Which makes me wonder, why they still came up with something that's clearly designed to live vertically. Something with the form factor of the typical DVD player or set-top box would fit in amongst many people's setups even easier than the Wii in its standard orientation.
Spoken like the truly uninformed. I guess this is/. so I shouldn't expect much:)
Watch this, and watch how Matt takes the Wii out of the vertical stand, and lays it flat. Hmmm... even has rubber feet so it can lay horizontally.
Heh, very nice. Looks so 3D though;) I just might give it a shot. The most important part would be the voices though. Nothing compares to the "Hey Taxi, Pad 4 Please" on the C64:)
I can't wait. I hope Space Taxi makes the cut. One of the best games ever:) I've been trying to make a clone of it, but it keeps getting pushed to the back burner. Oh, and Archon too. I'd be super impressed if I could play Archon with a buddy over WifiConnection!
Microsoft is offering to give you a free Zune copy of any song you already bought from Apple. I expect this offer to last about 45 seconds before someone figures out how to spoof.m4p files.
Hmmm... I wonder how they're going to do that. Hook into iTunes to figure out which songs were purchased and then you'll be able to just download those from them? Does that mean you'll now have 2 legal copies of every song? Can you give away your iTunes song?!? Interesting.
I thought I read somewhere though that they'd be giving you a tool to "transfer" your songs to zune format though. I thought Allard was even quoted. Don't know where I saw it though. Some tech blog somewhere:)
Thought I'd like to point out that Zune probably isn't going to "steal" any iPod customers away. They may be able to get some people that are about to enter the DAP market, but not the ones that are already invested in iPods. The biggest reason, music collection and familiarity with iTunes. iPods don't do so well because of iPods. iPods do so well because of iTunes. You underestimate the ease of use of iTunes for people that are not so computer savvy. Do you honestly think they're going to be able to convert their iTunes collections over to the Zune format? (I believe M$ is offering up some tool to rip off the DRM from iTunes and apply their own DRM. Don't quote me on that.... And ummm... wouldn't that be a violation of the DMCA?:) But that's for another day)
I don't personally use any of these music services. I use my treo600 for music still, cuz it's more than enough for me. However, I do have a bunch of non-computer people, and they will not budge from their iTunes addiction. They even buy music off of it.
I had this one friend, we're talking about some song, and she said "Yah.. I just *downloaded* it off iTunes".. I was like, "downloaded eh? don't you mean, *bought*".. she didn't understand the difference?:) She obviously doesn't know how to pir8 things, but this is GOOD. It helps legitimize the electronic distribution of music! I freely admit downloading songs all the time. In fact, I have 5 or so CDs on my bookshelf that are UNOPENED, because I've already downloaded the album. I still support the artists by purchasing, and I like to have a hardcopy of it. But no one's gonna stop me from using it the way i want to use it. (You hear me RIAA?)
Anyways, yah, my point was, iTunes users are entrenched, and it's a very tough sell to try to switch them. And honestly, there's no feature in the Zune that really is worth making that big switch.
Side note: I'm betting that's why Apple didn't rush out the widescreen iPod video player. They didn't need to.:) The zune doesn't have much to compete with. However, I am betting they release it in '07, just after the zune launches to quiet them once and for all:) Apple's got some crazy ass distribution and integration going on with their iTunes/iPods/and soon to be released iTV!
I know it's fun to bash Sony and all lately, but the caption below the title is talking about XBOX 360 games being $72. Is that $3 newsworthy?
If you RTFA you'll see that they're saying "normal" PS3 pricing is in the range of $75-$84USD. Then they later compare "premium" titles to this price mentioning DOA X2 priced at $79USD.
Do you see the difference?
PS3's normal pricing will all be around the price range of the other consoles' "premium titles" pricing!
That's pretty significant if you ask me (especially since there are very few titles for the other consoles in the "premium titles" pricing category). Essentially, all PS3 titles are premium titles;)
...Since that time, it looks like the controller design has cleaned up a bit, although the people who let us mess around with it informed us it still has yet to be finalized...
(bold was my own)
Ummm.. Nintendo is already churning out systems for a launch date AFTER the PS3's! Shouldn't they already have things "finalized", or is it just me?
cuz apparently some of you guys aren't understanding:)
I'm my previous posts, all I was saying was that 1.1 million units sold across 8 platforms isn't that impressive. Let me elaborate:
a) It'll cost you a LOT more to develop for 8 platforms. b) you also widen your audience, so yes, it DOES matter that it's across the different platforms, because as a percentage of your audience you're trying to sell to, it's not that special. c) i then proceeded to name examples of sales numbers (particularly DS titles in Japan) that were more impressive to me and of course, it started fanboi wars. Fine, here are more impressive numbers. Halo 2 sold 2.4 million copies in one day. Which of course beat out the previous record of 2.06 million by GTA. (same article).
Compared to those numbers (as a percentage of total POSSIBLE customers) 1.1 million units on 8 platforms is very average.
Why does it matter how many platforms they release it for? 1.1 million is 1.1 million. It's not like many people are buying multiple copies for different platforms.
Because developing for 8 different platforms is going to cost you a lot more money. So 137,500 copies per platform doesn't sound that spectacular business wise. I doubt they've even recouped their costs yet. (Granted it's only been a week). I didn't see/. posting about FFIII's 600,000 copies sold in 5 days in Japan on a single platform. That seems much more impressive to me.
That's 1.1 million copies spanning 8 platforms! That's only 137,500 copies for each platform. There are DS titles that have sold 3 million now individually. FFIII for DS in Japan sold almost 600,000 copies in less than a week. How is this impressive?
Re:not as useful as first thought
on
USB Batteries
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· Score: 1
It does look like a gimmick, but charging things from a USB port is not new. I have a USB 'phone charger which is great when I travel. It means I just need one power adaptor for my laptop and none for my 'phone (and since my laptop is a PowerBook, I don't even need an adaptor, I just take the US or EU plug with me).
You're right. So do I . My treo 600 charges nicely from USB. However, I just don't see the use of charging AA batteries. There are so many better (and cheaper) ways to get AA power.
not as useful as first thought
on
USB Batteries
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I thought this might be useful, then I looked at some of my toys that take AA. My old Canon A70 takes 4AA. I use NiMH. I have a charger that can charge 4 batteries at a time. Ummm... I don't think I even HAVE 4 USB ports:) and even if I did, I don't think they'd all fit. (Because you know how they like to cram a bunch of USB ports together and if you plug in something larger than a regular cable, the slot next to it is wasted)
So really, it's only useful for say, an MP3 player that takes a single AA battery. But then again, my brother's little samsung mp3 player has a built-in Li Ion battery and a USB plug built in that can flip up. And it's hardly bigger than a AA battery.
Hmmm.. I'm back to "I can't think of anything useful for it":)
Microsoft has way more boxes in the field, but is still way in the red. Nintendo is well in the black. And that's all that really matters in the long view.
Grrr.. I hate this misconception. Microsoft does NOT have "way" more boxes out in the field. They are pretty close globally. (Unless you include the sales of the 360 as well, in which case, the comparison is dumb, cuz the Wii isn't even out yet) However, what *IS* true is that Microsoft lost about $4billion for their first venture and it's the SOLE reason why they rushed out the 360. They could not make the hardware cheaper over time because they "bought" parts to build the XBOX. They've corrected that in the 360 and they should be able to make production of it cheaper over time, however, don't expect a price drop unless they start to lose really badly to the Wii and PS3. (Case in point, the 360 is already cheaper in Japan, and the Wii and PS3 aren't even out yet:) )
apparently the HD-DVD drive will launch in japan on Nov. 22 for about $180USD.
I find this odd for several reasons. a) There is no "Xmas shopping craze" in japan. b) they'll miss out on said craze in North America.
The only reason why I can see them doing this is because they're getting really desperate to get some units out in japan. Selling 1000 consoles a week just isn't going to cut it, and they know that. Well, you gotta give them some credit for being persistant. Not many companies can fail so badly in a region and STILL pump all that money into it.
I completely agree. Gentoo's documentation is some of the best for anything OSS.
2.) Installing / maintaing gentoo has taught me many things about linux that I didn't know before. (I enjoy learning about linux, and Reading The Fucking Manual). Hell I'd never even compiled my own kernel before I used gentoo.
Not a big deal to me:) My first kernel compile was 1.1.13. Like 12 years ago. It's fun, but not necessary any more. Now that I'm married, I don't have as much time to tinker. So I've had to cut back. The obvious choice was to cut back on the time I spent "installing and configuring" my system(s)*. That's why I use Ubuntu. It works VERY nicely.
* I'm trying to reduce my computers to (hopefully) 1 iMac and 1 laptop
3.) I dont have to reinstall the entire OS every 6 months (Fedora/Ubuntu) to get the latest version. I always have the latest version.
hmmm.. I just "upgraded" my desktop from breezy to dapper. Surprisingly enough, it was actually easier than gentoo!
I can't completely agree with the article. I never had any problems installing it. In fact, the installer was very kewl in that it came with ssh and screen. I even did COMPLETE remote installs for people before. I just call them up and tell them to put the CD in and boot up and set a password. After I'm done with it, call them back and tell them to take the CD out so I could reboot. Done. they were amazed.
Install wasn't my problem.
Maintenance was my problem. As one of the commenters from the article pointed out, you were basically compiling an update constantly. It could be a minor bug fix but if it was in a big package like glibc, it would take a while to compile. You could go about your business, but you noticed it. The next day would bring about another big compile (say, X!?) and on and on it went. The endless cyle of updating. Some would argue that this was a feature of it. Sure, you're always getting the latest of everything. But it was a little bit of a PITA. The worst was when I went away, came back to a LOT of updates. Those updates (during the end of my time on gentoo) started to break things unfortunately. QA went downhill as the distro got too big.
Anyways, I still think gentoo is kewl, with its configurability. However, I've traded some of that control in for maintenance sanity and am currently on Ubuntu for my desktop and debian on my server.
Thanks to the gentoo community for the fun few years. #gentoo was always lively:)
FTFA: There are so many people out there that love to buy the new Madden release or the latest Final Fantasy sequel that it's difficult to believe that Nintendo can change their mind or be a success without them.
Ummm.. but we will have them. (or in the case of FF, we probably will have them. Square-Enix is in a love fest with nintendo these days) Madden is coming to the Wii. And in fact, will probably be the first (American) football game I buy since like '98. After reading that developer interview over at IGN, I'm quite excited about play this game! It's a very long read, but it sounds like it'll be a lot easier to play. Running with the ball, I'll be able to straight arm a guy to my left, and at the same time, juke to the right, and it'll be as easy as flicking my wrist. Something we all probably do already when playing video games!!!
Re:I want to clarify a couple of things
on
The Wii Takes NYC
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· Score: 2, Insightful
It's only including one controller, though, right? And it kind of sucks that the controllers are $40 each, not including the nunchuck attachment.
Yes it only includes 1 controller and 1 nunchuk attachment. They'll be sold for $40 and $20 respectively. Which does seem a little steep, but it's certainly NOT your regular same old controller. A lot of tech is in that wii-mote. Remember, a lot of the innovation for this generation console from Nintendo is in that controller. So to get it down to $40 is in fact, quite remarkable. (If you ask me) Alas, I am but one man with my own opinions.
Oh, and I forgot to mention in my original post.
This also marks the first console in like a decade, where you can buy the console alone, and be able to go home and play it right away without any other purchase!:) That in itself is very non-gamer friendly!
I want to clarify a couple of things
on
The Wii Takes NYC
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Cuz the kotaku thread got out of hand. Too many clueless people. Here's my take on the launch:
1) The date. Everyone was hoping for an early release (me included!) but I'm assuming the business strategy is to go after the poor schmucks that won't be able to get a PS3. The PS3 launches only 2 days before it, and there will be VERY few of them. (Half of which will be bought up by people only to be put up on ebay:\ ) What they also do is avoid being over-shadowed by the PS3 launch (say if they were to launch a few days before the PS3).
2) a) Pricing. They said it would be under $250. When companies say that, it'll probably be $249.99. Which it basically is:) I'm sure they contemplated $199, $229, but decided for launch, they could probably get people to pay $249, but they'll also include a game. That's a business decision, which for the most part makes sense. It'll probably sell out at launch anyhow.
2) b) For those of you saying "$250? Pshaw, XBOX 360 Core is only $300. People will think it's only $50 more and buy a 360". Right, let's compare a 360 Core system that comes with nothing. To a system that comes with a game, and ahem.. wifi. Take a look at the cost of the wifi adapter for the 360. Now let's do some stupid math (as people generally like to do when comparing apples to oranges) and deduct the cost of a 360 wifi adapter ($100+!) from the Wii. That makes the Wii console $150. Wait, it still comes with a game. The game won't be full priced (as confirmed by the Japanese press conference last night). So say $25 for the game. That brings the console down to $125. Less than half the price of the 360?! See, I can do stupid math too!:) My point is, $250 pricing should have been expected, and I myself was predicting $249 with 2 controllers and Wii Sports. I Was close. The price is fine. It's still $50 cheaper and comes with a game. THAT'S what non-gamers will see. ("Wow, this system is newer AND it's cheaper AND it comes with a game!")
They could then leave it up to game devs to support HD, Non-HD, or both.
This is the worst idea I've ever heard. The whole idea behind a console is control over your platform, and a single target. Any differences SHOULD NOT AFFECT GAMES, otherwise, you're just a Console-Wannabe Windows PC.:\
You're going to alienate your original fanbase, because eventually, guess what's going to happen? Devs are gonna get lazy and won't want to support both.
No, it'll purely for the use of Movies. Period. I don't think Microsoft is THAT dumb as to make a new version of the same console, that'll play different games. If/when they do, it'll be exactly what it is.. a new console. The XBOX 720 or what have you.
They'd do this purely to fight against Sony's bluray [movies]. For those of you who don't think MS has a vested interest in the HD-DVD vs bluray battle, think again. And yes, bluray will have java support.
I'll say it again: meanwhile, Nintendo sits on the sides of this battle merrily making, wait for it... games.:)
... which other than XBox 360 owners is pretty much nobody.
Which is nobody, since the HD-DVD ext. drive for the 360 isn't for sale yet:)
It would save the cost of having to produce two different versions of the same movie (like they had to do with DVD and VHS), a savings which I'm sure they would pass on to the consum*snort*
Hmmm, you give them way to much credit for being consumer friendly. Do you honestly think the movie studios are that nice? I assure you, they'll want to charge even MORE for this type of disc as the new feature is that it plays in both regular DVD and HD-DVD players!
Technology wise, I agree, this is pretty kewl. Ideally, they'll just start releasing all their movies in this format and the DVDs you buy now (and can play now) will later on also contain the HD content you want for when you get the HD-DVD player at a more reasonable price.
That just sounds way too optimistic though. I'm sure they'll screw up this good bit of tech. somehow, you know, with markting and sales:)
... one or two installments of "The Hobbit," which Sloan hopes will be directed by Peter Jackson...
I thought Peter Jackson was quoted as saying he'd love to do it! (right after king kong?) And if they're saying the studio would want him to direct it. Umm, the only thing left I can see is financial terms. After the boatload of money he brought in for the LoTR trilogy*, I can't see them saying no to his terms:)
* yes, I know it's not really a trilogy, but that's what we're calling it cuz he made 3 movies, ok!?:P
Slashdot Mirror
Which makes me wonder, why they still came up with something that's clearly designed to live vertically. Something with the form factor of the typical DVD player or set-top box would fit in amongst many people's setups even easier than the Wii in its standard orientation.
Spoken like the truly uninformed. I guess this is
Watch this, and watch how Matt takes the Wii out of the vertical stand, and lays it flat. Hmmm
How about an officially sanctioned sequal?
Heh, very nice. Looks so 3D though
I can't wait. I hope Space Taxi makes the cut. One of the best games ever :) I've been trying to make a clone of it, but it keeps getting pushed to the back burner. Oh, and Archon too. I'd be super impressed if I could play Archon with a buddy over WifiConnection!
Microsoft is offering to give you a free Zune copy of any song you already bought from Apple. I expect this offer to last about 45 seconds before someone figures out how to spoof
Hmmm
I thought I read somewhere though that they'd be giving you a tool to "transfer" your songs to zune format though. I thought Allard was even quoted. Don't know where I saw it though. Some tech blog somewhere
Thought I'd like to point out that Zune probably isn't going to "steal" any iPod customers away. They may be able to get some people that are about to enter the DAP market, but not the ones that are already invested in iPods. The biggest reason, music collection and familiarity with iTunes. iPods don't do so well because of iPods. iPods do so well because of iTunes. You underestimate the ease of use of iTunes for people that are not so computer savvy. Do you honestly think they're going to be able to convert their iTunes collections over to the Zune format? (I believe M$ is offering up some tool to rip off the DRM from iTunes and apply their own DRM. Don't quote me on that. ... And ummm ... wouldn't that be a violation of the DMCA? :) But that's for another day)
.. I just *downloaded* it off iTunes" .. I was like, "downloaded eh? don't you mean, *bought*" .. she didn't understand the difference? :) She obviously doesn't know how to pir8 things, but this is GOOD. It helps legitimize the electronic distribution of music! I freely admit downloading songs all the time. In fact, I have 5 or so CDs on my bookshelf that are UNOPENED, because I've already downloaded the album. I still support the artists by purchasing, and I like to have a hardcopy of it. But no one's gonna stop me from using it the way i want to use it. (You hear me RIAA?)
:) The zune doesn't have much to compete with. However, I am betting they release it in '07, just after the zune launches to quiet them once and for all :) Apple's got some crazy ass distribution and integration going on with their iTunes/iPods/and soon to be released iTV!
I don't personally use any of these music services. I use my treo600 for music still, cuz it's more than enough for me. However, I do have a bunch of non-computer people, and they will not budge from their iTunes addiction. They even buy music off of it.
I had this one friend, we're talking about some song, and she said "Yah
Anyways, yah, my point was, iTunes users are entrenched, and it's a very tough sell to try to switch them. And honestly, there's no feature in the Zune that really is worth making that big switch.
Side note: I'm betting that's why Apple didn't rush out the widescreen iPod video player. They didn't need to.
Exciting times!
I know it's fun to bash Sony and all lately, but the caption below the title is talking about XBOX 360 games being $72. Is that $3 newsworthy?
If you RTFA you'll see that they're saying "normal" PS3 pricing is in the range of $75-$84USD. Then they later compare "premium" titles to this price mentioning DOA X2 priced at $79USD.
Do you see the difference?
PS3's normal pricing will all be around the price range of the other consoles' "premium titles" pricing!
That's pretty significant if you ask me (especially since there are very few titles for the other consoles in the "premium titles" pricing category). Essentially, all PS3 titles are premium titles
FTFA:
...Since that time, it looks like the controller design has cleaned up a bit, although the people who let us mess around with it informed us it still has yet to be finalized...
.. Nintendo is already churning out systems for a launch date AFTER the PS3's! Shouldn't they already have things "finalized", or is it just me?
(bold was my own)
Ummm
cuz apparently some of you guys aren't understanding :)
.. forget it. I give up. You win.
I'm my previous posts, all I was saying was that 1.1 million units sold across 8 platforms isn't that impressive. Let me elaborate:
a) It'll cost you a LOT more to develop for 8 platforms.
b) you also widen your audience, so yes, it DOES matter that it's across the different platforms, because as a percentage of your audience you're trying to sell to, it's not that special.
c) i then proceeded to name examples of sales numbers (particularly DS titles in Japan) that were more impressive to me and of course, it started fanboi wars. Fine, here are more impressive numbers. Halo 2 sold 2.4 million copies in one day. Which of course beat out the previous record of 2.06 million by GTA. (same article).
Compared to those numbers (as a percentage of total POSSIBLE customers) 1.1 million units on 8 platforms is very average.
Ahhh
Why does it matter how many platforms they release it for? 1.1 million is 1.1 million. It's not like many people are buying multiple copies for different platforms.
Because developing for 8 different platforms is going to cost you a lot more money. So 137,500 copies per platform doesn't sound that spectacular business wise. I doubt they've even recouped their costs yet. (Granted it's only been a week). I didn't see
That's 1.1 million copies spanning 8 platforms! That's only 137,500 copies for each platform. There are DS titles that have sold 3 million now individually. FFIII for DS in Japan sold almost 600,000 copies in less than a week. How is this impressive?
It does look like a gimmick, but charging things from a USB port is not new. I have a USB 'phone charger which is great when I travel. It means I just need one power adaptor for my laptop and none for my 'phone (and since my laptop is a PowerBook, I don't even need an adaptor, I just take the US or EU plug with me).
You're right. So do I . My treo 600 charges nicely from USB. However, I just don't see the use of charging AA batteries. There are so many better (and cheaper) ways to get AA power.
I thought this might be useful, then I looked at some of my toys that take AA. My old Canon A70 takes 4AA. I use NiMH. I have a charger that can charge 4 batteries at a time. Ummm ... I don't think I even HAVE 4 USB ports :) and even if I did, I don't think they'd all fit. (Because you know how they like to cram a bunch of USB ports together and if you plug in something larger than a regular cable, the slot next to it is wasted)
.. I'm back to "I can't think of anything useful for it" :)
So really, it's only useful for say, an MP3 player that takes a single AA battery. But then again, my brother's little samsung mp3 player has a built-in Li Ion battery and a USB plug built in that can flip up. And it's hardly bigger than a AA battery.
Hmmm
Microsoft has way more boxes in the field, but is still way in the red. Nintendo is well in the black. And that's all that really matters in the long view.
Grrr
Anyone have google's ad revenue relating specific to these areas?
Here's some data you can look at. Google looks to be doing quite well actually
apparently the HD-DVD drive will launch in japan on Nov. 22 for about $180USD.
I find this odd for several reasons. a) There is no "Xmas shopping craze" in japan. b) they'll miss out on said craze in North America.
The only reason why I can see them doing this is because they're getting really desperate to get some units out in japan. Selling 1000 consoles a week just isn't going to cut it, and they know that. Well, you gotta give them some credit for being persistant. Not many companies can fail so badly in a region and STILL pump all that money into it.
I completely agree. Gentoo's documentation is some of the best for anything OSS.
Not a big deal to me
* I'm trying to reduce my computers to (hopefully) 1 iMac and 1 laptop
hmmm
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade
and here's the kicker
I can't completely agree with the article. I never had any problems installing it. In fact, the installer was very kewl in that it came with ssh and screen. I even did COMPLETE remote installs for people before. I just call them up and tell them to put the CD in and boot up and set a password. After I'm done with it, call them back and tell them to take the CD out so I could reboot. Done. they were amazed.
:)
Install wasn't my problem.
Maintenance was my problem. As one of the commenters from the article pointed out, you were basically compiling an update constantly. It could be a minor bug fix but if it was in a big package like glibc, it would take a while to compile. You could go about your business, but you noticed it. The next day would bring about another big compile (say, X!?) and on and on it went. The endless cyle of updating. Some would argue that this was a feature of it. Sure, you're always getting the latest of everything. But it was a little bit of a PITA. The worst was when I went away, came back to a LOT of updates. Those updates (during the end of my time on gentoo) started to break things unfortunately. QA went downhill as the distro got too big.
Anyways, I still think gentoo is kewl, with its configurability. However, I've traded some of that control in for maintenance sanity and am currently on Ubuntu for my desktop and debian on my server.
Thanks to the gentoo community for the fun few years. #gentoo was always lively
FTFA:
.. but we will have them. (or in the case of FF, we probably will have them. Square-Enix is in a love fest with nintendo these days)
There are so many people out there that love to buy the new Madden release or the latest Final Fantasy sequel that it's difficult to believe that Nintendo can change their mind or be a success without them.
Ummm
Madden is coming to the Wii. And in fact, will probably be the first (American) football game I buy since like '98. After reading that developer interview over at IGN, I'm quite excited about play this game! It's a very long read, but it sounds like it'll be a lot easier to play. Running with the ball, I'll be able to straight arm a guy to my left, and at the same time, juke to the right, and it'll be as easy as flicking my wrist. Something we all probably do already when playing video games!!!
Yes it only includes 1 controller and 1 nunchuk attachment. They'll be sold for $40 and $20 respectively. Which does seem a little steep, but it's certainly NOT your regular same old controller. A lot of tech is in that wii-mote. Remember, a lot of the innovation for this generation console from Nintendo is in that controller. So to get it down to $40 is in fact, quite remarkable. (If you ask me) Alas, I am but one man with my own opinions.
Oh, and I forgot to mention in my original post.
This also marks the first console in like a decade, where you can buy the console alone, and be able to go home and play it right away without any other purchase!
Cuz the kotaku thread got out of hand. Too many clueless people. Here's my take on the launch:
:\ ) What they also do is avoid being over-shadowed by the PS3 launch (say if they were to launch a few days before the PS3).
:) I'm sure they contemplated $199, $229, but decided for launch, they could probably get people to pay $249, but they'll also include a game. That's a business decision, which for the most part makes sense. It'll probably sell out at launch anyhow.
.. wifi. Take a look at the cost of the wifi adapter for the 360. Now let's do some stupid math (as people generally like to do when comparing apples to oranges) and deduct the cost of a 360 wifi adapter ($100+!) from the Wii. That makes the Wii console $150. Wait, it still comes with a game. The game won't be full priced (as confirmed by the Japanese press conference last night). So say $25 for the game. That brings the console down to $125. Less than half the price of the 360?! See, I can do stupid math too! :) My point is, $250 pricing should have been expected, and I myself was predicting $249 with 2 controllers and Wii Sports. I Was close. The price is fine. It's still $50 cheaper and comes with a game. THAT'S what non-gamers will see. ("Wow, this system is newer AND it's cheaper AND it comes with a game!")
1) The date. Everyone was hoping for an early release (me included!) but I'm assuming the business strategy is to go after the poor schmucks that won't be able to get a PS3. The PS3 launches only 2 days before it, and there will be VERY few of them. (Half of which will be bought up by people only to be put up on ebay
2) a) Pricing. They said it would be under $250. When companies say that, it'll probably be $249.99. Which it basically is
2) b) For those of you saying "$250? Pshaw, XBOX 360 Core is only $300. People will think it's only $50 more and buy a 360". Right, let's compare a 360 Core system that comes with nothing. To a system that comes with a game, and ahem
is now live!!!
www.wii.com
The article came out before the Japanese conference. (Which is happening as I type this) They're live blogging it over at kotaku
I'll believe it when they Iwata announces it.
They could then leave it up to game devs to support HD, Non-HD, or both.
This is the worst idea I've ever heard. The whole idea behind a console is control over your platform, and a single target. Any differences SHOULD NOT AFFECT GAMES, otherwise, you're just a Console-Wannabe Windows PC.
You're going to alienate your original fanbase, because eventually, guess what's going to happen? Devs are gonna get lazy and won't want to support both.
No, it'll purely for the use of Movies. Period. I don't think Microsoft is THAT dumb as to make a new version of the same console, that'll play different games. If/when they do, it'll be exactly what it is
They'd do this purely to fight against Sony's bluray [movies]. For those of you who don't think MS has a vested interest in the HD-DVD vs bluray battle, think again. And yes, bluray will have java support.
I'll say it again: meanwhile, Nintendo sits on the sides of this battle merrily making, wait for it
Which is nobody, since the HD-DVD ext. drive for the 360 isn't for sale yet
It would save the cost of having to produce two different versions of the same movie (like they had to do with DVD and VHS), a savings which I'm sure they would pass on to the consum*snort*
Hmmm, you give them way to much credit for being consumer friendly. Do you honestly think the movie studios are that nice? I assure you, they'll want to charge even MORE for this type of disc as the new feature is that it plays in both regular DVD and HD-DVD players!
Technology wise, I agree, this is pretty kewl. Ideally, they'll just start releasing all their movies in this format and the DVDs you buy now (and can play now) will later on also contain the HD content you want for when you get the HD-DVD player at a more reasonable price.
That just sounds way too optimistic though. I'm sure they'll screw up this good bit of tech. somehow, you know, with markting and sales
I thought Peter Jackson was quoted as saying he'd love to do it! (right after king kong?) And if they're saying the studio would want him to direct it. Umm, the only thing left I can see is financial terms. After the boatload of money he brought in for the LoTR trilogy*, I can't see them saying no to his terms
* yes, I know it's not really a trilogy, but that's what we're calling it cuz he made 3 movies, ok!?