It would seem the "free market" has corrected the price. Both the Gamestop and Walmart near me have 6 PS3s a piece, inquiring about them it would seem that they got a shipment in of a few units, and none of them sold... after which they each had a few units RETURNED from eBay profiteers who couldn't turn a profit on them.
I have a friend who tried to do the eBay thing, he preordered two units at different stores, and waited in line at a 3rd. Launch night he put them all up on eBay, all three ended for about $2K... all dead beat bidders, he re-listed, all three ended at about $1.2K all dead beat bidders, he listed a third time and all three ended around $900, two of the three were dead beat bidders, He decided to just keep one himself and the last one he's re-listing hoping to at least break even... I suspect many others experienced the same thing. Dead beat bidders probably came from the fact that prices started so enormously and dropped so fast that they'd rather suffer negative feed back then pay the price delta between when they placed their bid and when it came time to pay.
It's not like this is surprising though, if you just polled any of the PS3 lines on launch day 9 out of 10 would have told you they were going to re-sell it... if you have a market of all sellers and no buyers it devalues the item pretty quick.
Today, yes, but not for long the upcoming Shadowrun game supposedly allows PC and Xbox Live users to play together, apparently it's the first game in a trend MS hopes to start.
not necessarily, a lot hardcore fans are highly resistant to changes, if you use them as your only source of input you'd risk stagnating the title.
For instance:if you come up with a whiz-bank new and innovative controls scheme that might make the game easier for first time player to pick up and learn, giving the game a broader appeal by making the controls simpler and more intuitive, most hardcore players would HATE that simply because they would have to re-train themselves how to play your game. Even if the change was for the better.
Another scenario is adding TOO MUCH in the way of customization, taking on loads of in depth features is a hardcore fan's wet dream but it pushes away much of the casual market because you end up needing a background in how the game works just to play it. While some might argue developers shouldn't sell their ideals short for the sake of reaching a broader audience it really depends on what the developers goals are. if they want to make a simple an intuitive game then adding more complexity becomes counter productive, even if it risks aggravating the hardcore fan base.
"Worms, Lemmings, Frogger, Mortal Kombat, Sonic, etc"
Worms DS, PSP
Lemmings PS3 downloadable game, PS2 eyetoy version (partly a port), PSP (port)
Frogger Live Arcade (port - but surely a port is better than a sequel to anyone who cares about Frogger?)
Mortal Kombat Live Arcade (port - but with added online play)
Sonic Rush DS
So all those 2D-gone-3D games have recent 2D releases anyway.
You miss my point... most of those are re-releases of classic titles, which is fine but what I'm asking for is NEW games made in 3D... I want to see a NEW Worms game in 2D... I want to see Mortal Kombat 8 in 2D, I want to see other new and innovative franchises in 2D... And I want to see them on a home console rather then shunned to a portable.
Actually they've got a really cool addition to the latest VB emulator that lets you use the Red/Blue 3D glasses to actually play the game in 3D. I've actually tried it, it's quite cool. It sill runs a little slow, but it's playable, I also didn't experience any of the sound issues you cite.
Do you think any fewer people would have bought Guitar Hero or the latest Dance Dance Revolution if they had the occasional 2D dancing character in the background instead of the occasional 3D dancing character in the background? GH probably has the fret markers come at you in 3D but they could have done it in 2D just as well. I doubt it would have taken anything away from the game.
One game genre that I genuinely miss having in 2D is the fighting game. Most of them have moved to 3D and IMO most of them were better left in 2D. I miss cool fighters like the older Mortal Kombats, Killer Instinct, Primal Rage, etc. Capcom and SNK still make some in 2D but I've never been that big of a fan of their fighting franchises.
I believe it's foolish to think that all games have to be in 3D today, I definitely think that certain game types lend themselves to being either 2D or 3D, some of the worst games IMO are those that are better suited to 2D but were squeezed into a 3D framework... just because. Worms, Lemmings, Frogger, Mortal Kombat, Sonic, etc. Some games handled the transition well (like Mario) other's didn't (like Worms). Not everything needs to be bigger and better, some things can do well just being fun and I think they would still sell well on that premise rather then one based on 3D graphics.
Interesting concept...
PS3 = $600+ (realistically a lot more on the open market)
Xbox 1 = $100 + $50
PS2 = $100
Gamecube = $50
With a PS2, Gamecube, and modified Xbox 1 you'll have the equipment to play:
Atari 2600
Atari Jaguar
Commodore 64
DOS x86 (yes there is an Xbox emulator for that)
Sega Genesis
Sega Master System
Gamecube
Gameboy
Gameboy Color
Gameboy Advance
GameGear
NES
SNES
N64
Playstation 1
Playstation 2
Virtual Boy
Xbox
All for about HALF the price of a PS3, cheaper if you can find those consoles used...
For an extra $40-$60 you can pickup a Dreamcast and or a Saturn for those games as well (IMO the Dreamcast still has some of the best games ever made)
you might as well just save your breath... it would seem most people can't grasp this concept.
It's gone so far that after the beating they got for including Barbie some poorly selling or unpopular titles that "happen" to become BC simply aren't listed in the announcement or the BC list (for instance: 25 to life)... it's sad that NOT including another game in the list brings them less grief from the ignorant.
Since when does A console maker...more likely = Sony's PS3...Always?
I'd like to see you hunt down drivers for a USB wi-fi adapter that would let you play Resistance online. While you're at it throw a few PC USB controllers in there... better yet why don't you plug in a PS2 controller... how about cheaper 3rd party options? You can't do any of those things.
Just because a console is open in SOME respects doesn't mean it's open in ALL respects. It also doesn't mean that the methods in which they're closed aren't making them money. Sony, similar to MS is not allowing 3rd parties to make devices likes controller for a set period of time until they've made enough of a profit over their mini monopoly, in general though the PS3 is an exception due to the inclusion of Blu-Ray which Sony is banking on you buying movies in that format and making up their costs there as opposed to more traditional methods such as accessory sales. Hence why my statement was not all inclusive, because it can't be stated all inclusively.
What a company makes on their base unit DOES matter because that situation effects their other decisions.
For instance if A console maker looses a large amount of money on the system then they're more likely to lock down the accessories to proprietary devices rather then utilizing widely accepted standards. Similarly if they need to make money back on the console they'd most likely go for Quantity over Quality of the games... while a company that makes money from the sale of their console can afford to concentrate more on quality titles and they can afford to test the waters and go out on a limb with more innovative titles.
If you NEED to make money on the games not just to improve profits but to bring you above breaking even, then you're likely to take the safe route, go with what works, and get it done quick. The result is gamers get generic mass-market garbage for games, instead of titles that innovate and move the industry forward. I'm not saying it the only factor but it's certainly a contributer.
Interesting... though you'd think if a company was going to build a multi-purpose cable they'd build in the necessary (simple) circuitry required to keep the PS2's audio output from interfering with the other devices.
very true, I think the important thing is to choose the carrier that has the best coverage and reliability FOR YOU. I can easily sit here and spout off about how good Verizon is but there may be other locations where Verizon's coverage sucks and there are other providers who work better. Unless you travel around the nation, national statistics are fairly meaningless.
I'm in the same boat as you... I really don't like Verizon's limited access to phone features, nor their relatively higher pricing, but in my area (deep in the woods of the north east USA) I have fantastic coverage wherever I go. I tried a few other carriers but NONE of them even got coverage while I was in my house, and the last thing I want to do is stand out in the cold to make a call (not to mention I don't have a house phone so the CELL is my only method of calling in or out). Verzion gets 3 bars when I'm in my BASEMENT which never ceases to amaze me... whenever I get a case of "the grass is always greener" I just have to ask one of my friends on Sprint, Cingular, T-Moble, etc. how the service is and they're always saying "it's getting a lot better... I only dropped 3 calls last week!" Meanwhile I'm racking my brain trying to think of the last time I ever dropped a call... I can deal with crippled phone features considering I pay to use it as a phone, first and foremost, and for that I am more then happy with the service they provide, the pricing could be better but the reliability I've experienced is unmatched.
Well They made "hydra" cables that essentially have one set of AV hookups on one end and then a number of specialized dongles on the other for conencting to multiple consoles. I saw one at Walmart Last night for $12 it had one dongle for Xbox 360, one for Xbox 1, one for PS1, PS2 or PS3 (since they use the same connector), and one for Gamecube, N64, SNES, or NES (since Nintendo has used the same connector up to the Wii). I tried a cable like this in the past, it was a combo PS2/Xbox Component cable, it had audio problems where it would come in too low if both consoles were connected at the same time (even if th other one was off) I'm not sure if this is a common problem with these units or just the one I got, but it's something to take into consideration.
There are quite a few options for switchers but in general you get what you pay for. Being that my AV setup feeds into an HDTV most component switchers don't do HD resolutions well, most of them also introduce interference into the signal muddying it up. There are after going through about 5 units I found 2 very capable units. One is a unit made by Psyclone, it's got 4 inputs with connections for component, s-video, composite, stereo audio, as well as optical toslink audio, a programmable LCD screen and a remote. It's a nice quality unit. My only complaint is that it only has 4 inputs. But there's a bit of a way around that if you've got older consoles. You can hook the older consoles up through Analog audio and Coax or S-Video, and hook the newer consoles up using component video and toslink audio
Considering the Wii is BC with the GC, controllers and all you could ditch your GC
Input 1 could be NES/PS2/3
Input 2 could be SNES/Xbox 360
Input 3 could be N64, and
Input 4 could be Wii
The other nice unit I found was made by Audio Authority, they make nice high quality stuff, this unit was a bit more expensive with an MSRP nearly double that of the Psyclone unit (though you can find it much cheaper then that). This unit also has 4 inputs but you set an input priority and it automatically switches based on when it senses a signal on the highest priority device. The problem with this unit is that it only does component video and it does not do optical audio. Which is why I decided on the Psyclone switch and returned the Audio Authority device.
In my own setup I've got A PSOne, Slim PS2, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, Xbox 1, Xbox 360, Gamecube, and soon a Wii. My switches are setup:
Input 1: Sega Saturn/Xbox 1
Input 2: PSOne/PS2
Input 3: Sega Dreamcast/Xbox 360
Input 4: Gamecube(Wii)
It work well and Hopefully after the holiday's I'll have a new Harmony remote to automagically switch between consoles, but even now it's a breeze with just a couple of button pushes. Of course it only works if you TV accepts both component and S-Video/Composite, and your Stereo accepts both optical and analog.
Lets assume for a minute that people choose their console based on personal preference and that maybe personal preferences are based mostly on someone's personality type. Assuming that the Typical Xbox 360 buyer is more of a hardcore gamer recluse, they'd rather stay at home and play alone or online, meanwhile the typical Wii buyer is more of a casual bubbly gamer who plays on occasion but more frequenetly likes to have friends over for more a personal and social gaming experience...
Which personality type do you think is more likely to make their purchase online? and which personality type do you think is more likely to go down to the store? Obviously launch window antics change things a bit where the more hardcore gamers come out of the woodwork and get their goods which ever way they can. But my point is where and how people make their purchases is largely determined by which experience best suits them. It would be foolish to think that those same personality traits that determine how a person likes to buy their games wouldn't also determine which games they buy.
Why don't you go to a knitting class and ask the members what they thought of the football game last night. Do you think you'd get a response that accurately represented the feelings of all football fans? What if you polled every knitting class in the country? Would that be any better? What if you asked the people in the class whether they preferred gardening or motor sports? While I'm sure you'll find at least some motor sport fans chances are the same personality types that bring people to knitting classes instead of watching football are the same personality types that would have more interest in gardening then in motor sports.
Don't you think it's foolish to assume that every group of people would be equally represented when the sampling is always only taken from a very specific area?
four red lights means the console doesn't recognize your AV cable, or that the AV cable is unplugged. Considering that the console looks like it's running fine with the exception of no audio or video have you checked to see if your cable is faulty?
I would imagine that by "online sales" they're referring to stores like amazon.com, tigerdirect.com etc.
For all intents an purposes eBay is a 2nd hand market and I doubt many people would question those figures not being included. Stores like Amazon however do have a significant impact. Add to that the fact that Walmart.com and most definitely the brick and mortar Walmart stores probably make up a larger percentage than any other entity.
In my area I have about 5 stores that carry games and gaming products within a 15 mile radius of my house. 4 of those locations are Walmart stores. Considering that 5th store is a locally owned mom & pop shop NPD probably doesn't cover them either.... So exactly how well is the NPD covering people who live in my area? I'm an avid gamer and have been for years though it would seem that not one of my gaming purchases over the years has fallen under the radar of the NPD.
Did you attempt to extract the 4 digit secondary error code from the console?
If not I maintain a list of all know Xbox 360 error codes (including instructions on how to extract the secondary error code). AFAIK it's the most comprehensive list available online, though it's still in it's infancy.
Except the summary says "The week of November 7th" and the Movie/TV download service didn't launch until November 22nd (MS made a big deal out of this because it's the 360's 1 year anniversary.)
But you are correct that the movie TV service would be responsible for a significant spike in bandwidth usage, the day it launched the Xbox Live content servers crashed HARD.
Don't ask me how it works but I've been playing fighting games online for years now and I've never run into any serious problems. On my Xbox 360 alone I've got Dead or Alive 4, Street Fighter II, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, and (the very similar to SSB) Small Arms. Never once have I felt that the latency has effected my game. Of course I connect to the occasional laggy opponent but as long as the connection is good the gameplay is just as good as if they were sitting next to me.
I also fail to see how fighting games would somehow require a better connection then other popular online twitch genres such as Shooters, or Racers. It's not like this is some kind of new concept.
action doesn't lag the input... low resolutions lag the output. If your TV is 1080p native and you feed it a 480p (or worse 480i) signal from something like a Wii. there is a chip somewhere in that TV that has to scale that 480i/p all the way up to 1080p, and it has to do it FAST. The problem is that while these scaler chips are fast, when they're faced with a large task 480i -> 1080p they start to lag by a few milliseconds. De-interlacing, doubling the frame rate, multiplying the resolution, and adjusting the aspect ratio in real time doesn't come cheap, not to mention most TVs are doing other things like color correction, and other image processing that can add to the lag. Display types like LCD and Plasma have slower response times as well which can further add to the lag. Meanwhile your audio signal is going straight to your surround sound receiver and playing at the appropriate time. Some lag so minimally that most people will never notice. Some TVs lag so bad they actually have an audio pass through to delay the audio so that it matches the lagging video. Obviously this doesn't effect movies and TV because there is no user interaction, but it definitely effects video games or any other interactive use you'd have for that display. This is where the audio/video seems to be getting out of sync. Some of most lagy HDTVs can delay the signal as much as.64 seconds.
This is where gamers come in. When you push a button on your controller and the Game doesn't visually respond until a split second later, there's a serious problem, couple that with the feedback of having pushed the button in reaction to something on screen and you essentially double the perceived lag. With the twitch gameplay of some of today's popular games you could be dead literally before you even see it coming.
In addition to making sure the TV's have good, lag-free scaling, it's a good idea to choose a display that matches the resolution you'll be using it most for. As the GP said, if you're buying a Wii then you might want to look into EDTVs... if the Wii is 480p then buying a 480p EDTV would not only be a whole lot cheaper, but it will look better (no abnormal stretching of the image to fit a larger resolution) and play better (less work fro the scaler means less lag) too.
Aliasing is easily the biggest turn-off for me with the PS3. Nearly every title has jaggies coming out of everywhere.
It's hard to notice from screenshots because most of them are down-sampled from their native resolution to fit better in a browser, effectively super-sampling the image. But if you get a chance to play a kiosk or visit a friend with a PS3 and an HDTV they're quite apparent
Sony seems to be banking on the High resolutions to wave the need for FSAA, granted it's not nearly as bad as the jaggy machine the PS2 was but it's got far more then any of the other next gen systems. The 360 requires all developers implement 4xMSAA at a minimum and the Wii, well Nintendo has required some form of AA since they started making games in 3D.
Slashdot Mirror
They're not Google... so that means evil is a definite possibility
It would seem the "free market" has corrected the price. Both the Gamestop and Walmart near me have 6 PS3s a piece, inquiring about them it would seem that they got a shipment in of a few units, and none of them sold... after which they each had a few units RETURNED from eBay profiteers who couldn't turn a profit on them.
I have a friend who tried to do the eBay thing, he preordered two units at different stores, and waited in line at a 3rd. Launch night he put them all up on eBay, all three ended for about $2K... all dead beat bidders, he re-listed, all three ended at about $1.2K all dead beat bidders, he listed a third time and all three ended around $900, two of the three were dead beat bidders, He decided to just keep one himself and the last one he's re-listing hoping to at least break even... I suspect many others experienced the same thing. Dead beat bidders probably came from the fact that prices started so enormously and dropped so fast that they'd rather suffer negative feed back then pay the price delta between when they placed their bid and when it came time to pay.
It's not like this is surprising though, if you just polled any of the PS3 lines on launch day 9 out of 10 would have told you they were going to re-sell it... if you have a market of all sellers and no buyers it devalues the item pretty quick.
Today, yes, but not for long the upcoming Shadowrun game supposedly allows PC and Xbox Live users to play together, apparently it's the first game in a trend MS hopes to start.
YOU FOOL!
You aren't supposed to reveal step 2! Now they all know the secret... the world will surely come to an end.
not necessarily, a lot hardcore fans are highly resistant to changes, if you use them as your only source of input you'd risk stagnating the title.
For instance:if you come up with a whiz-bank new and innovative controls scheme that might make the game easier for first time player to pick up and learn, giving the game a broader appeal by making the controls simpler and more intuitive, most hardcore players would HATE that simply because they would have to re-train themselves how to play your game. Even if the change was for the better.
Another scenario is adding TOO MUCH in the way of customization, taking on loads of in depth features is a hardcore fan's wet dream but it pushes away much of the casual market because you end up needing a background in how the game works just to play it. While some might argue developers shouldn't sell their ideals short for the sake of reaching a broader audience it really depends on what the developers goals are. if they want to make a simple an intuitive game then adding more complexity becomes counter productive, even if it risks aggravating the hardcore fan base.
Actually they've got a really cool addition to the latest VB emulator that lets you use the Red/Blue 3D glasses to actually play the game in 3D. I've actually tried it, it's quite cool. It sill runs a little slow, but it's playable, I also didn't experience any of the sound issues you cite.
Do you think any fewer people would have bought Guitar Hero or the latest Dance Dance Revolution if they had the occasional 2D dancing character in the background instead of the occasional 3D dancing character in the background? GH probably has the fret markers come at you in 3D but they could have done it in 2D just as well. I doubt it would have taken anything away from the game.
One game genre that I genuinely miss having in 2D is the fighting game. Most of them have moved to 3D and IMO most of them were better left in 2D. I miss cool fighters like the older Mortal Kombats, Killer Instinct, Primal Rage, etc. Capcom and SNK still make some in 2D but I've never been that big of a fan of their fighting franchises.
I believe it's foolish to think that all games have to be in 3D today, I definitely think that certain game types lend themselves to being either 2D or 3D, some of the worst games IMO are those that are better suited to 2D but were squeezed into a 3D framework... just because. Worms, Lemmings, Frogger, Mortal Kombat, Sonic, etc. Some games handled the transition well (like Mario) other's didn't (like Worms). Not everything needs to be bigger and better, some things can do well just being fun and I think they would still sell well on that premise rather then one based on 3D graphics.
Xbox 1 = $100 + $50
PS2 = $100
Gamecube = $50
With a PS2, Gamecube, and modified Xbox 1 you'll have the equipment to play:
- Atari 2600
- Atari Jaguar
- Commodore 64
- DOS x86 (yes there is an Xbox emulator for that)
- Sega Genesis
- Sega Master System
- Gamecube
- Gameboy
- Gameboy Color
- Gameboy Advance
- GameGear
- NES
- SNES
- N64
- Playstation 1
- Playstation 2
- Virtual Boy
- Xbox
All for about HALF the price of a PS3, cheaper if you can find those consoles used... For an extra $40-$60 you can pickup a Dreamcast and or a Saturn for those games as well (IMO the Dreamcast still has some of the best games ever made)you might as well just save your breath... it would seem most people can't grasp this concept.
It's gone so far that after the beating they got for including Barbie some poorly selling or unpopular titles that "happen" to become BC simply aren't listed in the announcement or the BC list (for instance: 25 to life)... it's sad that NOT including another game in the list brings them less grief from the ignorant.
Since when does
A console maker...more likely = Sony's PS3...Always?
I'd like to see you hunt down drivers for a USB wi-fi adapter that would let you play Resistance online. While you're at it throw a few PC USB controllers in there... better yet why don't you plug in a PS2 controller... how about cheaper 3rd party options? You can't do any of those things.
Just because a console is open in SOME respects doesn't mean it's open in ALL respects. It also doesn't mean that the methods in which they're closed aren't making them money. Sony, similar to MS is not allowing 3rd parties to make devices likes controller for a set period of time until they've made enough of a profit over their mini monopoly, in general though the PS3 is an exception due to the inclusion of Blu-Ray which Sony is banking on you buying movies in that format and making up their costs there as opposed to more traditional methods such as accessory sales. Hence why my statement was not all inclusive, because it can't be stated all inclusively.
What a company makes on their base unit DOES matter because that situation effects their other decisions.
For instance if A console maker looses a large amount of money on the system then they're more likely to lock down the accessories to proprietary devices rather then utilizing widely accepted standards. Similarly if they need to make money back on the console they'd most likely go for Quantity over Quality of the games... while a company that makes money from the sale of their console can afford to concentrate more on quality titles and they can afford to test the waters and go out on a limb with more innovative titles.
If you NEED to make money on the games not just to improve profits but to bring you above breaking even, then you're likely to take the safe route, go with what works, and get it done quick. The result is gamers get generic mass-market garbage for games, instead of titles that innovate and move the industry forward. I'm not saying it the only factor but it's certainly a contributer.
Interesting... though you'd think if a company was going to build a multi-purpose cable they'd build in the necessary (simple) circuitry required to keep the PS2's audio output from interfering with the other devices.
very true, I think the important thing is to choose the carrier that has the best coverage and reliability FOR YOU. I can easily sit here and spout off about how good Verizon is but there may be other locations where Verizon's coverage sucks and there are other providers who work better. Unless you travel around the nation, national statistics are fairly meaningless.
I'm in the same boat as you... I really don't like Verizon's limited access to phone features, nor their relatively higher pricing, but in my area (deep in the woods of the north east USA) I have fantastic coverage wherever I go. I tried a few other carriers but NONE of them even got coverage while I was in my house, and the last thing I want to do is stand out in the cold to make a call (not to mention I don't have a house phone so the CELL is my only method of calling in or out). Verzion gets 3 bars when I'm in my BASEMENT which never ceases to amaze me... whenever I get a case of "the grass is always greener" I just have to ask one of my friends on Sprint, Cingular, T-Moble, etc. how the service is and they're always saying "it's getting a lot better... I only dropped 3 calls last week!" Meanwhile I'm racking my brain trying to think of the last time I ever dropped a call... I can deal with crippled phone features considering I pay to use it as a phone, first and foremost, and for that I am more then happy with the service they provide, the pricing could be better but the reliability I've experienced is unmatched.
Well They made "hydra" cables that essentially have one set of AV hookups on one end and then a number of specialized dongles on the other for conencting to multiple consoles. I saw one at Walmart Last night for $12 it had one dongle for Xbox 360, one for Xbox 1, one for PS1, PS2 or PS3 (since they use the same connector), and one for Gamecube, N64, SNES, or NES (since Nintendo has used the same connector up to the Wii). I tried a cable like this in the past, it was a combo PS2/Xbox Component cable, it had audio problems where it would come in too low if both consoles were connected at the same time (even if th other one was off) I'm not sure if this is a common problem with these units or just the one I got, but it's something to take into consideration.
There are quite a few options for switchers but in general you get what you pay for. Being that my AV setup feeds into an HDTV most component switchers don't do HD resolutions well, most of them also introduce interference into the signal muddying it up. There are after going through about 5 units I found 2 very capable units. One is a unit made by Psyclone, it's got 4 inputs with connections for component, s-video, composite, stereo audio, as well as optical toslink audio, a programmable LCD screen and a remote. It's a nice quality unit. My only complaint is that it only has 4 inputs. But there's a bit of a way around that if you've got older consoles. You can hook the older consoles up through Analog audio and Coax or S-Video, and hook the newer consoles up using component video and toslink audio
Considering the Wii is BC with the GC, controllers and all you could ditch your GC Input 1 could be NES/PS2/3
Input 2 could be SNES/Xbox 360
Input 3 could be N64, and
Input 4 could be Wii
The other nice unit I found was made by Audio Authority, they make nice high quality stuff, this unit was a bit more expensive with an MSRP nearly double that of the Psyclone unit (though you can find it much cheaper then that). This unit also has 4 inputs but you set an input priority and it automatically switches based on when it senses a signal on the highest priority device. The problem with this unit is that it only does component video and it does not do optical audio. Which is why I decided on the Psyclone switch and returned the Audio Authority device.
In my own setup I've got A PSOne, Slim PS2, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, Xbox 1, Xbox 360, Gamecube, and soon a Wii. My switches are setup: Input 1: Sega Saturn/Xbox 1
Input 2: PSOne/PS2
Input 3: Sega Dreamcast/Xbox 360
Input 4: Gamecube(Wii)
It work well and Hopefully after the holiday's I'll have a new Harmony remote to automagically switch between consoles, but even now it's a breeze with just a couple of button pushes. Of course it only works if you TV accepts both component and S-Video/Composite, and your Stereo accepts both optical and analog.
Lets assume for a minute that people choose their console based on personal preference and that maybe personal preferences are based mostly on someone's personality type. Assuming that the Typical Xbox 360 buyer is more of a hardcore gamer recluse, they'd rather stay at home and play alone or online, meanwhile the typical Wii buyer is more of a casual bubbly gamer who plays on occasion but more frequenetly likes to have friends over for more a personal and social gaming experience...
Which personality type do you think is more likely to make their purchase online? and which personality type do you think is more likely to go down to the store? Obviously launch window antics change things a bit where the more hardcore gamers come out of the woodwork and get their goods which ever way they can. But my point is where and how people make their purchases is largely determined by which experience best suits them. It would be foolish to think that those same personality traits that determine how a person likes to buy their games wouldn't also determine which games they buy.
Why don't you go to a knitting class and ask the members what they thought of the football game last night. Do you think you'd get a response that accurately represented the feelings of all football fans? What if you polled every knitting class in the country? Would that be any better? What if you asked the people in the class whether they preferred gardening or motor sports? While I'm sure you'll find at least some motor sport fans chances are the same personality types that bring people to knitting classes instead of watching football are the same personality types that would have more interest in gardening then in motor sports.
Don't you think it's foolish to assume that every group of people would be equally represented when the sampling is always only taken from a very specific area?
four red lights means the console doesn't recognize your AV cable, or that the AV cable is unplugged. Considering that the console looks like it's running fine with the exception of no audio or video have you checked to see if your cable is faulty?
I would imagine that by "online sales" they're referring to stores like amazon.com, tigerdirect.com etc. For all intents an purposes eBay is a 2nd hand market and I doubt many people would question those figures not being included. Stores like Amazon however do have a significant impact. Add to that the fact that Walmart.com and most definitely the brick and mortar Walmart stores probably make up a larger percentage than any other entity.
In my area I have about 5 stores that carry games and gaming products within a 15 mile radius of my house. 4 of those locations are Walmart stores. Considering that 5th store is a locally owned mom & pop shop NPD probably doesn't cover them either.... So exactly how well is the NPD covering people who live in my area? I'm an avid gamer and have been for years though it would seem that not one of my gaming purchases over the years has fallen under the radar of the NPD.
Did you attempt to extract the 4 digit secondary error code from the console?
If not I maintain a list of all know Xbox 360 error codes (including instructions on how to extract the secondary error code). AFAIK it's the most comprehensive list available online, though it's still in it's infancy.
Except the summary says "The week of November 7th" and the Movie/TV download service didn't launch until November 22nd (MS made a big deal out of this because it's the 360's 1 year anniversary.)
But you are correct that the movie TV service would be responsible for a significant spike in bandwidth usage, the day it launched the Xbox Live content servers crashed HARD.
Don't ask me how it works but I've been playing fighting games online for years now and I've never run into any serious problems. On my Xbox 360 alone I've got Dead or Alive 4, Street Fighter II, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, and (the very similar to SSB) Small Arms. Never once have I felt that the latency has effected my game. Of course I connect to the occasional laggy opponent but as long as the connection is good the gameplay is just as good as if they were sitting next to me.
I also fail to see how fighting games would somehow require a better connection then other popular online twitch genres such as Shooters, or Racers. It's not like this is some kind of new concept.
The Generation before that we had the 3DO, Jaguar, Saturn, Playstation, and N64...
Before that we had SNES, Genesis, TurboGrafx-16, CDi, Neo-Geo...
If anything the market is the least crowded it has ever been save the video game crash of 1983.
action doesn't lag the input... low resolutions lag the output. If your TV is 1080p native and you feed it a 480p (or worse 480i) signal from something like a Wii. there is a chip somewhere in that TV that has to scale that 480i/p all the way up to 1080p, and it has to do it FAST. The problem is that while these scaler chips are fast, when they're faced with a large task 480i -> 1080p they start to lag by a few milliseconds. De-interlacing, doubling the frame rate, multiplying the resolution, and adjusting the aspect ratio in real time doesn't come cheap, not to mention most TVs are doing other things like color correction, and other image processing that can add to the lag. Display types like LCD and Plasma have slower response times as well which can further add to the lag. Meanwhile your audio signal is going straight to your surround sound receiver and playing at the appropriate time. Some lag so minimally that most people will never notice. Some TVs lag so bad they actually have an audio pass through to delay the audio so that it matches the lagging video. Obviously this doesn't effect movies and TV because there is no user interaction, but it definitely effects video games or any other interactive use you'd have for that display. This is where the audio/video seems to be getting out of sync. Some of most lagy HDTVs can delay the signal as much as .64 seconds.
This is where gamers come in. When you push a button on your controller and the Game doesn't visually respond until a split second later, there's a serious problem, couple that with the feedback of having pushed the button in reaction to something on screen and you essentially double the perceived lag. With the twitch gameplay of some of today's popular games you could be dead literally before you even see it coming.
In addition to making sure the TV's have good, lag-free scaling, it's a good idea to choose a display that matches the resolution you'll be using it most for. As the GP said, if you're buying a Wii then you might want to look into EDTVs... if the Wii is 480p then buying a 480p EDTV would not only be a whole lot cheaper, but it will look better (no abnormal stretching of the image to fit a larger resolution) and play better (less work fro the scaler means less lag) too.
Aliasing is easily the biggest turn-off for me with the PS3. Nearly every title has jaggies coming out of everywhere.
It's hard to notice from screenshots because most of them are down-sampled from their native resolution to fit better in a browser, effectively super-sampling the image. But if you get a chance to play a kiosk or visit a friend with a PS3 and an HDTV they're quite apparent
Sony seems to be banking on the High resolutions to wave the need for FSAA, granted it's not nearly as bad as the jaggy machine the PS2 was but it's got far more then any of the other next gen systems. The 360 requires all developers implement 4xMSAA at a minimum and the Wii, well Nintendo has required some form of AA since they started making games in 3D.