Anytime you're breaking into a new market, especially one that has as many lock-in features as the video game market, you're going to lose money.
How is the 360 breaking into a new market? They broke into the market with the original Xbox. The 360 is supposed to be a mature platform at this point - Xbox Live ability, huge games library, multimedia features. The fact that not only did they ship fewer consoles than last year and lost money while doing so definitely can't be excused by them "breaking into the market." Instead, it looks like in their rush to dominate they seemed to favor quantity over quality, and even lost on the quantity part.
The funny part is that the criticism of the PS3 is that it's a high price for a console. And yet, it's a damn good piece of hardware. So I guess you get what you pay for?
I think what's really wrong here is that Epic specifically withheld the engine code from SK...if they really did that. I remember when HL2 was initially released that there was a new Vampire The Masquerade released with the Source engine and Valve made a deal with the developer that they could use the engine if they agreed to release the game after HL2. Seems like that was a valid deal to me. If these allegations are true, then Epic was either intentionally deceptive to promote their own game which I think Valve proves isn't necessary, or more likely as the Kotaku blog entry suggests, they didn't have enough employees to handle the work load.
(as an aside, does anyone know whether you can buy anything that'll allow you to use standard - and significantly cheaper - storage with the memory stick pro duo? I don't own a PSP, but if I do, I'd far rather not pay through the nose for Sony's inflated storage medium)
Not really sure what you mean...but SanDisk makes a memory stick pro duo for about half the price. I've seen the card used in Sony's cameras and you can find slots for it on HP printers, so the card does have some reusability.
Well, seeing as the IR port was useless on the PSP (except for some homebrew that figured out how to turn the PSP into a universal remote), I can see why Sony removed it. But on the PS3, it drives me crazy when trying to use it as a DVD/Bluray player. I can't use my TV remote (Sony also) to control the PS3 because it doesn't have an infrared port. Even worse, the bluetooth remote that Sony makes doesn't have IR on it, so it's only good for hte PS3. It's rather annoying.
If you're going to bash a redesign, at least read the article in the summary:
The most immediate thing we noticed was how light the system is: the original was in no ways heavy, but the new handheld is certainly much lighter, without making it too feathery.
Granted, maybe you actually attended E3 and held the device and this is a matter of opinion, but that seems like a pretty dumb statement to make if you haven't.
I have a couple, and the biggest knock against them was that you could only play them on the tiny PSP with no video out. Sony has decided to rebut that by giving people video out. Now they just need to add some special features and drop the price to an average of $10 and they'll probably attract more attention.
Re:Other important (non)-feature..
on
PSP-Slim Hands On
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· Score: 1
Actually it's a picture of the internals of the new PSP - very similar in fact to the article I linked in the summary regarding 0oku. So it's not actually a press sheet, it's the actual working hardware that they're basing the specs on.
I'm not sure why specifically component for games, but the UMD movies are encoded in DVD quality 480p (RTFA), so there might be a reason to allow a higher quality cable connection.
Re:Other important (non)-feature..
on
PSP-Slim Hands On
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Sony hasn't supported homebrew since PSP firmware 1.0...no reason to expect them to support it now.
So you missed Heavenly Sword, Lair, Folklore, LittleBigPlanet and the PSN title Pain? Surprisingly no mention of FFXIII...kind of like the gigantic gorilla in the room.
Halo 2 was a complete dud as well. The only reason Halo gained any promenence in the gaming community was because it was the only title that made the Xbox relevant. If Halo was a PC only game, it would have probably died a slow death. Compared to Half Life, Halo was a rip off.
As much as I thought the parent to your OP was definitely being stupid, I have to agree with EveryNickIsTaken. The game is a great example of why graphics don't make a game. The graphics were great for a PS2 game, but had horrible mechanics, wretched animation, and boring gameplay. I have a PS3 and I'm going to be skeptical about this game until I can actually play a demo or get a review.
You forgot to add the premium for XBox Live - $50 anually - so figure about $450 for the initial investment and another $50 for every year afterward. And that assumes that PSN will never catch Xbox Live in functionality - which I'm pretty sure it will. Games are getting better at implementing friends lists and microphone support. It's nowhere near Xbox Live right now but give it a year and it'll be there.
I thought they said Madden as well. So two out of the three titles they implied exclusivity for were not exclusive....which leaves Halo...whose sequel sucked and apparently Halo 3 looks underwhelming. So why do I care again?
Actually, I would argue that the PS3 has more than Blu-Ray going for it - HDMI 1080p output (just bought my 46" 1080p TV this week and I'm completely blown away), 802.11g wireless, and a guaranteed hard drive - which helps with games like Oblivion and GTA which need heavy caching. Add in the nice stuff like the media server integration (streaming music wirelessly from my linux server to my PS3 works really well), PSP remote play if you have one (I do), web browser, and the ability to install Linux and you have a really nice machine.
The thing for me isn't just a nice gaming machine - when it's all said and done I'm going to have a nice media center going with an BluRay movie player, 46" LCD, surround sound, my computer through the LCD for development, and the wireless keyboard and mouse. Is it worth the money for me to do this? Yeah, I like it. Are other people looking for this? Probably not. But the PS3 really is probably the sweetest setup you can get for total integration in the living room. I guess I'd rather have that then just a decent gaming machine.
I think Sony is doing pretty well - the only add in content so far that is being charged for is some of the extra music for Ridge Racer 7. Everything else was free (Motorstorm and Resistance), included with the game because it was delayed so long for the PS3 (Rainbow Six:Vegas or Oblivion), or an original minigame that costs less than $10 in most cases (Calling all Cars, Stardust HD). Add in the fact that PSN is free and there are some good demos, and I have no problem with Sony's current setup. It certainly has gotten a lot better since Christmas and I anticipate that this week will hopefully add even more value.
So you built your own PC and run Linux as well? I'm sure you chose the SPARC platform because Intel has the DRM implementations in hardware now as well.
WHATTTT?!?! Double that of the XBox? Sure, if you completely skimp on everything and forego the ability to do anything with the console other than put a DVD in it, then sure the PS3 is double the cost. But I think everyone would agree that comparing the $299 gimped 360 to the $599 fully enabled PS3 is a bit much. However, seeing as most people are now buying the 360 Elite (if they're buying at all), I think it's safe to assume that double the cost of the Xbox is a wee (or Wii?) exageration.
Like the rest of the Slashdot community at this point, I decided this summary was worth my time only after I discovered it had nothing to do with the iPhone.
I'd side with him not killing her but the car really throws me - the book could have been just bad judgement, unless they have a receipt showing that it was purchased before her disappearance. All in all, this really isn't a clear cut case at all - the kid doesn't tell a consistent story (but it's suspect since he probably spent time with his father after the disappearance and before the arrest) and the blood spots can't be dated. However, the car seat is missing and her car is 3 miles from his house.
The original recording artist isn't getting any money out of it anyway - it's the publishing companies that are suing. Eliot Spitzer had to sue them just to pay royalties owed out to the artists. Yes the artists are losing money on the deal, but their own publishers are screwing them even more.
Slashdot Mirror
Anytime you're breaking into a new market, especially one that has as many lock-in features as the video game market, you're going to lose money.
How is the 360 breaking into a new market? They broke into the market with the original Xbox. The 360 is supposed to be a mature platform at this point - Xbox Live ability, huge games library, multimedia features. The fact that not only did they ship fewer consoles than last year and lost money while doing so definitely can't be excused by them "breaking into the market." Instead, it looks like in their rush to dominate they seemed to favor quantity over quality, and even lost on the quantity part.
The funny part is that the criticism of the PS3 is that it's a high price for a console. And yet, it's a damn good piece of hardware. So I guess you get what you pay for?
I think what's really wrong here is that Epic specifically withheld the engine code from SK...if they really did that. I remember when HL2 was initially released that there was a new Vampire The Masquerade released with the Source engine and Valve made a deal with the developer that they could use the engine if they agreed to release the game after HL2. Seems like that was a valid deal to me. If these allegations are true, then Epic was either intentionally deceptive to promote their own game which I think Valve proves isn't necessary, or more likely as the Kotaku blog entry suggests, they didn't have enough employees to handle the work load.
(as an aside, does anyone know whether you can buy anything that'll allow you to use standard - and significantly cheaper - storage with the memory stick pro duo? I don't own a PSP, but if I do, I'd far rather not pay through the nose for Sony's inflated storage medium)
Not really sure what you mean...but SanDisk makes a memory stick pro duo for about half the price. I've seen the card used in Sony's cameras and you can find slots for it on HP printers, so the card does have some reusability.
Well, seeing as the IR port was useless on the PSP (except for some homebrew that figured out how to turn the PSP into a universal remote), I can see why Sony removed it. But on the PS3, it drives me crazy when trying to use it as a DVD/Bluray player. I can't use my TV remote (Sony also) to control the PS3 because it doesn't have an infrared port. Even worse, the bluetooth remote that Sony makes doesn't have IR on it, so it's only good for hte PS3. It's rather annoying.
The PSP really hasn't lost any body weight.
If you're going to bash a redesign, at least read the article in the summary:
The most immediate thing we noticed was how light the system is: the original was in no ways heavy, but the new handheld is certainly much lighter, without making it too feathery.
Granted, maybe you actually attended E3 and held the device and this is a matter of opinion, but that seems like a pretty dumb statement to make if you haven't.
I have a couple, and the biggest knock against them was that you could only play them on the tiny PSP with no video out. Sony has decided to rebut that by giving people video out. Now they just need to add some special features and drop the price to an average of $10 and they'll probably attract more attention.
Actually it's a picture of the internals of the new PSP - very similar in fact to the article I linked in the summary regarding 0oku. So it's not actually a press sheet, it's the actual working hardware that they're basing the specs on.
I'm not sure why specifically component for games, but the UMD movies are encoded in DVD quality 480p (RTFA), so there might be a reason to allow a higher quality cable connection.
Sony hasn't supported homebrew since PSP firmware 1.0...no reason to expect them to support it now.
So you missed Heavenly Sword, Lair, Folklore, LittleBigPlanet and the PSN title Pain? Surprisingly no mention of FFXIII...kind of like the gigantic gorilla in the room.
As a happy PS3 owner, your post makes me smile from ear to ear.
(ducks)
Halo 3 has really turned out to be complete dud.
Halo 2 was a complete dud as well. The only reason Halo gained any promenence in the gaming community was because it was the only title that made the Xbox relevant. If Halo was a PC only game, it would have probably died a slow death. Compared to Half Life, Halo was a rip off.
As much as I thought the parent to your OP was definitely being stupid, I have to agree with EveryNickIsTaken. The game is a great example of why graphics don't make a game. The graphics were great for a PS2 game, but had horrible mechanics, wretched animation, and boring gameplay. I have a PS3 and I'm going to be skeptical about this game until I can actually play a demo or get a review.
You forgot to add the premium for XBox Live - $50 anually - so figure about $450 for the initial investment and another $50 for every year afterward. And that assumes that PSN will never catch Xbox Live in functionality - which I'm pretty sure it will. Games are getting better at implementing friends lists and microphone support. It's nowhere near Xbox Live right now but give it a year and it'll be there.
I thought they said Madden as well. So two out of the three titles they implied exclusivity for were not exclusive....which leaves Halo...whose sequel sucked and apparently Halo 3 looks underwhelming. So why do I care again?
Sorry, but I'm going to take issue with this -
They're kicking ass in terms of media downloads (Disney is a huge win)
What movies does Disney have? Bambi? Snow White? Thanks but no thanks.
Actually, I would argue that the PS3 has more than Blu-Ray going for it - HDMI 1080p output (just bought my 46" 1080p TV this week and I'm completely blown away), 802.11g wireless, and a guaranteed hard drive - which helps with games like Oblivion and GTA which need heavy caching. Add in the nice stuff like the media server integration (streaming music wirelessly from my linux server to my PS3 works really well), PSP remote play if you have one (I do), web browser, and the ability to install Linux and you have a really nice machine. The thing for me isn't just a nice gaming machine - when it's all said and done I'm going to have a nice media center going with an BluRay movie player, 46" LCD, surround sound, my computer through the LCD for development, and the wireless keyboard and mouse. Is it worth the money for me to do this? Yeah, I like it. Are other people looking for this? Probably not. But the PS3 really is probably the sweetest setup you can get for total integration in the living room. I guess I'd rather have that then just a decent gaming machine.
I think Sony is doing pretty well - the only add in content so far that is being charged for is some of the extra music for Ridge Racer 7. Everything else was free (Motorstorm and Resistance), included with the game because it was delayed so long for the PS3 (Rainbow Six:Vegas or Oblivion), or an original minigame that costs less than $10 in most cases (Calling all Cars, Stardust HD). Add in the fact that PSN is free and there are some good demos, and I have no problem with Sony's current setup. It certainly has gotten a lot better since Christmas and I anticipate that this week will hopefully add even more value.
So you built your own PC and run Linux as well? I'm sure you chose the SPARC platform because Intel has the DRM implementations in hardware now as well.
WHATTTT?!?! Double that of the XBox? Sure, if you completely skimp on everything and forego the ability to do anything with the console other than put a DVD in it, then sure the PS3 is double the cost. But I think everyone would agree that comparing the $299 gimped 360 to the $599 fully enabled PS3 is a bit much. However, seeing as most people are now buying the 360 Elite (if they're buying at all), I think it's safe to assume that double the cost of the Xbox is a wee (or Wii?) exageration.
Way to start a flamewar.
Like the rest of the Slashdot community at this point, I decided this summary was worth my time only after I discovered it had nothing to do with the iPhone.
I believe Ellison is Larry Ellison of Oracle fame. I didn't realize he was beloved by everyone though.
I'd side with him not killing her but the car really throws me - the book could have been just bad judgement, unless they have a receipt showing that it was purchased before her disappearance. All in all, this really isn't a clear cut case at all - the kid doesn't tell a consistent story (but it's suspect since he probably spent time with his father after the disappearance and before the arrest) and the blood spots can't be dated. However, the car seat is missing and her car is 3 miles from his house.
Thank god I didn't pull jury duty in July.
Trouble printing? Let me show you Microsoft's potential knowledgebase article:
1. Buy this.
2. And one of these.
3. ???
4. Profit!
The original recording artist isn't getting any money out of it anyway - it's the publishing companies that are suing. Eliot Spitzer had to sue them just to pay royalties owed out to the artists. Yes the artists are losing money on the deal, but their own publishers are screwing them even more.