Xbox 360, like the PS3, is 'region-free'. What this actually means when it comes to consoles is that the manufacturer doesn't force developers to lock the game to a certain region.
No, the PS3 is region-free for gaming.
Blu-Ray as well as DVDs and the Xbox 360 are not region-free. They can be region-coded or not.
When does this become more than a case of he-said she-said?
Indeed, the monitoring trustee appointed in October 2005, from a shortlist put forward by Microsoft, believes that the decision clearly outlines what Microsoft is required to do.
It's more a question of who's "he" and who's "she". If "he"'s a CS professor (iirc), appointed as an impartial expert from a list "she" provided, "she" might have a credibility problem if what "she" said doesn't match what "he" said. Not the other way round.
They are pulling a Napster! This time without being sued first...
Could be because the movie industry is in almost every respect a bit less evil and a bit less stupid than the music industry. Perhaps because they have the music industry as a bad example on how not to do it.
I think the fact that DS is region-free really helped cement them a top position in a market that's tired of waiting for stuff to find its way over there.
The only real competitor of the DS is the PSP which is region-free, too (well, for games, but the DS is no movie player). So I really don't see how that would make a difference; I doubt many people replace their PS2/GCN/Xbox with a handheld because it's region-free.
The first real test to your theory will be the next-gen consoles because the PS3 is region-free (well, for games...) while the 360 isn't; iirc the Wii will be region-free, too, but I'm not sure.
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is one of the best games for the Gamecube, putting it squarely among the top games of this ending generation.
Amen, if a friend of mine hadn't had a Gamecube already (convenient =P) this would have been the one game that made me buy a GCN.
Wind Waker was great, too, some other stuff were nice party games but Eternal Darkness is brilliant and a Gamecube exclusive and to me (YMMV) it's the only game with that special combination of attributes =)
I've studied German and find it to be a very difficult language. I've also studied Spanish, French, Italian, Latin, and Ancient Greek. With the exception of Greek, all of the other languages I've studied have been vastly easier to learn than German.
Then you're doing something wrong. I'll grant you Spanish and Italian but I fail to see how French is "vastly easier" and I got a Latin grammar next to me that tells me that Latin grammar is a overcomplicated and where it isn't it's a mess beyond belief. The only advantage of those two is that they are Romance languages.
No, this smells of marketing. As someone else's already pointed out, most likely they're gonna take the current software of one of the teams that already works fine and make it the standard for all teams (with some necessary adjustments each year done by its current developers). The closest MS is gonna get to a F1 car is when they put their sticker on the cars, the driver's suit and those ad-wall thingies in the background of interviews etc
But in a more fundamental sense, the whole shift towards the "casual gamer" is an attempt to find a market that is more interested in quality over quantity. People who couldn't possibly ever find the time to play even a fraction of all those PS2 games, and would rather just buy one occasionally, and be pretty sure that it'll be a worthwhile purchase.
Every "casual gamer" I know bought a much higher ratio of crap (that he's interested in because it got the awesome xyz license, because he likes fishing, because the box was so shiny or because it got the best shelf space of all budget titles when he desperately needed a cheap gift for the neighbors' boy) to great games than any hardcore gamer.
Therefore Nintendo got the dedicated fanboys and Sony the Deer Hunter crowd. Price OTOH could be a major reason for Nintendo to get a bigger piece of the pie as long as they manage not to appear too kiddy. The design of the Wii (sleek, white or black, serious) is certainly a major step forward (no handle, not available in pink) and I don't believe people will notice the name.
The movie companies MIGHT restrict the products to certain players? They already do today and have for years!!
If I were Apple I'd write back: "Dear Sirs; either ban CSS as well or get off our case."
Shhh! Don't tip them off, if this goes through ladies and gentlemen it will be the end of CSS and AACS and all this POS. Well, that, or we get a completely toothless piece of paper hailed by its creators as major step forward for consumers and ignored by the world at large.
"It's not likely that Rob Enderle will stay loyal to Gates and Ballmer as they step down as the company's Dynamic Duo of Evil", says Nuthell Fortytwo, principal analyst at the Nutshell Group, who has watched Slashdot (Dupes) for almost 7 years. "When you get into a cycle like this, the founders go reasonably soon after each other, and the astroturfers try to get into the good graces of their new masters" says Fortytwo.
It should be impossible to get a patent on a "method for doing stuff with things" which unfortunatly is all too possible right now. Also it should be much easier to get patents revoked for being trivial or if there's prior art.
Because Toshiba's HD-DVD format was developed in unison with the international DVD forum, whose task it was to collaborate and create the next-gen DVDs. Sony, however, backstabbed the world, and created a second format war when it dismissed HD-DVDs and made their own specification.
The "International DVD Forum" is just a coalition of the willing. It's a group of companies that came into existence when Sony's and Philips' MMCD merged into Toshiba's SD initative to create a new optical disc. There's nothing about it that makes it inherently superior or more worthy than the "International Blu-Ray Disc Association" or whatever they call themselves.
Sony wasn't alone in "backstabbing" Toshiba and they did it because they thought HD-DVD made too many compromises for the sake of compatibility with DVD production facilities.
Moreover, Blu-ray has unimaginable support by movie companies, because of the very same reason everyone hates Sony and everyone hates the MPAA. The Blu-ray format has more DRM and other copy-protection than HD-DVD does.
Both use AACS.
Simply put, BD-ROM is another propietary format developed by Sony, and it is screwing consumers in ways that this generation has never seen. The DVD forum was created to prevent another horrible VHS-Betamax war, and because of Sony's arrogance and greed, it was all for naught.
First generation of games half a year before launch are not the pinnacle of what said console is capable.
I'm shocked. Shocked!
The same is true for all consoles and all games (as long as they're actually running in real-time on the real hardware and are not just bullshots or "target renders" *cough*Killzone2*cough*)
I'm a two time Bush voter. Even with his shorcomings(and he does have many), the other candidate in the general election was even more unpalatable to me.
Kerry being the spineless little git that he is with a Republican House and Senate. What exactly could he have done that's so bad?
When 88.4% of the polled market says the price is too high maybe you should listen.
Not if you sold 25 million units of your last console and have no way of selling more than about 2 million units of your new one in the first six months. about 10% said the price was ok, plus at least I have lots of stuff that I'd say was too expensive but that I've bought anyway so I'd say Sony knew what they're doing.
The only reason for Sony to sell the PS3 at a lower price the first few months would have been to keep people from buying a 360. And I really thought they would do just that (My guess was they'd sell for $399 or $449 at most). But apparently they concluded demand would outstrip supply of the 360 at least during the holiday season and the first few months of '07 no matter what and decided to milk their early adopters instead (I just had a deja vu, or deja written. I don't know if it was on/. though =). Most 360s sold over the first months sold for more than $400, there were few core systems, lots of consoles on ebay and the rest sold in ridiculous bundles, so there definitely is a bunch of people ready to pay more than $400 for a console.
But if Sony doesn't lower the price in '07, and lower it more than MS the price of the 360, they'll have a real problem.
Personally, I won't buy a Wii unless they suddenly unveil a must-have game that blows away everything I've ever seen. I know a couple of guys who'll probably buy one and that's enough for me.
Neither the Xbox nor the 360 has an exclusive title that I'm really interested in, most of it seems to be EA Sports or PC games and I got a PC for those (or similar games). Bioshock could change that though.
The PS3 has the most interesting games (MGS4, Virtua Fighter 5, Assassin's Creed) but there's no way I'm gonna pay more than $300 for a console (and I won't buy a console that doesn't have at least 2 must-buy titles, so we're at 300+60+60+40=460 -40 for an additional controller- anyway), so it'll have to go through a number of price cuts until they see my money
Keep in mind that that only includes DVDs. HD-DVD will, of course, be available in the future. You can purchase your entire movie library all over again, just like going from LPs to CDs.
Not only that. First you'll be able to buy the HD-DVD version of the Director's Cut-Cut (i.e. the new one). Then the HD-DVD Director's Cut, then the HD-DVD Original Theatrical Release, then the HD-DVD Premium Edition containing the Director's Cut-Cut and the Director's Cut, then the HD-DVD Anniversary Edition containing the Theatrical Release and the Director's Cut-Cut, then the Ultimate Edition with all three in a digitally reremastered HD version. Then you'll get the same for Blu-Ray plus a new BD exclusive Ultimegadition with all three plus a new Director's Theatrical-Re-Re-Cut
Rinse and repeat (in 4032x2048x1280 3D-MoreDefinitionThanHDEverHad - 3DMDTHDEH) for Blu-HD-RayVD the 5TB successor to BD and HDDVD, coming 2014
All those jokes we remember so fondly were mostly a problem of industrial design.
The 360 is almost the same size (I think it's even larger in at least one dimension) and managed even that only by moving its PSU to an enormous external unit but it *looks* much sleeker. The same's true for the PS3. The whole Xbox design is clumsy and just screams "I'm huge, make fun of me". Kudos to MS for getting it right this time.
And they've contributed nothing to man kind like NASA research has.
The planets were discovered around HD 69830, a star slightly less massive than the sun located 41 light-years away in the constellation Puppis (the Stern), using the ultra-precise HARPS spectrograph on the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-meter La Silla telescope in Chile.
Just because the/. summary sounds like NASA did this, doesn't mean that's true. Of course you could argue that with more funding NASA *would* have been the first to find it. =)
Guy 2: Yeah, then we released a new Tomb Raider that was actually pretty decent, and not bug-ridden, and it sold well. Weird!
No, no, no! You're looking at this from a developer-nerd POV. Everyone who's taken Marketing 101 could tell you this is totally wrong.
A correct analysis and outlook by key analysts would go like this:
Guy 1: Hmmm, so weird. We released Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, and it underachieved optimum sales forecasts!
Guy 2: Yeah, then we released a new Tomb Raider that was also called Tomb Raider but featured a franchise asset with smaller key distinguation features (i.e. tits) but reduced unenveloping requirements (i.e. little black dress slit to the hips) for improved total reception index!
Except for the 1st generation systems (Atari), no system that has cost as much as the PS3 has succeeded... even taking inflation into account.
Except for the 1st generation systems (Atari), no system that has cost as much as the Playstation 1 has succeeded... even taking inflation into account.
Sony's doomed! Doomed!
That and he's got the $500 PS3 on there, comparing with the highend 360. He should really have the $600 PS3 on there.
You're wrong. He's comparing both the $300 and the $400 360 to both the $500 and the $600 PS3.
Slashdot Mirror
No, the PS3 is region-free for gaming.
Blu-Ray as well as DVDs and the Xbox 360 are not region-free. They can be region-coded or not.
Indeed, the monitoring trustee appointed in October 2005, from a shortlist put forward by Microsoft, believes that the decision clearly outlines what Microsoft is required to do.
It's more a question of who's "he" and who's "she". If "he"'s a CS professor (iirc), appointed as an impartial expert from a list "she" provided, "she" might have a credibility problem if what "she" said doesn't match what "he" said. Not the other way round.
Didn't they just release a Settlers 2 remake? Coincidence?
Could be because the movie industry is in almost every respect a bit less evil and a bit less stupid than the music industry. Perhaps because they have the music industry as a bad example on how not to do it.
The only real competitor of the DS is the PSP which is region-free, too (well, for games, but the DS is no movie player). So I really don't see how that would make a difference; I doubt many people replace their PS2/GCN/Xbox with a handheld because it's region-free.
The first real test to your theory will be the next-gen consoles because the PS3 is region-free (well, for games...) while the 360 isn't; iirc the Wii will be region-free, too, but I'm not sure.
Amen, if a friend of mine hadn't had a Gamecube already (convenient =P) this would have been the one game that made me buy a GCN.
Wind Waker was great, too, some other stuff were nice party games but Eternal Darkness is brilliant and a Gamecube exclusive and to me (YMMV) it's the only game with that special combination of attributes =)
Then you're doing something wrong. I'll grant you Spanish and Italian but I fail to see how French is "vastly easier" and I got a Latin grammar next to me that tells me that Latin grammar is a overcomplicated and where it isn't it's a mess beyond belief. The only advantage of those two is that they are Romance languages.
No, this smells of marketing. As someone else's already pointed out, most likely they're gonna take the current software of one of the teams that already works fine and make it the standard for all teams (with some necessary adjustments each year done by its current developers). The closest MS is gonna get to a F1 car is when they put their sticker on the cars, the driver's suit and those ad-wall thingies in the background of interviews etc
Every "casual gamer" I know bought a much higher ratio of crap (that he's interested in because it got the awesome xyz license, because he likes fishing, because the box was so shiny or because it got the best shelf space of all budget titles when he desperately needed a cheap gift for the neighbors' boy) to great games than any hardcore gamer.
Therefore Nintendo got the dedicated fanboys and Sony the Deer Hunter crowd. Price OTOH could be a major reason for Nintendo to get a bigger piece of the pie as long as they manage not to appear too kiddy. The design of the Wii (sleek, white or black, serious) is certainly a major step forward (no handle, not available in pink) and I don't believe people will notice the name.
If I were Apple I'd write back: "Dear Sirs; either ban CSS as well or get off our case."
Shhh! Don't tip them off, if this goes through ladies and gentlemen it will be the end of CSS and AACS and all this POS. Well, that, or we get a completely toothless piece of paper hailed by its creators as major step forward for consumers and ignored by the world at large.
3.) Make patents *narrow and specific* again.
It should be impossible to get a patent on a "method for doing stuff with things" which unfortunatly is all too possible right now. Also it should be much easier to get patents revoked for being trivial or if there's prior art.
I'd say two million might be too low but I'd be surprised if the non-US audience was anywhere near the 130 million (or whatever) in the US.
The "International DVD Forum" is just a coalition of the willing. It's a group of companies that came into existence when Sony's and Philips' MMCD merged into Toshiba's SD initative to create a new optical disc. There's nothing about it that makes it inherently superior or more worthy than the "International Blu-Ray Disc Association" or whatever they call themselves.
Sony wasn't alone in "backstabbing" Toshiba and they did it because they thought HD-DVD made too many compromises for the sake of compatibility with DVD production facilities.
Moreover, Blu-ray has unimaginable support by movie companies, because of the very same reason everyone hates Sony and everyone hates the MPAA. The Blu-ray format has more DRM and other copy-protection than HD-DVD does.
Both use AACS.
Simply put, BD-ROM is another propietary format developed by Sony, and it is screwing consumers in ways that this generation has never seen. The DVD forum was created to prevent another horrible VHS-Betamax war, and because of Sony's arrogance and greed, it was all for naught.
Repent! The End is nigh!
I'm shocked. Shocked!
The same is true for all consoles and all games (as long as they're actually running in real-time on the real hardware and are not just bullshots or "target renders" *cough*Killzone2*cough*)
Music Piracy Unit Raids ISP in BitTorrent Assault
*radio chirps*
we have 404 in progress
*chirp*
they've taken down the links
*chrip*
I'm goin' in
*chirp*
*crashing sounds*
*screams*
put down the network cable!
put your hands above your head!
Hey, you, in the greatfull dead tshirt and the
"fuck-you" hat! Ya you, drop the Peanut butter
and jelly sandwich right now!!
The tough jobs of tough men in law enforcement and the War on Torrent....
*sob*
Disclaimer: Not mine but I can't remember where that quote's from
You know that this comment just asks for a Hitler comparison (and no, I wouldn't equate Kerry with Hitler...)?
Kerry being the spineless little git that he is with a Republican House and Senate. What exactly could he have done that's so bad?
Not if you sold 25 million units of your last console and have no way of selling more than about 2 million units of your new one in the first six months. about 10% said the price was ok, plus at least I have lots of stuff that I'd say was too expensive but that I've bought anyway so I'd say Sony knew what they're doing.
The only reason for Sony to sell the PS3 at a lower price the first few months would have been to keep people from buying a 360. And I really thought they would do just that (My guess was they'd sell for $399 or $449 at most). But apparently they concluded demand would outstrip supply of the 360 at least during the holiday season and the first few months of '07 no matter what and decided to milk their early adopters instead (I just had a deja vu, or deja written. I don't know if it was on /. though =). Most 360s sold over the first months sold for more than $400, there were few core systems, lots of consoles on ebay and the rest sold in ridiculous bundles, so there definitely is a bunch of people ready to pay more than $400 for a console.
But if Sony doesn't lower the price in '07, and lower it more than MS the price of the 360, they'll have a real problem.
Personally, I won't buy a Wii unless they suddenly unveil a must-have game that blows away everything I've ever seen. I know a couple of guys who'll probably buy one and that's enough for me.
Neither the Xbox nor the 360 has an exclusive title that I'm really interested in, most of it seems to be EA Sports or PC games and I got a PC for those (or similar games). Bioshock could change that though.
The PS3 has the most interesting games (MGS4, Virtua Fighter 5, Assassin's Creed) but there's no way I'm gonna pay more than $300 for a console (and I won't buy a console that doesn't have at least 2 must-buy titles, so we're at 300+60+60+40=460 -40 for an additional controller- anyway), so it'll have to go through a number of price cuts until they see my money
Not only that. First you'll be able to buy the HD-DVD version of the Director's Cut-Cut (i.e. the new one).
Then the HD-DVD Director's Cut, then the HD-DVD Original Theatrical Release,
then the HD-DVD Premium Edition containing the Director's Cut-Cut and the Director's Cut,
then the HD-DVD Anniversary Edition containing the Theatrical Release and the Director's Cut-Cut,
then the Ultimate Edition with all three in a digitally reremastered HD version.
Then you'll get the same for Blu-Ray plus a new BD exclusive Ultimegadition with all three plus a new Director's Theatrical-Re-Re-Cut
Rinse and repeat (in 4032x2048x1280 3D-MoreDefinitionThanHDEverHad - 3DMDTHDEH) for Blu-HD-RayVD the 5TB successor to BD and HDDVD, coming 2014
The 360 is almost the same size (I think it's even larger in at least one dimension) and managed even that only by moving its PSU to an enormous external unit but it *looks* much sleeker. The same's true for the PS3. The whole Xbox design is clumsy and just screams "I'm huge, make fun of me". Kudos to MS for getting it right this time.
No, no, no! You're looking at this from a developer-nerd POV. Everyone who's taken Marketing 101 could tell you this is totally wrong.
A correct analysis and outlook by key analysts would go like this:
Guy 1: Hmmm, so weird. We released Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, and it underachieved optimum sales forecasts!
Guy 2: Yeah, then we released a new Tomb Raider that was also called Tomb Raider but featured a franchise asset with smaller key distinguation features (i.e. tits) but reduced unenveloping requirements (i.e. little black dress slit to the hips) for improved total reception index!
Guy 1: I know! Recommendation to management:
Except for the 1st generation systems (Atari), no system that has cost as much as the Playstation 1 has succeeded... even taking inflation into account.
Sony's doomed! Doomed!
That and he's got the $500 PS3 on there, comparing with the highend 360. He should really have the $600 PS3 on there.
You're wrong. He's comparing both the $300 and the $400 360 to both the $500 and the $600 PS3.