Obviously there are no large glaring bugs or they wouldn't be pressing them... however, I doubt that this title will see a full testing cycle and if you think it will you're fooling yourself - there may be bugs. I did playtesting for the PS2 for a number of years, I'm well aware of how the entire process is supposed to work... this ain't it.
Like MS is going to put the halt on one of the only titles generatig buzz and interest... Hell PD:Zero could have massive gaping holes and bugs galore and it would make it for launch without any fixes. If you haven't notice MS only cares about the money with it's console venture, their "love" for games and gamers is about as shallow as a kiddie pool.
I have no idea what you are talking about, and I'm sure you don't either. Composite is plain audio/video cables, component are RGB. Component is what you need to get any results out of the Xbox 360. Please go back and read the article and you will quickly see your error. I'm not arguing with you any longer, because you are totally wrong.
Actually it is you my friend who is qute mistaken. COMPOSITE is the red/yellow/white cable, that is the LOWEST quality next to RF which is what most TV's have and what the 360 ships with AS I STATED.
COMPONENT VIDEO, is the RGB which is the second to HIGHEST form of video quality.
My statement stands and is 100% correct, you, sir, need reading and comprehension FTW!!!1!!
I've been saying this for a little over a year now on/. and it is about the WORST possible thing that could happen to the videogame industry. It is just another step towards a "hollywoodification" of the videogame industry. If that is what you actually want, then this is great... but for true gamers this is about the worst direction you could hope things to go in.
Umm, seeing as how the actual number of TV sets that meet your criteria are pretty small overall, I'd say most people with a 360 will be too stupid to play them.
S-video is probably the best connection most will see, with the large majority being composite. Let's not kid ourselves, it ships with composite and that is what most will be using.
And that makes up about what 30 people who will buy one? Honestly, the real image most will see is akin to the kiosks in Walmart/Best Buy... and it ain't all that perty.
You are totally wrong here. We don't need to support 950 gazillion anything. The videogame market consists of two players and BOTH of them use a unified driver system. That means we need to maintain *2* drivers. Now let the small worker bee's with an S3ViRGe worry about writing and maintaining their own drivers. So we are going to have 950 half-assed supported cards over 2 or 3 perfectly supported ones?!? This is the problem with Linux, trying to be everything to everyone.
Windows has to worry about massive legacy issues, Linux does not. We for some reason choose to, but this is a huge fundamental flaw. We have the chance to write an OS supporting the most current and widely used hardware RIGHT NOW. Yet we don't. Fuck backwards compatability, Fuck supporting a Permedia graphics chip, Fuck having support for an IBM AT/XT... lets support AMD/PIV, Nvidia/ATI, Intel/VIA/NForce, IDE/SATA/Firewire/USB, Soundblaster/proffessional sound cards, and that's all. People already have to go buy obscure hardware to have it supported... might as well standardize on new and best out there. Linux could get such a huge boost by following OSX's footsteps and even then have a leg up in the fact that it has ZERO legacy to worry about. Think of what could be done in a short amount of time with Linux if this were the case. Think about it.
Except my "antecdotal" evidence is based on the FACT that *I* personally was an *Industry Analyst* in the videogame industry. I specialized in Japan and Europe trends, figures, and projections. I'm not talking to aunt Sally in Japan... I'm talking to majorly informed professionals who work in the videogame industry.
Say what you will, in a few months you will see quite clearly that what I stated is spot-on. No sense in arguing with you about it, you *obviously* know something I and many other's do not...
I have many colleagues and friends in Japan and the word on the 360... none, there is none. They could care less, and many see MS pandering to them as an insult and even despise the system. They see it for what it is, a bloated, expensive, doo-dad with no real history or substance. I can't argue with them.
The thing is though that MS NEEDS japan or they basically can throw in the towel now. They know it, its killing them and they showed it in their latest stock talks. This type of thing is another nail in the coffin. I'm not even surprised if it tanks in europe either, from what i hear there is little interest there too.
And herein lies my exact point. Why does the entire Linux community suffer because they want to keep things so that it can be run on a 486? make one old schol distro and ditch that crap for the modern ones. Your comments on OSX don't really hold water either, you see hard drives now are so huge that if you honestly think we should go through hell to save 5MB of disk space you're nuts.
What needs to happen is some central management, Linus? Not kernel only either but a overall steering comittee. We need three main distro's. A minimalistic one, a single one size fits all OSX style one, and a techie everything and the kitchen sink one. HOWEVER, the ONLY one that should be focused on heavily is the one-size-fits-all. The folks who would use the minimal or configure the everything one to their needs know what they are doing and can handle upkeep. Make the system work for you, not keep making new slightly different systems and fragmenting the talent to the point where nothing gets done.
The system in place doesn't work right now, it is broken. At some point we have to get off this mentality of so much choice and configurability. tinkering and tweaking are great for hobbyists... but to break out of that we need to make some concessions. I, personally am fine with an OSX style open source offering that would just work and work well and ditch all the legacy and dependency crap. I thought Lindows would be it, but so far it isn't. Everything is too archaic and cryptic, not to mention fragile for most uses as is. I care because we had things in our favor for a year or so and we blew it, now the buzz is gone and we have missed our chance. Microsoft and Apple were the only real winners.
Look you are welcome to your opinion, but I have been using Linux for over 10 years. That's *10* years. I have been part of many projects and contributed tons to many projects that you probably use daily, I don;t need preached to and I'm not "bitching."
Linux suffers from too many hands in too many pots. We don't need 23 window managers, we need 1. We don't need to still have such fragile dependency systems. We don't need non-graphical installs. Linux suffers from too many *me's* and not enough focus on the bigger picture.
There is a lot to be said for simplicity, OSX proves this. OSX did what no one in the Linux community could do, get their shit together and create ONE solid product that worked as it should right out of the box.
I was idealistic and visionary for many years, I held out hope, I've seen hundreds of projects fizzle and others go in the wrong direction... now I'm realistic.
I honestly hit a wall around 2003 with Linux. I had been using Linux since '95 back in the old days, and to me Linux is just one wall after another unfortunately.
I would love to say this is all MS FUD, but it just isn't. Linux still has a place in a few server areas but not much more. When I check out a new distro in '05 TEN years later some of the same major issues still exist... even MS isn't this bad. It seems like the point was made with Linux btu that it just will never be viable outside of the back office.
I know many will be mad, but it's just my humble opinion.
You sir, have commited the cardinal sin of LOGIC. As computer folks/geeks we all work in a very logical way... however, when it comes to consoles/cars/women/sex something short circuits and all that is thrown out the window.
I've worked in this industry, and the funny thing is how many game developers/designers/etc. don't even own certain systems. It's because they look at it logically and don't get caught in any of the hype. Why anybody rushes to buy a console the day it appears is beyond me, you get one or two games (generally one of them you buy just 'cause, and there is only one major title) you tire of both quickly, because the wow factor wears thin and you now have a massively expensive paper weight until the next round or releases which is some time off of which may be one more must have... rinse repeat.
I'd call the "depth" of the 360 pretty damn shallow. So basically we have an identical launch to the PS2... one solid driving game based on an established franchise which is the only noteworthy title. The usual sports suspects with a fresh coat of paint and nothing else. The obligatory "extreme" sport. And last but least the shallow button masher that shows off the first-gen title graphic prowess that everyone will praise initially but will lose luster quickly. Except that's it for the 360, at least the PS2 had a fairly long list of titles that more or less fell into the same scheme with a few oddballs and change-ups for good measure.
So after all the hype, we have games with cheated "HD" quality, limited backwards compatability, no special features or technology tapped... we basically have Xbox 1.5 which is what myself and many others have stated all along. Guess what, the PS3 will do about the same. Why does this always come as a surprise/letdown to everyone? It only took me one time to touch the stove burner to realize not to do it again...
I've tired of being Zonked some time ago, but apparently someone thinks this is a good direction for/. - I'm not sure who, or even if there is anyone actually steering the direction and content of/. anymore. Ugh, but oh well.
Generally NEWS encompasses a few NEW items each time, so far we have just had links to review sites all covering the SAME stuff in exactly the SAME manner. That is the problem. Give me a few angles, give me some perspective, some insight... as it stands we have three identical stories about identical reviews two days in a row.
Gays are good for something after all, not just hair/makeup/makeover shows on TV! Get back to your ass-pounding and fix up some other deadly infectious diseases.
This is basically what I have done. I took a DVD rack that stands about 3-4' tall that is just two sides and slanted forward-sloping shelves with a small lip. I placed each system on it's own shelf and then the space left on each side holds the game cases. Then I put two hooks per shelf on each side which hold the controllers for each system. Total cost, maybe $40. Houses Atari 2600, NES, SNES, Genesis, PS1, PS2, GC.
We all know it is a ploy, if people would read Microsofts last stock talks from a week or two back where they basically explain that sales will be poorer than expected and that this is all part of their "rolling-thunder" campaign.
Everything is known at this point, how many units stores will get, that MS is *making* them ensure sell-outs, and that from Walmart/Best Buy the units have heat and power issues and the games are all pretty yawn inspiring.
All the hype is over now, the real story is known, we'll see how it all pans out in a few short months... let's leave it alone until then, shall we?
I did RTFA, my point is valid. Even the 1/6th pricedrop should not even have been mentioned if the product was solid and sales were to be so stellar.
You see, with consoles a price drop is a device used to boost slumping sales... according to MS these are to sell like hotcakes. But then in their stock talks the past week they paint a whole different picture where they state sales will be weak and slowly gather steam. MS can hype media, but not shareholders. *ANY* talks of price cutting a product not even out yet is a death blow and a sign of weakness.
The worst part is that people think this is a good thing! MS just released stock info and has warnings everwhere about the poor sales expected.
If the product was in such high demand, adn such a stellar product, 50% price reductions in less than a year WOULD NOT be on the top of the list. The 360 and PS3 are failed products, they will fail.
I've been saying it (and taking massive attacks/flames) for months but it will turn out to be true. To all those who modded me down and flamed on, please re-read through my posts from a few months back on this subject in the coming months and I think we will see who's been pretty on target here. I'm not bragging, it's just that I have a number of years in this industry and all the people who said "so what" and "so that makes you an expert" and "nuh-uh, troll"
The Revolution keeps looking better positioned by the day, and I'm really hoping that the focus comes back to the actual games rather than mass-appeal eye-candy, and immature rubbish. This arms race between Sony and MS is going to take some heavy tolls on both sides.
Honestly, who didn't see this coming? And not only that it is truly a shortage due to poor planning, however they are doing their damndest to spin it their way.
Last week Microsoft made their most telling announcement in their stock talks, stating that they will have much lower eranings and sales in their game console area. They claim it is part of a "rolling-thunder" campaign, but it is utter B.S. I submitted the story to/. but it was rejected as always.
So as it stands, we have fals shortage, stupidly expensive pricing, cheaper crippled consoles (which will hurt developers utilizing the HDD no matter what MS says), spotty backwards compatibility, numerous graphical issues/artifacts (as reported by Wal-Mart Kiosks), no optimized launch titles (not even first-party titles), no Japanese interest, and countless other nebulous facts/figures... not looking good.
Have all the fake shortages you want, when there is no demand after the initial fanboy's flock, shortages will be the least of the concerns.
A guy in my company was chastised for having Firefox on his computer. He tried to explain he was *helping* but they made him remove it and gave him an earful. Later, I explained all of the features and benefits... they still didn't want it on any company PC's and have no clue as to what it even is. Pretty sad.
Yep. I was the submitter of that article to/., and I knew it would get pulled quick... however it was all true. I have worked in this industry for some time and have a number of developers that I speak with regularly, not a single one of them is excited or enthusiastic to work on the PS3 or 360. Almost to a tee they all give the same reasons why all this multi-thread talk is just crap. I've been saying it for months on/. and always get flammed and modded down, but lo and behold it is the truth *gasp* amazing.
Wait until people start to see how slow the releases come out, and the massive lulls in new releases in times when gamers expect many. The cost and development times are just out of hand, and when sales don't keep up with the massive development costs the PS3 and 360 become expensive multi-media centers. The only true hope this round is that Sony and MS take huge financial hits (which they are already feeling, check out todays business news about MS and the stock issues and Sony cutting jobs left and right) Nintendo is perfectly placed to once again pick up a broken videogame industry and run with it. I wish them the best, and I hope for gaming's sake that innovation, fun, family, and gameplay once again become the core focus.
Slashdot Mirror
Obviously there are no large glaring bugs or they wouldn't be pressing them... however, I doubt that this title will see a full testing cycle and if you think it will you're fooling yourself - there may be bugs. I did playtesting for the PS2 for a number of years, I'm well aware of how the entire process is supposed to work... this ain't it.
Like MS is going to put the halt on one of the only titles generatig buzz and interest... Hell PD:Zero could have massive gaping holes and bugs galore and it would make it for launch without any fixes. If you haven't notice MS only cares about the money with it's console venture, their "love" for games and gamers is about as shallow as a kiddie pool.
I have no idea what you are talking about, and I'm sure you don't either. Composite is plain audio/video cables, component are RGB. Component is what you need to get any results out of the Xbox 360. Please go back and read the article and you will quickly see your error. I'm not arguing with you any longer, because you are totally wrong.
Actually it is you my friend who is qute mistaken. COMPOSITE is the red/yellow/white cable, that is the LOWEST quality next to RF which is what most TV's have and what the 360 ships with AS I STATED.
COMPONENT VIDEO, is the RGB which is the second to HIGHEST form of video quality.
My statement stands and is 100% correct, you, sir, need reading and comprehension FTW!!!1!!
I've been saying this for a little over a year now on /. and it is about the WORST possible thing that could happen to the videogame industry. It is just another step towards a "hollywoodification" of the videogame industry. If that is what you actually want, then this is great... but for true gamers this is about the worst direction you could hope things to go in.
Umm, seeing as how the actual number of TV sets that meet your criteria are pretty small overall, I'd say most people with a 360 will be too stupid to play them.
S-video is probably the best connection most will see, with the large majority being composite. Let's not kid ourselves, it ships with composite and that is what most will be using.
And that makes up about what 30 people who will buy one? Honestly, the real image most will see is akin to the kiosks in Walmart/Best Buy... and it ain't all that perty.
You are totally wrong here. We don't need to support 950 gazillion anything. The videogame market consists of two players and BOTH of them use a unified driver system. That means we need to maintain *2* drivers. Now let the small worker bee's with an S3ViRGe worry about writing and maintaining their own drivers. So we are going to have 950 half-assed supported cards over 2 or 3 perfectly supported ones?!? This is the problem with Linux, trying to be everything to everyone.
Windows has to worry about massive legacy issues, Linux does not. We for some reason choose to, but this is a huge fundamental flaw. We have the chance to write an OS supporting the most current and widely used hardware RIGHT NOW. Yet we don't. Fuck backwards compatability, Fuck supporting a Permedia graphics chip, Fuck having support for an IBM AT/XT... lets support AMD/PIV, Nvidia/ATI, Intel/VIA/NForce, IDE/SATA/Firewire/USB, Soundblaster/proffessional sound cards, and that's all. People already have to go buy obscure hardware to have it supported... might as well standardize on new and best out there. Linux could get such a huge boost by following OSX's footsteps and even then have a leg up in the fact that it has ZERO legacy to worry about. Think of what could be done in a short amount of time with Linux if this were the case. Think about it.
Except my "antecdotal" evidence is based on the FACT that *I* personally was an *Industry Analyst* in the videogame industry. I specialized in Japan and Europe trends, figures, and projections. I'm not talking to aunt Sally in Japan... I'm talking to majorly informed professionals who work in the videogame industry.
Say what you will, in a few months you will see quite clearly that what I stated is spot-on. No sense in arguing with you about it, you *obviously* know something I and many other's do not...
I have many colleagues and friends in Japan and the word on the 360... none, there is none. They could care less, and many see MS pandering to them as an insult and even despise the system. They see it for what it is, a bloated, expensive, doo-dad with no real history or substance. I can't argue with them.
The thing is though that MS NEEDS japan or they basically can throw in the towel now. They know it, its killing them and they showed it in their latest stock talks. This type of thing is another nail in the coffin. I'm not even surprised if it tanks in europe either, from what i hear there is little interest there too.
And herein lies my exact point. Why does the entire Linux community suffer because they want to keep things so that it can be run on a 486? make one old schol distro and ditch that crap for the modern ones. Your comments on OSX don't really hold water either, you see hard drives now are so huge that if you honestly think we should go through hell to save 5MB of disk space you're nuts.
What needs to happen is some central management, Linus? Not kernel only either but a overall steering comittee. We need three main distro's. A minimalistic one, a single one size fits all OSX style one, and a techie everything and the kitchen sink one. HOWEVER, the ONLY one that should be focused on heavily is the one-size-fits-all. The folks who would use the minimal or configure the everything one to their needs know what they are doing and can handle upkeep. Make the system work for you, not keep making new slightly different systems and fragmenting the talent to the point where nothing gets done.
The system in place doesn't work right now, it is broken. At some point we have to get off this mentality of so much choice and configurability. tinkering and tweaking are great for hobbyists... but to break out of that we need to make some concessions. I, personally am fine with an OSX style open source offering that would just work and work well and ditch all the legacy and dependency crap. I thought Lindows would be it, but so far it isn't. Everything is too archaic and cryptic, not to mention fragile for most uses as is. I care because we had things in our favor for a year or so and we blew it, now the buzz is gone and we have missed our chance. Microsoft and Apple were the only real winners.
Look you are welcome to your opinion, but I have been using Linux for over 10 years. That's *10* years. I have been part of many projects and contributed tons to many projects that you probably use daily, I don;t need preached to and I'm not "bitching."
Linux suffers from too many hands in too many pots. We don't need 23 window managers, we need 1. We don't need to still have such fragile dependency systems. We don't need non-graphical installs. Linux suffers from too many *me's* and not enough focus on the bigger picture.
There is a lot to be said for simplicity, OSX proves this. OSX did what no one in the Linux community could do, get their shit together and create ONE solid product that worked as it should right out of the box.
I was idealistic and visionary for many years, I held out hope, I've seen hundreds of projects fizzle and others go in the wrong direction... now I'm realistic.
I honestly hit a wall around 2003 with Linux. I had been using Linux since '95 back in the old days, and to me Linux is just one wall after another unfortunately.
I would love to say this is all MS FUD, but it just isn't. Linux still has a place in a few server areas but not much more. When I check out a new distro in '05 TEN years later some of the same major issues still exist... even MS isn't this bad. It seems like the point was made with Linux btu that it just will never be viable outside of the back office.
I know many will be mad, but it's just my humble opinion.
You sir, have commited the cardinal sin of LOGIC. As computer folks/geeks we all work in a very logical way... however, when it comes to consoles/cars/women/sex something short circuits and all that is thrown out the window.
I've worked in this industry, and the funny thing is how many game developers/designers/etc. don't even own certain systems. It's because they look at it logically and don't get caught in any of the hype. Why anybody rushes to buy a console the day it appears is beyond me, you get one or two games (generally one of them you buy just 'cause, and there is only one major title) you tire of both quickly, because the wow factor wears thin and you now have a massively expensive paper weight until the next round or releases which is some time off of which may be one more must have... rinse repeat.
Stupidity.
I'd call the "depth" of the 360 pretty damn shallow. So basically we have an identical launch to the PS2... one solid driving game based on an established franchise which is the only noteworthy title. The usual sports suspects with a fresh coat of paint and nothing else. The obligatory "extreme" sport. And last but least the shallow button masher that shows off the first-gen title graphic prowess that everyone will praise initially but will lose luster quickly. Except that's it for the 360, at least the PS2 had a fairly long list of titles that more or less fell into the same scheme with a few oddballs and change-ups for good measure.
So after all the hype, we have games with cheated "HD" quality, limited backwards compatability, no special features or technology tapped... we basically have Xbox 1.5 which is what myself and many others have stated all along. Guess what, the PS3 will do about the same. Why does this always come as a surprise/letdown to everyone? It only took me one time to touch the stove burner to realize not to do it again...
I've tired of being Zonked some time ago, but apparently someone thinks this is a good direction for /. - I'm not sure who, or even if there is anyone actually steering the direction and content of /. anymore. Ugh, but oh well.
Generally NEWS encompasses a few NEW items each time, so far we have just had links to review sites all covering the SAME stuff in exactly the SAME manner. That is the problem. Give me a few angles, give me some perspective, some insight... as it stands we have three identical stories about identical reviews two days in a row.
Gays are good for something after all, not just hair/makeup/makeover shows on TV! Get back to your ass-pounding and fix up some other deadly infectious diseases.
Another hastily thrown together crap box of hype? Well... at least I can.
This is basically what I have done. I took a DVD rack that stands about 3-4' tall that is just two sides and slanted forward-sloping shelves with a small lip. I placed each system on it's own shelf and then the space left on each side holds the game cases. Then I put two hooks per shelf on each side which hold the controllers for each system. Total cost, maybe $40. Houses Atari 2600, NES, SNES, Genesis, PS1, PS2, GC.
Do we need to have "OMG 360 shortage" stories?!?
We all know it is a ploy, if people would read Microsofts last stock talks from a week or two back where they basically explain that sales will be poorer than expected and that this is all part of their "rolling-thunder" campaign.
Everything is known at this point, how many units stores will get, that MS is *making* them ensure sell-outs, and that from Walmart/Best Buy the units have heat and power issues and the games are all pretty yawn inspiring.
All the hype is over now, the real story is known, we'll see how it all pans out in a few short months... let's leave it alone until then, shall we?
I did RTFA, my point is valid. Even the 1/6th pricedrop should not even have been mentioned if the product was solid and sales were to be so stellar.
You see, with consoles a price drop is a device used to boost slumping sales... according to MS these are to sell like hotcakes. But then in their stock talks the past week they paint a whole different picture where they state sales will be weak and slowly gather steam. MS can hype media, but not shareholders. *ANY* talks of price cutting a product not even out yet is a death blow and a sign of weakness.
The worst part is that people think this is a good thing! MS just released stock info and has warnings everwhere about the poor sales expected.
If the product was in such high demand, adn such a stellar product, 50% price reductions in less than a year WOULD NOT be on the top of the list. The 360 and PS3 are failed products, they will fail.
I've been saying it (and taking massive attacks/flames) for months but it will turn out to be true. To all those who modded me down and flamed on, please re-read through my posts from a few months back on this subject in the coming months and I think we will see who's been pretty on target here. I'm not bragging, it's just that I have a number of years in this industry and all the people who said "so what" and "so that makes you an expert" and "nuh-uh, troll"
The Revolution keeps looking better positioned by the day, and I'm really hoping that the focus comes back to the actual games rather than mass-appeal eye-candy, and immature rubbish. This arms race between Sony and MS is going to take some heavy tolls on both sides.
Honestly, who didn't see this coming? And not only that it is truly a shortage due to poor planning, however they are doing their damndest to spin it their way.
/. but it was rejected as always.
Last week Microsoft made their most telling announcement in their stock talks, stating that they will have much lower eranings and sales in their game console area. They claim it is part of a "rolling-thunder" campaign, but it is utter B.S. I submitted the story to
So as it stands, we have fals shortage, stupidly expensive pricing, cheaper crippled consoles (which will hurt developers utilizing the HDD no matter what MS says), spotty backwards compatibility, numerous graphical issues/artifacts (as reported by Wal-Mart Kiosks), no optimized launch titles (not even first-party titles), no Japanese interest, and countless other nebulous facts/figures... not looking good.
Have all the fake shortages you want, when there is no demand after the initial fanboy's flock, shortages will be the least of the concerns.
A guy in my company was chastised for having Firefox on his computer. He tried to explain he was *helping* but they made him remove it and gave him an earful. Later, I explained all of the features and benefits... they still didn't want it on any company PC's and have no clue as to what it even is. Pretty sad.
Yep. I was the submitter of that article to /., and I knew it would get pulled quick... however it was all true. I have worked in this industry for some time and have a number of developers that I speak with regularly, not a single one of them is excited or enthusiastic to work on the PS3 or 360. Almost to a tee they all give the same reasons why all this multi-thread talk is just crap. I've been saying it for months on /. and always get flammed and modded down, but lo and behold it is the truth *gasp* amazing.
Wait until people start to see how slow the releases come out, and the massive lulls in new releases in times when gamers expect many. The cost and development times are just out of hand, and when sales don't keep up with the massive development costs the PS3 and 360 become expensive multi-media centers. The only true hope this round is that Sony and MS take huge financial hits (which they are already feeling, check out todays business news about MS and the stock issues and Sony cutting jobs left and right) Nintendo is perfectly placed to once again pick up a broken videogame industry and run with it. I wish them the best, and I hope for gaming's sake that innovation, fun, family, and gameplay once again become the core focus.