Wait a second: you post an incoherent comment with sub-literate style and filled with grade three level spelling mistakes and you're attacking others for daring to "open there mouths"? You must be new here.
Probably because the posting of this itself was tongue-in-cheek (note the Monty Python foot next to it).
As far as underground marketing efforts, this sure ain't bad, and actually seems to make more sense on Slashdot than some of the real articles that get posted.
Actually, once you reach that level, if you're not putting in more than 60 hours a week, you're being lazy. Those massive paychecks don't come from a 40 hour workweek (not that even an 80 hour week justifies some of them, but...)
Uhm.. actually, the GBA has been discontinued, and most retailers are either no longer carrying or will soon stop carrying GBA games. I believe Nintendo announced not long ago that the DS was their primary handheld platform now, and the developers all seem to have decided that for themselves over a year ago anyway. The Game Boy Micro did not, as I understand, sell very well at all in the US compared with the GBA SP. In Japan this may not have been the case, though. Any future handheld platform will almost certainly maintain DS compatibility and (hopefully) GBA compatibility as well, since that opens up a truly incredible library of old games.
The Wii is going to be really hard to follow up. Yes, the next console from Nintendo will have better graphics and sound and so on, but what improvements can they make to the motion-sensing functionality? If it's just a Wii with more power, it probably will not see the sort of sales performance that the Wii currently has, since many folks will not want to upgrade.
* The 360 launch titles had the highest aggregate review scores of any console release to date. * Halo 3 has sold a third of a billion dollars for Microsoft and is played online by more than a million people a day. What misguided expectations did YOU have? * Every 360 made will have superior backwards compatibility in comparison to every PS3 made after the 80GB is discontinued and they switch over to the same motherboard as the 40GB. * The "umbrella developers" who left are still committed to making 360 games, and just want a bit more money for their efforts. * The hardware problems thus far appear to be largely resolved with the latest motherboard/processor, although it's still early to say for sure if the problems are dramatically reduced. My launch-day 360 has performed flawlessly, for what it's worth. * Developers are jumping ship from the PS3, and a majority have confirmed they are targeting the 360 as their main development platform. Partly this is because it is the easier of the two to code for, but mainly it is because of the bigger install base and thus better sales of games.
I agree that Sony should've been better prepared, and instead of going all-out for a theoretical powerhouse and expecting developers to just take care of themselves, focused on what Microsoft and Nintendo are doing: games and fun!
Anything concrete? You must be new here. Games don't get concrete release dates until they are close to being done, or have a hundred million dollar marketing campaign pushing them out regardless of completion (see Halo 2). Anyone who still believed MGS4 was coming out this year was crazy. GameStop isn't even taking pre-orders yet for what is expected to be one of the biggest PS3 releases for awhile. They're pre-ordering WoW: Wrath of the Lich King for crying out loud, and that's at least next November. I don't think the publisher (Sony?) was even willing to commit to a rough timeframe yet, otherwise they would be throwing the pre-order pitch for that at every PS3 customer.
I'd like to find something to do with my PS3 for more than 2-3 hours (read: BR movies). MGS4 could potentially be the ticket, although the most recent footage of it leaves me questioning that now.
Not sure what your story has to do with my point. You're talking about noticing in the store that the item is missing because the box is torn. I'm talking about someone purchasing and taking home a sealed product and then returning with the claim that the item was not in the sealed package. In my retail experience (four years), this has not once proven to be anything other than a scam. Ask anyone else in retail, and you'll find the same is true. Open packaging is another story entirely, as that presents an easy opportunity for someone to rip off a store, hence why you find DVDs and games with all those annoying seals around them to clearly indicate if a package has been opened.
While it's true that a single instance wouldn't be proof that a person actually did it, if it happened twice, even if it's different items or different stores, that information would be correlated and a determination made that it was that person. Not that it would be sufficient to prosecute, but they could certainly ban the customer from their stores.
Either way, the majority of the time that someone claims the product wasn't actually in the box, it's a flatout lie. I've seen it happen before, and typically the scammer realizes they won't be able to get away with it and they just give up.
Murder is more routine than space exploration. Iraqi bombings are more routine than space exploration.
When we do return humans to the moon or finally get to Mars, you can bet your ass that the news will cover it, and that a hundred million people (or more) will probably be glued to their TVs. Maybe the space exploration we do now isn't all that exciting to most folks (robotic landers and explorers can't compete with humans for that), but people will still take notice when something as amazing as people walking on another world happens.
One of these days, artists will collectively decide that the recording industry is bad for them, and do everything in their power to end their contracts. But then, I keep thinking the same thing will happen with the American people and their voting habits.
If in fact Prince was in any way behind this takedown notice, though, then he belongs in the same family as Metallica.
I think it really boils down to how much money Sony was willing to pay for it. Rockstar knew early on that the PS3 alone wouldn't have the kind of install base that the PS2 had when Vice City or San Andreas came out, so they knew they'd need to be dual platform. Extra disc space isn't as important as a bigger install base. 6 or 7 million potential customers vs. 15-20 million at the launch of the game seems like an obvious choice to me (given the delay to spring, those installed numbers are probably not going to be remotely accurate).
Not sure what your comment has to do with his point that Mass Effect is going to sell some consoles, and that those consoles aren't gonna be made by Sony. Halo may have been the biggest console seller since SMB, but that doesn't mean there aren't other great games coming in the next few weeks and months. Right now, there is no one big system selling game for the PS3, and the longer that remains true, the more people will get a 360, thus reducing potential PS3 sales as most games are dual platform.
Yes, but Microsoft is more interested in the long-term game than the short-term. The XBOX was created to prevent Sony from getting too large a foothold in the home media arena, which both companies expected (correctly) would eventually be computer-driven. They look ahead to any market that might potentially expand to encroach on their territory and go after it. XBOX and Zune both came about because MS perceived a possible future threat to their business, and because they saw an opportunity to expand into new markets that may some day yield tremendous profits, or at least sufficient tie-in with Windows to allow them to hold onto the OS market.
While $1 billion is nothing to sneeze at, Microsoft has plenty of money to throw around; in fact they MUST spend some of it, or investors get very antsy.
Actually it makes complete sense. The idea isn't so much to actually find a viable lunar lander design (though it is possible for it to happen), as it is to generate interest and excitement about it. At the moment, space exploration barely gets any attention on the nightly news, and despite many other countries planning for moon trips, the public doesn't seem to be very interested in it. On the other hand, if you asked most people if they believe we'll still be limited to the Earth in a hundred or two hundred years, they'd laugh and say no. Well, we've got to start sometime, but it takes money. If the public doesn't support it, then contests like this are a great way to make it happen.
And if nothing else, it just might get some kids interested in science and engineering, which are the two crucial fields to furthering space exploration (and progress in general) that we have the fewest graduates in.
The rules are setup to eliminate things that require atmosphere. And if you can do short distances in 1G, then you will be able to do much greater distances in moon gravity. If you can succeed here on Earth, the adjustments needed for the moon are not that substantial. The things you list like burn rates should just be software adjustments. This challenge is the closest you're going to get to an accurate test/demonstration.
The problem with trying to eliminate atmosphere and gravity is that the only way to do it is with an actual moon landing, which is far beyond the budgets of all but a few entrepreneurs at this point, and would need a much more substantial prize fund.
The number of people who do not believe those listed PS3 exclusives are worth buying the system for are far smaller than the number of people who DO consider them worth buying the system for. That is the problem. There are good exclusives for PS3, but a majority of people do not view them as system sellers. The only interest I have in getting a PS3 is for a Blu-Ray player. THAT is what is getting me to buy one, and while I'll probably get a couple games for it over the next few months, the dual-platform ones will be purchased on 360.
Actually I predicted Sony wouldn't cut the price again, and I was wrong. I hereby cease attempting to predict Sony's actions, as all previous console price strategies have been well thought out and planned far in advance. Sony is no longer following this route, and is reacting rather jumpily. I would hope that the 80GB w/ Motorstorm remains $499 and the 40GB remains $399, with no price changes or discontinuations, but at this point I'm not going to expect it.
Now, will this "price cut" and new model actually increase sales and keep them up, or just provide a temporarily blip like the $100 cut on the 60GB? That's a more interesting question than whether there will be another "price cut" followed by discontinuation soon.
It's not the same thing as a UPC or model number, and no, those are not good enough. UPCs are fairly long, as they must uniquely cover just about every product sold in retail. Model numbers are totally useless, as manufacturers can overlap each other with those if they so desired. A SKU however is a much shorter (typically 6-8 digit) number that is plenty large enough to cover all the products a specific store might carry, without being excessively difficult to manually type in when a bar code won't scan, and without consuming unnecessary space in their databases. SKUs are internal to a specific store/company, and exist to simplify the jobs of those people at the company.
So if you still think there is no purpose to the SKU, go back to being blissfully ignorant of its existence like the overwhelming majority of consumers. Otherwise, please don't refer to it as the "Boba Fett of consumer lifestyle", as that only makes YOU sound elitist.
PS. You do know that books have ISBNs, and instead of UPC Europe uses EAN-13, Japan uses JAN-13, and there is a variant called EAN-128 (or GS1) that includes both UPC and EAN-13?
I don't think you understood me at all. Killing about two hundred thousand people (to be generous) with a pair of bombs rather than killing half a million or more with thousands upon thousands of bombs and allowing a country to become a divided cold war battleground seems an incredibly justifiable decision.
* Wii's are much shorter and more stable in a vertical position, and come bundled with a stand for extra stability, not to mention have a safer disc retention system (slot vs. tray). * The PS3 also uses a slot instead of a disc tray, but given the weight and style of the system, I suspect most owners lay the system flat. * The disc tray in the slim PS2 has a clip for the disc, allowing it to stand up safely.
The 360 was designed to look nice (and is marketed as) standing up, but it is not very stable, and has a relatively loose tray. Something as simple as a door slamming in the house can cause enough vibration to make the disc wobble inside. This could be considered a system design flaw, but it is one that is very easily fixed by end users for the time being - lay the system flat at all times. Of all the people I have spoken to that had rings marked onto their discs, only a small handful said the system was lying down, and I'm not sure I believed them all. It's not unheard of for people to move their system while a disc is inside, even when powered on. Why they do it is beyond me, since it seems common sense not to.
No, nuking NYC would result in the US nuking whoever allowed terrorists to acquire a nuclear weapon. Three thousand people dying in a couple of buildings and planes is quite different than a couple million people dying in an entire city. It's not even remotely the same thing, so I'm not sure what comparison you're attempting to make.
Yes of course. We should've invaded with ground forces and allowed the Soviets to do the same. North Japan would've been another Communist regime, and South Japan would be a prosperous democratic country. A few hundred thousand more people (on all sides) would've lost their lives, but at least we'd have that whole split country thing again! Yeah, screw nukes!
Seriously, anyone who believes Japan would've surrendered in the face of invasion doesn't have an understanding of their mindset at the time. They figured we didn't have the stomach for the loss of life (on both sides) that an invasion would bring. The only reason they accepted a surrender was precisely because we demonstrated we didn't have to invade to kill them all. With little to no loss of life on our account, we could exterminate their population (of course, they didn't know we were pretty much out of nuclear material for more bombs at that point).
Just because it was "nukes" doesn't mean that it was the wrong thing to do. A lot more people died in the firebombing of that country, yet Japan remained defiant because it did not have the shock of total destruction that nukes are so renowned for. Most of us have grown up in a world where nuclear weapon use pretty much means the end of civilization as we know it (or at least catastrophic loss of life in the tens or hundreds of millions). At the time, it was a single bomb dropped from a single plane that did more thoroughly in a few seconds what once took hundreds of planes and tens of thousands of bombs over many hours or days. It was something that was so unfathomable to most people that it shocked a lot of Japanese leaders (especially the Emperor) into accepting surrender.
Slashdot Mirror
Probably because the posting of this itself was tongue-in-cheek (note the Monty Python foot next to it).
As far as underground marketing efforts, this sure ain't bad, and actually seems to make more sense on Slashdot than some of the real articles that get posted.
Actually, once you reach that level, if you're not putting in more than 60 hours a week, you're being lazy. Those massive paychecks don't come from a 40 hour workweek (not that even an 80 hour week justifies some of them, but...)
I see that by "schooled in espionage" you meant "paranoid"...
Sorry, but everything outside our galaxy is, by definition, also outside our solar system; thus, everything outside our galaxy is extrasolar.
Uhm.. actually, the GBA has been discontinued, and most retailers are either no longer carrying or will soon stop carrying GBA games. I believe Nintendo announced not long ago that the DS was their primary handheld platform now, and the developers all seem to have decided that for themselves over a year ago anyway. The Game Boy Micro did not, as I understand, sell very well at all in the US compared with the GBA SP. In Japan this may not have been the case, though. Any future handheld platform will almost certainly maintain DS compatibility and (hopefully) GBA compatibility as well, since that opens up a truly incredible library of old games.
The Wii is going to be really hard to follow up. Yes, the next console from Nintendo will have better graphics and sound and so on, but what improvements can they make to the motion-sensing functionality? If it's just a Wii with more power, it probably will not see the sort of sales performance that the Wii currently has, since many folks will not want to upgrade.
Er, I hate to rain on your anti-MS parade, but:
* The 360 launch titles had the highest aggregate review scores of any console release to date.
* Halo 3 has sold a third of a billion dollars for Microsoft and is played online by more than a million people a day. What misguided expectations did YOU have?
* Every 360 made will have superior backwards compatibility in comparison to every PS3 made after the 80GB is discontinued and they switch over to the same motherboard as the 40GB.
* The "umbrella developers" who left are still committed to making 360 games, and just want a bit more money for their efforts.
* The hardware problems thus far appear to be largely resolved with the latest motherboard/processor, although it's still early to say for sure if the problems are dramatically reduced. My launch-day 360 has performed flawlessly, for what it's worth.
* Developers are jumping ship from the PS3, and a majority have confirmed they are targeting the 360 as their main development platform. Partly this is because it is the easier of the two to code for, but mainly it is because of the bigger install base and thus better sales of games.
I agree that Sony should've been better prepared, and instead of going all-out for a theoretical powerhouse and expecting developers to just take care of themselves, focused on what Microsoft and Nintendo are doing: games and fun!
Anything concrete? You must be new here. Games don't get concrete release dates until they are close to being done, or have a hundred million dollar marketing campaign pushing them out regardless of completion (see Halo 2). Anyone who still believed MGS4 was coming out this year was crazy. GameStop isn't even taking pre-orders yet for what is expected to be one of the biggest PS3 releases for awhile. They're pre-ordering WoW: Wrath of the Lich King for crying out loud, and that's at least next November. I don't think the publisher (Sony?) was even willing to commit to a rough timeframe yet, otherwise they would be throwing the pre-order pitch for that at every PS3 customer.
I'd like to find something to do with my PS3 for more than 2-3 hours (read: BR movies). MGS4 could potentially be the ticket, although the most recent footage of it leaves me questioning that now.
Not sure what your story has to do with my point. You're talking about noticing in the store that the item is missing because the box is torn. I'm talking about someone purchasing and taking home a sealed product and then returning with the claim that the item was not in the sealed package. In my retail experience (four years), this has not once proven to be anything other than a scam. Ask anyone else in retail, and you'll find the same is true. Open packaging is another story entirely, as that presents an easy opportunity for someone to rip off a store, hence why you find DVDs and games with all those annoying seals around them to clearly indicate if a package has been opened.
While it's true that a single instance wouldn't be proof that a person actually did it, if it happened twice, even if it's different items or different stores, that information would be correlated and a determination made that it was that person. Not that it would be sufficient to prosecute, but they could certainly ban the customer from their stores.
Either way, the majority of the time that someone claims the product wasn't actually in the box, it's a flatout lie. I've seen it happen before, and typically the scammer realizes they won't be able to get away with it and they just give up.
Murder is more routine than space exploration. Iraqi bombings are more routine than space exploration.
When we do return humans to the moon or finally get to Mars, you can bet your ass that the news will cover it, and that a hundred million people (or more) will probably be glued to their TVs. Maybe the space exploration we do now isn't all that exciting to most folks (robotic landers and explorers can't compete with humans for that), but people will still take notice when something as amazing as people walking on another world happens.
One of these days, artists will collectively decide that the recording industry is bad for them, and do everything in their power to end their contracts. But then, I keep thinking the same thing will happen with the American people and their voting habits.
If in fact Prince was in any way behind this takedown notice, though, then he belongs in the same family as Metallica.
I think it really boils down to how much money Sony was willing to pay for it. Rockstar knew early on that the PS3 alone wouldn't have the kind of install base that the PS2 had when Vice City or San Andreas came out, so they knew they'd need to be dual platform. Extra disc space isn't as important as a bigger install base. 6 or 7 million potential customers vs. 15-20 million at the launch of the game seems like an obvious choice to me (given the delay to spring, those installed numbers are probably not going to be remotely accurate).
Not sure what your comment has to do with his point that Mass Effect is going to sell some consoles, and that those consoles aren't gonna be made by Sony. Halo may have been the biggest console seller since SMB, but that doesn't mean there aren't other great games coming in the next few weeks and months. Right now, there is no one big system selling game for the PS3, and the longer that remains true, the more people will get a 360, thus reducing potential PS3 sales as most games are dual platform.
Yes, but Microsoft is more interested in the long-term game than the short-term. The XBOX was created to prevent Sony from getting too large a foothold in the home media arena, which both companies expected (correctly) would eventually be computer-driven. They look ahead to any market that might potentially expand to encroach on their territory and go after it. XBOX and Zune both came about because MS perceived a possible future threat to their business, and because they saw an opportunity to expand into new markets that may some day yield tremendous profits, or at least sufficient tie-in with Windows to allow them to hold onto the OS market.
While $1 billion is nothing to sneeze at, Microsoft has plenty of money to throw around; in fact they MUST spend some of it, or investors get very antsy.
Actually it makes complete sense. The idea isn't so much to actually find a viable lunar lander design (though it is possible for it to happen), as it is to generate interest and excitement about it. At the moment, space exploration barely gets any attention on the nightly news, and despite many other countries planning for moon trips, the public doesn't seem to be very interested in it. On the other hand, if you asked most people if they believe we'll still be limited to the Earth in a hundred or two hundred years, they'd laugh and say no. Well, we've got to start sometime, but it takes money. If the public doesn't support it, then contests like this are a great way to make it happen.
And if nothing else, it just might get some kids interested in science and engineering, which are the two crucial fields to furthering space exploration (and progress in general) that we have the fewest graduates in.
The rules are setup to eliminate things that require atmosphere. And if you can do short distances in 1G, then you will be able to do much greater distances in moon gravity. If you can succeed here on Earth, the adjustments needed for the moon are not that substantial. The things you list like burn rates should just be software adjustments. This challenge is the closest you're going to get to an accurate test/demonstration.
The problem with trying to eliminate atmosphere and gravity is that the only way to do it is with an actual moon landing, which is far beyond the budgets of all but a few entrepreneurs at this point, and would need a much more substantial prize fund.
The number of people who do not believe those listed PS3 exclusives are worth buying the system for are far smaller than the number of people who DO consider them worth buying the system for. That is the problem. There are good exclusives for PS3, but a majority of people do not view them as system sellers. The only interest I have in getting a PS3 is for a Blu-Ray player. THAT is what is getting me to buy one, and while I'll probably get a couple games for it over the next few months, the dual-platform ones will be purchased on 360.
Actually I predicted Sony wouldn't cut the price again, and I was wrong. I hereby cease attempting to predict Sony's actions, as all previous console price strategies have been well thought out and planned far in advance. Sony is no longer following this route, and is reacting rather jumpily. I would hope that the 80GB w/ Motorstorm remains $499 and the 40GB remains $399, with no price changes or discontinuations, but at this point I'm not going to expect it.
Now, will this "price cut" and new model actually increase sales and keep them up, or just provide a temporarily blip like the $100 cut on the 60GB? That's a more interesting question than whether there will be another "price cut" followed by discontinuation soon.
Ah, of course. Because the fact that it can play 360 games is irrelevant.
It's not the same thing as a UPC or model number, and no, those are not good enough. UPCs are fairly long, as they must uniquely cover just about every product sold in retail. Model numbers are totally useless, as manufacturers can overlap each other with those if they so desired. A SKU however is a much shorter (typically 6-8 digit) number that is plenty large enough to cover all the products a specific store might carry, without being excessively difficult to manually type in when a bar code won't scan, and without consuming unnecessary space in their databases. SKUs are internal to a specific store/company, and exist to simplify the jobs of those people at the company.
So if you still think there is no purpose to the SKU, go back to being blissfully ignorant of its existence like the overwhelming majority of consumers. Otherwise, please don't refer to it as the "Boba Fett of consumer lifestyle", as that only makes YOU sound elitist.
PS. You do know that books have ISBNs, and instead of UPC Europe uses EAN-13, Japan uses JAN-13, and there is a variant called EAN-128 (or GS1) that includes both UPC and EAN-13?
I don't think you understood me at all. Killing about two hundred thousand people (to be generous) with a pair of bombs rather than killing half a million or more with thousands upon thousands of bombs and allowing a country to become a divided cold war battleground seems an incredibly justifiable decision.
* Wii's are much shorter and more stable in a vertical position, and come bundled with a stand for extra stability, not to mention have a safer disc retention system (slot vs. tray).
* The PS3 also uses a slot instead of a disc tray, but given the weight and style of the system, I suspect most owners lay the system flat.
* The disc tray in the slim PS2 has a clip for the disc, allowing it to stand up safely.
The 360 was designed to look nice (and is marketed as) standing up, but it is not very stable, and has a relatively loose tray. Something as simple as a door slamming in the house can cause enough vibration to make the disc wobble inside. This could be considered a system design flaw, but it is one that is very easily fixed by end users for the time being - lay the system flat at all times. Of all the people I have spoken to that had rings marked onto their discs, only a small handful said the system was lying down, and I'm not sure I believed them all. It's not unheard of for people to move their system while a disc is inside, even when powered on. Why they do it is beyond me, since it seems common sense not to.
No, nuking NYC would result in the US nuking whoever allowed terrorists to acquire a nuclear weapon. Three thousand people dying in a couple of buildings and planes is quite different than a couple million people dying in an entire city. It's not even remotely the same thing, so I'm not sure what comparison you're attempting to make.
Yes of course. We should've invaded with ground forces and allowed the Soviets to do the same. North Japan would've been another Communist regime, and South Japan would be a prosperous democratic country. A few hundred thousand more people (on all sides) would've lost their lives, but at least we'd have that whole split country thing again! Yeah, screw nukes!
Seriously, anyone who believes Japan would've surrendered in the face of invasion doesn't have an understanding of their mindset at the time. They figured we didn't have the stomach for the loss of life (on both sides) that an invasion would bring. The only reason they accepted a surrender was precisely because we demonstrated we didn't have to invade to kill them all. With little to no loss of life on our account, we could exterminate their population (of course, they didn't know we were pretty much out of nuclear material for more bombs at that point).
Just because it was "nukes" doesn't mean that it was the wrong thing to do. A lot more people died in the firebombing of that country, yet Japan remained defiant because it did not have the shock of total destruction that nukes are so renowned for. Most of us have grown up in a world where nuclear weapon use pretty much means the end of civilization as we know it (or at least catastrophic loss of life in the tens or hundreds of millions). At the time, it was a single bomb dropped from a single plane that did more thoroughly in a few seconds what once took hundreds of planes and tens of thousands of bombs over many hours or days. It was something that was so unfathomable to most people that it shocked a lot of Japanese leaders (especially the Emperor) into accepting surrender.