Not exactly. The silver account (which is free) gives you voice chat (single person not while playing the same game), friends list, MSN type messanger, and Live marketplace integration. It also sounded as if live arcade (download and play those old arcade games) is coming to Vista out of the box. While yes you have to pay for actual online gaming (which on Vista seems silly) however the connectivity is better (argueably) and thier is ladder, matchmaking and ranking support is damm good. Yes you are getting more for your fee, is it worth what they are charging?? Hard to say. There was talk of making the service advertiser supported, with a big enough base that might be possible.
This is actually pretty cool. It means that the acheivements and gamerscore are coming to Vista. Xbox live support for multiplayer (good bye gamespy) and its cross platform. I know PC gamers will dispise the concept of playing with console kiddies but given the chance I think this will be huge. Friends lists, video and voice chat, gamerscore, acheivements this is all big and welcome news for Vista. The additional connectivity to the windows community will only help the 360. Leave it to microsoft to once agian figure out how to leverage its OS monopoly to help in other markets.
Is the price point combined with the "expected" shipments totals of 2 million worldwide for the christmas season (slightly more than that since they "expect" 4 million by year end). But that is world wide. It was a given that no one would be able to get one but at a 499$/599$ price point those who would have held out have less reason to now.
The PS3 will have the same exact problems the 360 had last year with production, maybe even more if they keep throwing everything into the system (motion detection??) at the last minute. What makes this even worse is that christmas buyers get to stare at the cheaper and in stock 360s sitting on the shelves, waiting to be the alternate choice. Nintendo will do well but you won't see those sitting on shelves for very long either. Microsoft might just sell 10 million by year end that will definatly make them a player this generation.
But the name Wii not wii-thstanding, Nintendo has grasped two important notions that have eluded its competitors. The first is, Don't listen to your customers. The hard-core gaming community is extremely vocal--they blog a lot--but if Nintendo kept listening to them, hard-core gamers would be the only audience it ever had. "[Wii] was unimaginable for them," Iwata says. "And because it was unimaginable, they could not say that they wanted it. If you are simply listening to requests from the customer, you can satisfy their needs, but you can never surprise them. Sony and Microsoft make daily-necessity kinds of things. They have to listen to the needs of the customers and try to comply with their requests. That kind of approach has been deeply ingrained in their minds."
Finally a company gets it. Do not listen to the hardcore audience as they have absolutly no basis in reality (they have likely spent more time in virtual reality than actual reality for last couple years). Hardcore gamers spend so much time playing games they really can't think outside of the "these games are too short and too easy for my leet skillz" box. Games do not need to be harder to play or interface with. Games just need to be fun. Swinging a virtual sword, pump faking a virtual football and swating a virtual fly all seem like fun to me. I will gladly trade the hardcore "games are not fun unless you WORK for the accomplishment" attitude for this "new" idea of having fun while I acutally "play" a video game.
This is one of those obvious can't lose licenses (unless the game sucks) like Warhammer. Take elves, orcs and magic and add automatic weapons, fast cars, robots and the matrix, oh yeah and lets not forget badass american indian shamen. Talk about your geek imagination overload. With a world controlled by Megacorps that are constantly hiring rogue mercenary groups for various jobs, its perfect for open-ended GTA style questing. Please make this an MMO or and huge ass oblivion sytle RPG (with a coop mode). *whew* I need to sit down....
No seriously. Just as quickly as the hard core gamers abondoned the "revolutionary" thinking by nintendo because of this name (I guess even ye mighty are slaves to marketing flashy names and pretty packages), they will come back as soon as the N licenses queen for a MTV/itunes style commercial. It's all about marketing folks, this will acutlaly turn out to be a really smart move on thier part. They aren't aiming for the 13 year old, I must laugh when you say duty or we we, crowd!
I bought a 360 in March and I can honestly say that it is one of the best 400$ entertainment decisions I have made in a while. Say what you want, it is a blast. It's not perfect but it is well worth the money.
Xbox Live Marketplace provides a ton of demos and free stuff, the Achevement system is addictive (but meaningless like it should be), worldwide and friends sorted leaderboards are great (expecially for those live arcade titles), and the games are are a blast. Oblivion is one of the best games I have played in years.
I am not a fanboy but I certianly like my xbox enough to call myself a fan. If the PS3 and Revolution are this much fun I will buy those systems too, in a heart beat!
Hell a high end PC graphics card costs about as much as a 360 (and you will need a decent one to run Oblivion).
If MS wants to make the thing cooler and cheaper in the next year why do I care? I have my gaming goodness right now and I am happy.
Does the Rev need to be in our hands at the same time its in the hands of those that live in Japan? No. Does it need to be in our hands before Thanksgiving? Absolutly Critical! A Christmas Holiday launch is really the only concern (in terms of timing for the launch).
Lets all be completely honest, not a one of us wants to see this case be successful because we feel a danger to our right to art and entertainment.
While I agree, there is also a part of me that thinks any developer that makes a game where the primary objectives in the game involve car-jacking, murdering and getting away from law enforcement that that developer should have at least a passing concern as to how thier creation will have an impact. We talk so freely about people pointing fingers and shurking responsibility. Are we really saying that Rockstar should have ZERO consideration for the overall impact of what they create? That they get to completely wash thier hands of any culpabilty when they make something original. Why does Rockstar get a pass on the responsibility hit list?
I am certianly not saying this litigation is right. But at the same time maybe just maybe making vidoe games that glorify the killing of cops may not be "right" either.
Why wouldn't it be? These arcade titles are cheap, easy to get into, easy to get and install and because of Xbox Live are collabrative on some level (whether that be a friends sorted HiScore board or direct xbox live head to head).
We are social creatures. We want to watch what our friends watch and we want to play what our friends are playing. This console generation's war may be decided more on which console allows us to play with our friends and less on which console has the best games and hardware.
By allowing us to see what games our buddies are playing and what thier scores are, Live Marketplace may have just stumbled into the most viral marketing models we have seen yet.
Development shops have all but perfected the multiplatform release. Nearly every new 3rd party game is multiplatform. What that means to the gamer is that console choice is less risky. Developers assume less risk buy starting the development process with multiplatform design in mind. The difference between the 360 and ps3 will not likely be large enough to make developers say "hey we can only have this on the PS3 because the 360 can't handle it from a technical standpoint". Exclusives will happen on all three platforms but likely only by first party developers so the number of those titles will be small comparitively. Breakaway hits are flaky and unpredictable to begin with so ANY platform has a chance to produce those.
Basically to the consumer any platform is a great choice.
Now in an environment like this first mover becomes a big advantage. Having your console on the shelves with a huge library of titles ready to go just as your competition hits the market with only a few titles and a shortage of actual machines can make a critical difference. Next christmas when mom and dad go out to buy johnny that PS3 that is so hot its out of stock they in all truthfulness won't have a really good reason NOT to get him the 360 that is in stock instead.
Each platform has its advantages:
The 360 is a first mover, will have more titles, a larger installed base, a better online component and ease of PC game portablility.
The PS3 has the playstation name, is the current generation king by a huge margin, developer loyality, a huge japanese foothold, blu-ray, and better hardware at higher resolution.
The Revloution has a genius new controller, an excited developer community, a wise casual target market strategy, an established online commuinty, will likely be the cheapest of all of the consoles and has a huge japenese following.
That said, to the consumer, no matter what console you pick you will likely be very satisfied. In the end the unpredictable runaway hits that could happen exclusively on ANY platform will probably be the deciding factor though. Sony being 6 more months late to the market or MS not having enough machines to meet demand (what a problem to have) will likely have little to no impact on who actually "wins" this generation (sounds like gamers are the winners).
Well I just happened to be lucky and snaged a core system this saturday (last system at EB everyone else in town was sold out). And I am very happy with the purchase. I didn't buy any games with it just a live sub (and mic) and a vga adapter. I set it next to my computer, pluged it into my dual input lcd monitor that is hooked to my main pc, rented Kameo from blockbuster and I have been having a hi-res gaming blast ever since.
In Kameo I have thrown ice spears at dragons, rode a war horse around a battlefield filled with elves and trolls (think warcraft orcs), rolled around as a giant spiked pinball crushing trolls, swam around chasing submarines as a torpedo shooting squid and roasted more than a few trolls alive as a fire breathing dragon. In short I am having a blast!
Hate and preach anti M$ all you want. The 360 is a great machine.
I have a mid level pc with a 6800 gt in it, I play pc games all the time. So why did the 360 have an impact?
Cost effectiviness/bang for the buck. I know its outside Microsofts intended model but Gamefly is a large reason why I bought a 360. 21.95$ a month for any game I want to play is exactly the cable like gaming distribution model I want to participate in. I have payed blizzard 14.95 a month (and SOE/Verant before that). So 21.95$ is hardley a stretch for what I get.
The 300$ I paid for the console is a full 1/3 of what I paid for my PC! And thats with me newegging all the parts and putting it togeather myself. Hell my graphics card cost me 300. And this thing would eat my PC for breakfast spec wise (if only it had a mouse and a keyboard... grumble).
Say what you want. I am hi-res gaming for cheaper than you do on a PC.
Back to the topic. If I were a betting man I would say that while next gen stuff is looming, gamers still need thier fix. The 360 isn't causing the slow down. My bet is that the rental market (you have one example right here), and the MMORPG market (consume so much time gamers can't play and pay for anything else) is what is causing this issue. Six pack Joe gamer doesn't even know when the revolution or ps3 are comming out, it's hardly effecting his spending habits.
What Marketing team in thier right mind would miss an oppourtunity to setup thier product as the sold out christmas toy of the season?
Lets put this in perspective: Microsoft is on the hook to developers to provide a certian number of units (assuming there is contract for this sort of thing). They also see a juicy christmas oppourtunity to drive demand via a shortage (I will explain why this is a huge opportunity in a second). The answer is simple, worldwide release lets them fullfill there contracts for number of units delivered. It just spreads the units around the world instead of isolating them to a certian region. Game developers are happy as the expected base of units is actually met and marketing is happy as there is now a shortage its just confined on a regional basis.
Every christmas we get to see the same speculative news reports on which toy will be "The Toy(TM)" for this season. A shortage at release allows ebay scalpers to drive prices through the roof. The news reports catch wind of xbox 360s going for 1500$ on ebay and it is declared the defacto winner of "The Toy" for christmas 2005. When microsoft dumps a huge inventory on the market on december 20th, last minute moms and dads are all too happy to pay 400$ for the same "toy of 2005" that was going for 1500$ on ebay just a week earlier.
Then the competitive keep up with jones christmas buying fever kicks in "I just got off the phone Kim she says she actually found xbox 360s at walmart for 400$ and she got one for billy." "Crap honey, johnie specifically asked for that but we already bought him gifts for christmas. But if he wakes up christmas morning to find out that santa brought billy a 360 and not him what will he think?" And the entire inventory sells out again.
What makes this whole thing even more brilliant is that Sony can't do this with the PS3. Second movers lose the shortage advantage. Second means that if there is a shortage than the deciding perant picks an in stock xbox 360 as opposed to an out of stock PS3.
Also people remember last years "The Toy" winner. And that always makes it a great christmas pick even if it's not the christmas 2006 "The Toy". And what if "Halo 3" is the 2006 "The Toy".
So is this sheer luck on Microsofts part or brilliant marketing? In either case they will make out like bandits because of it.
"Even if most of what we normally call "consciousness" is an illusion, there may yet be a small part that is not an illusion. Consciousness may not be entirely an illusion, but the illusion of consciousness can be created without it. "
"Take LSD for example. Discovered by Albert Hoffmann in 1945, LSD is the most powerful drug ever developed. "
"I conducted a survey of patients in San Francisco and discovered that "pain" was the #1 symptom for medical marijuana but "depression" was #2, and terminal illnesses like AIDS and cancer were lower on the list. So I am not alone in the perception that there is a patient need for research on this drug."
What may not be obvious to most is that this could be nice first step toward something with great value. First of all a modded xbox will allow the owner to play divx's on DVD-rs something that even DVD players that support VCD won't do. This is useful beyond just pirated DVDs digital home movies benifit too.
Also remember the xbox can output 780p and 1080i. The DVD decoder internal to the xbox doesn't support 480p however maybe a hacked software solution will? While the current DivX solution may be small potatoes, the potential is HUGE!
Ves
Slashdot Mirror
Not exactly. The silver account (which is free) gives you voice chat (single person not while playing the same game), friends list, MSN type messanger, and Live marketplace integration. It also sounded as if live arcade (download and play those old arcade games) is coming to Vista out of the box. While yes you have to pay for actual online gaming (which on Vista seems silly) however the connectivity is better (argueably) and thier is ladder, matchmaking and ranking support is damm good. Yes you are getting more for your fee, is it worth what they are charging?? Hard to say. There was talk of making the service advertiser supported, with a big enough base that might be possible.
Ves
This is actually pretty cool. It means that the acheivements and gamerscore are coming to Vista. Xbox live support for multiplayer (good bye gamespy) and its cross platform. I know PC gamers will dispise the concept of playing with console kiddies but given the chance I think this will be huge. Friends lists, video and voice chat, gamerscore, acheivements this is all big and welcome news for Vista. The additional connectivity to the windows community will only help the 360. Leave it to microsoft to once agian figure out how to leverage its OS monopoly to help in other markets.
Ves
Is the price point combined with the "expected" shipments totals of 2 million worldwide for the christmas season (slightly more than that since they "expect" 4 million by year end). But that is world wide. It was a given that no one would be able to get one but at a 499$/599$ price point those who would have held out have less reason to now.
The PS3 will have the same exact problems the 360 had last year with production, maybe even more if they keep throwing everything into the system (motion detection??) at the last minute. What makes this even worse is that christmas buyers get to stare at the cheaper and in stock 360s sitting on the shelves, waiting to be the alternate choice. Nintendo will do well but you won't see those sitting on shelves for very long either. Microsoft might just sell 10 million by year end that will definatly make them a player this generation.
Ves
Finally a company gets it. Do not listen to the hardcore audience as they have absolutly no basis in reality (they have likely spent more time in virtual reality than actual reality for last couple years). Hardcore gamers spend so much time playing games they really can't think outside of the "these games are too short and too easy for my leet skillz" box. Games do not need to be harder to play or interface with. Games just need to be fun. Swinging a virtual sword, pump faking a virtual football and swating a virtual fly all seem like fun to me. I will gladly trade the hardcore "games are not fun unless you WORK for the accomplishment" attitude for this "new" idea of having fun while I acutally "play" a video game.
Ves
This is one of those obvious can't lose licenses (unless the game sucks) like Warhammer. Take elves, orcs and magic and add automatic weapons, fast cars, robots and the matrix, oh yeah and lets not forget badass american indian shamen. Talk about your geek imagination overload. With a world controlled by Megacorps that are constantly hiring rogue mercenary groups for various jobs, its perfect for open-ended GTA style questing. Please make this an MMO or and huge ass oblivion sytle RPG (with a coop mode). *whew* I need to sit down....
Ves
No seriously. Just as quickly as the hard core gamers abondoned the "revolutionary" thinking by nintendo because of this name (I guess even ye mighty are slaves to marketing flashy names and pretty packages), they will come back as soon as the N licenses queen for a MTV/itunes style commercial. It's all about marketing folks, this will acutlaly turn out to be a really smart move on thier part. They aren't aiming for the 13 year old, I must laugh when you say duty or we we, crowd!
Ves
I bought a 360 in March and I can honestly say that it is one of the best 400$ entertainment decisions I have made in a while. Say what you want, it is a blast. It's not perfect but it is well worth the money.
Xbox Live Marketplace provides a ton of demos and free stuff, the Achevement system is addictive (but meaningless like it should be), worldwide and friends sorted leaderboards are great (expecially for those live arcade titles), and the games are are a blast. Oblivion is one of the best games I have played in years.
I am not a fanboy but I certianly like my xbox enough to call myself a fan. If the PS3 and Revolution are this much fun I will buy those systems too, in a heart beat!
Hell a high end PC graphics card costs about as much as a 360 (and you will need a decent one to run Oblivion).
If MS wants to make the thing cooler and cheaper in the next year why do I care? I have my gaming goodness right now and I am happy.
Ves
Does the Rev need to be in our hands at the same time its in the hands of those that live in Japan? No. Does it need to be in our hands before Thanksgiving? Absolutly Critical! A Christmas Holiday launch is really the only concern (in terms of timing for the launch).
Ves
Lets all be completely honest, not a one of us wants to see this case be successful because we feel a danger to our right to art and entertainment.
While I agree, there is also a part of me that thinks any developer that makes a game where the primary objectives in the game involve car-jacking, murdering and getting away from law enforcement that that developer should have at least a passing concern as to how thier creation will have an impact. We talk so freely about people pointing fingers and shurking responsibility. Are we really saying that Rockstar should have ZERO consideration for the overall impact of what they create? That they get to completely wash thier hands of any culpabilty when they make something original. Why does Rockstar get a pass on the responsibility hit list?
I am certianly not saying this litigation is right. But at the same time maybe just maybe making vidoe games that glorify the killing of cops may not be "right" either.
Ves
Why wouldn't it be? These arcade titles are cheap, easy to get into, easy to get and install and because of Xbox Live are collabrative on some level (whether that be a friends sorted HiScore board or direct xbox live head to head).
We are social creatures. We want to watch what our friends watch and we want to play what our friends are playing. This console generation's war may be decided more on which console allows us to play with our friends and less on which console has the best games and hardware.
By allowing us to see what games our buddies are playing and what thier scores are, Live Marketplace may have just stumbled into the most viral marketing models we have seen yet.
Ves
Development shops have all but perfected the multiplatform release. Nearly every new 3rd party game is multiplatform. What that means to the gamer is that console choice is less risky. Developers assume less risk buy starting the development process with multiplatform design in mind. The difference between the 360 and ps3 will not likely be large enough to make developers say "hey we can only have this on the PS3 because the 360 can't handle it from a technical standpoint". Exclusives will happen on all three platforms but likely only by first party developers so the number of those titles will be small comparitively. Breakaway hits are flaky and unpredictable to begin with so ANY platform has a chance to produce those.
Basically to the consumer any platform is a great choice.
Now in an environment like this first mover becomes a big advantage. Having your console on the shelves with a huge library of titles ready to go just as your competition hits the market with only a few titles and a shortage of actual machines can make a critical difference. Next christmas when mom and dad go out to buy johnny that PS3 that is so hot its out of stock they in all truthfulness won't have a really good reason NOT to get him the 360 that is in stock instead.
Each platform has its advantages:
The 360 is a first mover, will have more titles, a larger installed base, a better online component and ease of PC game portablility.
The PS3 has the playstation name, is the current generation king by a huge margin, developer loyality, a huge japanese foothold, blu-ray, and better hardware at higher resolution.
The Revloution has a genius new controller, an excited developer community, a wise casual target market strategy, an established online commuinty, will likely be the cheapest of all of the consoles and has a huge japenese following.
That said, to the consumer, no matter what console you pick you will likely be very satisfied. In the end the unpredictable runaway hits that could happen exclusively on ANY platform will probably be the deciding factor though. Sony being 6 more months late to the market or MS not having enough machines to meet demand (what a problem to have) will likely have little to no impact on who actually "wins" this generation (sounds like gamers are the winners).
Ves
Well I just happened to be lucky and snaged a core system this saturday (last system at EB everyone else in town was sold out). And I am very happy with the purchase. I didn't buy any games with it just a live sub (and mic) and a vga adapter. I set it next to my computer, pluged it into my dual input lcd monitor that is hooked to my main pc, rented Kameo from blockbuster and I have been having a hi-res gaming blast ever since.
In Kameo I have thrown ice spears at dragons, rode a war horse around a battlefield filled with elves and trolls (think warcraft orcs), rolled around as a giant spiked pinball crushing trolls, swam around chasing submarines as a torpedo shooting squid and roasted more than a few trolls alive as a fire breathing dragon. In short I am having a blast!
Hate and preach anti M$ all you want. The 360 is a great machine.
I have a mid level pc with a 6800 gt in it, I play pc games all the time. So why did the 360 have an impact?
Cost effectiviness/bang for the buck. I know its outside Microsofts intended model but Gamefly is a large reason why I bought a 360. 21.95$ a month for any game I want to play is exactly the cable like gaming distribution model I want to participate in. I have payed blizzard 14.95 a month (and SOE/Verant before that). So 21.95$ is hardley a stretch for what I get.
The 300$ I paid for the console is a full 1/3 of what I paid for my PC! And thats with me newegging all the parts and putting it togeather myself. Hell my graphics card cost me 300. And this thing would eat my PC for breakfast spec wise (if only it had a mouse and a keyboard... grumble).
Say what you want. I am hi-res gaming for cheaper than you do on a PC.
Back to the topic. If I were a betting man I would say that while next gen stuff is looming, gamers still need thier fix. The 360 isn't causing the slow down. My bet is that the rental market (you have one example right here), and the MMORPG market (consume so much time gamers can't play and pay for anything else) is what is causing this issue. Six pack Joe gamer doesn't even know when the revolution or ps3 are comming out, it's hardly effecting his spending habits.
Ves
What Marketing team in thier right mind would miss an oppourtunity to setup thier product as the sold out christmas toy of the season? Lets put this in perspective: Microsoft is on the hook to developers to provide a certian number of units (assuming there is contract for this sort of thing). They also see a juicy christmas oppourtunity to drive demand via a shortage (I will explain why this is a huge opportunity in a second). The answer is simple, worldwide release lets them fullfill there contracts for number of units delivered. It just spreads the units around the world instead of isolating them to a certian region. Game developers are happy as the expected base of units is actually met and marketing is happy as there is now a shortage its just confined on a regional basis. Every christmas we get to see the same speculative news reports on which toy will be "The Toy(TM)" for this season. A shortage at release allows ebay scalpers to drive prices through the roof. The news reports catch wind of xbox 360s going for 1500$ on ebay and it is declared the defacto winner of "The Toy" for christmas 2005. When microsoft dumps a huge inventory on the market on december 20th, last minute moms and dads are all too happy to pay 400$ for the same "toy of 2005" that was going for 1500$ on ebay just a week earlier. Then the competitive keep up with jones christmas buying fever kicks in "I just got off the phone Kim she says she actually found xbox 360s at walmart for 400$ and she got one for billy." "Crap honey, johnie specifically asked for that but we already bought him gifts for christmas. But if he wakes up christmas morning to find out that santa brought billy a 360 and not him what will he think?" And the entire inventory sells out again. What makes this whole thing even more brilliant is that Sony can't do this with the PS3. Second movers lose the shortage advantage. Second means that if there is a shortage than the deciding perant picks an in stock xbox 360 as opposed to an out of stock PS3. Also people remember last years "The Toy" winner. And that always makes it a great christmas pick even if it's not the christmas 2006 "The Toy". And what if "Halo 3" is the 2006 "The Toy". So is this sheer luck on Microsofts part or brilliant marketing? In either case they will make out like bandits because of it.
You bitch......
Ves
"Even if most of what we normally call "consciousness" is an illusion, there may yet be a small part that is not an illusion. Consciousness may not be entirely an illusion, but the illusion of consciousness can be created without it. "
"Take LSD for example. Discovered by Albert Hoffmann in 1945, LSD is the most powerful drug ever developed. "
"I conducted a survey of patients in San Francisco and discovered that "pain" was the #1 symptom for medical marijuana but "depression" was #2, and terminal illnesses like AIDS and cancer were lower on the list. So I am not alone in the perception that there is a patient need for research on this drug."
things that make you go.. hmmmmm
Ves
What may not be obvious to most is that this could be nice first step toward something with great value. First of all a modded xbox will allow the owner to play divx's on DVD-rs something that even DVD players that support VCD won't do. This is useful beyond just pirated DVDs digital home movies benifit too. Also remember the xbox can output 780p and 1080i. The DVD decoder internal to the xbox doesn't support 480p however maybe a hacked software solution will? While the current DivX solution may be small potatoes, the potential is HUGE! Ves