Umm, the one screenshot they show is as dark as Quake3/Doom3... I guess there is that one flourescent light above which does little for lighting the scene at all.
I sure wish the FPS genre would just die already, it has hung on way past the point of innovation and differentiation. Ooh, I get 900FPS on my uber video card (of which my eyes and monitor can display ~60) I got my rocket launcher and my head shot cheat... FUN!
I have been saying this for months now. No one wants a media center when they buy a console, contrary to popular belief. This past Christmas the small 6-in-1 game controllers that plugged directly into your TV outsold all consoles and single titles! The reason... they are cheap, fun, and easy to use.
having been a part of the gaming media for so long I have a clearer view of what sells, and it isn't complex titles, it is Myst, Sims, Tetris, Katamari Damacy... Nintendo titles have always had this level of innovation and depth while being easy and intuitive to pick up and play. The Revolution will be the major force this time around because it is focusing on the games, making them accessible, and fun. Sure the Xbox and PS3 will have decent sales but they are getting tired and no new content is on the way as can be seen from the XBOX 360 besides Media capabilities (that drive up cost) which not many actually want in a console.
Umm, this isn't roll your own, this is a freaking LiveCD basically that is preconfigured by clicking on menus. Creating your own PVR has nothing to do with Linux or mass appeal, those folks will by a TiVO or take what the sattelite/cable co. offers for $5/month.
The above two replies also classify as moronic, even moreso than the article.
No I didn't look at the specs... WTF? Run NASA??? yeah, OK.
I have been a member of the gaming media for a very long time and am quite well versed in consoles and console hardware, the XBOX 360 does not offer much at all than any game developer cares about. Game developers are not fawning over the XBOX 360 at all! That tells you something right there. Porting is almost impossible based on their architecture and this is not what makes developers want to support a platform. Microsoft has the worst developer support because of this, they have to buy small developers to get any exclusive content such as RARE and Bungie.
Launch titles mean everything to a system, XBOX 360 has 2 maybe 3 and none of them are killer apps. Perfect Dark Zero, cool graphically the same to current gen titles, Condemned, niche market title offering AI improvements, Kameo, bloom effect is the only new aspect to this title, Madden, the usual will buy this and it will most likely be the biggest selling launch title... not good when a sports title is the top launch title this usually spells doom.
Microsoft HAS NO FOOTING in the PVR market, they sell Media Center Edition OS and no hardware besides the remote. A PVR running on 3 cores is the same a sa PVR running on 1 or 2, you really let the hype get to you about these three cores they mean very litle in actual game programming, the biggest advantage of the XBOX 360 you missed totally - and that is the programmable shader/vertex GPU features, and this will rarely be used because no one besides exclusive titles will utilize it. Exclusive hardware means little in consoles and if you had even a bit of a finger n the pulse of the gaming industry you would find no developers outside of the MS purchased ones are excited about the specs so far.
And another thing, why would anyone care about DRM in the OSS community?, I would love to hear your lame-brained defense of this statement.
That is all the XBOX 360 will be, a media center, not a gaming console. It's an easy way to get more market in the MS MCE Dept. and I'm convinced this is the only way they will be able to market the 360 as the games are quite lacking.
Us pro-linux folks will have actual PVR media centers and you will have your XBOX 360 with its crippling DRM and MS only formats... yeah, we lose.
This really was poor, a couple Linux N00b's try to get a HTPC together based on an almost automatic install of KnoppMyth and still can't do it due to lack of knowledge of Linux and fear of illegality to play DVD's.
Basically it is as simple as selecting the supported hardware, pop in the CD and go... these guys get tripped up tring to get a SUPPORTED remote to work and don't even know how to add two commands to the window manager so they don't have to go to the CLI to run Gedit!!! Morons.
This article did nothing, it didn't educate, it didn't enlighten, and it actually just spread more FUD about Windows MCE being better and easier. Thanks/. for helping promote Linux by posting "news" articles written by total n00b's with no idea of what they are doing as this is even their admitted numerous attempt to do this.
No you are totally wrong. Kameo Elements of Power Was and is created by RARE ltd. Which is who made Donkey Kong Country, etc. and was Nintendo only. They were set to release Kameo on the gamecube and then Microsoft bought the entire company so Kameo was then supposed to come out on the Xbox 1, it never did, now it is set for the XBOX 360.
I'm a member of the videogame media so I'm quite positive... maybe you should do a bit more research before you post, oh, yeah, this is Slashdot where no one needs to actually know what they are talking about.
Graphics on par with current titles, Tiger Woods seemed poor in the grass textures, Kameo looks poor (this was the one game I was looking forward to since it was supposed to release for the Gamecube.) cartoony, blocky, current gen graphics, the only addition was "bloom" effect which most people hate anyhow. Pathetic.
3 3.2GHz procs, big gpu specs, big price, and the rest... what's it get you? Not too much more than you get now from an Xbox, PS2, or PC. Better have more than Perfect Dark Zero to pull this off... and they don't besides Condemned which isn't a mass appeal title. Thumbs Down.
The Xbox 360 Offers Nothing To True Gamers
on
The Xbox 360 Unveiled
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Everyone can squawk about hardware specs, looks, controllers (which are nothing new at all, ooh wireless!), Media capabilities... NO MENTION OF GAMES ANYWHERE! Anyone notice this? Give me a B.S. vision of the games to come that will be totally amazing, which will never actually release anyhow, as consoles USED to do to promote a freakin GAMING console!
Nothing can be said for the games at all and this is supposed to be a gaming console. Sony and MS have missed the mark by miles with these "next gen" efforts. No real gamer cares one bit about processors or a stupid video camera attachment or even a hard drive really... notice how well the eye toy and PS2 hard drive sold? What makes anyone think people are willing to pay through the nose for a console that supports technology people have no interest in? If there is no interest today, nothing is going to change by next year, in fact there will be less enthusiasm by then.
This will not sell 100 million as is stated by MS, I don't believe the PS3 will even sell 100 million... people are turning away from this rush to produce expensive hardware with no new games and ideas to back them and short life cycles, note the PSP and DS not exactly selling like hotcakes. I can't wait to laugh at the massive losses incurred this round in consoles, Nintendo will also be laughing all the way to the bank by not taking huge losses on hardware and focusing on ease of use and innovative content.
Say what you will but this is almost exactly like before... see your missing a big point here. There will be the PSOne, PS2, GBA, GBA SP, GC, XBX, DS, Ngage, PS3, XBX 360, PC's, and even Cell Phones all still viable consoles, all having for the most part the exact same releases with about 6-10 exclusive titles per year. Here is the real problem for the average "gamer" you read about the TOP games in your particualr interest and you know what is good and what isn't so unconsciously when you go to buy a game you go right to the one you want. Step back and be a young kid or parent or even a casual gamer and walk into EB or Gamestop... look at the walls, they are filled to capacity aren't they? Now, in the 80's you walked into Hills, or whatever Dept. store, and the video game section was a single glass case (a big one, but still) and the industry imploded because of the mess.
Fast forward to present day, the internet and magazines have made selecting good titles easier, so things can scale up a good bit before it becomes and issue and we are now reaching it. The average person is not going to see a benefit from the Xbox 360 when the biggest launch title will be Madden, The Cell processor will not even be known or cared about let alone be the main selling point, these sales will be fairly large up front and trail off quickly as we see with the PSP and DS. There is no demand for the PSP or DS the GBA is still fine and has a great library. The revolution however is going to target families, and the non-gamer, and not be about an impressive spec. sheet but about the games... this is a reason to buy one for Joe Sixpack and his kids. The mature videogame market is big but aging and by releasing more violent and lewd games no longer is a draw to us... oh it is to the 13 year olds but it always has been.
A return to the basics is what people really want, didja notice how many "retro" games sold this past holiday season as multi-game controllers that plugged into your TV set without a console? Well they combined for more sales than any console or title sold. That tells you something, and having been in this business for so long it sure tells me something. The sheer amount of loss by Xbox and the R&D on the 360 will bring MS out of the console market and focus on the media center. Sony will follow suit but not be as hurt because they will have a whole slew of products to interconnect the cell processors and sell to the higher-end market niche. Nintendo however will regain a lot of lost ground and return gaming to where it should be.
These are big predictions and I know they are controversial to a lot of Fanboy's and "gamers" who don't see anything wrong because they live in their world of FPS and framerates and never peek out to the rest of the gaming world... the millions who outnumber them that were scooping up the 6 game pac-man, galaga, spongebob controller games so they could have some fun without spending a fortune or having to learn about wireless controllers, memory sticks, UMD's, load times, etc.
No, it really doesn't. This coming from a huge hardware guy... this is exactly what I mean. This is where Nintendo has it right and things will come full circle (no xbox pun intended) back to Nintendo once the dust settles on this round of consoles.
The cell is a cool piece of hardware, but it means nothing to games... it means a lot to Sony who is going to make the cell a part of their products and force a line of consumers into it and a whole product line around it. Again, this is totally missing the main point THE GAMES! These new systems are more about convergence and media than games and that is a mistake.
the original implosion of the videogame industry. The stars are all aligned for a second coming. Counter to what everyone keeps claiming about how it is going to grow and grow, and EA shall rule with small incremental updates to the same titles year after year... this is exactly what caused the bubble to burst last time. Flooded market, too many consoles, crap to good game ratio too high, and greedy companies looking to cash in on the boom... check, check, check, and check.
With all of the losses in hardware and set to grow higher with the next round, no real innovation in the next gen except for possibly the Revolution (ooh, online pay gaming and wireless controller standard!), and this notion that the same tired videogames will continue to sell after GTA 9, NFL 2k28, and the rest of the current market, I don't think so!
Seriously though, this is BETA software. Could we please not start the Gmail complaining again, when you use beta software... guess what? THERE ARE BUGS! or it wouldn't be BETA.
It figures the only laptop I will even consider since they hooked me on the little pointer nub is a Thinkpad. A lot of business users rely on TP's too, and now with this Lenovo aquisition what lays ahead for the beloved Thinkpad?
This is the beginning of the big gaming decline ver. 2. Having lived through the first gaming implosion in the 80's all of the stars are aligned for a second one. And isn't it amazing how cycles always go in 25 year increments... almost to the day this will again.
Nintendo is the only one staying out of the hardware arms race and will smartly stay alive and strong through this one. The sheer costs of R&D of Sony and MS's continual losses as well as their R&D costs are going to be the downfalls along with rehashed games and themes ad nauseum. Hopefully nintendo will really bring gaming back to accessibility and fun as they are claiming and get this industry back on track.
Although I must admit I've held to "the line" while taking corners for real after playing extended amounts of GT3. I also almost took out some orange cones after playing a bit too much carmageddon back in the day, and then I realized in real life orange cones denote danger lies beyond, and swerved outta the way. Games do have the ability to kind of blur the reality line a bit, but this one is just stupid.
GBA Videos, PSP Movies, The little pocket video players for kids, none do all that well but companies keep pumping them out. No one is going to buy a movie twice just so that they can make it less useful and portable.
When I first heard of PSP movie capabilities and since it was from Sony, I had thought the ultimate idea would be to bundle the UMD version in with the DVD of their movie releases. They've missed it so far. This would sell more PSP's because people would soon have a bunch of useless UMD's laying around and be curious to make them useful, combat piracy because people will buy the DVD to get the UMD... just a bit of creative thinking and sales and UMD movies could bloom... but oh yeah Sony would have to give a little bit of their DVD profits to sell tons more PSP's and games and then when they've got a huge install base reap the rewards. When will they learn?
Having been a long time member of the gaming media, I can honestly say he is right. The industry is set to implode. It is big business and lots of money to be made right now, and that will continue on a bit longer I'm afraid but in the near future this is going to see a sharp drop off. Once it does gaming will fall back to a smaller market, and rely more on the substance over flash. You can see it already with the surge of "Retro" games, retro gaming has always been around but is in greater demand now than ever because people naturally are returning to where the fun is.
I do disagree with the photorealistic part of his argument though, photorealism will never sell as a game. A game is a form of role-play and suspension of reality, game characters that are non-descript and not based on real life counterparts do better because the player can project themselves into the role easier. No one wants photorealistic games, they may think they do now, but it will not last. Myst is probably the closest to a successful photorealistic game ever and it was the deviance from real-life and total freedom that made it work. Think of a great FMV game you've played... oh, yeah, there aren't any. They do not pull you in. People keep claiming their system will bring us into photorealistic games, I just keep waiting for it to come to fruition so it can fail, companies can go under, and true innovators will re-emerge.
Typing google.stanford.edu to search, and how I couldn't convince anyone that it was better than Altavista.
Everyone thought "google" was a dumb name for the site, now it's a figure of speech
I just wish my search results were as good as they were in the wayback machine, now people prey on google's spidering and ranking so now I have to wade through the same detritus that I began using google to avoid.
Coming from a fairly poor economic background and having to save with my parents for my first dx2/66 MHz computer (~$2500.00) I never would have achieved what I have had it not been for Warez, etc. I was able to try different software, graphics apps, web design, programming languages, games, system utils and apps, etc. I was able to teach myself such a broad base of skills that later propelled me into a degree and to work in the IT field. Plus learning the technology, terms, etc. just to be able to find and download things was invaluable to learning about compression algorithms, file formats and more.
MP3 and DVD's don't have the ability to teach as much but there is still value in it. Downloading massive amounts of content and selling it is WRONG, and no one can argue that however the poor kid who has no other way to break into computing (which is a huge amount of geeks I know) should not be sitting in jail with a $60,000+ fine because he wanted to learn Photoshop, or Dreamweaver. This is all getting a bit out of hand.
Wonderful, With the recent news from France (about removing DVD encryption/DRM) and England (over Music CD's) whose governments work on the side of the people and care for their rights our lovely U.S. of A is right there enacting more laws for the lobbyists and businesses crying the loudest and paying the most. Gotta love how things work here, sure! come up with more restrictive "Family Entertainment" we'll help enforce it... don't try to fix your businesses shortcomings or *gasp* compete and innovate with technology... no, no, just pay us and we'll fix your problems by enforcing restrictive laws on our citizens who pay for you and us! And we keep accepting this, ya know it is really starting to be time to stand up and fight back for our interests. America was founded because of high British taxes, proportionately we are now paying over that amount here in America... people used to be so pissed they left and started a new country over less! We have to wake up soon.
Having been in exactly your position not too long ago, I can fully relate. I was actually told in an interview to go back to college and get just an Associates Degree and then only cite the Associate Degree and my experience on my resume (ignoring my Bachelor's Degree intentionally) so that I would find a job easier!!! I actually laughed in the persons face and left, this is a 100% true story and is so sad it is unreal!
Slashdot Mirror
Umm, the one screenshot they show is as dark as Quake3/Doom3... I guess there is that one flourescent light above which does little for lighting the scene at all.
I sure wish the FPS genre would just die already, it has hung on way past the point of innovation and differentiation. Ooh, I get 900FPS on my uber video card (of which my eyes and monitor can display ~60) I got my rocket launcher and my head shot cheat... FUN!
I have been saying this for months now. No one wants a media center when they buy a console, contrary to popular belief. This past Christmas the small 6-in-1 game controllers that plugged directly into your TV outsold all consoles and single titles! The reason... they are cheap, fun, and easy to use.
having been a part of the gaming media for so long I have a clearer view of what sells, and it isn't complex titles, it is Myst, Sims, Tetris, Katamari Damacy... Nintendo titles have always had this level of innovation and depth while being easy and intuitive to pick up and play. The Revolution will be the major force this time around because it is focusing on the games, making them accessible, and fun. Sure the Xbox and PS3 will have decent sales but they are getting tired and no new content is on the way as can be seen from the XBOX 360 besides Media capabilities (that drive up cost) which not many actually want in a console.
Umm, this isn't roll your own, this is a freaking LiveCD basically that is preconfigured by clicking on menus. Creating your own PVR has nothing to do with Linux or mass appeal, those folks will by a TiVO or take what the sattelite/cable co. offers for $5/month.
The above two replies also classify as moronic, even moreso than the article.
No I didn't look at the specs... WTF? Run NASA??? yeah, OK.
I have been a member of the gaming media for a very long time and am quite well versed in consoles and console hardware, the XBOX 360 does not offer much at all than any game developer cares about. Game developers are not fawning over the XBOX 360 at all! That tells you something right there. Porting is almost impossible based on their architecture and this is not what makes developers want to support a platform. Microsoft has the worst developer support because of this, they have to buy small developers to get any exclusive content such as RARE and Bungie.
Launch titles mean everything to a system, XBOX 360 has 2 maybe 3 and none of them are killer apps. Perfect Dark Zero, cool graphically the same to current gen titles, Condemned, niche market title offering AI improvements, Kameo, bloom effect is the only new aspect to this title, Madden, the usual will buy this and it will most likely be the biggest selling launch title... not good when a sports title is the top launch title this usually spells doom.
Microsoft HAS NO FOOTING in the PVR market, they sell Media Center Edition OS and no hardware besides the remote. A PVR running on 3 cores is the same a sa PVR running on 1 or 2, you really let the hype get to you about these three cores they mean very litle in actual game programming, the biggest advantage of the XBOX 360 you missed totally - and that is the programmable shader/vertex GPU features, and this will rarely be used because no one besides exclusive titles will utilize it. Exclusive hardware means little in consoles and if you had even a bit of a finger n the pulse of the gaming industry you would find no developers outside of the MS purchased ones are excited about the specs so far.
And another thing, why would anyone care about DRM in the OSS community?, I would love to hear your lame-brained defense of this statement.
That is all the XBOX 360 will be, a media center, not a gaming console. It's an easy way to get more market in the MS MCE Dept. and I'm convinced this is the only way they will be able to market the 360 as the games are quite lacking.
Us pro-linux folks will have actual PVR media centers and you will have your XBOX 360 with its crippling DRM and MS only formats... yeah, we lose.
This really was poor, a couple Linux N00b's try to get a HTPC together based on an almost automatic install of KnoppMyth and still can't do it due to lack of knowledge of Linux and fear of illegality to play DVD's.
/. for helping promote Linux by posting "news" articles written by total n00b's with no idea of what they are doing as this is even their admitted numerous attempt to do this.
Basically it is as simple as selecting the supported hardware, pop in the CD and go... these guys get tripped up tring to get a SUPPORTED remote to work and don't even know how to add two commands to the window manager so they don't have to go to the CLI to run Gedit!!! Morons.
This article did nothing, it didn't educate, it didn't enlighten, and it actually just spread more FUD about Windows MCE being better and easier. Thanks
No you are totally wrong. Kameo Elements of Power Was and is created by RARE ltd. Which is who made Donkey Kong Country, etc. and was Nintendo only. They were set to release Kameo on the gamecube and then Microsoft bought the entire company so Kameo was then supposed to come out on the Xbox 1, it never did, now it is set for the XBOX 360.
I'm a member of the videogame media so I'm quite positive... maybe you should do a bit more research before you post, oh, yeah, this is Slashdot where no one needs to actually know what they are talking about.
Graphics on par with current titles, Tiger Woods seemed poor in the grass textures, Kameo looks poor (this was the one game I was looking forward to since it was supposed to release for the Gamecube.) cartoony, blocky, current gen graphics, the only addition was "bloom" effect which most people hate anyhow. Pathetic.
3 3.2GHz procs, big gpu specs, big price, and the rest... what's it get you? Not too much more than you get now from an Xbox, PS2, or PC. Better have more than Perfect Dark Zero to pull this off... and they don't besides Condemned which isn't a mass appeal title. Thumbs Down.
Everyone can squawk about hardware specs, looks, controllers (which are nothing new at all, ooh wireless!), Media capabilities... NO MENTION OF GAMES ANYWHERE! Anyone notice this? Give me a B.S. vision of the games to come that will be totally amazing, which will never actually release anyhow, as consoles USED to do to promote a freakin GAMING console!
Nothing can be said for the games at all and this is supposed to be a gaming console. Sony and MS have missed the mark by miles with these "next gen" efforts. No real gamer cares one bit about processors or a stupid video camera attachment or even a hard drive really... notice how well the eye toy and PS2 hard drive sold? What makes anyone think people are willing to pay through the nose for a console that supports technology people have no interest in? If there is no interest today, nothing is going to change by next year, in fact there will be less enthusiasm by then.
This will not sell 100 million as is stated by MS, I don't believe the PS3 will even sell 100 million... people are turning away from this rush to produce expensive hardware with no new games and ideas to back them and short life cycles, note the PSP and DS not exactly selling like hotcakes. I can't wait to laugh at the massive losses incurred this round in consoles, Nintendo will also be laughing all the way to the bank by not taking huge losses on hardware and focusing on ease of use and innovative content.
You ever stand next to a fat chick on the train for an hour or two packed with people. Be-O can be brutally toxic.
Say what you will but this is almost exactly like before... see your missing a big point here. There will be the PSOne, PS2, GBA, GBA SP, GC, XBX, DS, Ngage, PS3, XBX 360, PC's, and even Cell Phones all still viable consoles, all having for the most part the exact same releases with about 6-10 exclusive titles per year. Here is the real problem for the average "gamer" you read about the TOP games in your particualr interest and you know what is good and what isn't so unconsciously when you go to buy a game you go right to the one you want. Step back and be a young kid or parent or even a casual gamer and walk into EB or Gamestop... look at the walls, they are filled to capacity aren't they? Now, in the 80's you walked into Hills, or whatever Dept. store, and the video game section was a single glass case (a big one, but still) and the industry imploded because of the mess.
Fast forward to present day, the internet and magazines have made selecting good titles easier, so things can scale up a good bit before it becomes and issue and we are now reaching it. The average person is not going to see a benefit from the Xbox 360 when the biggest launch title will be Madden, The Cell processor will not even be known or cared about let alone be the main selling point, these sales will be fairly large up front and trail off quickly as we see with the PSP and DS. There is no demand for the PSP or DS the GBA is still fine and has a great library. The revolution however is going to target families, and the non-gamer, and not be about an impressive spec. sheet but about the games... this is a reason to buy one for Joe Sixpack and his kids. The mature videogame market is big but aging and by releasing more violent and lewd games no longer is a draw to us... oh it is to the 13 year olds but it always has been.
A return to the basics is what people really want, didja notice how many "retro" games sold this past holiday season as multi-game controllers that plugged into your TV set without a console? Well they combined for more sales than any console or title sold. That tells you something, and having been in this business for so long it sure tells me something. The sheer amount of loss by Xbox and the R&D on the 360 will bring MS out of the console market and focus on the media center. Sony will follow suit but not be as hurt because they will have a whole slew of products to interconnect the cell processors and sell to the higher-end market niche. Nintendo however will regain a lot of lost ground and return gaming to where it should be.
These are big predictions and I know they are controversial to a lot of Fanboy's and "gamers" who don't see anything wrong because they live in their world of FPS and framerates and never peek out to the rest of the gaming world... the millions who outnumber them that were scooping up the 6 game pac-man, galaga, spongebob controller games so they could have some fun without spending a fortune or having to learn about wireless controllers, memory sticks, UMD's, load times, etc.
No, it really doesn't. This coming from a huge hardware guy... this is exactly what I mean. This is where Nintendo has it right and things will come full circle (no xbox pun intended) back to Nintendo once the dust settles on this round of consoles.
The cell is a cool piece of hardware, but it means nothing to games... it means a lot to Sony who is going to make the cell a part of their products and force a line of consumers into it and a whole product line around it. Again, this is totally missing the main point THE GAMES! These new systems are more about convergence and media than games and that is a mistake.
the original implosion of the videogame industry. The stars are all aligned for a second coming. Counter to what everyone keeps claiming about how it is going to grow and grow, and EA shall rule with small incremental updates to the same titles year after year... this is exactly what caused the bubble to burst last time. Flooded market, too many consoles, crap to good game ratio too high, and greedy companies looking to cash in on the boom... check, check, check, and check.
With all of the losses in hardware and set to grow higher with the next round, no real innovation in the next gen except for possibly the Revolution (ooh, online pay gaming and wireless controller standard!), and this notion that the same tired videogames will continue to sell after GTA 9, NFL 2k28, and the rest of the current market, I don't think so!
Causes Forums to log on to you!
Seriously though, this is BETA software. Could we please not start the Gmail complaining again, when you use beta software... guess what? THERE ARE BUGS! or it wouldn't be BETA.
Peace out, Word To Your Mother.
...and if you rat out a commie too, we'll throw in Office 2003 for FREE!
It figures the only laptop I will even consider since they hooked me on the little pointer nub is a Thinkpad. A lot of business users rely on TP's too, and now with this Lenovo aquisition what lays ahead for the beloved Thinkpad?
I mean honestly you deserve a badge for having seen that image, and it would do just as much good for the youth straight. (pun very much intended)
This is the beginning of the big gaming decline ver. 2. Having lived through the first gaming implosion in the 80's all of the stars are aligned for a second one. And isn't it amazing how cycles always go in 25 year increments... almost to the day this will again.
Nintendo is the only one staying out of the hardware arms race and will smartly stay alive and strong through this one. The sheer costs of R&D of Sony and MS's continual losses as well as their R&D costs are going to be the downfalls along with rehashed games and themes ad nauseum. Hopefully nintendo will really bring gaming back to accessibility and fun as they are claiming and get this industry back on track.
Although I must admit I've held to "the line" while taking corners for real after playing extended amounts of GT3. I also almost took out some orange cones after playing a bit too much carmageddon back in the day, and then I realized in real life orange cones denote danger lies beyond, and swerved outta the way. Games do have the ability to kind of blur the reality line a bit, but this one is just stupid.
GBA Videos, PSP Movies, The little pocket video players for kids, none do all that well but companies keep pumping them out. No one is going to buy a movie twice just so that they can make it less useful and portable.
When I first heard of PSP movie capabilities and since it was from Sony, I had thought the ultimate idea would be to bundle the UMD version in with the DVD of their movie releases. They've missed it so far. This would sell more PSP's because people would soon have a bunch of useless UMD's laying around and be curious to make them useful, combat piracy because people will buy the DVD to get the UMD... just a bit of creative thinking and sales and UMD movies could bloom... but oh yeah Sony would have to give a little bit of their DVD profits to sell tons more PSP's and games and then when they've got a huge install base reap the rewards. When will they learn?
Having been a long time member of the gaming media, I can honestly say he is right. The industry is set to implode. It is big business and lots of money to be made right now, and that will continue on a bit longer I'm afraid but in the near future this is going to see a sharp drop off. Once it does gaming will fall back to a smaller market, and rely more on the substance over flash. You can see it already with the surge of "Retro" games, retro gaming has always been around but is in greater demand now than ever because people naturally are returning to where the fun is.
I do disagree with the photorealistic part of his argument though, photorealism will never sell as a game. A game is a form of role-play and suspension of reality, game characters that are non-descript and not based on real life counterparts do better because the player can project themselves into the role easier. No one wants photorealistic games, they may think they do now, but it will not last. Myst is probably the closest to a successful photorealistic game ever and it was the deviance from real-life and total freedom that made it work. Think of a great FMV game you've played... oh, yeah, there aren't any. They do not pull you in. People keep claiming their system will bring us into photorealistic games, I just keep waiting for it to come to fruition so it can fail, companies can go under, and true innovators will re-emerge.
Typing google.stanford.edu to search, and how I couldn't convince anyone that it was better than Altavista.
Everyone thought "google" was a dumb name for the site, now it's a figure of speech
I just wish my search results were as good as they were in the wayback machine, now people prey on google's spidering and ranking so now I have to wade through the same detritus that I began using google to avoid.
Coming from a fairly poor economic background and having to save with my parents for my first dx2/66 MHz computer (~$2500.00) I never would have achieved what I have had it not been for Warez, etc. I was able to try different software, graphics apps, web design, programming languages, games, system utils and apps, etc. I was able to teach myself such a broad base of skills that later propelled me into a degree and to work in the IT field. Plus learning the technology, terms, etc. just to be able to find and download things was invaluable to learning about compression algorithms, file formats and more.
MP3 and DVD's don't have the ability to teach as much but there is still value in it. Downloading massive amounts of content and selling it is WRONG, and no one can argue that however the poor kid who has no other way to break into computing (which is a huge amount of geeks I know) should not be sitting in jail with a $60,000+ fine because he wanted to learn Photoshop, or Dreamweaver. This is all getting a bit out of hand.
Wonderful, With the recent news from France (about removing DVD encryption/DRM) and England (over Music CD's) whose governments work on the side of the people and care for their rights our lovely U.S. of A is right there enacting more laws for the lobbyists and businesses crying the loudest and paying the most. Gotta love how things work here, sure! come up with more restrictive "Family Entertainment" we'll help enforce it... don't try to fix your businesses shortcomings or *gasp* compete and innovate with technology... no, no, just pay us and we'll fix your problems by enforcing restrictive laws on our citizens who pay for you and us! And we keep accepting this, ya know it is really starting to be time to stand up and fight back for our interests. America was founded because of high British taxes, proportionately we are now paying over that amount here in America... people used to be so pissed they left and started a new country over less! We have to wake up soon.
Having been in exactly your position not too long ago, I can fully relate. I was actually told in an interview to go back to college and get just an Associates Degree and then only cite the Associate Degree and my experience on my resume (ignoring my Bachelor's Degree intentionally) so that I would find a job easier!!! I actually laughed in the persons face and left, this is a 100% true story and is so sad it is unreal!
8 7&threshold=1&commentsort=0&tid=103&tid=219&tid=21 8&mode=thread&cid=12370178here.
See my post on the subject for the rest of my thoughts http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1475