the quote is supposedly directly from a MS exec: j. allard, who is the xbox chief evangelist.
the fact remains that they are putting these statements out there, because they are trying to gauge how the public reacts. it is the general consensus that the ps3 will be more powerful and possibly have more options. whether that is true or not, i cant say. BUT... amongst the public, that what the majority seem to think. they are making these ambigious statements to suggest that perhaps the x360 will be expandable, and you wont be locked into the one firm set of hardware that will be obsolete and crap looking the day the ps3 launches.
or most likely, the statement meant that he wants developers to design for the console as if the harddrive will not always be there. since it does contain a detachable harddrive, should the drive die [lil johnny removed the drive and dropped it, or something like that] or perhaps the drive is just plain lost, they want people to still be able to use their x360's without the drive. just a thought...
everyone should understand that [american] football isnt as universally popular as it is in the us. fact. however it is justified on the list at #2.
the site is an european site hence the.uk extension in the url. the author himself says "I'm as interested in a next-gen Madden as I am in a next-gen chess game". outside of america, NFL football is usually met with soso interest. however, if you put the game into perspective you will understand. [im paraphrasing from the article directly, by the way] since the x360 is the first next gen console to launch, this is the ONLY way american football fans will be able to play football on a next gen console for a good many months. american sports fans comprise a large market of american console buyers.
EA, the company that publishes madden06 has sole exclusive rights to NFL licensed games. there will be no other game that features NFL players, teams or their likenesses other than ones published by EA. since the nearest next gen launch is slated for nearly a half year after the launch of the x360 [taking delays into account, who knows when it will be released in the US?], the only way lil american jimmy will be able to get his NFL football fix on a next generation console is to play this one specific game on this one specific console.
granted, this is not a game that is popular worldwide, but the american market loves this particular title; its a guaranteed selling franchise. amongst american sports fans, this is a system seller. console sports gamers are a huge market, and are a major reason for the US success of the sega genesis. if this title fails in the american market, it could spell doom for x360 acceptance amongst US console sports fans. that would be a major blow to the x360 in the american market in general.
liken it to an RPG title [like dragon quest/dragon warrior] that sells decently all over the world, but fails miserably in asian countries where it is usually a much anticipated title, and you will start to see ths picture.
i didnt read the article similarly. i found that he avoided some of the more difficult questions. he is being smart, and i cant fault him for that. thats what he is supposed to do.
all im saying is that like anyone doing pr for either company, he took a few jabs at sony too. they werent overt, but they were jabs nonetheless. and he danced around in his statements. "hey, why dont you bash sony over the same thing you bash us for...?", "we have been in the game longer than sony", "those pictures were okay, but dont criticize them because the game looks better than that", "the brand is worth billions already...", "yeah halo looked bad at e3 at first... so thats what is going to happen with our launch games now". hes just doing his job too.
whats the opposite of FUD? HFO [hope, forgiveness and optimism]
just because hes alot less arrogant than k kutaragi, doesnt mean he doesnt have the same goals.
solitaire was written by an unpaid intern working for MS. so that one is out. he did it himself; didnt have any staff, no development schedule, etc etc etc... that doesnt count.
does anyone realize that this guy is an evangelist for microsoft? a paid employee. his only job [which hes recieving a hefty six figures at least for...] is to develop fanboys. say whatever is necessary to get people to love the xbox. you cant take the guy all too seriously.
i understand where youre going, and youre right; that is the MS goal. they want to use the console market, because thats one more way to work the MS brand into another aspect of your life. some marketing genius realized that the more people are playing console video games, the less they will be playing games at the computer. the less they play at the computer the less they will need windows. [some people (read: hardcore gamers) stick with windows because most games are written to run on windows machines].
competition is good. in fact, competition is great. but MS is obviously not in this fight for the money. that much is apparent. so ask yourself, what are they in the market for? they arent really even a hardware manufacturer in the first place. so what do they want to do? to advertise windows as a media center? to pioneer in-game ads? to innovate the idea of online micro-transactions? to showcase their media formats? to play up their security measures? yeah probably all of that, but their main objective is to be the one brand to rule them all.
well, i think good ol billy and company are just holding back on details about whether or not to release the hd-dvd drive with the console because they are afraid of banking on hd-dvd and seeing it lose the format war. besides if they bundle it now, it would be pretty expensive since they arent a hardware manufacturer anyways. sony actually makes the drives themselves so it hurts, but its not as large of a hit for them.
if the ps3's blu-ray drive is never used for anything other than games... cool. its fine; you just have another audio/dvd player. the blu-ray works for games. fair enough. consumers wont be burned.
since ms has pretty much ironed out specs for all upcoming games to be on dvd media, and therefore later games cant utilize the hd-dvd density, without effectively burning the early adopters. they could stand more to lose should hd-dvd not catch on. basically you would have to pay for a drive that has no use should hd-dvd lose the format war. the last thing xbox wants to do at this junction is burn customers that bad. they are still trying to gain a foothold in the world market.
"Perhaps this is all part of Nintendo's master plan? They *are* the smartest and wisest of the three companies, afterall..."
you're joking right? they are the most experienced. i will give you that. however i wouldnt excuse them from doing what ALL video game companies are guilty of, and thats making stupid moves. [no dvd drive, avoiding cd based games, lack of online titles, virtual boy]
im not beating down nintendo, im just saying that they have had their fair share of mistakes too. they arent at the head of the pack anymore. luckily they have danced around their mistakes fairly easily, so i can see them pulling out the big guns this generation. im not the biggest nintendo fan, but i respect their power when it comes to games.
"did we say its only 2-3 times more powerful? sorry that was a typo in the press release. we mean 2-3 times more powerful than the other companies. lol."
seems like you are the only person thats thinking the same way i am. i figure they are going to throw in xbox live, and maybe a few extra accessories. perhaps the remote control for the dvd player, larger HD, a game [doubt this one]. the wireless networking... probably a blank faceplate... etc etc etc... they arent going to drop a $100 hd-dvd drive in there. i could see them taking an extra loss on that one if they did.
but for $100 more, ms would most likely add xbox live. which would suck for those early adopters who already have live subscriptions that should be able to carry over.
i take it all with a grain of salt. the games looked more complete in the sense that you had a general overall idea of what the final game was to look like. x360 doesnt have FMV to show that is all that impressive. all we get are nicely rendered screenshots here and there. ive seen a little from gears of war and project gotham [both look like they are progressing quite nicely], but for a system thats going to be released in two/ three months from now, thats not alot. what gameplay i/have/ seen looks quite unimpressive.
i just want a basic idea of what the final game is going to look like and play like. i want to see the full elegant blueprint, even if its all in theory and you fall short, i want to see where you want to go. dont show me a shoddy markup model made of popsicle sticks. i have no idea of how good its supposed to be.
in afterthought, im sure this is all merely part of MS's marketing plan. they havent shown what the final product will be like for many of its games. im assuming that they want people to imagine how their games will look when done, based only on in progress shots now. this is so that people will have a harder time contrasting their games with anything sony or nintendo might have coming along down the pipe. especially if either of those systems look better.
actually, in articles that have been on slashdot for the past couple of days, it appears that sony is still tweaking the internals of the ps3. namely adding more usable memory, and im assuming adding more and more functionality to the box. when the dust settles and we see a playable box, then we will know for sure.
as for the x360, it still kinda bothers me that its only three months until its launch and we havent really seen any playably breathtaking games. gears of war and perfect dark look very good, but the latest clips ive seen dont look like they are ready for release in the next two months. assuming that they need a month of time for pressing.
exactly. they may have not had unified media for use on their consoles, but as far as just gaming goes, they were able to come out with a profitable console. of course they were criticised, but they still were able to compete.
if blu-ray fails [and i dont see that happening] the console will still be a success. there are enough studios behind blu-ray that it will be a success. add that to the fact that it is a superior media product, and will be at launch in the homes of approximately all ps3 owners, and i can foresee hd-dvd failing miserably. the only way MS can pull a winner out of HD-DVD is to 1) have each x360 come with one at launch and actually use that first mover advantage. 2) if hd-dvd somehow pulls a magic trick and can get more storage space. 3) the ps3 fails miserably [unless it costs $1000, it wont happen].
i suspect that hd dvd drives arent going to be included at launch because even bill gates has his doubts about the format. that and hes concerned about the pricing.
even if blu-ray doesnt catch on, as long as it stores my game data, and will be available for the ps3 for the entire product cycle, i dont really see a problem. betamax or not, a game disc is a game disc. as long as i have the system, i will have those game discs. so what if i lose out on some of the movie functionality? when i want a player for movies, if i have to... ill buy one.
i didnt really hear too much of a cry when nintendo decided to go with their own format for cartridges or for gamecube discs. if you want to play movies, you might have to buy something else, and thats basically what mr. gates is saying; you might have to buy the newer version to play hd dvds on the x360.
sad but true, this will suck for early adopters, and will cripple developers since they will obviously have to create for the lowest common denominator.
i mean it sounds nice, but that is the antithesis of xbox live. once of the much applauded facets of live is the player matching. no more sitting around scanning servers for ping times, etc. if you turn exclusive community you take that away. not that its a bad idea; my friends and i actually do the same to a certain extent. but you realize that online gaming [particularly xbox live] has a long way to go.
my pc gaming experience has always been/slightly/ better, since most kids under say 16-18 rent old enough to have a decent enough rig to play the games that i do.
early stages of one of the first playable games has already been shown running. http://ps3.ign.com/articles/635/635525p1.html [keep in mind that this game is months away from release]
if we continue to judge by the past, we could also say that the x360 will fail in japan, and the revolution wont do much better than the xbox1.
the fact remains that this is a NEW generation. but some people... some companies learn from their mistakes. i think that all the companies have learned valuable lessons with the current generation. nintendo knows that they have a solid stockpile of intellectual property that will serve them well. MS knows that size does matter [lol], and that the japanese market is crucial. sony learned that graphics can be everything, and a sleek online play strategy is vital as well. if sony fails to deliver, then they fail. i dont see either of the companies repeating their various mistakes; they will obviously make new ones instead.
i tend to think of that whenever i hear people go on and on about how kid friendly nintendo is. maybe its just me. i enjoy nintendo products just as everyone else does, but i dont really see them as the angelic corporation that really cares about family and kids that some people do.
they have a track record of being notoriously stubborn and hard to work with that is on the same type of level of MS.
honestly, i would prefer for neither of the three major companies to go out of business. the competition has indeed helped us all out as consumers. we complain about modern top games selling for around average $40, but in the 8-16 bit nintendo heydays games used to retail for 60-70. a budget title was $35. now most games are released for $35-49. sure cd and dvd technology helped lower costs, but if you recall, nintendo fought against the idea of implementing cd based technology for the longest. why would they sell us data on less expensive and superior media, when they could continue to sell us more expensive games using cheap chips that they can use fancy buzzwords to make us think that the game should cost more? superfx chip, anyone? i mean really do you think nintendo was that afraid of games being copied either?
if you live in the us or canada, why not try out some of the different mail order rental services? they usually stock the latest and if you like something you always have the option to buy.
which version are you using? the emulator runs pretty well for me in most games. i havent tried earthbound directly myself, but i dont seem to see too many problems. i havent had to frame skip either.
as for the 333mhz cpu cycles, doesnt eat up battery power that bad for me.
the truth is, pricing will be tricky. i can see the 360 costing upwards of 300+. the original xbox was 300 at the time of release, and they took a serious hurt on hardware sales. i dont see the 360 being cheaper for them to manufacture, so its probably higher than that. but hey, what do i know? im no market analyst.
the ps3 will most likely follow suit and cost within $100 range of what the 360 ships for. much like sony did with the psp/ds release. even with all of the alleged functionality, i dont see sony dropping a 500 machine. they can afford to take the losses by selling much lower than cost.
im assuming katuragi just wants consumers to know that its his intention to have a longer product cycle, so they dont feel burned by the fact that their older playstation is becoming obsolete. he "wants" to have a ten year [overall] cycle. releasing next gen systems too early leaves a bad taste in some gamers mouths when they realize they only got a four to five year lifecycle out of thier console, and are now looking at purchasing a new one that may or may not be almost twice as expensive.
katuragi realizes that ms is treating the console world like the pc world. in four years you are obsolete... consumers know that consoles arent pcs, and therefore should require longer lifecycles. thank heaven consoles are THAT expensive yet... maybe thats why this generation [nintendo excluded] the consoles are being called entertainment centers, media centers, supercomputers... blah, blah, blah...
the good news is that the ps2 and xbox arent quite dead yet. you arent forced to upgrade just yet. this upcoming end of generation overlap time is good to play catchup on titles you may have missed, or finish those titles you havent yet. better yet, buy those games you always wanted to try for cheaper.
the xbox has had what... a four year life cycle? MS has stated that they released the first xbox as a simple test of the gaming industry. i think that their significant losses have prompted them to rework their strategy.
supposedly the first xbox supported HD output up to 1080i. http://hardware.gamespot.com/Microsoft-Xbox-9399-O -4-4 thats one of the more highly touted features of their next gen system; its nothing new... i think that they saw the rise of the mod community and the media center capabilities http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/ of the xbox being used and realized this was their chance to turn the tides on their debt problems. they are playing their hand. feeding us back what we originally wanted from them in the first place. great marketing!
what this has done is cause the other companies to jump onto the next generation. i wouldnt be surprised if the ps3 and revolution where not originally supposed to be released until 2007-2008 or so. sony and nintendo have to play their next gen card earlier now in order to compete.
i think this is a prime example of how MS entering the industry is diminishing it. sure we get next generation graphics and performance sooner, but we are going to take the hit on our pockets earlier and more often too.
yeah, i might have been exaggerating a bit as far as sc3 using nintendo characters. i am just saying that there is a very real sentiment amongst developers that GC games succeed based upon their alignment with the existing nintendo properties. many [not all] third party developers w/o NoA licensed characters release games for GC that they have ported to other platforms or they choose to continue known gc-friendly franchises.
in terms of adding licensed nintendo properties to third party games, you have to understand that can get expensive. not all developers have to do that, but its starting to get underlined all the time by NoA that titles using their characters get an added boost. that boost is something that publishers will push their development houses for. they are always after squeezing that last dollar out of our collective pockets.
as for the control scheme of the nintendo controller versus the other controllers, i would say that the GC controller is slightly harder to use for your average cross platform game this generation. there are several that share my sentiment, but everyone has their own preference. for example there are people that still swear by the original xbox "hamburger" controller. personally, its just that its probably the main gripe i hear from loyal nintendo fans themselves.
as for tekken, tekken 5 does not suck. tekken tag... eh, ill give you that. the comment you referenced refers to tekken tag, not tekken5. try it out once if you get a chance. its not sc2 or 3, but its much better than tekken tag.
Slashdot Mirror
the quote is supposedly directly from a MS exec: j. allard, who is the xbox chief evangelist.
the fact remains that they are putting these statements out there, because they are trying to gauge how the public reacts. it is the general consensus that the ps3 will be more powerful and possibly have more options. whether that is true or not, i cant say. BUT... amongst the public, that what the majority seem to think. they are making these ambigious statements to suggest that perhaps the x360 will be expandable, and you wont be locked into the one firm set of hardware that will be obsolete and crap looking the day the ps3 launches.
or most likely, the statement meant that he wants developers to design for the console as if the harddrive will not always be there. since it does contain a detachable harddrive, should the drive die [lil johnny removed the drive and dropped it, or something like that] or perhaps the drive is just plain lost, they want people to still be able to use their x360's without the drive. just a thought...
did they really consider it a physics engine back then?
i understand what you mean though.
everyone should understand that [american] football isnt as universally popular as it is in the us. fact. however it is justified on the list at #2.
.uk extension in the url. the author himself says "I'm as interested in a next-gen Madden as I am in a next-gen chess game". outside of america, NFL football is usually met with soso interest. however, if you put the game into perspective you will understand. [im paraphrasing from the article directly, by the way] since the x360 is the first next gen console to launch, this is the ONLY way american football fans will be able to play football on a next gen console for a good many months. american sports fans comprise a large market of american console buyers.
the site is an european site hence the
EA, the company that publishes madden06 has sole exclusive rights to NFL licensed games. there will be no other game that features NFL players, teams or their likenesses other than ones published by EA. since the nearest next gen launch is slated for nearly a half year after the launch of the x360 [taking delays into account, who knows when it will be released in the US?], the only way lil american jimmy will be able to get his NFL football fix on a next generation console is to play this one specific game on this one specific console.
granted, this is not a game that is popular worldwide, but the american market loves this particular title; its a guaranteed selling franchise. amongst american sports fans, this is a system seller. console sports gamers are a huge market, and are a major reason for the US success of the sega genesis. if this title fails in the american market, it could spell doom for x360 acceptance amongst US console sports fans. that would be a major blow to the x360 in the american market in general.
liken it to an RPG title [like dragon quest/dragon warrior] that sells decently all over the world, but fails miserably in asian countries where it is usually a much anticipated title, and you will start to see ths picture.
i didnt read the article similarly. i found that he avoided some of the more difficult questions. he is being smart, and i cant fault him for that. thats what he is supposed to do.
all im saying is that like anyone doing pr for either company, he took a few jabs at sony too. they werent overt, but they were jabs nonetheless. and he danced around in his statements. "hey, why dont you bash sony over the same thing you bash us for...?", "we have been in the game longer than sony", "those pictures were okay, but dont criticize them because the game looks better than that", "the brand is worth billions already...", "yeah halo looked bad at e3 at first... so thats what is going to happen with our launch games now". hes just doing his job too.
whats the opposite of FUD? HFO [hope, forgiveness and optimism]
just because hes alot less arrogant than k kutaragi, doesnt mean he doesnt have the same goals.
solitaire was written by an unpaid intern working for MS. so that one is out. he did it himself; didnt have any staff, no development schedule, etc etc etc... that doesnt count.
does anyone realize that this guy is an evangelist for microsoft? a paid employee. his only job [which hes recieving a hefty six figures at least for...] is to develop fanboys. say whatever is necessary to get people to love the xbox. you cant take the guy all too seriously.
i understand where youre going, and youre right; that is the MS goal. they want to use the console market, because thats one more way to work the MS brand into another aspect of your life. some marketing genius realized that the more people are playing console video games, the less they will be playing games at the computer. the less they play at the computer the less they will need windows. [some people (read: hardcore gamers) stick with windows because most games are written to run on windows machines].
competition is good. in fact, competition is great. but MS is obviously not in this fight for the money. that much is apparent. so ask yourself, what are they in the market for? they arent really even a hardware manufacturer in the first place. so what do they want to do? to advertise windows as a media center? to pioneer in-game ads? to innovate the idea of online micro-transactions? to showcase their media formats? to play up their security measures? yeah probably all of that, but their main objective is to be the one brand to rule them all.
well, i think good ol billy and company are just holding back on details about whether or not to release the hd-dvd drive with the console because they are afraid of banking on hd-dvd and seeing it lose the format war. besides if they bundle it now, it would be pretty expensive since they arent a hardware manufacturer anyways. sony actually makes the drives themselves so it hurts, but its not as large of a hit for them.
if the ps3's blu-ray drive is never used for anything other than games... cool. its fine; you just have another audio/dvd player. the blu-ray works for games. fair enough. consumers wont be burned.
since ms has pretty much ironed out specs for all upcoming games to be on dvd media, and therefore later games cant utilize the hd-dvd density, without effectively burning the early adopters. they could stand more to lose should hd-dvd not catch on. basically you would have to pay for a drive that has no use should hd-dvd lose the format war. the last thing xbox wants to do at this junction is burn customers that bad. they are still trying to gain a foothold in the world market.
"Perhaps this is all part of Nintendo's master plan? They *are* the smartest and wisest of the three companies, afterall..."
you're joking right? they are the most experienced. i will give you that. however i wouldnt excuse them from doing what ALL video game companies are guilty of, and thats making stupid moves. [no dvd drive, avoiding cd based games, lack of online titles, virtual boy]
im not beating down nintendo, im just saying that they have had their fair share of mistakes too. they arent at the head of the pack anymore. luckily they have danced around their mistakes fairly easily, so i can see them pulling out the big guns this generation. im not the biggest nintendo fan, but i respect their power when it comes to games.
"did we say its only 2-3 times more powerful? sorry that was a typo in the press release. we mean 2-3 times more powerful than the other companies. lol."
seems like you are the only person thats thinking the same way i am. i figure they are going to throw in xbox live, and maybe a few extra accessories. perhaps the remote control for the dvd player, larger HD, a game [doubt this one]. the wireless networking... probably a blank faceplate... etc etc etc... they arent going to drop a $100 hd-dvd drive in there. i could see them taking an extra loss on that one if they did.
but for $100 more, ms would most likely add xbox live. which would suck for those early adopters who already have live subscriptions that should be able to carry over.
i take it all with a grain of salt. the games looked more complete in the sense that you had a general overall idea of what the final game was to look like. x360 doesnt have FMV to show that is all that impressive. all we get are nicely rendered screenshots here and there. ive seen a little from gears of war and project gotham [both look like they are progressing quite nicely], but for a system thats going to be released in two/ three months from now, thats not alot. what gameplay i /have/ seen looks quite unimpressive.
i just want a basic idea of what the final game is going to look like and play like. i want to see the full elegant blueprint, even if its all in theory and you fall short, i want to see where you want to go. dont show me a shoddy markup model made of popsicle sticks. i have no idea of how good its supposed to be.
in afterthought, im sure this is all merely part of MS's marketing plan. they havent shown what the final product will be like for many of its games. im assuming that they want people to imagine how their games will look when done, based only on in progress shots now. this is so that people will have a harder time contrasting their games with anything sony or nintendo might have coming along down the pipe. especially if either of those systems look better.
actually, in articles that have been on slashdot for the past couple of days, it appears that sony is still tweaking the internals of the ps3. namely adding more usable memory, and im assuming adding more and more functionality to the box. when the dust settles and we see a playable box, then we will know for sure.
as for the x360, it still kinda bothers me that its only three months until its launch and we havent really seen any playably breathtaking games. gears of war and perfect dark look very good, but the latest clips ive seen dont look like they are ready for release in the next two months. assuming that they need a month of time for pressing.
exactly. they may have not had unified media for use on their consoles, but as far as just gaming goes, they were able to come out with a profitable console. of course they were criticised, but they still were able to compete.
if blu-ray fails [and i dont see that happening] the console will still be a success. there are enough studios behind blu-ray that it will be a success. add that to the fact that it is a superior media product, and will be at launch in the homes of approximately all ps3 owners, and i can foresee hd-dvd failing miserably. the only way MS can pull a winner out of HD-DVD is to 1) have each x360 come with one at launch and actually use that first mover advantage. 2) if hd-dvd somehow pulls a magic trick and can get more storage space. 3) the ps3 fails miserably [unless it costs $1000, it wont happen].
i suspect that hd dvd drives arent going to be included at launch because even bill gates has his doubts about the format. that and hes concerned about the pricing.
isnt gran turismo 4 dual layer? and it still comes with two different disks.
even if blu-ray doesnt catch on, as long as it stores my game data, and will be available for the ps3 for the entire product cycle, i dont really see a problem. betamax or not, a game disc is a game disc. as long as i have the system, i will have those game discs. so what if i lose out on some of the movie functionality? when i want a player for movies, if i have to... ill buy one.
i didnt really hear too much of a cry when nintendo decided to go with their own format for cartridges or for gamecube discs. if you want to play movies, you might have to buy something else, and thats basically what mr. gates is saying; you might have to buy the newer version to play hd dvds on the x360.
sad but true, this will suck for early adopters, and will cripple developers since they will obviously have to create for the lowest common denominator.
i mean it sounds nice, but that is the antithesis of xbox live. once of the much applauded facets of live is the player matching. no more sitting around scanning servers for ping times, etc. if you turn exclusive community you take that away. not that its a bad idea; my friends and i actually do the same to a certain extent. but you realize that online gaming [particularly xbox live] has a long way to go.
/slightly/ better, since most kids under say 16-18 rent old enough to have a decent enough rig to play the games that i do.
my pc gaming experience has always been
i suggest you do some research as well.
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early stages of one of the first playable games has already been shown running.
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/635/635525p1.html
[keep in mind that this game is months away from release]
may i add that the new unreal engine was playable and running on actual hardware at e3 as well.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/05/16/news_6124
also, just because many of the trailers at e3 were pre-rendered, that doesnt preclude that there is in fact a very real, and very good looking next generation engine that drives it.
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/09
if we continue to judge by the past, we could also say that the x360 will fail in japan, and the revolution wont do much better than the xbox1.
the fact remains that this is a NEW generation. but some people... some companies learn from their mistakes. i think that all the companies have learned valuable lessons with the current generation. nintendo knows that they have a solid stockpile of intellectual property that will serve them well. MS knows that size does matter [lol], and that the japanese market is crucial. sony learned that graphics can be everything, and a sleek online play strategy is vital as well. if sony fails to deliver, then they fail. i dont see either of the companies repeating their various mistakes; they will obviously make new ones instead.
i tend to think of that whenever i hear people go on and on about how kid friendly nintendo is. maybe its just me. i enjoy nintendo products just as everyone else does, but i dont really see them as the angelic corporation that really cares about family and kids that some people do.
they have a track record of being notoriously stubborn and hard to work with that is on the same type of level of MS.
honestly, i would prefer for neither of the three major companies to go out of business. the competition has indeed helped us all out as consumers. we complain about modern top games selling for around average $40, but in the 8-16 bit nintendo heydays games used to retail for 60-70. a budget title was $35. now most games are released for $35-49. sure cd and dvd technology helped lower costs, but if you recall, nintendo fought against the idea of implementing cd based technology for the longest. why would they sell us data on less expensive and superior media, when they could continue to sell us more expensive games using cheap chips that they can use fancy buzzwords to make us think that the game should cost more? superfx chip, anyone? i mean really do you think nintendo was that afraid of games being copied either?
if you live in the us or canada, why not try out some of the different mail order rental services? they usually stock the latest and if you like something you always have the option to buy.
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http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000820052061/ via http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB11223310
[the WSJ article requires a subscription]
which version are you using? the emulator runs pretty well for me in most games. i havent tried earthbound directly myself, but i dont seem to see too many problems. i havent had to frame skip either.
as for the 333mhz cpu cycles, doesnt eat up battery power that bad for me.
the psp does have native mp3 support. there is a homebrew divx player, but natively the psp only supports mpeg4 and now h.264.
as for a hard disk, a gig of memory should be large enough for casual pda use. also there is a keyboard coming eventually.
what i really want is the ability to connect to my home network and upload and download files. id love to update my mp3 playlists wirelessly.
this is a joke right? ...right?
the truth is, pricing will be tricky. i can see the 360 costing upwards of 300+. the original xbox was 300 at the time of release, and they took a serious hurt on hardware sales. i dont see the 360 being cheaper for them to manufacture, so its probably higher than that. but hey, what do i know? im no market analyst.
the ps3 will most likely follow suit and cost within $100 range of what the 360 ships for. much like sony did with the psp/ds release. even with all of the alleged functionality, i dont see sony dropping a 500 machine. they can afford to take the losses by selling much lower than cost.
im assuming katuragi just wants consumers to know that its his intention to have a longer product cycle, so they dont feel burned by the fact that their older playstation is becoming obsolete. he "wants" to have a ten year [overall] cycle. releasing next gen systems too early leaves a bad taste in some gamers mouths when they realize they only got a four to five year lifecycle out of thier console, and are now looking at purchasing a new one that may or may not be almost twice as expensive.
katuragi realizes that ms is treating the console world like the pc world. in four years you are obsolete... consumers know that consoles arent pcs, and therefore should require longer lifecycles. thank heaven consoles are THAT expensive yet... maybe thats why this generation [nintendo excluded] the consoles are being called entertainment centers, media centers, supercomputers... blah, blah, blah...
the good news is that the ps2 and xbox arent quite dead yet. you arent forced to upgrade just yet. this upcoming end of generation overlap time is good to play catchup on titles you may have missed, or finish those titles you havent yet. better yet, buy those games you always wanted to try for cheaper.
the xbox has had what... a four year life cycle? MS has stated that they released the first xbox as a simple test of the gaming industry. i think that their significant losses have prompted them to rework their strategy.
O -4-4 thats one of the more highly touted features of their next gen system; its nothing new... i think that they saw the rise of the mod community and the media center capabilities http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/ of the xbox being used and realized this was their chance to turn the tides on their debt problems. they are playing their hand. feeding us back what we originally wanted from them in the first place. great marketing!
supposedly the first xbox supported HD output up to 1080i. http://hardware.gamespot.com/Microsoft-Xbox-9399-
what this has done is cause the other companies to jump onto the next generation. i wouldnt be surprised if the ps3 and revolution where not originally supposed to be released until 2007-2008 or so. sony and nintendo have to play their next gen card earlier now in order to compete.
i think this is a prime example of how MS entering the industry is diminishing it. sure we get next generation graphics and performance sooner, but we are going to take the hit on our pockets earlier and more often too.
yeah, i might have been exaggerating a bit as far as sc3 using nintendo characters. i am just saying that there is a very real sentiment amongst developers that GC games succeed based upon their alignment with the existing nintendo properties. many [not all] third party developers w/o NoA licensed characters release games for GC that they have ported to other platforms or they choose to continue known gc-friendly franchises.
in terms of adding licensed nintendo properties to third party games, you have to understand that can get expensive. not all developers have to do that, but its starting to get underlined all the time by NoA that titles using their characters get an added boost. that boost is something that publishers will push their development houses for. they are always after squeezing that last dollar out of our collective pockets.
as for the control scheme of the nintendo controller versus the other controllers, i would say that the GC controller is slightly harder to use for your average cross platform game this generation. there are several that share my sentiment, but everyone has their own preference. for example there are people that still swear by the original xbox "hamburger" controller. personally, its just that its probably the main gripe i hear from loyal nintendo fans themselves.
as for tekken, tekken 5 does not suck. tekken tag... eh, ill give you that. the comment you referenced refers to tekken tag, not tekken5. try it out once if you get a chance. its not sc2 or 3, but its much better than tekken tag.