Just in case no one noticed, Nvidia is the graphic processor provider for the PS3. See this quote from the article:
"No one has enough extraneous resources around to build chips for all the game consoles. You have to build one or so at a time. In a lot of ways, they also pick you. Sony picked us and Microsoft didn't."
He sounds remorseful enough that it indicates he wished Microsoft had picked Nvidia. But then again, he's also a bit glad:
"I know I couldn't afford it. I would love to build it. I just can't afford it."
So, here's the president of one of the main suppliers for the PS3 talking about how Microsoft didn't choose him, but even if they did, his company couldn't afford to actually build the GPU for the 360? Excuse me if I don't take his comments with a bucket full of salt.
To top it off, as in any article discussing graphics, we're about ten years away from photorealism, just as we were in 2001 and 1996.
To his credit though, I really liked this exchange which is in the full interview:
Q. Where do you want to see graphics go? "I would like to see it go in a couple of directions. I would like [games] to be easier to access."
His response is, "Screw graphics, let's work on gameplay." I can't knock him for that.
When I worked at a supermarket years ago, putting back items was probably the easiest and best of all the menial jobs I could do. You get to see stuff besides the other cashier's back and you can walk around without having to push a bunch of carts around in the heat/hail/rain/snow. With a full enough cart, you can spend a good 30-45 minutes walking around the store, minding your own business as you keep working.
Where are you getting the 3 million sold from? ArsTechnica reported 5 million sold. That puts them on track for 7 to 9 million by the time of the PS3 launch. It would be nice to see a breakdown per territory, but I have not seen one. Do you have a link?
Nintendogs is like crack for girls. A friend got a DS Lite recently during a period where his girlfriend was staying with him during a university break. He picked up with Nintendogs and a couple of other games and I asked him if he got a handheld for himself as well. He didn't get the joke.
About two days later he calls me, complaining that he hasn't had a chance to really try any of the games. Eventually, he just took it to his work but she would call him and ask him if the dog had been fed, bathed, walked, etc.
You've broken the last veil that allows you to look into the vast veil of the Corporate Illuminati and see the truth: All companies are the same company. Expect to be black-bagged within the next hour.
That, or Wal-Mart's charming mascot is going to be cutting gas prices.
Not sure if you mean this autopackage page or not, but that doesn't have a button that says "downloads"... In fact, it doesn't say downloads anywhere until you click on Packages, then see "Downloads" as the page title. If the question is truly one of the most asked questions, it's not under the "Most Asked Questions" section. It should at least have one of those big buttons on the right... "Download now" etc.
Again, I don't know if that's the site you're referring to.
However, map makers began introducing deliberate errors into their maps. The courts ruled that the deliberate errors were copyrightable. Thus anyone who copied the errors from the map were violating the copyright.
Interesting.... built-in errors, eh? They had it planned all along. FreeDB, by the above logic, is the most copyrightable database in the planet!
(That, or my copy of Hunky Dory is really "new-age" music.)
You're making the assumption that Netflix users are using Netflix simply because they don't have an alternative outside of downloading a movie. While that might be true for a minority, it's just that: a minority.
I imagine if Apple is going to be smart, the movie downloads are not only going to be for the iPod but also for your Mac that is now a home theater PC. A Mac Mini in every living room, and the kids can download/rent Sponge Bob Squarepants whenever they want.
Movie downloads for an iPod or a computer are limiting: it's not how (most) people watch movies. The iPod wasn't disruptive because it followed convention: people already carried around Walkmen or heard music on their PC and you could hear it in your bedroom or car with some accessories.
If Apple can come up with something that lets you watch the same movie on a TV by plugging in your iPod or iMovieMacPro, or on the iPod, or on the computer, then that's wonderful, assuming the price is right. I'm guessing it's going to be about $5.99 since that's the price of many pay-per-view features and more expensive rental places.
But that's not going to kill Netflix anymore than it's going to cause Wal-Mart to close down their movie section.
I picked up a habit a while ago of standing up whenever I used the phone. Usually I even pace around or walk and use hand-motion and body language. While the other person obviously can't see this, I think it is picked up in the inflection of your voice and you sound more alive and responsive, which is always good.
For those that still don't want to stand all day, see if you can get a small but comfortable other chair in your office -- maybe one of those big cushy ones. If you need to sit but are not typing --- reviewing notes on paper, brainstorming, etc, sit there. You're guaranteed to sit with posture that is different from your office chair at the desk.
RSI is easy to prevent - just don't do the R part of it.
Let us for a minute forget that Microsoft's software lineup was less than thrilling. Let us also cast aside that the 360 is/was geared (mainly) towards FPSs and online gaming, neither of which are as big in Japan as they are here. Let's ignore that it was a console following up on the catastrophic failure (in Japan at least) that was the original Xbox.
Even if we wipe the slate clean, and a new American company comes out with a system in Japan, and it had some interesting games for that market, the mere fact that it's American causes some contempt among the Japanese. To put it in other terms, this is like asking why Toyotas don't sell better amongst American UAW union workers. Or why France doesn't have a major California wine festival. From my understanding of speaking with people who live(d) in Japan, there is a very big sense of nationalism with video games, more so than in any other country. The three superpowers of the last two decades, Sony, Sega and Nintendo, were all Japanese. It is almost offensive to suggest to a Japanese customer that Microsoft could do a better job than the homegrown heroes.
Simply put, the deck was stacked against Microsoft from the very beginning.
This is not to say that Microsoft is at a complete loss with the 360 in Japan, but certainly some of those resources could be better used at launching that console more strongly in other markets where this console xenophobia may not exist. Maybe India. Maybe it's China. Or Korea. Maybe it's another country. (Look at the estimated makeup of internet-connected Xbox 360 owners around the globe). My guess is Blizzard is not focusing on Japan as WoW's third biggest market.
It would take some amazing feat, like Zelda, Biohazard and Dragonquest all launching only on the next Xbox, for Microsoft to be anywhere near the top in Japan. That's not going to happen, so you need to focus your resources where they are best spent. And it's not Japan.
If that seems depressing, think of the executives in Japan that can't seem to understand why dating sims and DOA-based patchinko games aren't automatic big sellers here. I don't think they're losing much sleep over it.
Mark's a nice guy but I have to call him out on this:
"Rein acknowledged that the game industry already has an episodic model through game sequels, such as Madden, Zelda and Final Fantasy."
Odd to think he didn't mention the Unreal series, which if you count Unreal, the Unreal expansion pack, Unreal 2, Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004, and the up-coming Unreal Tournament 2006, has had more releases than Zelda or Final Fantasy in the past several years.
There's an easier way to do this. Just sneeze on some unsuspecting passenger headed to LAX, send their description to your recipient, and then have them steal the passenger's handkerchief upon arrival in Los Angeles. Then just wipe the handkerchief on an empty Agar-DVD, and presto!
My understanding was that Microsoft would release an HDMI "cable" to replace the current one when the tech was ready. If you have a 360 now, with the latest update and VGA cables, your 360 now is upscaling DVD video to 720p. From the shots I've seen, it's not bad.
There is no separate VGA output. There's simply a cable you plug into a specialized port. I would imagine an HDMI cable would be a no-brainer.
I don't know enough about the hardware to know if a special motherboard is required for HDMI, but my guess is that it's not -- it's all in the cable. Maybe someone more adept can answer this question.
Don't be so surprised. I tried something similar once with a group. We started with a paperclip and walked around our neighborhood. By the time we were done I had traded that paperclip for a fridge. This was about an hour after we started. We were all pretty impressed.
You know, now that I think about it, a house in Saskatchewan is sort of like a fridge, just larger and with windows.
I figure I will just get if over with and hail our new chicken masters. If forced to toil in their underground maize mines, I'd like to be at least a foreman.
That's the/. editor's fault. These are the "2006 IDEA Awards" which means they take place in 2006. The 2006 Academy Awards did not hand out Oscars for the best movies of 2006 either.
The Nutty Buddy - the ??? before profit was "testicle protection" in this case
Water Tile - To quote the byline, "This design strategy uses brand identity to revitalize the image of condoms and redefine traditional condom distribution channels"
Sony showed a movie of Killzone over a year ago at E3 2005. The movie was so good it had many people wonder if it was pre-rendered; that is, not made on a PS3. This year, there was no new information, no playable game, no new footage, and Guerilla (the developer) didn't even mention it. Not in the pre-expo press releases, no on-floor demo, nothing behind closed doors. Killzone, if it exists, was nowhere to be seen.
Now as far as the grandparent post is considered, saying something like "Sony has no answer for Halo 3" is useless. Sony had no answer for Halo or Halo 2 and the PS2 was still the top console in this past generation. Which makes me think that no matter how great Gears of War is, it's not going to convert too many people since if you're a big FPS fan you already have or plan to own an Xbox or Xbox 360 (or you have a nice PC rig).
There's a lot of games which take less than 15 minutes a day to play. One example is Nation States, which takes less than 5 minutes a day to play. Something non-gamey, like Brain Age, doesn't require much more than a few minutes either.
I've read a lot of comments on handhelds that like their instant-on/resume feature (specifically, the DS and the PSP) so they can play games while "on line at the bank" --- now, I'm not jubilant about the service at my bank but even when it takes a long time I'm in line for no more than 5 or 10 minutes. So clearly there's people who buy these gadgets to play for minutes at a time. A review I read for Tetris DS lauded it for the ability to be online and playing someone else within 60 seconds. Heck, I bet you can get in a Halo 2 game in or two in 15 minutes.
If you look at older games there's a lot of games which can be satisfying in 15 minute increments. Take Geometry Wars or Bejeweled for example. Games that you find on XBLA or other compilations.
Or, if we're talking table top games, stuff like Checkers or Othello or Backgammon or any number of simple card games. Not every table top game needs to be as long as complicated as Risk or Settlers of Catan or Monopoly.
It sounds insincere and hackneyed but gaming is about passion. If you like gaming for gaming's sake (not just to pass the time a la MS Solitaire) then it doesn't matter if you only play half an hour a day or 3 hours a day.
Paypal also has fees, somewhere between $0.30 + 1.9% to 2.9% depending on how you are set up with them. For larger transactions, it doesn't seem as competitive. And remember... not everyone has Paypal either.
Well, you can always try through the Activision contest to be the voice of Sub-Mariner.
Another route might to be contact local production companies that do TV and Radio voiceover ads for products. Maybe do a short demo CD of your talents? I know even for a few 30-second radio spots you can make a couple of hundred dollars.
A maximum is a maximum. If you're willing to pay $10.10, then put that in. Surely at some point ($10.50? $11.85? $17.50? $50?) you're going to reach your real maximum. The problem is, sniping probably eliminates "great deals" for buyers, which is good news for sellers. However, I've never lost an auction to sniping. If my max is $10, and I get outbid to $10.05, then $10.05 was too much. I'm not going to put in a max of $6 then check in periodically then gripe when someone snipes it and wins it for $8.50.
If you use the system the way it's supposed to work, you won't lose.
Others here mentioned the quality of games as being in decline the past one or two years. I found this odd as each year, that I can remember, had several pretty good games. I was never one to buy more than a game every few months, so while the barrel of gaming per se was always filled to me, I never drank enough from it to see how quickly I reached the bottom.
So, I took it upon myself to look at some information on MetaCritic. While critical aggregation is not foolproof, it does have some useful data. I counted all the games that were rated at least a 90, that came out no earlier than 2001, and that were for the PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Gamecube, or PC. (Sorry, no handhelds or older consoles).
So if it seems that there's not as many good games as there were three years ago, you're correct. Extrapolating 2006, we come up with an awfully low total. Even with another twenty great games this year, which is extremely unlikely, it's still less compared to 2002-2004.
Slashdot Mirror
He sounds remorseful enough that it indicates he wished Microsoft had picked Nvidia. But then again, he's also a bit glad:
So, here's the president of one of the main suppliers for the PS3 talking about how Microsoft didn't choose him, but even if they did, his company couldn't afford to actually build the GPU for the 360? Excuse me if I don't take his comments with a bucket full of salt.
To top it off, as in any article discussing graphics, we're about ten years away from photorealism, just as we were in 2001 and 1996.
To his credit though, I really liked this exchange which is in the full interview:
His response is, "Screw graphics, let's work on gameplay." I can't knock him for that.
When I worked at a supermarket years ago, putting back items was probably the easiest and best of all the menial jobs I could do. You get to see stuff besides the other cashier's back and you can walk around without having to push a bunch of carts around in the heat/hail/rain/snow. With a full enough cart, you can spend a good 30-45 minutes walking around the store, minding your own business as you keep working.
Where are you getting the 3 million sold from? ArsTechnica reported 5 million sold. That puts them on track for 7 to 9 million by the time of the PS3 launch. It would be nice to see a breakdown per territory, but I have not seen one. Do you have a link?
Nintendogs is like crack for girls. A friend got a DS Lite recently during a period where his girlfriend was staying with him during a university break. He picked up with Nintendogs and a couple of other games and I asked him if he got a handheld for himself as well. He didn't get the joke.
About two days later he calls me, complaining that he hasn't had a chance to really try any of the games. Eventually, he just took it to his work but she would call him and ask him if the dog had been fed, bathed, walked, etc.
So... beware.
This robot runs on free beer.
Well, one thing is for certain. You don't want to be driving this around with it on your lap. It might burn you.
You forgot that the "badge" is stitched through your back into your kidneys and spine, so removing it kills you.
You've broken the last veil that allows you to look into the vast veil of the Corporate Illuminati and see the truth: All companies are the same company. Expect to be black-bagged within the next hour.
That, or Wal-Mart's charming mascot is going to be cutting gas prices.
Not sure if you mean this autopackage page or not, but that doesn't have a button that says "downloads"... In fact, it doesn't say downloads anywhere until you click on Packages, then see "Downloads" as the page title. If the question is truly one of the most asked questions, it's not under the "Most Asked Questions" section. It should at least have one of those big buttons on the right... "Download now" etc.
Again, I don't know if that's the site you're referring to.
Interesting.... built-in errors, eh? They had it planned all along. FreeDB, by the above logic, is the most copyrightable database in the planet!
(That, or my copy of Hunky Dory is really "new-age" music.)
You're making the assumption that Netflix users are using Netflix simply because they don't have an alternative outside of downloading a movie. While that might be true for a minority, it's just that: a minority.
I imagine if Apple is going to be smart, the movie downloads are not only going to be for the iPod but also for your Mac that is now a home theater PC. A Mac Mini in every living room, and the kids can download/rent Sponge Bob Squarepants whenever they want.
Movie downloads for an iPod or a computer are limiting: it's not how (most) people watch movies. The iPod wasn't disruptive because it followed convention: people already carried around Walkmen or heard music on their PC and you could hear it in your bedroom or car with some accessories.
If Apple can come up with something that lets you watch the same movie on a TV by plugging in your iPod or iMovieMacPro, or on the iPod, or on the computer, then that's wonderful, assuming the price is right. I'm guessing it's going to be about $5.99 since that's the price of many pay-per-view features and more expensive rental places.
But that's not going to kill Netflix anymore than it's going to cause Wal-Mart to close down their movie section.
I picked up a habit a while ago of standing up whenever I used the phone. Usually I even pace around or walk and use hand-motion and body language. While the other person obviously can't see this, I think it is picked up in the inflection of your voice and you sound more alive and responsive, which is always good.
For those that still don't want to stand all day, see if you can get a small but comfortable other chair in your office -- maybe one of those big cushy ones. If you need to sit but are not typing --- reviewing notes on paper, brainstorming, etc, sit there. You're guaranteed to sit with posture that is different from your office chair at the desk.
RSI is easy to prevent - just don't do the R part of it.
Let us for a minute forget that Microsoft's software lineup was less than thrilling. Let us also cast aside that the 360 is/was geared (mainly) towards FPSs and online gaming, neither of which are as big in Japan as they are here. Let's ignore that it was a console following up on the catastrophic failure (in Japan at least) that was the original Xbox.
Even if we wipe the slate clean, and a new American company comes out with a system in Japan, and it had some interesting games for that market, the mere fact that it's American causes some contempt among the Japanese. To put it in other terms, this is like asking why Toyotas don't sell better amongst American UAW union workers. Or why France doesn't have a major California wine festival. From my understanding of speaking with people who live(d) in Japan, there is a very big sense of nationalism with video games, more so than in any other country. The three superpowers of the last two decades, Sony, Sega and Nintendo, were all Japanese. It is almost offensive to suggest to a Japanese customer that Microsoft could do a better job than the homegrown heroes.
Simply put, the deck was stacked against Microsoft from the very beginning.
This is not to say that Microsoft is at a complete loss with the 360 in Japan, but certainly some of those resources could be better used at launching that console more strongly in other markets where this console xenophobia may not exist. Maybe India. Maybe it's China. Or Korea. Maybe it's another country. (Look at the estimated makeup of internet-connected Xbox 360 owners around the globe). My guess is Blizzard is not focusing on Japan as WoW's third biggest market.
It would take some amazing feat, like Zelda, Biohazard and Dragonquest all launching only on the next Xbox, for Microsoft to be anywhere near the top in Japan. That's not going to happen, so you need to focus your resources where they are best spent. And it's not Japan.
If that seems depressing, think of the executives in Japan that can't seem to understand why dating sims and DOA-based patchinko games aren't automatic big sellers here. I don't think they're losing much sleep over it.
Mark's a nice guy but I have to call him out on this:
"Rein acknowledged that the game industry already has an episodic model through game sequels, such as Madden, Zelda and Final Fantasy."
Odd to think he didn't mention the Unreal series, which if you count Unreal, the Unreal expansion pack, Unreal 2, Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004, and the up-coming Unreal Tournament 2006, has had more releases than Zelda or Final Fantasy in the past several years.
There's an easier way to do this. Just sneeze on some unsuspecting passenger headed to LAX, send their description to your recipient, and then have them steal the passenger's handkerchief upon arrival in Los Angeles. Then just wipe the handkerchief on an empty Agar-DVD, and presto!
Saves on gas, too.
My understanding was that Microsoft would release an HDMI "cable" to replace the current one when the tech was ready. If you have a 360 now, with the latest update and VGA cables, your 360 now is upscaling DVD video to 720p. From the shots I've seen, it's not bad.
There is no separate VGA output. There's simply a cable you plug into a specialized port. I would imagine an HDMI cable would be a no-brainer.
I don't know enough about the hardware to know if a special motherboard is required for HDMI, but my guess is that it's not -- it's all in the cable. Maybe someone more adept can answer this question.
Don't be so surprised. I tried something similar once with a group. We started with a paperclip and walked around our neighborhood. By the time we were done I had traded that paperclip for a fridge. This was about an hour after we started. We were all pretty impressed.
You know, now that I think about it, a house in Saskatchewan is sort of like a fridge, just larger and with windows.
I figure I will just get if over with and hail our new chicken masters. If forced to toil in their underground maize mines, I'd like to be at least a foreman.
And some highlights for me...
What does sadden me is that the most popular category for winners seemed to be office chairs. How amazingly boring.
Sony showed a movie of Killzone over a year ago at E3 2005. The movie was so good it had many people wonder if it was pre-rendered; that is, not made on a PS3. This year, there was no new information, no playable game, no new footage, and Guerilla (the developer) didn't even mention it. Not in the pre-expo press releases, no on-floor demo, nothing behind closed doors. Killzone, if it exists, was nowhere to be seen.
Now as far as the grandparent post is considered, saying something like "Sony has no answer for Halo 3" is useless. Sony had no answer for Halo or Halo 2 and the PS2 was still the top console in this past generation. Which makes me think that no matter how great Gears of War is, it's not going to convert too many people since if you're a big FPS fan you already have or plan to own an Xbox or Xbox 360 (or you have a nice PC rig).
There's a lot of games which take less than 15 minutes a day to play. One example is Nation States, which takes less than 5 minutes a day to play. Something non-gamey, like Brain Age, doesn't require much more than a few minutes either.
I've read a lot of comments on handhelds that like their instant-on/resume feature (specifically, the DS and the PSP) so they can play games while "on line at the bank" --- now, I'm not jubilant about the service at my bank but even when it takes a long time I'm in line for no more than 5 or 10 minutes. So clearly there's people who buy these gadgets to play for minutes at a time. A review I read for Tetris DS lauded it for the ability to be online and playing someone else within 60 seconds. Heck, I bet you can get in a Halo 2 game in or two in 15 minutes.
If you look at older games there's a lot of games which can be satisfying in 15 minute increments. Take Geometry Wars or Bejeweled for example. Games that you find on XBLA or other compilations.
Or, if we're talking table top games, stuff like Checkers or Othello or Backgammon or any number of simple card games. Not every table top game needs to be as long as complicated as Risk or Settlers of Catan or Monopoly.
It sounds insincere and hackneyed but gaming is about passion. If you like gaming for gaming's sake (not just to pass the time a la MS Solitaire) then it doesn't matter if you only play half an hour a day or 3 hours a day.
Paypal also has fees, somewhere between $0.30 + 1.9% to 2.9% depending on how you are set up with them. For larger transactions, it doesn't seem as competitive. And remember... not everyone has Paypal either.
Well, you can always try through the Activision contest to be the voice of Sub-Mariner.
Another route might to be contact local production companies that do TV and Radio voiceover ads for products. Maybe do a short demo CD of your talents? I know even for a few 30-second radio spots you can make a couple of hundred dollars.
A maximum is a maximum. If you're willing to pay $10.10, then put that in. Surely at some point ($10.50? $11.85? $17.50? $50?) you're going to reach your real maximum. The problem is, sniping probably eliminates "great deals" for buyers, which is good news for sellers. However, I've never lost an auction to sniping. If my max is $10, and I get outbid to $10.05, then $10.05 was too much. I'm not going to put in a max of $6 then check in periodically then gripe when someone snipes it and wins it for $8.50.
If you use the system the way it's supposed to work, you won't lose.
Others here mentioned the quality of games as being in decline the past one or two years. I found this odd as each year, that I can remember, had several pretty good games. I was never one to buy more than a game every few months, so while the barrel of gaming per se was always filled to me, I never drank enough from it to see how quickly I reached the bottom.
So, I took it upon myself to look at some information on MetaCritic. While critical aggregation is not foolproof, it does have some useful data. I counted all the games that were rated at least a 90, that came out no earlier than 2001, and that were for the PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Gamecube, or PC. (Sorry, no handhelds or older consoles).
Here is how that turned out:
2001: 25
2002: 34
2003: 38
2004: 30
2005: 21
2006: 7
So if it seems that there's not as many good games as there were three years ago, you're correct. Extrapolating 2006, we come up with an awfully low total. Even with another twenty great games this year, which is extremely unlikely, it's still less compared to 2002-2004.
Here's a detailed chart with a per-system breakdown.
Now have critics gotten tougher after the past two years? Or is the conventional wisdom correct, and have titles really just gotten worse?