already supporting 3 of those. I don't think anyone should be making their games DX10 only, but not using both DX9 and DX10 strikes me as needlessly stubborn about not using DX10.
likewise, to my dismay, "you" will degrade to "u" probably Such an abomination cannot be allowed to happen. Gentlemen, when the terrorists try to nuke our country, let's not stop them.
If 20% (roughly) of Windows users are using Vista, and Valve considers it a colossal waste of time to do DX10 development, they have a strange idea of "colossal waste of time". I consider 20% of my userbase well worth development time. Not to mention that the numbers will go up eventually... I guarantee you that all but the most die-hard Vista-hating gamers would flock to Vista if a) enough games had sweet DX10 graphics, and b) some hot new game was DX10/Vista only (no, Halo 2 doesn't count here. While I built my new computer for Vista because of Halo 2, I certainly would never upgrade from an existing copy of XP for a port of a 3-year-old Xbox game).
Not entirely sure. I'll have to see what I can get in the way of updates, and then check again. I'd think that the 360 I have (the Halo edition) would be fairly recent in terms of updates, but I guess not. Good to know they put that upgrade in, at any rate.
Hrm? The games I've played that are both PS3 and 360 are just fine on both... also, my PS3 supports 1080p (although my TV doesn't), and my 360 only does 720p. I'd say that's an advantage to the PS3 in terms of resolution.
Interestingly, I'm a huge fan of UT2k4 as well, and UT3 delivers for me. Crysis, on the other hand, irritates the hell out of me. On my computer, there's a 3-sec control lag in the demo (and it's not FPS, I'm pulling 30 FPS). Maybe the release version will be better, but until I try that (I'm gonna have to yarr-harr it to test it out, I'm not about to risk my money to test if a bug I experienced is gone), my faith is shattered.
COD 4, on the other hand, is amazing. That's really where your business should be going. I just finished the single-player, and am now trying to get into multiplayer (but having issues), and I have to say, the single-player alone is worth the cost of admission. It rocks HARD.
It depends on where you live. In my area, they're still sold out all the time, I only got mine by having my brother, who conveniently worked in Target's electronics dept, snag me one. I know in some places, you can find them, but that's not everywhere.
You do yourself a disservice to not even count UT3 and Rock Band. Both are going to be huge. As a matter of fact, I'm not even getting Mass Effect right away, because I'm going to be spending so much time playing Rock Band. I'll get it eventually, of course.
That is - if you work for Microsoft and you invent some nifty software at home you have little to stand on (especially if you are a software engineer). That would be ridiculous (nay, ricockulous) if true. While it's reasonable for Microsoft (or whatever software company) to own whatever software you may write while on the job, even if it's not what you're specifically being tasked to do, what you do at home is your own damn business, not theirs. I dearly hope such a claim would never stand up in court.
English is gender neutral, but in the interests of saving time and effort, when someone's gender is unknown (and no, I don't think your profile name is a good indicator), you just pick one and go with it, as saying he/she and his/her is rather cumbersome. If someone corrects you, you learn and move on. I've been called both genders in my travels online (only one is correct, go figure:P), and I either corrected the person nicely, or said "Meh, whatever". It's just not worth getting worked up about.
You know... it's a curious thing we citizens of supposedly 'free nations' are expected to happily yield increasingly large amounts of our freedom... That only applies if it's a contract between you and the government. The corporation is also free to hire (or not) who they choose to, under whatever conditions they choose to (as permitted by applicable laws, of course). You, in turn, are free not to accept their terms. See, saying things about a "free nation" implies that we're free with respect to the government. It implies nothing about our freedoms with respect to fellow citizens, and businesses run by them.
The aspect I was referring to was tying themselves to MS and WMF. Beta means "feature complete." Choosing the DRM and format is an architectural decision, unlikely to change once a beta is released. Considering that, as quoted in another post in this discussion, NBC plans to add Mac support in the future (2008), you would seem to be incorrect.
Bull. They're supporting a format that is owned and controlled by MS. It is not likely to change with the 1.0 release. Sure they might add other formats eventually, but so long as they're supporting WMF they're providing MS with the opportunity to expand their power and lock in their users. Every download weakens their position relative to MS. Bull. Supporting Microsoft's format in no way strengthen's Microsoft's hold on the market, nor does it mean they're at Microsoft's mercy. Considering that Apple, who has a lot more leverage because of the iTMS than Microsoft ever will because of this, was forced to add DRM by the record companies, I'd say we have very good reason to believe all the leverage is on the media companies' side, and will remain so, at least if they're smart about it.
The hardware was still paid for by someone. I once had a Microsoft rep give me a free copy of XP Pro at a conference, but the cost was still paid for by Microsoft's other customers (or Microsoft themselves, but I doubt they're so generous as to cut their own profits). No free lunches.
Capitalism works via enlightened self interest so... no. This move is just one more which contributes to keeping the PC market broken and uncompetitive and works towards consolidating the cartel run entertainment industry and the monopoly dominated desktop OS industry. It's a beta, for God's sake. It even says beta on the web site! Could it be that, when unveiling a new service, it's important to get the kinks worked out on the dominant platform before working on other platforms? I know that if I were NBC, or any other company, I'd want to target all possible platforms at release, but when you're in beta, you have to prioritize what you're working on. When the 1.0 release comes, then your statement will have some validity. Not before.
That still leaves Windows at an 85%-90% market share. More than significant enough to merit reporting on slashdot. By the logic originally expressed in this thread, ANYTHING Windows-related (Microsoft shenanigans, a service pack, a new version... all of it) isn't worth reporting. This is a technology site, not a {insert tech subgroup here} site, so even if this were Linux-only, or Amiga-only, this would be very interesting and post-worthy news (on account of the fact that it shows media companies waking up the reality of where the future is going).
That's why it's a beta. If you like the concept and want to see it succeed, send them some feedback on your experience (if you haven't already). Nothing is worse than good concepts getting killed for lack of interest, and I'd rather not see this become one of those.
While I thank you for informing me that I was in error, I now have to go mourn, because there's officially no hope left for the world. Seriously, "I turned it up too loud" is the most ridiculous cause for a lawsuit ever.
I doubt it. If no one has sued a speaker manufacturer yet for having their speakers up so loud, I somehow can't believe that someone is going to get a phone manufacturer for the same thing... especially when you have to turn the volume up yourself. If I get McDonald's coffee which burns the hair off my head because it's so hot, I might be able to sue them successfully. There's no way I'd be able to pull the same thing off if I heated it that hot myself.
Moreover, why is ANYONE "against" convergence? Seriously? Do you really WANT to be carrying around a camera, a phone, a PDA, and a laptop? I'm not against convergence, per se. I merely don't want any of those other features, since they add cost but no value for me. As things are, I can get a phone which does what I want it to: make calls. If the day ever comes when it becomes difficult or impossible to find a phone which does phone calls, and not a whole lot else, then I'll be pissed. Until then, I have nothing against convergence, I just want no part of it.
Slashdot Mirror
Again, there is absolutely no reason you can't use both. None. You may choose not to, but you are still perfectly capable of having both DX9 and DX10 capabilities.
You think 9% of gamers is too low to mess with, but Mac/Linux gamers (not just users), which is bound to be even lower, is worth it somehow? Your logic confuses me.
No one says they're mutually exclusive. Hell, doesn't Valve make games which gracefully degrade to DX8/7? Should be no trouble to make a game which supports DX7/8/9/10, as long as you're already supporting 3 of those. I don't think anyone should be making their games DX10 only, but not using both DX9 and DX10 strikes me as needlessly stubborn about not using DX10.
If 20% (roughly) of Windows users are using Vista, and Valve considers it a colossal waste of time to do DX10 development, they have a strange idea of "colossal waste of time". I consider 20% of my userbase well worth development time. Not to mention that the numbers will go up eventually... I guarantee you that all but the most die-hard Vista-hating gamers would flock to Vista if a) enough games had sweet DX10 graphics, and b) some hot new game was DX10/Vista only (no, Halo 2 doesn't count here. While I built my new computer for Vista because of Halo 2, I certainly would never upgrade from an existing copy of XP for a port of a 3-year-old Xbox game).
Not entirely sure. I'll have to see what I can get in the way of updates, and then check again. I'd think that the 360 I have (the Halo edition) would be fairly recent in terms of updates, but I guess not. Good to know they put that upgrade in, at any rate.
Hrm? The games I've played that are both PS3 and 360 are just fine on both... also, my PS3 supports 1080p (although my TV doesn't), and my 360 only does 720p. I'd say that's an advantage to the PS3 in terms of resolution.
Uh. That's less than all of those. The Wii is $250, the 360 is $350 (no, the crippled version doesn't count).
COD 4, on the other hand, is amazing. That's really where your business should be going. I just finished the single-player, and am now trying to get into multiplayer (but having issues), and I have to say, the single-player alone is worth the cost of admission. It rocks HARD.
It depends on where you live. In my area, they're still sold out all the time, I only got mine by having my brother, who conveniently worked in Target's electronics dept, snag me one. I know in some places, you can find them, but that's not everywhere.
You do yourself a disservice to not even count UT3 and Rock Band. Both are going to be huge. As a matter of fact, I'm not even getting Mass Effect right away, because I'm going to be spending so much time playing Rock Band. I'll get it eventually, of course.
English is gender neutral, but in the interests of saving time and effort, when someone's gender is unknown (and no, I don't think your profile name is a good indicator), you just pick one and go with it, as saying he/she and his/her is rather cumbersome. If someone corrects you, you learn and move on. I've been called both genders in my travels online (only one is correct, go figure :P), and I either corrected the person nicely, or said "Meh, whatever". It's just not worth getting worked up about.
The hardware was still paid for by someone. I once had a Microsoft rep give me a free copy of XP Pro at a conference, but the cost was still paid for by Microsoft's other customers (or Microsoft themselves, but I doubt they're so generous as to cut their own profits). No free lunches.
It's beta. That does not constitute launching.
That still leaves Windows at an 85%-90% market share. More than significant enough to merit reporting on slashdot. By the logic originally expressed in this thread, ANYTHING Windows-related (Microsoft shenanigans, a service pack, a new version... all of it) isn't worth reporting. This is a technology site, not a {insert tech subgroup here} site, so even if this were Linux-only, or Amiga-only, this would be very interesting and post-worthy news (on account of the fact that it shows media companies waking up the reality of where the future is going).
That's why it's a beta. If you like the concept and want to see it succeed, send them some feedback on your experience (if you haven't already). Nothing is worse than good concepts getting killed for lack of interest, and I'd rather not see this become one of those.
While I thank you for informing me that I was in error, I now have to go mourn, because there's officially no hope left for the world. Seriously, "I turned it up too loud" is the most ridiculous cause for a lawsuit ever.
You must be new here.
I doubt it. If no one has sued a speaker manufacturer yet for having their speakers up so loud, I somehow can't believe that someone is going to get a phone manufacturer for the same thing... especially when you have to turn the volume up yourself. If I get McDonald's coffee which burns the hair off my head because it's so hot, I might be able to sue them successfully. There's no way I'd be able to pull the same thing off if I heated it that hot myself.
You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship, a self-perpetuating autocracy, in which the working masses...