some did bring gaming into the living room again. nintendo had relegated gaming to the kids rooms and to the dens. whereas nintendo always wanted to stay true to their toy image [they were a card company turned toy maker, remember?] sony embraced all demographics, and proved that there is a market for "mature" titles too, or titles that nintendo only marginally supported. even with the new wii line, very few [only one that i know of] of those titles could be considered "mature".
nintendo had become arrogant and complacent. sony has humbled nintendo, and look at what they are doing now. they are focused again; or at least they seem to be. i personally dont want to see sony fail in the video games arena, but if they have to take a backseat this generation in order for them to get back on track; so be it.
if nothing else, we owe sony for helping nintendo wake up and get off their laurels. nintendo was in a stupor for very many years. sony did something that even sega was incapable of at the time. sony may not have created many new aspects of the gaming market, but they definitely solidified the things they embraced.
they didnt create the idea of rumble or force-feedback, but they successfully integrated it into their controller and gave it a sense of scale, not just a bunch of random buzzes
they were not the first to use a cd based game system, but they were the first to utilize that extra capacity for 3d based games and video.
the saturn may have beaten them to memory cards [i didnt have a saturn, so i dont remember if they were internal or external], but the playstation did away with battery backed up save games that were subject to failing, or to the memory limits of the console save memory [read: sega cd]. for the first time game saves were able to travel with you to a friends house to finish your game.
they didnt create the first analog controller, but they were the first to realize that two analog sticks helps the pesky 3d camera issues that plague many games still to this day.
they didnt create backwards compatibility, but they were the first to implement it in a way that has now become almost an industry standard.
the list goes on...
the value of the playstation line has always been superior to its competitors. at release, the ps1 did 3d well better than the saturn, and captured the third party markets that nintendo arrogantly pushed away. all for $100 cheaper than the saturn.
at release the ps2 was more expensive than the dreamcast, but they threw in a dvd player as well. it wasnt the greatest dvd player, but for most it was the only dvd player they had and therefore people didnt mind its shortcomings. inspite of the fact that the gamecube and xbox had better graphical capabilities overall, and they came out a year later... there are still games on the ps2 that match some of the xbox and gamecube offerings. [not many, but there are some]. even now at the end of the ps2 lifecycle there are many AAA offerings still being produced, whereas the xbox and gamecube have almost been abandoned completely.
the psp for what it is, is an excellent value. its easily worth several hundred more than it retails for. not that i want to pay more, but it definitely seems like sony is obviously selling it at a huge loss. they keep adding more functionality to the device [unfortunately, at the expense of homebrew...] but it is the first console model to actively add more abilities as time progresses. [xbox live could possibly be the pioneer here, but live really didnt do much to change the "core" functionality of the unit itself]
laugh all you want, but i guarantee that if there are any studio execs that read slashdot, they are going through thier rolodexes right now looking for uwe boll's number.
let me clarify. depending on your setup, almost anything is possible.
depending on your equipment, component is capable of handling 1080p video. however dvi/hdmi give better output quality. also, forget trying to run 1080p over a cheap 50' cable. if you spring for good shorter cabling you can get 1080p via component, just not faithfully or nearly as high quality as the newer digital alternative dvi/hdmi cables.
~ when asked about codec use, a sony rep stated they will use MPEG2 early on, after that gradually shift to H.264/avc.
sony is initially planning to use mpeg2 to encode their movies, and is "asking" for other studios to do the same for the time being. im assuming they dont wish to alienate consumers who buy Blu ray drives and find that their computer cant handle decoding the heavy data streams if they use higher compression this early. eventually they will move over to h.264. there is speculation that most studios do wish to move forward and use vc-1, but pressure from sony will most likely push them to h.264 for for no other reason besides politics. obviously sony doesnt want to support the codec of the company that supports rival tech.
sorry, the article says theyve "shipped" 3.3 million. imagine a 50/50 split, and you have 1.15 million core systems and 1.15 premium systems worldwide. keep in mind that core systems are sitting on shelves unsold, because people are waiting on more premium systems... so therefore sales are much lower than that.
to put the 3.3 million figure in perspective. the ps2/sold/ half that many in the first week or so. the psp shipped 5.1 million in its first seven months. the ds/sold/ 7 million in the first 8 months. [from pcvsconsole/ NPD figures]
im not saying the x360 is dead or dying, but the sales are no where near where i expected them to be, or as high as the whole "sold-out" phenomenon makes it seem. i would have expected the x360 to sell much higher than it has so far. my guess is that MS is fuking over consumers and creating a false shortage, all the while stockpiling systems awaiting the ps3 launch, and will unleash them on the same date; offering them as a cheaper alternative to the ps3.
the exclusives eventually boil down to first party devs. sony still has a serious advantage against ms amongst first party titles. ms titles are eventually ported to pc at the least [they are a pc software company afterall...]. even the revered halo franchise eventually made it to pc.
i have seen very few if any sony first party franchises ported to other consoles. crash maybe?
whether the dreamcast was more powerful or less powerful than the ps2, thats anyones guess. since development fizzled out rather quickly so we will never know what muscle the DC devs could have tapped into. it had alot of potential that much i admit, but frankly by the end of the generation the ps2 eventually turned out more breathtaking games than the DC, simply due to the fact that it got aborted by sega very early on.
i dont think that the next gen systems are overkill for current games. the games that are coming out for the next gen systems push high end pcs to their limits. [epic uses a quad-sli setup to run UT2007 at the same level as it runs natively on the ps3!??!?!] how much will a quad-sli setup run you? compare that to the $600 ps3. you can barely make a gaming pc from scratch for under $500. at least we can say that this generation the consoles will most likely be on par with the pc longer than in previous generations.
if the price tag bothers you [and it sure as hell bothers me...] imagine buying a ps3 for $400 [same as a x360] and a blu-ray player for $200. you still get the larger harddrive, wireless, and the card readers etc etc etc... for free. i think they are playing against the x360. the $500 ps3 is basically just a x360 with the hd-dvd addon [assuming it will only be $100; it will prob be more costly]. they both dont have hdmi; its basically the same package with a free wireless controller, and free netplay.
still i agree with you, $600 is ALOT for any family to spend. i think sony is trying to cater to the same market that buys high end electronics and computers, etc... unless a steep price drop comes about in the first year, i think they will get trounced. single guys with money to burn may not care ab the price, but i cant see lil johnny america being able to mow that many lawns this summer to save up for one.
a retail slimline ps2 goes for 129 now, so im more than certain you can find a used original model for under $100 pretty much anywhere. as people start the flurry to preorder ps3s or wiis, im sure that ebay will have dozens of them for sale.
the xbox 360 is selling here in the states, but its being met with tepid reactions abroad. that does not make for a success. the time lead is negligible as well; theyve only dropped two AAA titles. theres alot of x360 promise, but honestly they only have another two AAA titles on the horizon. unfortunately, those titles havent pushed that many additional x360 sales, since the hardware just isnt available. in almost a year, theyve only sold 3.3 million consoles worldwide. thats highly underwhelming. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid= 16706 the psp, the ds, ps2 and even the gba are trouncing x360 sales in almost every region. dont believe the hype; look the numbers up yourself.
i think sony may have shot itself in the foot at that high a pricepoint, but we have to wait and see what consumers think once this fall rolls around. its a given that the ps3 will sell out, but if sales dont keep at a steady clip, sony may have lost this generation.
you can still play games in 1080p. you can still play most movies in 1080p. the only movies you will not be able to play are those that the studio decides to set the ICT flag to true on. thats what enables the HDCP monster DRM.
to date we only have verbal promises that the studios will not use the flag for many years to come. [yeah, right!] and gaming will not be affected by HDCP.
blu-ray uses h.264 for movie compression, not wmv-hd.
the compression used on the discs is a moot point. they both support the very same security and managed copy protection measures. blu-ray adopted said measures to win over the majority of the film studios.
facts about t2 extreme edition: it uses wmv-hd, and therefore only plays on the latest windows machines. can you foresee the problem there if it becomes accepted as a standard? and is only 1080i [in theory half the frames needed for a 1080p version of the same quality]. it is "remastered" from a 1080p version of the original, and clocks in at ~8gigs. the master obviously is larger than that and would need more than a 9 gig media.
-- personally, i like hdmi. its a good solution for A/V. what needs to be killed off is HDCP and ICT, the content protection that could in theory cripple video output and the image constraint token that studios can decide to set; thereby crippling non hdmi output.
and finally, i assume you [netavenger] already know this, but for those that are confused let me clarify another thing. we will not need to worry about HDCP, HDMI, ICT or any of the other DRM alphabet soup for another few years now. at least until hdmi tvs are more widespread. and most of all, non of the above matter when it comes to gaming. 1080p gaming on the ps3 will be enabled via any form of connecting to your tv, provided it can support 1080p signals. hdcp has no effect on the gaming properties of the ps3.
1. without HDMI, some studios will be producing expensive dvds. its totally up to the studios to decide whether they wish to screw over consumers. they dont have to rely on HDCP.
2. youre right, who knows? 1080i and 720p are going to be the more prevalent image resolutions for hdtv owners for a while as 1080p tvs catch up. alot of hdtv owners are not interested in upgrading their hdtvs anytime soon so to them they wouldnt have been using the hdmi port anyways.
3. the memory card support doesnt apply to ps2 memory cards anyways. you only lose the ability to transfer saves and data back and forth with your camera, media player or psp. most people wont see this as a big loss anyways.
4. maybe not wirelessly, but it can possibly still work via usb. alot of people have wireless routers on their home networks anyways, so as long as the ps3 is plugged into the same network the psp is connected to, you have the same functionality. [lets not forget how wireless networking works...]
5. sony stated that the harddrive is still removable [read: self upgradable]. it supports usb harddrives, and there are plenty of usb card readers on the market. im sure that someone will make one that specifically caters to the core ps3 upgrade aftermarket. if you already have a wifi router, you can do without the builtin one. you just lose the ability to play your networked ps3 without wires. again, im sure you can by a usb wireless adapter or bluetooth network card for that matter. as for hdmi, i know that they have component to hdmi convertors... how these would affect output quality, i cant say.
usually those people complaining of that issue are playing off of a backup. or a copy of the game copied to a harddrive. not pointing fingers, just stating a fact.
compressing a dvd9 game to a dvd5 backup is the cause there for the most part.
from what i recall. the hdmi output only matters in regards to 1080p movie output on certain titles that are limited to output over HDMI only. the gaming functions fully work the same over component as they do over HDMI.
dont forget that the ps2 was less expensive than the xbox, and the xbox had that huge annoying [to most] controller. the xbox was just an ugly contraption until xbox live really took off.
the FPS argument is solid, but FPS and RTS games are but one genre that are better suited to PCs. there are several genres that are better off played with a gamepad on a console though.
and before we write off the next generation of consoles for FPS games, lets see how the motion sensitivity for the ps3 and the wii pan out.
hmmm... just speculation here, but they did announce a sequel to god of war on the ps2 to arrive in fall. also slated for fall is final fantasy xii. is it not possible that they could put those games against either the wii/revolution launch or a possible fall halo3 surprise launch?
obviously those with x360s wont let a game on a competing system deter them from purchasing halo, but it may deter the "halo2 effect"; where the launch of halo2 also sold a BUNCH of systems during that season. my roommate had been on the fence about buying an xbox for a long time [i already had mine], halo2 was what made him decide to buy one too.
hell, now that i think about it, they could also drop another GTA [rockstar is planning a ps2 version of liberty city stories]. lets not forget that as huge a game as halo2 was, GTA: san andreas outsold it quite easily and within a week of the other.
the reason halo2 was considered a success is due to the fact that it also sold systems and sold xbox live subscriptions. OTOH GTA:San Andreas helped sell a whole heap of [then] new slimline ps2s. is it not probable that sony has something similar in store for its competition.
as far as the halo3 launch... i doubt it. if halo3 was anywhere near ready they would announce it, just not announce a release date. personally for most people that own multiple systems [like myself] that would sell x360s during the summer as people buy the console in preparation for an eventual release. as far as i know, halo3 could come out sometime in 2007 or 8. im not ready to drop $400 on a x360 just yet. id rather wait til the obligatory price drop, and just buy a ps3 in the fall. OR just buy the slew of ps2 and psp titles coming out this fall [my xbox has been deserted by MS], and wait for both next gen consoles' first price drop. =)
can you provide a cost analysis link to back up the cell comment here? thats interesting if true. especially considering that IBM is utilizing the cell for servers and embedded systems.
seriously, FFT has the best FF story thusfar, IMHO. FFTA was kind of a letdown because after the first stage it was always apparent that nothing was real. you never feel a sense of true urgency or danger, since you know [and are constantly reminded] that youre in some form of hallucination. i loved the gameplay, but i sat it down an never went back about 2/3rds into FFTA.
why arent more RPGs well written dayumit!!!?!?!? the thing i appreciated about the final fantasy series [with X being the biggest notable exception] is the fact that you dont assume the role of some dumb skill-less kid that picks up a sword one day and starts a mystic quest to save the world. is it truly that hard to write an original script for an RPG? the break from the norm is one of the biggest draws of the FF series and why its considered popular in relation to everything else except maybe dragon quest.
the article mentions changes in the gameplay to suit shorter playtimes.
in order to play a MMO, you have to be in range of a wi-fi point anyways, so i dont agree with your major gripe with being plugged in. you can move around and plug in when necessary. otherwise, you can spring for one of those external battery packs, or one of the new larger capacity batteries.
Slashdot Mirror
some did bring gaming into the living room again. nintendo had relegated gaming to the kids rooms and to the dens. whereas nintendo always wanted to stay true to their toy image [they were a card company turned toy maker, remember?] sony embraced all demographics, and proved that there is a market for "mature" titles too, or titles that nintendo only marginally supported. even with the new wii line, very few [only one that i know of] of those titles could be considered "mature".
nintendo had become arrogant and complacent. sony has humbled nintendo, and look at what they are doing now. they are focused again; or at least they seem to be. i personally dont want to see sony fail in the video games arena, but if they have to take a backseat this generation in order for them to get back on track; so be it.
if nothing else, we owe sony for helping nintendo wake up and get off their laurels. nintendo was in a stupor for very many years. sony did something that even sega was incapable of at the time. sony may not have created many new aspects of the gaming market, but they definitely solidified the things they embraced.
they didnt create the idea of rumble or force-feedback, but they successfully integrated it into their controller and gave it a sense of scale, not just a bunch of random buzzes
they were not the first to use a cd based game system, but they were the first to utilize that extra capacity for 3d based games and video.
the saturn may have beaten them to memory cards [i didnt have a saturn, so i dont remember if they were internal or external], but the playstation did away with battery backed up save games that were subject to failing, or to the memory limits of the console save memory [read: sega cd]. for the first time game saves were able to travel with you to a friends house to finish your game.
they didnt create the first analog controller, but they were the first to realize that two analog sticks helps the pesky 3d camera issues that plague many games still to this day.
they didnt create backwards compatibility, but they were the first to implement it in a way that has now become almost an industry standard.
the list goes on...
the value of the playstation line has always been superior to its competitors. at release, the ps1 did 3d well better than the saturn, and captured the third party markets that nintendo arrogantly pushed away. all for $100 cheaper than the saturn.
at release the ps2 was more expensive than the dreamcast, but they threw in a dvd player as well. it wasnt the greatest dvd player, but for most it was the only dvd player they had and therefore people didnt mind its shortcomings. inspite of the fact that the gamecube and xbox had better graphical capabilities overall, and they came out a year later... there are still games on the ps2 that match some of the xbox and gamecube offerings. [not many, but there are some]. even now at the end of the ps2 lifecycle there are many AAA offerings still being produced, whereas the xbox and gamecube have almost been abandoned completely.
the psp for what it is, is an excellent value. its easily worth several hundred more than it retails for. not that i want to pay more, but it definitely seems like sony is obviously selling it at a huge loss. they keep adding more functionality to the device [unfortunately, at the expense of homebrew...] but it is the first console model to actively add more abilities as time progresses. [xbox live could possibly be the pioneer here, but live really didnt do much to change the "core" functionality of the unit itself]
laugh all you want, but i guarantee that if there are any studio execs that read slashdot, they are going through thier rolodexes right now looking for uwe boll's number.
let me clarify. depending on your setup, almost anything is possible.
depending on your equipment, component is capable of handling 1080p video. however dvi/hdmi give better output quality. also, forget trying to run 1080p over a cheap 50' cable. if you spring for good shorter cabling you can get 1080p via component, just not faithfully or nearly as high quality as the newer digital alternative dvi/hdmi cables.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_video
fifth paragraph. have a nice day... =)
sorry. i was just going by this interview.
g econtent?lp=ja_en&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fplusd.itmedia .co.jp%2Flifestyle%2Farticles%2F0601%2F13%2Fnews00 4.html
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pa
~ when asked about codec use, a sony rep stated they will use MPEG2 early on, after that gradually shift to H.264/avc.
sony is initially planning to use mpeg2 to encode their movies, and is "asking" for other studios to do the same for the time being. im assuming they dont wish to alienate consumers who buy Blu ray drives and find that their computer cant handle decoding the heavy data streams if they use higher compression this early. eventually they will move over to h.264. there is speculation that most studios do wish to move forward and use vc-1, but pressure from sony will most likely push them to h.264 for for no other reason besides politics. obviously sony doesnt want to support the codec of the company that supports rival tech.
sorry, the article says theyve "shipped" 3.3 million. imagine a 50/50 split, and you have 1.15 million core systems and 1.15 premium systems worldwide. keep in mind that core systems are sitting on shelves unsold, because people are waiting on more premium systems... so therefore sales are much lower than that.
/sold/ half that many in the first week or so. the psp shipped 5.1 million in its first seven months. the ds /sold/ 7 million in the first 8 months. [from pcvsconsole/ NPD figures]
to put the 3.3 million figure in perspective. the ps2
im not saying the x360 is dead or dying, but the sales are no where near where i expected them to be, or as high as the whole "sold-out" phenomenon makes it seem. i would have expected the x360 to sell much higher than it has so far. my guess is that MS is fuking over consumers and creating a false shortage, all the while stockpiling systems awaiting the ps3 launch, and will unleash them on the same date; offering them as a cheaper alternative to the ps3.
the exclusives eventually boil down to first party devs. sony still has a serious advantage against ms amongst first party titles. ms titles are eventually ported to pc at the least [they are a pc software company afterall...]. even the revered halo franchise eventually made it to pc.
i have seen very few if any sony first party franchises ported to other consoles. crash maybe?
whether the dreamcast was more powerful or less powerful than the ps2, thats anyones guess. since development fizzled out rather quickly so we will never know what muscle the DC devs could have tapped into. it had alot of potential that much i admit, but frankly by the end of the generation the ps2 eventually turned out more breathtaking games than the DC, simply due to the fact that it got aborted by sega very early on.
i dont think that the next gen systems are overkill for current games. the games that are coming out for the next gen systems push high end pcs to their limits. [epic uses a quad-sli setup to run UT2007 at the same level as it runs natively on the ps3!??!?!] how much will a quad-sli setup run you? compare that to the $600 ps3. you can barely make a gaming pc from scratch for under $500. at least we can say that this generation the consoles will most likely be on par with the pc longer than in previous generations.
if the price tag bothers you [and it sure as hell bothers me...] imagine buying a ps3 for $400 [same as a x360] and a blu-ray player for $200. you still get the larger harddrive, wireless, and the card readers etc etc etc... for free. i think they are playing against the x360. the $500 ps3 is basically just a x360 with the hd-dvd addon [assuming it will only be $100; it will prob be more costly]. they both dont have hdmi; its basically the same package with a free wireless controller, and free netplay.
still i agree with you, $600 is ALOT for any family to spend. i think sony is trying to cater to the same market that buys high end electronics and computers, etc... unless a steep price drop comes about in the first year, i think they will get trounced. single guys with money to burn may not care ab the price, but i cant see lil johnny america being able to mow that many lawns this summer to save up for one.
a retail slimline ps2 goes for 129 now, so im more than certain you can find a used original model for under $100 pretty much anywhere. as people start the flurry to preorder ps3s or wiis, im sure that ebay will have dozens of them for sale.
the xbox 360 is selling here in the states, but its being met with tepid reactions abroad. that does not make for a success. the time lead is negligible as well; theyve only dropped two AAA titles. theres alot of x360 promise, but honestly they only have another two AAA titles on the horizon. unfortunately, those titles havent pushed that many additional x360 sales, since the hardware just isnt available. in almost a year, theyve only sold 3.3 million consoles worldwide. thats highly underwhelming. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid= 16706 the psp, the ds, ps2 and even the gba are trouncing x360 sales in almost every region. dont believe the hype; look the numbers up yourself.
i think sony may have shot itself in the foot at that high a pricepoint, but we have to wait and see what consumers think once this fall rolls around. its a given that the ps3 will sell out, but if sales dont keep at a steady clip, sony may have lost this generation.
but the article doesnt mention whether the ps3 version will have episodic content as well. just that the x360 version will be unique to the x360.
the ps3 version hasnt even been officially "announced" yet.
you can still play games in 1080p. you can still play most movies in 1080p. the only movies you will not be able to play are those that the studio decides to set the ICT flag to true on. thats what enables the HDCP monster DRM.
to date we only have verbal promises that the studios will not use the flag for many years to come. [yeah, right!] and gaming will not be affected by HDCP.
blu-ray uses h.264 for movie compression, not wmv-hd.
the compression used on the discs is a moot point. they both support the very same security and managed copy protection measures. blu-ray adopted said measures to win over the majority of the film studios.
facts about t2 extreme edition: it uses wmv-hd, and therefore only plays on the latest windows machines. can you foresee the problem there if it becomes accepted as a standard? and is only 1080i [in theory half the frames needed for a 1080p version of the same quality]. it is "remastered" from a 1080p version of the original, and clocks in at ~8gigs. the master obviously is larger than that and would need more than a 9 gig media.
-- personally, i like hdmi. its a good solution for A/V. what needs to be killed off is HDCP and ICT, the content protection that could in theory cripple video output and the image constraint token that studios can decide to set; thereby crippling non hdmi output.
and finally, i assume you [netavenger] already know this, but for those that are confused let me clarify another thing. we will not need to worry about HDCP, HDMI, ICT or any of the other DRM alphabet soup for another few years now. at least until hdmi tvs are more widespread. and most of all, non of the above matter when it comes to gaming. 1080p gaming on the ps3 will be enabled via any form of connecting to your tv, provided it can support 1080p signals. hdcp has no effect on the gaming properties of the ps3.
watch the sony keynote again. its said in the first five mins or so.
not mentioned again tho. but they always mentioned that the drive would be removable; so until they say otherwise.
1. without HDMI, some studios will be producing expensive dvds. its totally up to the studios to decide whether they wish to screw over consumers. they dont have to rely on HDCP.
2. youre right, who knows? 1080i and 720p are going to be the more prevalent image resolutions for hdtv owners for a while as 1080p tvs catch up. alot of hdtv owners are not interested in upgrading their hdtvs anytime soon so to them they wouldnt have been using the hdmi port anyways.
3. the memory card support doesnt apply to ps2 memory cards anyways. you only lose the ability to transfer saves and data back and forth with your camera, media player or psp. most people wont see this as a big loss anyways.
4. maybe not wirelessly, but it can possibly still work via usb. alot of people have wireless routers on their home networks anyways, so as long as the ps3 is plugged into the same network the psp is connected to, you have the same functionality. [lets not forget how wireless networking works...]
5. sony stated that the harddrive is still removable [read: self upgradable]. it supports usb harddrives, and there are plenty of usb card readers on the market. im sure that someone will make one that specifically caters to the core ps3 upgrade aftermarket. if you already have a wifi router, you can do without the builtin one. you just lose the ability to play your networked ps3 without wires. again, im sure you can by a usb wireless adapter or bluetooth network card for that matter. as for hdmi, i know that they have component to hdmi convertors... how these would affect output quality, i cant say.
all that is to say that there are options.
usually those people complaining of that issue are playing off of a backup. or a copy of the game copied to a harddrive. not pointing fingers, just stating a fact.
compressing a dvd9 game to a dvd5 backup is the cause there for the most part.
from what i recall. the hdmi output only matters in regards to 1080p movie output on certain titles that are limited to output over HDMI only. the gaming functions fully work the same over component as they do over HDMI.
dont forget that the ps2 was less expensive than the xbox, and the xbox had that huge annoying [to most] controller. the xbox was just an ugly contraption until xbox live really took off.
the FPS argument is solid, but FPS and RTS games are but one genre that are better suited to PCs. there are several genres that are better off played with a gamepad on a console though.
and before we write off the next generation of consoles for FPS games, lets see how the motion sensitivity for the ps3 and the wii pan out.
any time now moderators...
hmmm... just speculation here, but they did announce a sequel to god of war on the ps2 to arrive in fall. also slated for fall is final fantasy xii. is it not possible that they could put those games against either the wii/revolution launch or a possible fall halo3 surprise launch?
obviously those with x360s wont let a game on a competing system deter them from purchasing halo, but it may deter the "halo2 effect"; where the launch of halo2 also sold a BUNCH of systems during that season. my roommate had been on the fence about buying an xbox for a long time [i already had mine], halo2 was what made him decide to buy one too.
hell, now that i think about it, they could also drop another GTA [rockstar is planning a ps2 version of liberty city stories]. lets not forget that as huge a game as halo2 was, GTA: san andreas outsold it quite easily and within a week of the other.
the reason halo2 was considered a success is due to the fact that it also sold systems and sold xbox live subscriptions. OTOH GTA:San Andreas helped sell a whole heap of [then] new slimline ps2s. is it not probable that sony has something similar in store for its competition.
as far as the halo3 launch... i doubt it. if halo3 was anywhere near ready they would announce it, just not announce a release date. personally for most people that own multiple systems [like myself] that would sell x360s during the summer as people buy the console in preparation for an eventual release. as far as i know, halo3 could come out sometime in 2007 or 8. im not ready to drop $400 on a x360 just yet. id rather wait til the obligatory price drop, and just buy a ps3 in the fall. OR just buy the slew of ps2 and psp titles coming out this fall [my xbox has been deserted by MS], and wait for both next gen consoles' first price drop. =)
can you provide a cost analysis link to back up the cell comment here? thats interesting if true. especially considering that IBM is utilizing the cell for servers and embedded systems.
LMAO.
so im NOT the only one!!!!
seriously, FFT has the best FF story thusfar, IMHO. FFTA was kind of a letdown because after the first stage it was always apparent that nothing was real. you never feel a sense of true urgency or danger, since you know [and are constantly reminded] that youre in some form of hallucination. i loved the gameplay, but i sat it down an never went back about 2/3rds into FFTA.
why arent more RPGs well written dayumit!!!?!?!? the thing i appreciated about the final fantasy series [with X being the biggest notable exception] is the fact that you dont assume the role of some dumb skill-less kid that picks up a sword one day and starts a mystic quest to save the world. is it truly that hard to write an original script for an RPG? the break from the norm is one of the biggest draws of the FF series and why its considered popular in relation to everything else except maybe dragon quest.
the article mentions changes in the gameplay to suit shorter playtimes.
in order to play a MMO, you have to be in range of a wi-fi point anyways, so i dont agree with your major gripe with being plugged in. you can move around and plug in when necessary. otherwise, you can spring for one of those external battery packs, or one of the new larger capacity batteries.
link to article: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6147946.html
is there a link to the story?