the key is "once you get used to it". all games are annoying an irritating until you get used to them.
the first time i played pacman as a kid, i couldnt understand the mechanics of the joystick. it wasnt as responsive as i thought it should be [i was a kid, couldnt help it]
when i graduated to [8bit] consoles, i used to move the controller around alot. subconciously hoping that moving my arms to the left would help mario avoid falling to his death.
my first time playing street fighter was anoying because i was not used to making sweeping motions to control an action. the button press usually executed the action. at the most i was used to a button press and to hold a direction simultaneously.
during the 32 bit generation i used to get confused by the early titles that displayed 3d motion, but mapped to 2d controls. the lack of camera control was truly annoying too.
when i first played quake i had been used to playing doom, the freedom of using a mouse [freelook] made me nauseous. te ability to jump combined with the default inverted mouse setup gave me vertigo.
playing grand theft auto3 on PC was annoying due to the ability to run in one direction and shoot in the other. which is standard fare to me in a FPS, but not a 3rd person shooter.
driving vehicles in halo requires you to reset your bearings to that of a standard 3d, 3rd person shooter, whereas the rest of the game plays as a first person shooter. driving isnt difficult; its the same scheme as say... grand theft auto, but the jerk of changing control configurations is annoying as well.
controlling coded arms, a FPS on the psp is difficult due to the lack of a second analog stick. using the face buttons to control your view is difficult.
most games can be difficult to pick up, esp those that move on to define genres or pioneer new things. if the games are fun [to you] and make you want to progress further, then you will adapt to the new control mechanics. period.
halo2 was an excellent game, but still... i think it was rushed as well. they wanted to get it out of the gate to compete with grand theft auto: san andreas and start a healthy rush for xmas xbox purchases.
dont get me wrong, it was an excellent game and much better than the offerings from most studios out there, but it was not the game it could have been. repetitive structures and layouts; though not as bad as halo1. the single player story was incomplete. towards the end of the game you could tell the developers lost some of their steam.
the early multiplayer portion was much better than anything else available for consoles at the time, but it was still buggy, laggy and susceptible to cheating. things that they would have removed via more time and testing. how many of the map changes/ gametypes/ patches have been added since its release? some of them could at least have been worked on given they had more time [no team slayer out the box? i forget the exact problem i had w/ team slayer at first, but i remember thinking how stupid it was that they needed to patch the fix in]. luckily, xbox live [and post-release patching] saved an excellent multiplayer title from what could have quickly gotten tiring and frustrating in terms of multiplayer action.
i consider it a solid game, but i know what bungie is capable of. i know that if they didnt have microsoft on their backs to finally get it out the door, they could [and would] have made it an even better game.
when will they drop the '2'? street fighter alpha, and street fighter ex are just guises for sf2. the expansion packs are great, but isnt it time for a actual sequel?
i agree with you, however the MPAA feels that if the content was something you found real interest in, you could in theory devote some of the money toward the movies that you would plan to spend in other areas, such as...er... hmm... food. they claim piracy is stealing their room to grow [read: potential to convince you to spend more money on the movies and less on video games or something less simple to pirate]
[please read the read of this comment with a dose of irony and sarcasm]
the problem is, 50% of the content people download is stuff they are just curious about and are only downloading because it is free. the freedom to download something and try it out w/o possibly wasting your money blindly is what drives piracy. it seems like no one gets that fact. a large portion of data downloaded just gets deleted eventually. data storage is cheaper than ever, but it is still costly no matter how you cut it. do they really think that every single movie or show downloaded winds up burned to a dvd? stuff sits on a server for a few months, then on someones harddrive where it will stay until they run out of space and need to delete it, or the drive crashes. only a fraction of movies downloaded ever wind up on dvds, and even less wind up being resold as bootleg copies.
example: if i like a single on the radio, and i download the album illegally. i may find that i hate the cd. i promptly delete it. in my mind, i just saved myself $10-15. to me, piracy is a good deal and saved my wallet.
on the other hand, if i download the album and find out that i love it, ill keep it around for a while until i run out of harddrive space. in the interim, im going to publicize how good the album is with a few friends or they might get interested in the band if they hear me play it. i may find myself buying their previous works, or maybe going to their concerts. the whole time i am providing evangelical service for the band.
both of these would be illegal in the eyes of the MPAA. the difference is one stance can turn piracy into a profit, and the other will be a big waste of time for everyone involved. the answer? make better products!
thats a gargantuan task. patching thousands, more likely millions of consoles...
i wouldnt blame sony for pushing everything back if thats their only other option.
like everyone else, i want to see more; if only so i can feel assured that the trailers we say last summer are actually what we are going to get when the ps3 finally drops.
unfortunately, even fanboy publications have a tidbit of journalistic integrity [most that arent own by the parent company anyways]. if the titles are nice, but not OMG stellar... it will shine through. what generates more buzz? playable demos, or what sony has done? at last years e3, i would have expected playable x360 games to have mopped the floor with the ps3 since they actually had playable games. i would have expected NO mention of the ps3 at all following their MTV special. that just wasnt the case. sony doesnt have to do that anymore. they have a healthy amount of buzz still and this is w/o any playable games. if the games sucked, we would hear a LOT of negative press. and many fence sitters would go off and buy their x360s now.
yeah, the x360 buzz here on slashdot was annoying, but there was a large amount of that buzz shared with the ps3 and revolution too. dont forget. the buzz for the 360 was shared buzz, and much of the launch hype was negative press. [the shortages, the bundle ordeals, the overheating... etc...]
no, i agree that the releasing a week after announcing the system isnt sony's style. but then again, neither is a press blackout. things are under new management. the stakes are much higher, sony is doing things different. whatever it is that they are up to.
as for the x360, they are out the gate, but its on the developers now to win over countries and territories. its up to that next big killer app, be it halo3 or gears of war or whatever. they just dont have any/must haves/ yet. if sony doesnt have any either, they dont want to announce it to the world. teh x360 has some nice games, some pretty ones, but they need that next big thing to steal sonys thunder, and start selling more systems. personally, between that and availability, those are the only hold ups i have making me wait before buying a x360. im just a fan of the games honestly. i go where the games are.
yeah, but we are talking launch titles. launch titles usually suck. thats a given. so why throw your product out to the wolves [reviewers] who will rip it to shreds anyways? wait a while, and throw it up for grabs to the public. they are the ones that matter. they are actually going to drop the money for the games. the public wont get to play the games at the trade shows anyways. whatever publicity they would get from the trade shows they are STILL getting.
think about it. THIS is their marketting plan. here we are reading and speculating on almost as many articles about the ps3, than for hardware thats been available for a few months now [the xbox360]. hell we still havent even seen anything, but we are all anxiously waiting and jumping on every possible "leaked" rumor. sony has their buzz going... and its going strong. if they drop the ps3 unexpectedly and shorthand the preorder buzz, you will see one hell of a buying frenzy.
the x360 is only a sony competitor in the US and europe. asian players are avoiding the x360 like the plague. microsoft cant give them away. people are awaiting the revolution and the ps3 in asia. half of europe and america are STILL waiting on the ps3, the other quarter are still waiting on their preorders to get filled. so what buzz are they losing?
yeah, they could patch the firmware, but look at what its done to the psp.
people will avoid the upgrades. this cannabalizes game and movie sales. people will avoid buying new movies and games possibly, to avoid the mandatory upgrades if possible.
esp if the system comes w/o copy protection. also, if they have no aacs finalized, how will they be able to sell early games/ movies? the copy protection needs to be in place for both, right?
hmmm... i like the thought of a console with a suspend button. hmmm... or maybe im the only idiot that pauses games if im not near a save point, and walks away for hours.
its funny to see that ive spent 24+ hours playing a game and ive only gotten to the fourth level.
with japan and the US now belonging to the same "region" in regards to regional machine encoding, i wouldnt be surprised if they tried to pull off a simultaneous launch. the same consoles can pretty much be used for both launches; sans a few packaging details. can they do it? i highly doubt it.
please reference your/sony/ source where they announced which territories will be released first?
also, keep in mind that this is a rumor article still. not OFFICIAL word. september 16/21 or whatever could be crap. september is a long way away from "spring" in terms of when they stated they would launch.
personally, id rather have the ps3 in september if that means i get more launch titles and a larger [and more stable] supply of the actual consoles.
the UMD movies are encoded around the same resolution. but using better compression. [i think...]. besides, supposedly the ps3 should be able to upscale video pretty well.
WOW. i forgot about that game. it was actually pretty solid technically now that i think about it. the game itself wasnt my cup of tea, but the effects were on par with your average treasure game.
now that i think back... subterrania was wildly ahead of its time. the physics of the ship were one of the first times i ever had to deal with "real" physics in a game. the boss and background graphics were quite realistic to me at that time. not the absolute greatest game ever, but definitely surprised me that the genesis could push something like that.
thanks for the irony tag. almost didnt get the joke.
you gotta point though, maybe im a sucker for punishment; i/did/ eventually renew my live subscription for some reason. [havent used it since november, though].
but at least the racists arent as pronounced here on slashdot as on live.
after the poor reception of atrac, sony has seen the light finally. the psp plays mp3s as does its new line of walkman products. i dont see the real problem, unless you just dont like sony in general.
they are supposedly playing up psp/ps3 connectivity. ill wager this is how they plan to charge for psp content as well. download music and video to your psp from the website; play the files on the psp or ps3. what i would be interested in knowing is if psp/ps3 connectivity will finally give people a way to play umds on their tvs. im sure the ps3 can handle the upscaling, if the psp can provide some form of video output. can anyone chime in about this psp locationfree stuff?
i wrote a book, but i hope you learn something. Oh and please feel free to make corrections. its been a while since college.
the reason most electronics are sold at a greater cost early in their lifecycle is due to the fact that the company has to recoup the cost of r&d. think of all the engineers they had to pay to document, writeup, research, and test the tech... the cost for building the prototypes... and the cost of each of the parts. if there are custom parts; they need custom fabrication. they have to pay the factories for building the molds and machinery, etc... hence technology is usu expensive when first introduced. all technology passes on the cost to the consumer.
with game consoles, they usually sell the console at a loss in order to gain a greater user base. if its expensive less people will buy it early, and developers may decide to concentrate on projects for your competition if they have a greater userbase. the companies recoup the money lost in R&D/prototyping by charging developers a licensing fee. the licensing fee usually pays for use of unlocking codes[so that their product can actually run on the hardware], dev stations, and usually inclusion on official documents, press releases, and marketing. licensing fees for console games are higher than for movie media.
the blu-ray standalone drives are another thing. the hardware in a standalone bluray drive is different from a ps3. the ps3 contains hardware that can be utilized for other purposes to aid in decoding movie streams. in standalone drives, that hardware is missing and must be replaced by more custom parts. this requires more r&d to create and fabricate the hardware needed. since they cant pass that cost off to studios in the same way, they charge it to the consumer.
once blu-ray drive sales begin turning a profit [off the early adopters] and they have made back their initial investment, you start to see drive prices fall. once several different variations of bluray drives are on the market [drives for laptops, drives for ps3s and standalone drives] they may start using many of the same parts. this lowers the price since they can consolidate factories.
other factors such as failure rates or low yields may keep prices higher for a longer period of time. failure to create an adequate number of any one of the many parts can cause delays or product shortages. less product means less consumers will be able to buy. that equates to a longer timeframe for the company to start turning a profit; less time before prices drop.
so, lets look at [random company]. they make a version of the blu-ray standalone player. they want to make one of the earlier models so that early adopters will pick up their product and act as mavens for those that will later become interested in bluray down the line. if they can convince early adopters that their brand is superior, they will gain consumer trust [read: a larger marketshare/ profit down the line] unfortunately [random company] did not have a hand in the creation of the tech, nor do they own a movie studio or disc manufacturering plant. therefore the only revenue they receive will be from sales of players. they see no benefit from selling below cost.
the ps3 on the other hand is a different beast. because sony planned to create a game machine anyways, many of the specialized parts for gaming can be reused to play back bluray video. because sony also is one of the major developers of bluray technology, they receive royalties from every bluray movie ever made. therefore they have incentive to do whatever it takes to make sure that the movie format catches on. sony also owns a movie studio, and receives profit from sales of its movies in the latest high definition format that will be desired for owners of high definition televisions. sony also makes high definition televisions, so it receives profits from sales of its tvs which will pick up as more gamers buy HDTVs in order to fully experience their new consoles. since sony also is the creators of the ps3, the
whether they had to or not, if it means i dont have to worry about another scratched movie again, im all for it. hell, can i get my current dvd movies coated in it now!?!?!? lol.
as for consumer savings due to factory retooling... im not much of a believer in trickle down economics. ill believe it when i see it. im all for saving on movies that are already too expensive, but i dont really see either format being more expensive than dvds were when they were released. but then again, what do i know?
believe it or not, i can relate to you. i own both current consoles, but i like my ps2 better. the xbox is great; dont get me wrong. ive been too cheap to upgrade my pc, so im happy to have been able to play through halflife2. =)
im probably your polar opposite in this regard. i am probably going to go with the ps3, but i am desperately waiting on that first killer x360 title that makes me want to hop the fence and get a x360 too. maybe i have to wait for gears of war, or maybe i have to wait for halo3, but i just dont feel the urge to buy one just yet.
xbox live is great for some games, but more annoying than anything overall. live makes me feel like most gamers are either 14, or racist. =\ i have my personal friends online, but hate calling them to ask them to sign on everytime i want to get in a match.
im curious about the new acheivement tracking, the arcade and a few more features of the new live system. halo notwithstanding, MS doesnt have any true exclusive, must have games outside of PC ports, and certainly very few outstanding titles in genres outside of FPS.
as far as evil, i agree; all three of the big game makers are evil. maybe im older, or maybe i just carry a grudge longer, but i havent forgotten about nintendo's brand of evil either... i just go with whatever console has the games i want to play.
for now im leaning towards ps3, but who knows? hell, i may buy all three if they woo me well enough.
yeah, honestly i think they should just drop the hd-dvd deal altogether and rename blu-ray as hd-dvd. blu-ray/is/ the superior format. more costly, but superior... it has all of hd-dvds touted features, and then it has its own strengths [protective coating, size capacity etc...]
all sony said was that the emotion engine could create realistic characters and convey emotions. ffx was pretty close [not quite, but close anyways]. oh, and they said it could create a bathtub full of ducks. lol.
Slashdot Mirror
the key is "once you get used to it". all games are annoying an irritating until you get used to them.
the first time i played pacman as a kid, i couldnt understand the mechanics of the joystick. it wasnt as responsive as i thought it should be [i was a kid, couldnt help it]
when i graduated to [8bit] consoles, i used to move the controller around alot. subconciously hoping that moving my arms to the left would help mario avoid falling to his death.
my first time playing street fighter was anoying because i was not used to making sweeping motions to control an action. the button press usually executed the action. at the most i was used to a button press and to hold a direction simultaneously.
during the 32 bit generation i used to get confused by the early titles that displayed 3d motion, but mapped to 2d controls. the lack of camera control was truly annoying too.
when i first played quake i had been used to playing doom, the freedom of using a mouse [freelook] made me nauseous. te ability to jump combined with the default inverted mouse setup gave me vertigo.
playing grand theft auto3 on PC was annoying due to the ability to run in one direction and shoot in the other. which is standard fare to me in a FPS, but not a 3rd person shooter.
driving vehicles in halo requires you to reset your bearings to that of a standard 3d, 3rd person shooter, whereas the rest of the game plays as a first person shooter. driving isnt difficult; its the same scheme as say... grand theft auto, but the jerk of changing control configurations is annoying as well.
controlling coded arms, a FPS on the psp is difficult due to the lack of a second analog stick. using the face buttons to control your view is difficult.
most games can be difficult to pick up, esp those that move on to define genres or pioneer new things. if the games are fun [to you] and make you want to progress further, then you will adapt to the new control mechanics. period.
halo2 was an excellent game, but still... i think it was rushed as well. they wanted to get it out of the gate to compete with grand theft auto: san andreas and start a healthy rush for xmas xbox purchases.
dont get me wrong, it was an excellent game and much better than the offerings from most studios out there, but it was not the game it could have been. repetitive structures and layouts; though not as bad as halo1. the single player story was incomplete. towards the end of the game you could tell the developers lost some of their steam.
the early multiplayer portion was much better than anything else available for consoles at the time, but it was still buggy, laggy and susceptible to cheating. things that they would have removed via more time and testing. how many of the map changes/ gametypes/ patches have been added since its release? some of them could at least have been worked on given they had more time [no team slayer out the box? i forget the exact problem i had w/ team slayer at first, but i remember thinking how stupid it was that they needed to patch the fix in]. luckily, xbox live [and post-release patching] saved an excellent multiplayer title from what could have quickly gotten tiring and frustrating in terms of multiplayer action.
i consider it a solid game, but i know what bungie is capable of. i know that if they didnt have microsoft on their backs to finally get it out the door, they could [and would] have made it an even better game.
yeah, but what happened to that? did it even get released to consoles? i have never seen a copy. all they keep doing is refreshing the sf2 series.
when will they drop the '2'? street fighter alpha, and street fighter ex are just guises for sf2. the expansion packs are great, but isnt it time for a actual sequel?
i agree with you, however the MPAA feels that if the content was something you found real interest in, you could in theory devote some of the money toward the movies that you would plan to spend in other areas, such as ...er... hmm... food. they claim piracy is stealing their room to grow [read: potential to convince you to spend more money on the movies and less on video games or something less simple to pirate]
[please read the read of this comment with a dose of irony and sarcasm]
the problem is, 50% of the content people download is stuff they are just curious about and are only downloading because it is free. the freedom to download something and try it out w/o possibly wasting your money blindly is what drives piracy. it seems like no one gets that fact. a large portion of data downloaded just gets deleted eventually. data storage is cheaper than ever, but it is still costly no matter how you cut it. do they really think that every single movie or show downloaded winds up burned to a dvd? stuff sits on a server for a few months, then on someones harddrive where it will stay until they run out of space and need to delete it, or the drive crashes. only a fraction of movies downloaded ever wind up on dvds, and even less wind up being resold as bootleg copies.
example: if i like a single on the radio, and i download the album illegally. i may find that i hate the cd. i promptly delete it. in my mind, i just saved myself $10-15. to me, piracy is a good deal and saved my wallet.
on the other hand, if i download the album and find out that i love it, ill keep it around for a while until i run out of harddrive space. in the interim, im going to publicize how good the album is with a few friends or they might get interested in the band if they hear me play it. i may find myself buying their previous works, or maybe going to their concerts. the whole time i am providing evangelical service for the band.
both of these would be illegal in the eyes of the MPAA. the difference is one stance can turn piracy into a profit, and the other will be a big waste of time for everyone involved. the answer? make better products!
thats a gargantuan task. patching thousands, more likely millions of consoles...
i wouldnt blame sony for pushing everything back if thats their only other option.
like everyone else, i want to see more; if only so i can feel assured that the trailers we say last summer are actually what we are going to get when the ps3 finally drops.
unfortunately, even fanboy publications have a tidbit of journalistic integrity [most that arent own by the parent company anyways]. if the titles are nice, but not OMG stellar... it will shine through. what generates more buzz? playable demos, or what sony has done? at last years e3, i would have expected playable x360 games to have mopped the floor with the ps3 since they actually had playable games. i would have expected NO mention of the ps3 at all following their MTV special. that just wasnt the case. sony doesnt have to do that anymore. they have a healthy amount of buzz still and this is w/o any playable games. if the games sucked, we would hear a LOT of negative press. and many fence sitters would go off and buy their x360s now.
/must haves/ yet. if sony doesnt have any either, they dont want to announce it to the world. teh x360 has some nice games, some pretty ones, but they need that next big thing to steal sonys thunder, and start selling more systems. personally, between that and availability, those are the only hold ups i have making me wait before buying a x360. im just a fan of the games honestly. i go where the games are.
yeah, the x360 buzz here on slashdot was annoying, but there was a large amount of that buzz shared with the ps3 and revolution too. dont forget. the buzz for the 360 was shared buzz, and much of the launch hype was negative press. [the shortages, the bundle ordeals, the overheating... etc...]
no, i agree that the releasing a week after announcing the system isnt sony's style. but then again, neither is a press blackout. things are under new management. the stakes are much higher, sony is doing things different. whatever it is that they are up to.
as for the x360, they are out the gate, but its on the developers now to win over countries and territories. its up to that next big killer app, be it halo3 or gears of war or whatever. they just dont have any
say it louder next time. too many people miss this point.
yeah, but we are talking launch titles. launch titles usually suck. thats a given. so why throw your product out to the wolves [reviewers] who will rip it to shreds anyways? wait a while, and throw it up for grabs to the public. they are the ones that matter. they are actually going to drop the money for the games. the public wont get to play the games at the trade shows anyways. whatever publicity they would get from the trade shows they are STILL getting.
think about it. THIS is their marketting plan. here we are reading and speculating on almost as many articles about the ps3, than for hardware thats been available for a few months now [the xbox360]. hell we still havent even seen anything, but we are all anxiously waiting and jumping on every possible "leaked" rumor. sony has their buzz going... and its going strong. if they drop the ps3 unexpectedly and shorthand the preorder buzz, you will see one hell of a buying frenzy.
the x360 is only a sony competitor in the US and europe. asian players are avoiding the x360 like the plague. microsoft cant give them away. people are awaiting the revolution and the ps3 in asia. half of europe and america are STILL waiting on the ps3, the other quarter are still waiting on their preorders to get filled. so what buzz are they losing?
yeah, they could patch the firmware, but look at what its done to the psp.
people will avoid the upgrades. this cannabalizes game and movie sales. people will avoid buying new movies and games possibly, to avoid the mandatory upgrades if possible.
esp if the system comes w/o copy protection. also, if they have no aacs finalized, how will they be able to sell early games/ movies? the copy protection needs to be in place for both, right?
hmmm... i like the thought of a console with a suspend button. hmmm... or maybe im the only idiot that pauses games if im not near a save point, and walks away for hours.
its funny to see that ive spent 24+ hours playing a game and ive only gotten to the fourth level.
with japan and the US now belonging to the same "region" in regards to regional machine encoding, i wouldnt be surprised if they tried to pull off a simultaneous launch. the same consoles can pretty much be used for both launches; sans a few packaging details. can they do it? i highly doubt it.
/sony/ source where they announced which territories will be released first?
please reference your
also, keep in mind that this is a rumor article still. not OFFICIAL word. september 16/21 or whatever could be crap. september is a long way away from "spring" in terms of when they stated they would launch.
personally, id rather have the ps3 in september if that means i get more launch titles and a larger [and more stable] supply of the actual consoles.
the UMD movies are encoded around the same resolution. but using better compression. [i think...]. besides, supposedly the ps3 should be able to upscale video pretty well.
WOW. i forgot about that game. it was actually pretty solid technically now that i think about it. the game itself wasnt my cup of tea, but the effects were on par with your average treasure game.
now that i think back... subterrania was wildly ahead of its time. the physics of the ship were one of the first times i ever had to deal with "real" physics in a game. the boss and background graphics were quite realistic to me at that time. not the absolute greatest game ever, but definitely surprised me that the genesis could push something like that.
thanks for the irony tag. almost didnt get the joke.
/did/ eventually renew my live subscription for some reason. [havent used it since november, though].
you gotta point though, maybe im a sucker for punishment; i
but at least the racists arent as pronounced here on slashdot as on live.
people talk with their wallets.
after the poor reception of atrac, sony has seen the light finally. the psp plays mp3s as does its new line of walkman products. i dont see the real problem, unless you just dont like sony in general.
they are supposedly playing up psp/ps3 connectivity. ill wager this is how they plan to charge for psp content as well. download music and video to your psp from the website; play the files on the psp or ps3. what i would be interested in knowing is if psp/ps3 connectivity will finally give people a way to play umds on their tvs. im sure the ps3 can handle the upscaling, if the psp can provide some form of video output. can anyone chime in about this psp locationfree stuff?
i wouldnt say that. its more like the other gamers really suck.
you have to really do some networking and try to stick to playing against people you know arent assholes.
i wrote a book, but i hope you learn something. Oh and please feel free to make corrections. its been a while since college.
the reason most electronics are sold at a greater cost early in their lifecycle is due to the fact that the company has to recoup the cost of r&d. think of all the engineers they had to pay to document, writeup, research, and test the tech... the cost for building the prototypes... and the cost of each of the parts. if there are custom parts; they need custom fabrication. they have to pay the factories for building the molds and machinery, etc... hence technology is usu expensive when first introduced. all technology passes on the cost to the consumer.
with game consoles, they usually sell the console at a loss in order to gain a greater user base. if its expensive less people will buy it early, and developers may decide to concentrate on projects for your competition if they have a greater userbase. the companies recoup the money lost in R&D/prototyping by charging developers a licensing fee. the licensing fee usually pays for use of unlocking codes[so that their product can actually run on the hardware], dev stations, and usually inclusion on official documents, press releases, and marketing. licensing fees for console games are higher than for movie media.
the blu-ray standalone drives are another thing. the hardware in a standalone bluray drive is different from a ps3. the ps3 contains hardware that can be utilized for other purposes to aid in decoding movie streams. in standalone drives, that hardware is missing and must be replaced by more custom parts. this requires more r&d to create and fabricate the hardware needed. since they cant pass that cost off to studios in the same way, they charge it to the consumer.
once blu-ray drive sales begin turning a profit [off the early adopters] and they have made back their initial investment, you start to see drive prices fall. once several different variations of bluray drives are on the market [drives for laptops, drives for ps3s and standalone drives] they may start using many of the same parts. this lowers the price since they can consolidate factories.
other factors such as failure rates or low yields may keep prices higher for a longer period of time. failure to create an adequate number of any one of the many parts can cause delays or product shortages. less product means less consumers will be able to buy. that equates to a longer timeframe for the company to start turning a profit; less time before prices drop.
so, lets look at [random company]. they make a version of the blu-ray standalone player. they want to make one of the earlier models so that early adopters will pick up their product and act as mavens for those that will later become interested in bluray down the line. if they can convince early adopters that their brand is superior, they will gain consumer trust [read: a larger marketshare/ profit down the line] unfortunately [random company] did not have a hand in the creation of the tech, nor do they own a movie studio or disc manufacturering plant. therefore the only revenue they receive will be from sales of players. they see no benefit from selling below cost.
the ps3 on the other hand is a different beast. because sony planned to create a game machine anyways, many of the specialized parts for gaming can be reused to play back bluray video. because sony also is one of the major developers of bluray technology, they receive royalties from every bluray movie ever made. therefore they have incentive to do whatever it takes to make sure that the movie format catches on. sony also owns a movie studio, and receives profit from sales of its movies in the latest high definition format that will be desired for owners of high definition televisions. sony also makes high definition televisions, so it receives profits from sales of its tvs which will pick up as more gamers buy HDTVs in order to fully experience their new consoles. since sony also is the creators of the ps3, the
maybe im mistaken, but in my area... dvds were released at $25-29. and vhs dropped from 16-19 to around 9-14.
you did mention wholesale, so forgive me if i have my figures wrong.
whether they had to or not, if it means i dont have to worry about another scratched movie again, im all for it. hell, can i get my current dvd movies coated in it now!?!?!? lol.
as for consumer savings due to factory retooling... im not much of a believer in trickle down economics. ill believe it when i see it. im all for saving on movies that are already too expensive, but i dont really see either format being more expensive than dvds were when they were released. but then again, what do i know?
believe it or not, i can relate to you. i own both current consoles, but i like my ps2 better. the xbox is great; dont get me wrong. ive been too cheap to upgrade my pc, so im happy to have been able to play through halflife2. =)
im probably your polar opposite in this regard. i am probably going to go with the ps3, but i am desperately waiting on that first killer x360 title that makes me want to hop the fence and get a x360 too. maybe i have to wait for gears of war, or maybe i have to wait for halo3, but i just dont feel the urge to buy one just yet.
xbox live is great for some games, but more annoying than anything overall. live makes me feel like most gamers are either 14, or racist. =\ i have my personal friends online, but hate calling them to ask them to sign on everytime i want to get in a match.
im curious about the new acheivement tracking, the arcade and a few more features of the new live system. halo notwithstanding, MS doesnt have any true exclusive, must have games outside of PC ports, and certainly very few outstanding titles in genres outside of FPS.
as far as evil, i agree; all three of the big game makers are evil. maybe im older, or maybe i just carry a grudge longer, but i havent forgotten about nintendo's brand of evil either... i just go with whatever console has the games i want to play.
for now im leaning towards ps3, but who knows? hell, i may buy all three if they woo me well enough.
yeah, honestly i think they should just drop the hd-dvd deal altogether and rename blu-ray as hd-dvd. blu-ray /is/ the superior format. more costly, but superior... it has all of hd-dvds touted features, and then it has its own strengths [protective coating, size capacity etc...]
2 coff=1&q=news.com+toy+story+bill+gates+xbox&btnG=S earch
sony never made the toy story comparision. microsoft made that claim about the first xbox. to this day everyone still claims it was sony. eleventh paragraph: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&c
all sony said was that the emotion engine could create realistic characters and convey emotions. ffx was pretty close [not quite, but close anyways]. oh, and they said it could create a bathtub full of ducks. lol.
theres a couple million psp owners that may say differently. hell, the movies are selling as well if not better than the games last i checked.
ever notice how very few complain about nintendos' proprietary formats? the revolution is going to be their first "open standard" system.
sony is also part of the consortium that recieves a portion of the licensing fees from the FINALIZED dvd technology. read on...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvd#History