BA from Duke and an MBA from Duke, plus she sits on the board of Trustees at Duke.
The same Duke that has not one single firewall up to protect its network from the outside Internet and uses Lotus Notes as its virus scanner (I met someone recently laid off from Duke when her department was eliminated)?
The same Duke where students come in when they pick up their computers and ask: "Is Word on here?"; and when they are told: "You did get the Office package."; the students again respond: "Ok, but is Word on here?"
You'll forgive me if I don't hold Duke in the highest of regards.
Personally, I thinkg Microsoft shouldn't worry about how their doing in Japan. What's important is how they do in the global market. Even tough they're not even close to third in Japan, what's important is that they're number two in the world. Not too bad for a company's first console.
The actual numbers don't back you up here. The GameCube is ahead, worldwide, but not by a whole hell of a lot.
Microsoft has a little over 1.2 million lead in America, a few hundred thousand unit lead in Europe, and over 500k lead in Australia....so we'll say 2 million unit lead over the GameCube everywhere but Japan.
The Cube has over a 2.5 million unit lead over the Xbox in Japan.
That puts the Cube around maybe 500k units ahead, worldwide. Like I said, it's not much, but the Xbox isn't in second place right now.
But perhaps this is the opporunity that MS will take and become partly open source.
You mean like with Microsoft's "Shared Source" program?
Microsoft, and others, say licenses like the GPL are viral, meaning they can infect everything with their openess...yet, the "Shared Source" licesne really is viral, when you consider that by looking at that code, Microsoft can come at a later time and try and say you stole their IP and try and run you into the ground.
Microsoft will never go anywhere near Open Source Software, in truth. At a recent panel with a lawyer who recently worked on a contract between his client and them, the Microsoft lawyers specifically put in the contract that no GPL/Open Source code was allowed anywhere near their products.
Microsoft survives as they do by being holders of proprietary IP. Open Source Software and Free Software go totally against their business model. Hell will sooner freeze over with flying pigs dropping ice cream cones before Microsoft will do anything with Open Source or Free Software besides try and FUD them to death.
Really? Microsoft's been proudly proclaiming ~500k subscribers since, hrm, March or so. It's September, and the number hasn't substantially grown since they first announced ~500k subscribers worldwide.
So, where is this growth you speak of? The facts don't seem to show it.
Actually EA decided not to include Online features on Xbox titles.. So at least one section of EA's sports games won't be online. Which IMO is a very bad move on EA's part.. I for one will be picking up NFL Fever 2004 or ESPN Football (sega's latest) instead of Madden, simply because of Online play.
I'd say good on the Sega Sports ESPN....but FEVER? Please don't tell me you also picked up Microsoft's shitty first party baseball game just because it had online play as well (and it's the only feature in the game worth mentioning, to boot).
If you want online sports titles on your Xbox, stick with the Sega Sprots ones. The Microsoft first party sprots titles are about on par with sony's 989 Sports titles, which means they're shit.
And I do like Xbox's online system better, where you pay $50 yearly for all games (except one - PSO). With PS2 you pay per game, though some games are free, some are not.
There are only 3 games on the PS2, total worldwide, that charge per month, and only one of those is in North America right now. ALL the rest are free to play online.
Only EverQuest Online Adventures, Final Fantasy XI, and a golf game (I think it may be the Japanese version of Hot Shots Golf 4) charge to play online.
So three out of all of the online titles on the PS2 isn't quite the same as saying 'some charge and some don't.' It's more like most don't and a few do.
Besides, until the Live Now part of XBL launches, the 'services' you get with XBL hardly justify the cost. But the free long distance and conference call abilities of Live Now will definitly outweigh the cost of XBL, once it gets released.
Xbox Live has a better market penetration, percentage wise.....
But the fact also remains that the 500k mark for XBL has been touted for months, without changing. It looks like most of the people who wanted XBL have it; and with the dealy of Halo 2 until next year, the prospect of new people signing up for it before Halo 2's release is slim.
And when you also consider over half of the total subscriptions were from the North American launch (almost 300k from November 15 - December 31), and most of the rest are from the Japanese and European launches, it shows most XBL users are early adoptors, and the majority of the Xbox owning population either doesn't have the broadband capabilites, doesn't care about online games, or both.
XBL got a good start, but its ability to draw in new subscribers just doesn't seem to be there; at least until Halo 2 comes out.
While I really liked THPS3, and was satisfied (though not blown away) with THPS4, Neversoft really should go a bit back to their roots.
THPS was by far the best skateboarding game I had played since 720 Degrees in the arcade. Then THPS2 came along and blew my socks off.
THPS3 kept a lot from THPS2, and did a lot of improving (mainly in graphics and frame rate, although THPS2 on the Dreamcast was a major improvement over THPS2 on the PSOne).
THPS4, however, just wasn't as much fun to me. Neversoft really took two steps back to take one step forward when they designed THPS4.
Some things were great, like the free roam until you wanted to do a goal thing; but then others were just 'meh' (some pro challenges insanely easy (even if looking hard) while others insanely hard; mediocre level designs in some areas) or even downright ass backwards (shared goals? Never having to use another skater except for their pro challenges? Yeah, that makes for a whole lot of replay value...).
And in three games now, we've had the same special move for three different secret characters. Spider-Man (THPS2), Darth Maul (THPS3), and Jango Fett (THPS4) all used the "Spidey Varial (Does Whatever a Spider Can)" for one of their special moves; and both the skeleton from the Xbox version of THPS3 and Eddie (Mascott for Iron Maiden) used the same move for one of their special moves. Let's get some variety with these secret characters!
I really hope THPS Underground is a good game, but I'd really like to see the series go back to its roots in some ways. The incredible level design and goals in THPS2 mixed with the enhancements from THPS3&4 (and Underground) would be an absolutely incredible game.
The BSA, in case you didn't know, is essentially just a division of Microsoft.
Baseless allegation. Makes it sound like you have an axe to grind specifically against Microsoft. Stick to the facts.
It's not entirely baselss, although it is somewhat of a strech to prove.
There is at least one other organization that does the same thing as the BSA, but Microsoft does not use nor support it (them), because the BSA does what Microsoft wants. When the BSA is done with a company, 99.99999999999% the company is now an all Microsoft program shop.
Everything from the OS down to email clients are all Microsoft made.
Microsoft even uses the BSA to negotiate new deals with companies. There have been many documented times that the BSA has reduced, or even outright removed the fines imposed once the companies in question re-negotiate with Microsoft.
So, while it's true that you can't say that the BSA is an actual part (subsidiary) of Microsoft, the facts do show that Microsoft is the single biggest benefactor from BSA raids, and they are the BSA's largest supporter (both politically and finacially).
Essentially, the BSA is Microsoft's own Secret Police/Gestapo; doing their bidding to get peole to upgrade/come to compliance on things.
At the end, OSS is all about cloning, copying and free-riding.
So is Windows. Microsoft has copied, cloned, and outright stolen code/programs for years on end. And they're a proprietary software developer (closed source).
The EULA for the patch itself (yes, there's an EULA for the patch - it asks you to agree during install) exempts MS from any legal action due to applying the patch.
Yes, and so far current laws have held up clickable licenses, hence why I say the curent laws leave them in the clear. The EULA states you exempt MS from any legal libility in case the patch does something to your system, and as of right now the law will back that up.
We should pray to God that the UCITA doesn't spread further than Maryland and Virginia. It makes EULAs legal and binding, even if the end user is never allowed to see it, and any changes to the EULA are completely retroactive (any wonder MS is lobbying so heavily for it?).
It's all about Demographics, really. Sony struck gold by marketing to 20+ year old gamers, making games they wouldn't feel silly playing (it's hard for a 27 year-old welder to play a cartoon peter pan running around rescuing a cartoon princess. But let him play a mobster capping other mobsters...)
29 year old heavy machinery operator here (and game reviewer/newsie on the side). I have no problems picking up Nintendo first party games. Neither do most of my friends who are of similar age, if not similar working enviroments.
This is what Nintendo never got. Adults don't feel silly watching action movies and thus don't feel silly playing action movies. Adults do feel a little silly watching peter pan cartoons, and thus do feel silly manipulating a little guy with his green hood and tights.
Maybe it's you who has a slight problem dealing with the things you mention, and not the whole world?
You say that the M-rated games on the PSOne marketed the PSOne to the 20+ crowd....yet the fact is the real 20+ crowd buys games from any rating, from E all the way to M.
You do know where the M rated games sell the most, though, right? The 12-16 crowd. Yep, teenagers, most barely old enough to shave or look at a girl without thinking about 'girl germs'. The real kiddies of the video game market.
And they flock to blood and polygonal boobie filled games like flies to shit. And, while the oogle over the game and say how cool it is and beg mommy and daddy to buy it for them (because they aren't old enough to have a job), they'll scoff at the Nintendo stuff as 'kiddie'.
Otherwise we would have had a/. story about how MS was sued for bringing down everyone who used critical update. It hasn't happened.
At this point, it wouldn't matter if someone tried to sue MS if this has ever happened.
Current laws and regulation leave MS in the clear of such matters. They are not held liable for anything their software does. This goes from security holes so large you can fly Darth Vader's star destroyer through them to patches that fuck up other programs. They simply aren't held liable when they do fuck up.
No software vendor is. No matter if their software is just plain old unreliable, to the most insecure virus attracting software out there.
A security patch should not break code. Were I "the boss of that guy," I would consider Microsoft to be at fault.
Unfortunately, under current laws and regulations, Microsoft is not held liable if their security patches break your system. They're also not held liable if a virus/worm hits you befor they can patch it. In fact, no matter what Microsoft's software ends up doing to your buisness, they aren't liable for anything.
So consider it Microsoft's fault all you want, but they won't be forced to do anything about it.
In the end, the company is going to want to blame someone they can do something to, which means their employees.
It's true Linux isn't 100% bug free (nothing is), but Linux and all the other Unix-alikes are more secure, by default, than Windows is by default.
Microsoft often releases patches for these types of worms and viruses, but the problem becomes that sometimes their patches end up breaking a hell of a lot more than they fix.
Companies, and government institutions cannot just patch and go. They have to test the patches on an isolated computer to ensure that EVERY SINGLE program they need to use is not affected adversly by the patches. Any idea how many MS patches for Windows alone are out there? It's a wonder IT people at companies/government are even half as caught up as they are.
Just imagine if your health insurance provider's IT supervisor just went and patched every time without testing; and one day the program they use to keep things up to date won't work because of a MS patch that broke it. Suddenly you're without health insurance. God help you if you get hurt in the time it takes for them to figure out what broke the program and try and fix it.
That's why it doesn't matter that MS releases these patches. Sometimes they fuck up a lot more than they fix, and companies and government institutions simply cannot take the risk of installing every single security patch from MS (often released weekly) because of this.
Because the co-operative FPS sub-genre, to a great extent anyway, strives for realism. If you have an entire team who can talk to each other, they can actually plan strategy while moving to position.
Unfortunately, this isn't always an option.
Unreal Championship on the Xbox has, quite possibly, the worst voice set up ever. In team based play there are 2 channels for each team, and only 4 out of the possible 8 players can be on any one chanel.
And even in the games where the entire team can talk to each other, actually getting the other players to follow a strategy or even just basic teamwork is near impossible.
You either need to play with people you know, or hope you have found good players.
In MMOGs, I can see the voice as actually being a hinderance, unless they limit how many voices from around you you can hear...imagine hearing hundreds of EverCrackers or Ultima Onliners in the center of town at all times....
I think that "Adrenaline" pack is a Canada only bundle, IIRC. Or maybe a Wal-Mart only bundle.
Regardless, the official JSRF/Sega GT bundle is clearly done and over with. The majority of North Americans buying the Xbox now will not be recieving any free games with the system.
The JSRF/Sega GT 2002 bundle ended right around E3, in mid May.
Microsoft had already ordered a recall on the units with the 2 games, from retailers, as E3 was starting, and then with the price drop they ordered the recalls even faster.
The bundle was part of the reason they lost so much money on the Xbox in Q1 2003, because they were third party games, and not first party games.
So you only get the Xbox for $179.99 now, not two free games with it.
Thursdae
Bought his Xbox a week before the bundle was announced =-(
You will readily buy the network adaptors for PS2 and GC despite a lack of software, but would not buy XBOX Live because of a lack of software.
Thing is, the GC and PS2 network adaptors don't have any auto-renewing subscription fees, nor do they have an activation code that expires if not activated by a certain time.
Xbox Live is a subscription, and if you buy the kit you only have a certain amount of time to activate it or the activation code expires and becomes worthless. Plus the Xbox Live starter kit goes up to $70 soon, as well.
So buying the PS2 or GC adaptors early is a safe investment, to a degree, because they'll work even if you never use them until a year after they are bought. With Xbox Live, you have to activate it within a few months of buying it, whether you are going to use it or not, or it just becomes a $50 or $70 (depending on when you buy it) headset for your Xbox that won't work with anything.
Still, there's no real reason to own a GC adaptor right now, unless you plan on playing PSO. After Kirby's Air Ride and Mario Kart Double Dash come out, then having one for LAN games is acceptable; but you still need other GCs and adaptors to play these games over the LAN.
Fad? No. Ready for the mainstream? No. Microsoft has been hovering at the "500k XBL subscribers worldwide" mark for months now. Considering that almost 300k of them were sold in NA at the XBL launch, this isn't encouraging.
With 9.4 million units shipped worldwide (we'll be nice and say that's also sold through for this comparrison), and only 500k XBL subscribers worldwide, that gives XBL a penetration of only 5.32%.
It's a higher percentage of penetration than Sony's ~2 million network adaptors (3.77% penetration), but neither is selling their online components at lightning speed like many thought would happen.
Fact is, that it seems the masses aren't ready for online console games. So it isn't a fad, it will catch on soon; but it looks like not soon enough for it to matter in this generation of consoles.
"...can only call other phones that use the same technology."
I nkow some cell phone companies have offers when calling within their network (no use of minutes, extra minutes, etc.), but not being able to call out of the network at all?
As someone said, the thing is dead already.
The only thing I can think of that it might work well for is buisnesses. Think of something like a Nextel walkie-talkie cellular service, but without the 'fear' of employees calling other people.
Other than possibly that, however, this thing will never sell.
Thursdae
600 minutes/month, free nights/weekends, and free long distance on my cel plan... and I can call anyone I want.
Slashdot Mirror
The same Duke that has not one single firewall up to protect its network from the outside Internet and uses Lotus Notes as its virus scanner (I met someone recently laid off from Duke when her department was eliminated)?
The same Duke where students come in when they pick up their computers and ask: "Is Word on here?"; and when they are told: "You did get the Office package."; the students again respond: "Ok, but is Word on here?"
You'll forgive me if I don't hold Duke in the highest of regards.
Thursdae
*Raises hand*
I have a GBPlayer, but not a GBA. I'll probably get one soon enough, but the GBPlayer is all I need right now.
Thursdae
The actual numbers don't back you up here. The GameCube is ahead, worldwide, but not by a whole hell of a lot.
Microsoft has a little over 1.2 million lead in America, a few hundred thousand unit lead in Europe, and over 500k lead in Australia....so we'll say 2 million unit lead over the GameCube everywhere but Japan.
The Cube has over a 2.5 million unit lead over the Xbox in Japan.
That puts the Cube around maybe 500k units ahead, worldwide. Like I said, it's not much, but the Xbox isn't in second place right now.
Thursdae
You mean like with Microsoft's "Shared Source" program?
Microsoft, and others, say licenses like the GPL are viral, meaning they can infect everything with their openess...yet, the "Shared Source" licesne really is viral, when you consider that by looking at that code, Microsoft can come at a later time and try and say you stole their IP and try and run you into the ground.
Microsoft will never go anywhere near Open Source Software, in truth. At a recent panel with a lawyer who recently worked on a contract between his client and them, the Microsoft lawyers specifically put in the contract that no GPL/Open Source code was allowed anywhere near their products.
Microsoft survives as they do by being holders of proprietary IP. Open Source Software and Free Software go totally against their business model. Hell will sooner freeze over with flying pigs dropping ice cream cones before Microsoft will do anything with Open Source or Free Software besides try and FUD them to death.
Thursdae
Really? Microsoft's been proudly proclaiming ~500k subscribers since, hrm, March or so. It's September, and the number hasn't substantially grown since they first announced ~500k subscribers worldwide.
So, where is this growth you speak of? The facts don't seem to show it.
Thursdae
I'd say good on the Sega Sports ESPN....but FEVER? Please don't tell me you also picked up Microsoft's shitty first party baseball game just because it had online play as well (and it's the only feature in the game worth mentioning, to boot).
If you want online sports titles on your Xbox, stick with the Sega Sprots ones. The Microsoft first party sprots titles are about on par with sony's 989 Sports titles, which means they're shit.
Thursdae
Thursdae
GAF staffer
There are only 3 games on the PS2, total worldwide, that charge per month, and only one of those is in North America right now. ALL the rest are free to play online.
Only EverQuest Online Adventures, Final Fantasy XI, and a golf game (I think it may be the Japanese version of Hot Shots Golf 4) charge to play online.
So three out of all of the online titles on the PS2 isn't quite the same as saying 'some charge and some don't.' It's more like most don't and a few do.
Besides, until the Live Now part of XBL launches, the 'services' you get with XBL hardly justify the cost. But the free long distance and conference call abilities of Live Now will definitly outweigh the cost of XBL, once it gets released.
Thursdae
But the fact also remains that the 500k mark for XBL has been touted for months, without changing. It looks like most of the people who wanted XBL have it; and with the dealy of Halo 2 until next year, the prospect of new people signing up for it before Halo 2's release is slim.
And when you also consider over half of the total subscriptions were from the North American launch (almost 300k from November 15 - December 31), and most of the rest are from the Japanese and European launches, it shows most XBL users are early adoptors, and the majority of the Xbox owning population either doesn't have the broadband capabilites, doesn't care about online games, or both.
XBL got a good start, but its ability to draw in new subscribers just doesn't seem to be there; at least until Halo 2 comes out.
Thursdae
THPS was by far the best skateboarding game I had played since 720 Degrees in the arcade. Then THPS2 came along and blew my socks off.
THPS3 kept a lot from THPS2, and did a lot of improving (mainly in graphics and frame rate, although THPS2 on the Dreamcast was a major improvement over THPS2 on the PSOne).
THPS4, however, just wasn't as much fun to me. Neversoft really took two steps back to take one step forward when they designed THPS4.
Some things were great, like the free roam until you wanted to do a goal thing; but then others were just 'meh' (some pro challenges insanely easy (even if looking hard) while others insanely hard; mediocre level designs in some areas) or even downright ass backwards (shared goals? Never having to use another skater except for their pro challenges? Yeah, that makes for a whole lot of replay value...).
And in three games now, we've had the same special move for three different secret characters. Spider-Man (THPS2), Darth Maul (THPS3), and Jango Fett (THPS4) all used the "Spidey Varial (Does Whatever a Spider Can)" for one of their special moves; and both the skeleton from the Xbox version of THPS3 and Eddie (Mascott for Iron Maiden) used the same move for one of their special moves. Let's get some variety with these secret characters!
I really hope THPS Underground is a good game, but I'd really like to see the series go back to its roots in some ways. The incredible level design and goals in THPS2 mixed with the enhancements from THPS3&4 (and Underground) would be an absolutely incredible game.
Thursdae
Baseless allegation. Makes it sound like you have an axe to grind specifically against Microsoft. Stick to the facts.
It's not entirely baselss, although it is somewhat of a strech to prove.
There is at least one other organization that does the same thing as the BSA, but Microsoft does not use nor support it (them), because the BSA does what Microsoft wants. When the BSA is done with a company, 99.99999999999% the company is now an all Microsoft program shop.
Everything from the OS down to email clients are all Microsoft made.
Microsoft even uses the BSA to negotiate new deals with companies. There have been many documented times that the BSA has reduced, or even outright removed the fines imposed once the companies in question re-negotiate with Microsoft.
So, while it's true that you can't say that the BSA is an actual part (subsidiary) of Microsoft, the facts do show that Microsoft is the single biggest benefactor from BSA raids, and they are the BSA's largest supporter (both politically and finacially).
Essentially, the BSA is Microsoft's own Secret Police/Gestapo; doing their bidding to get peole to upgrade/come to compliance on things.
Thursdae
So is Windows. Microsoft has copied, cloned, and outright stolen code/programs for years on end. And they're a proprietary software developer (closed source).
Thursdae
Yes, and so far current laws have held up clickable licenses, hence why I say the curent laws leave them in the clear. The EULA states you exempt MS from any legal libility in case the patch does something to your system, and as of right now the law will back that up.
We should pray to God that the UCITA doesn't spread further than Maryland and Virginia. It makes EULAs legal and binding, even if the end user is never allowed to see it, and any changes to the EULA are completely retroactive (any wonder MS is lobbying so heavily for it?).
*shudder*
Thursdae
29 year old heavy machinery operator here (and game reviewer/newsie on the side). I have no problems picking up Nintendo first party games. Neither do most of my friends who are of similar age, if not similar working enviroments.
This is what Nintendo never got. Adults don't feel silly watching action movies and thus don't feel silly playing action movies. Adults do feel a little silly watching peter pan cartoons, and thus do feel silly manipulating a little guy with his green hood and tights.
Maybe it's you who has a slight problem dealing with the things you mention, and not the whole world?
You say that the M-rated games on the PSOne marketed the PSOne to the 20+ crowd....yet the fact is the real 20+ crowd buys games from any rating, from E all the way to M.
You do know where the M rated games sell the most, though, right? The 12-16 crowd. Yep, teenagers, most barely old enough to shave or look at a girl without thinking about 'girl germs'. The real kiddies of the video game market.
And they flock to blood and polygonal boobie filled games like flies to shit. And, while the oogle over the game and say how cool it is and beg mommy and daddy to buy it for them (because they aren't old enough to have a job), they'll scoff at the Nintendo stuff as 'kiddie'.
Irony, your face is pimply.
Thursdae
At this point, it wouldn't matter if someone tried to sue MS if this has ever happened.
Current laws and regulation leave MS in the clear of such matters. They are not held liable for anything their software does. This goes from security holes so large you can fly Darth Vader's star destroyer through them to patches that fuck up other programs. They simply aren't held liable when they do fuck up.
No software vendor is. No matter if their software is just plain old unreliable, to the most insecure virus attracting software out there.
Thursdae
Unfortunately, under current laws and regulations, Microsoft is not held liable if their security patches break your system. They're also not held liable if a virus/worm hits you befor they can patch it. In fact, no matter what Microsoft's software ends up doing to your buisness, they aren't liable for anything.
So consider it Microsoft's fault all you want, but they won't be forced to do anything about it.
In the end, the company is going to want to blame someone they can do something to, which means their employees.
Thursdae
Microsoft often releases patches for these types of worms and viruses, but the problem becomes that sometimes their patches end up breaking a hell of a lot more than they fix.
Companies, and government institutions cannot just patch and go. They have to test the patches on an isolated computer to ensure that EVERY SINGLE program they need to use is not affected adversly by the patches. Any idea how many MS patches for Windows alone are out there? It's a wonder IT people at companies/government are even half as caught up as they are.
Just imagine if your health insurance provider's IT supervisor just went and patched every time without testing; and one day the program they use to keep things up to date won't work because of a MS patch that broke it. Suddenly you're without health insurance. God help you if you get hurt in the time it takes for them to figure out what broke the program and try and fix it.
That's why it doesn't matter that MS releases these patches. Sometimes they fuck up a lot more than they fix, and companies and government institutions simply cannot take the risk of installing every single security patch from MS (often released weekly) because of this.
Thursdae
Unfortunately, this isn't always an option.
Unreal Championship on the Xbox has, quite possibly, the worst voice set up ever. In team based play there are 2 channels for each team, and only 4 out of the possible 8 players can be on any one chanel.
And even in the games where the entire team can talk to each other, actually getting the other players to follow a strategy or even just basic teamwork is near impossible.
You either need to play with people you know, or hope you have found good players.
In MMOGs, I can see the voice as actually being a hinderance, unless they limit how many voices from around you you can hear...imagine hearing hundreds of EverCrackers or Ultima Onliners in the center of town at all times....
Thursdae
Samir Gupta has a history of claiming to work at Nintendo, and previously to that, Sega. Yet, his claims of doing so are quite unproven.
Check Gupta's posting history here on /. Hell, check his Usenent history, which has the same claims.
Gupta works at Nintendo about as much as I really am the richest man in the world.
Thursdae
Regardless, the official JSRF/Sega GT bundle is clearly done and over with. The majority of North Americans buying the Xbox now will not be recieving any free games with the system.
Thursdae
The JSRF/Sega GT 2002 bundle ended right around E3, in mid May.
Microsoft had already ordered a recall on the units with the 2 games, from retailers, as E3 was starting, and then with the price drop they ordered the recalls even faster.
The bundle was part of the reason they lost so much money on the Xbox in Q1 2003, because they were third party games, and not first party games.
So you only get the Xbox for $179.99 now, not two free games with it.
Thursdae
Bought his Xbox a week before the bundle was announced =-(
Thing is, the GC and PS2 network adaptors don't have any auto-renewing subscription fees, nor do they have an activation code that expires if not activated by a certain time.
Xbox Live is a subscription, and if you buy the kit you only have a certain amount of time to activate it or the activation code expires and becomes worthless. Plus the Xbox Live starter kit goes up to $70 soon, as well.
So buying the PS2 or GC adaptors early is a safe investment, to a degree, because they'll work even if you never use them until a year after they are bought. With Xbox Live, you have to activate it within a few months of buying it, whether you are going to use it or not, or it just becomes a $50 or $70 (depending on when you buy it) headset for your Xbox that won't work with anything.
Still, there's no real reason to own a GC adaptor right now, unless you plan on playing PSO. After Kirby's Air Ride and Mario Kart Double Dash come out, then having one for LAN games is acceptable; but you still need other GCs and adaptors to play these games over the LAN.
Thursdae
USB Ethernet on PS2 all the way...
There is also going to be the ability to buy a headset separately, and use a Xbox Live enabled game to get a 2 month trial of XBL as well.
Full story.
Thursdae
Fad? No. Ready for the mainstream? No. Microsoft has been hovering at the "500k XBL subscribers worldwide" mark for months now. Considering that almost 300k of them were sold in NA at the XBL launch, this isn't encouraging.
With 9.4 million units shipped worldwide (we'll be nice and say that's also sold through for this comparrison), and only 500k XBL subscribers worldwide, that gives XBL a penetration of only 5.32%.
It's a higher percentage of penetration than Sony's ~2 million network adaptors (3.77% penetration), but neither is selling their online components at lightning speed like many thought would happen.
Fact is, that it seems the masses aren't ready for online console games. So it isn't a fad, it will catch on soon; but it looks like not soon enough for it to matter in this generation of consoles.
Thursdae
XBL owner, but barely uses it....
I nkow some cell phone companies have offers when calling within their network (no use of minutes, extra minutes, etc.), but not being able to call out of the network at all?
As someone said, the thing is dead already.
The only thing I can think of that it might work well for is buisnesses. Think of something like a Nextel walkie-talkie cellular service, but without the 'fear' of employees calling other people.
Other than possibly that, however, this thing will never sell.
Thursdae
600 minutes/month, free nights/weekends, and free long distance on my cel plan... and I can call anyone I want.