I bet all your friends love to talk about the TV reruns at the water-cooler too. Buying a game once it hits the discount rack also maximizes the number of people you'll find to play online... er if your game actually supported online play.
Playing Video games is more then just sitting in a dark room playing by yourself. Much of today's games, and more specifically today's consoles are based around multiplayer and beyond that a gaming community. Even if you only play single player adventure games the new crop of consoles brings the community aspect into it as well by allowing you to view your each others stats, and communicate with other gamers easily. Also many games are taking advantage of this new connectivity by creating new multiplayer experiences. For instance the Japanese RPG "Enchanted Arms" would normally be just a single player experience, but the game features an online option where you can pit the customized and leveled up members of your party against that of another gamer... Similarly Saint's Row which is an open ended GTA style game allows you to go online to create your own gang wars, etc.
With the added attention to the online and community aspects it becomes important to even casual gamers to own the game when it first comes out, much like seeing a TV show on the first night it airs, or seeing a movie the first week it opens. There an excitement about it and the community surrounding it is at it's peak. Some games will stay strong for quite some time, the Counter Strikes and Halos, etc. But most games will fizzle out after the first month or two, leaving you back to playing with yourself or constantly searching the servers hoping to find ANYONE to play with as opposed to when the game was recently released and you had your choice of opponents and could find others who you enjoyed playing with.
Entertainment is generally hollow unless you have someone to share the experience with, even if that form of sharing is recounting the experience to someone else after the fact.
I really don't care for shooters all that much I bought this game and it really is fantastic. as for the "full of flaws but a masterpiece" you'd have to imagine a Ferrari that's been keyed and had the upholstery ripped. The Experience is still the same but there are lots of nagging flaws that might bug you but don't really detract from it's greatness.
In all seriousness I believe Nintendo would actually allow it. They really haven't blocked non-family content since the ESRB has been around and people have been able to get a better idea of the game content before they buy it through it's rating. Also have you seen the number of dating sims available for the DS that deal with "touching" not just in Japan but in the US too.
The biggest roadblock to "adult" Wii entertainment isn't Nintendo but retailers, your EBGames, BestBuys, and Walmarts refuse to carry any "AO" rated titles meaning if a company did release them they'd get very limited to almost non-existent exposure... in the US at least (most of the rest of the world is a bit less prudish).
I think the GP's point is that you can buy stock, and if you need/want you can resell it and get your money back give or take what has changed. The Money Sony "spent" on console losses cannot be re-sold, similar to advertising you can't un-advertise something.
You also have to consider that it takes quite a hefty amount of game and accessory sales to make that $300+ back. Licensing for 3rd party titles is about $8 a pop, and Sony has arguably the weakest 1st party support out of the three major players so most of their games sales will be for 3rd party games. Even if you consider accessory markup around the 40-60% area you can only sell so many controllers and AV cables before people don't need to buy any more. Blu-Ray movie licensing is probably nothing compared to that of games. They're probably banking on PS3's helping move the format and thus the players that they can make money on. Unlike Microsoft they don't have an online service that brings in money, they also don't have memory cards to bring in money, or a network adapter accessory, etc.
Thinking about it further this money spend really is more like advertising then anything else. They're just doing what they can to get the console out there, to start the word of mouth and get people interested and excited about it so that when there are more games available and the consoles are easier to track down, and Sony's losses per unit aren't as high, they'll sell more of them. It also boosts word of mouth and desire for the Blu-Ray movies which in turn boost sales of the Blu-Ray players that they can make money on. It almost works to their advantage to have so few units out in the wild because it buys them time to reduce the cost of manufacturing, drives up demand from the short supply and the console is still out there for people as a tangible object.
It could have been worse, they could have quoted the numbers HIGHER then what they actually had, then let people walk off with multiple consoles... I was screwed out of 2 stores this way one at 7am and one at 10am, nevermind the lies about how many they had but I would have got a console at both if they managed to follow their own damn rules.
I did RTFM... but did you even read the first line of my post?
Are we sure it's even downscaling the games? how do we know it's not just rendering them straight to 480p?
I'm sure the journalist is completely infallible and incapable of not differentiating between a downscaled image and one rendered natively at 480p. I must be a fool to assume otherwise.
Just because BluRay downscales doesn't mean it can downscale games as well. I'm sure the hardware has enough power to downscale in software but if it scales it's movies with software that doesn't necessarily mean it will have the resources availble to downscale a video while it uses them up to produce HD game resolutions.
Are we sure it's even downscaling the games? how do we know it's not just rendering them straight to 480p?
The reason I ask is because there is a possibility that the PS3 doesn't have any scaler at all, meaning it will only support resolutions that it's capable of rendering to. The Xbox 1 had a few HD games and it suffered from this exact same problem, it was never "fixed" because it was a shortcoming of the hardware that didn't include a scaler. Since it was incapable of rendering games to a 1920x1080 frame and didn't include hardware to scale games up or down games that could run in 720p would only display at a max of 480p on TVs that could run 1080i but not 720p.
There is further reason to believe that the PS3 doesn't include scaler hardware because only some games will output at their coveted 1080p resolution. Since it's fall update _ALL_ Xbox 360 games can output at that resolution if desired because the console can scale up from whatever the game is rendering at. This leads me to believe that the PS3 might not actually have hardware required to scale the image. If that's the case then this issue could only be fixed with a change to the hardware.
So does anyone know if there are any documents or other definitive evidence of, or absence of scaler hardware in the PS3?
1. It was announced that the Wii is not Region free all games are region locked on the Wii.
2. The Xbox 360 console does not region lock to games, but developers can choose to region lock their games, a lot of the Xbox 360 games (particularly those in japan that are not available in the US) are not region locked. (list1list 2 )
3. The PS3 console also does not region lock to games using a similar scheme of developer choice as whether or not to lock their games.
You're right that HD-DVD is not Blu-Ray but HD-DVD is also not "just more layer on top of existing DVD format"
HD-DVD uses a blue laser just like Blu-Ray, the Video discs uses the same codecs as Blu-Ray. The biggest differences is the location of the data layer in the plastic substrate. Blu-Ray's is located closer to the edge with only a.1mm protective layer of of the substrate while HD-DVD is the same distance as traditional DVDs with.6mm of protective layer. being closer to the edge allows Blu-Ray's laser to view the data layer at a higher resolution and thus they can squeeze more data in there per layer. But with a thinner layer of substrate it leaves the disc more prone to physical damage which can also lead to lower production yields.
HD-DVD has more in common with Blu-Ray then it does with DVD...
Well it is a bit of a catch 22. The industry is male dominated because the games aren't designed with female interests and sensibilities in mind, games aren't designed with female interests and sensibilities because it's male dominated.
The only way to break the cycle is for someone to go out of their way to break it. Meaning some company somewhere and some females are going to have to place gender above skill and interest to work as a catalyst for change.
It's not that these female gamers aren't out there and it's not that there aren't female programmers out there. But if they want to start making these changes they're going to have to pick female developers even if they don't fit exact into the position you're trying to fill, they'll have to make the deal sweet enough that female developers who would normally go into a non-gaming industry would be enticed into joining the gaming industry. And most importantly (and this might be hard for some to grasp) they have to actually listen to their ideas once they've become part of the team.
My girlfriend is an avid gamer, I've heard her criticisms of modern games and to be quite honest it doesn't seem like it would be all that difficult for game developers to make today's games more attractive to female gamers. In fact most of it is quite simple and painfully obvious once you realize it. I have to believe these companies either aren't listening, or aren't really trying.
A unified online profile that contains all of your stats and setting across all of your games - FREE
The ability to access and modify that profile online bringing your console presence to the PC - FREE
An online feedback system that links to your unified profile that allows you to avoid or prefer players allowing you to keep playing others you enjoy playing with and avoid others you don't enjoy playing with - FREE
The ability to access a set of controls with the touch of a button at any time allowing you to adjust various console and profile settings, adjust custom soundtracks, send and receive messages, view information about your profile and the profiles of the gamers you're playing against, etc. - FREE
The ability to set your preferred controls... axis inversion etc. and have it be used for every game - FREE
The "TrueSkill [microsoft.com]" skill raking algorithm for match making online with people at your skill level - Part of the Pay service
"Custom Soundtracks" that allow you to easily replace the in-game music with music from from a storage device, an iPod, or a networked computer - FREE
Achievements which add replay value to games by suggesting goals and setting challenges that a gamer might not otherwise attempt - FREE
Gamerscore derived from achievement that creates a sort of Meta-game that encompasses all games on their console - FREE
The Xbox Live Arcade (which was started with the Xbox 1) for downloadable games and content delivery directly to the console - FREE
I don't know where people get the idea that these are all pay features. Most of these features aren't even part of the Xbox Live service... they're built into the Xbox 360's operating system.
have you used the 360? MS is doing a whole lot of innovative things with the 360, some of it had rudimentary versions implemented on the Xbox 1 that have evolved into more refined features on the 360. The Dreamcast and the Saturn had a few minor innovative features, but there is more to innovation then hardware changes. Would you consider innovation in the PC space dead because we're all still using a keyboard and mouse? MS is innovating in the software arena and with their online service. Some of the things they've done that I consider to be innovative and Nintendo and Sony seem to be copycatting with their latest offerings:
A unified online profile that contains all of your stats and setting across all of your games
The ability to access and modify that profile online bringing your console presence to the PC
An online feedback system that links to your unified profile that allows you to avoid or prefer players allowing you to keep playing others you enjoy playing with and avoid others you don't enjoy playing with
The ability to access a set of controls with the touch of a button at any time allowing you to adjust various console and profile settings, adjust custom soundtracks, send and receive messages, view information about your profile and the profiles of the gamers you're playing against, etc.
The ability to set your preferred controls... axis inversion etc. and have it be used for every game
The "TrueSkill" skill raking algorithm for match making online with people at your skill level
"Custom Soundtracks" that allow you to easily replace the in-game music with music from from a storage device, an iPod, or a networked computer
Achievements which add replay value to games by suggesting goals and setting challenges that a gamer might not otherwise attempt
Gamerscore derived from achievement that creates a sort of Meta-game that encompasses all games on their console
The Xbox Live Arcade (which was started with the Xbox 1) for downloadable games and content delivery directly to the console
Some of these ideas start on the Xbox 1, and PC but have been really fleshed out and turned into really solid, beneficial and most importanly universal features. None of these have been done on other consoles to my knowledge.
You're incorrect in that the SIXAXIS only detects tilt, it does actually detect linear movement (in-fact the tilt sensing is most likely derived in software based on the linear movements detected by the sensors).
You are correct that the SIXAXIS wont even come close to offering the motion control features of the Wii, for the simple fact that the SIXAXIS requires you to hold it with both hands... I defy you to comfortably hold the SIXAXIS like a fishing rod, or a baseball bat... how about like a tennis racket, a golf club, or a gun? Could you hold it like you're pulling a lever or pushing an object? How about holding it and punching/blocking/dipping and diving like a boxer? There is more to motion control then steering a vehicle and the SIXAXIS misses out on most of it's not a controller shape that is meant to have motion control... Just because you stick a feature on to something doesn't mean you can use that feature well... Sony's controller design seems to be just shoving new features on to an old controller design where ever they seem to fit rather then actually thinking about how it would make good sense.
The fact that the Wii-Remote has rumble and audio feedback (FEEDBACK there's a novel idea!) is just icing on the cake towards the already useful motion controller... Further that by also adding positional pointing control similar to that of a light gun... AND the fact that the nunchuck adapter adds a whole 2nd set of motion sensors meaning it can interpret you hands independently. The SIXAXIS is the virtual equivalent of handcuffs in terms of how much motion you'll actually be able to input into the console. No matter how many sensors they shove in that controller It's pretty much useless because you have to use both hands.
I wasn't talking about HD-DVD players, I was talking about WMVHD-DVD players... which are completely different. They use normal DVDs and play these discs. It's essentially a derivative of the same codec being used on both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs, considering Sony and Toshiba have argued the price is due to the processors required for decoding I'm calling BS because the players that can decode that same content but on a regular DVD are less then half the price of the cheapest blue laster player... Blue Diodes aren't that expensive.
That begs the question: Why did the robot overlords in the Matrix farm humans; why not farm pigs? Certainly the matrix would have been a whole lot easier to program if it was just a giant mud pit. They also wouldn't have had to worry about Mr Uno... er Neo.
You have to remember that with Blu-Ray, the PS3 is easily worth more than Sony is charging, as evidenced by the fact that Sony is taking a loss on each one sold.
For that to be true you also have to believe that the Blu-Ray players being sold are actually worth as much as they're charging. For me... not so much They have WMVHD-DVD players for about $200 which can decode the H.264 based codecs. Which leads me to believe the rest of the price of those players is Blue Diodes + Brand names.
The Good News: Sony will have an online network for their PS3. Single login makes life easier.
The Bad News: The firmware needs to be updated to use Sony's online network. That this was not pre-installed indicates the network only recently was finished. The possibility that the network will have issues and growing pains is thus much more likely (though not a certainty).
The Bottom Line: Something is better than nothing.
I fear there will be a lot of growing pains with this network. MS when through substantial public beta testings before Launching Xbox Live, same thing goes for most worthwhile MMOs or other large online services... It scares me to think about how little this new Playstation Network will have been tested before released.
you must be new here... Since when has the RIAA or other artist-mafia groups made good sense? Since when have they even made enough sense to see that most of what they do is damaging to themselves as well.
Considering these people are so madly obsessed with the PS3 I wonder what will happen if that Best Buy gets a playable Kiosk in the next few days... meanwhile people can walk in and play it but they're stuck outside. They are coming a few stores near me already have the kiosks sitting there just sans-console.
That right there is key, it might be the best a PS2 can do but that's not as good as the prettier games of any console that has come out after it... I also think it's a joke that TFA uses "screen-shots" from the Pre-rendered video cut scenes as an example of how good it looks... aren't we beyond that kind of stuff at this point? If you're going to brag about how good the game looks, I don't know, maybe show some pictures of the actual game.
I think that graphically even the best the PS2 can offer isn't enough for those of us spoiled with HDTVs, Xbox (particularly when played on an Xbox 360 console), Gamecube, and Xbox 360. It was expected though, FFIX was the last hurrah for the PS1, exemplifying it's best graphics but it still couldn't really stack up to the higher end games on the N64 or the Dreamcast, particularly paling against the upcoming PS2. It's also a shame that the PS3 probably wont be doing much to boost the graphics when running it in Backward Compatibility mode, seeing as that's rumored to be one of the many features Sony has given the ax. Even still it's a great game, and as it stands probably the best in the FF series.
Don't get me wrong I love the Dreamcast, IMO it still has some of the greatest games any console has ever offered. But Sega really didn't factor into it at that point. Consumers and Developers avoided it like the plague because of Sega's track record at that point, having earned little to no 3rd party support and subsequently dumping the Sega CD, 32X, and Saturn midlife people were expecting the same fate of the Dreamcast and it became a self fulfilling prophecy. It certainly didn't help that most of the 3rd party games that DID make it to the console were PS1 ports which in tern cause people to think it was more a competitor of the PS1 then it was of the PS2. As a result their sales in the first year weren't as much as the PS2 in the first couple of months even with the shortages.
The reason the Dreamcast was selling so hot after the PS2 was released was because it was already announced that it was over and they were going for $50 a pop new. Sony launched the PS2 in late 2000, Sega Announced that they were canceling the Dreamcast in January of 2001. Even thought it sold better then predicted even Sega knew it was little more then a last hurrah. More of a thanks to their hardcore fans so they went out on more of a high note instead of the painful death of the Saturn.
I love the Dreamcast but I didn't mention it because I don't think it really factored in at all. The further dwindling negative image Sega had built up over about 8 years leading up to the Dreamcast was just too great a force.. the Dreamcast was doomed for failure even if they were giving them away (and they practically were at the end).
There's a reason the PS2 has a larger catalog then the other consoles... The PS2 had over a year head start on the Xbox and Gamecube in the US, and closer to 20 months in Japan.
Consumers and game makers alike had the choice of: Buy/make games for PS2 or don't do anything at all. This is what Bushnell meant when he says it was a success based on timing.... Sony owned the market because they had no competition.
This kind of lead built on itself, companies made all of their games for the PS2 because it was the only console around, gamers all only bought the PS2 because it was the only console around, and then once Nintendo and Microsoft showed up it didn't matter because Sony already had an insurmountable install base, companies continued making all of their games for the PS2 because that's where the gamers were and gamers kept buying the PS2 because that's where all the games were. It had nothing to do with the ease of programming and everything to do with market share and the lack of options to consumers.
The tables are turned this generation, Basically MS and Sony find their positions swapped. MS has the market to itself and Sony and Nintendo are launching a year later. It's not exactly the same though, because many people were turned off by the $400 price tag of the 360, last gen consoles are still worth while (while the PS1 and N64 were showing their age when the PS2 rolled out) and based on the creeping market share by the Xbox and Gamecube by the end of the last generation people are more likely to wait to see what the PS3 and Wii have to offer. Even still a full year lead is a full year lead, and it would seem that Sony's tech while powerful isn't as far ahead of MS this generation as MS was ahead of Sony last generation, nor is Nintendo's new offering as boring as the GC was in terms of innovation.
I don't think anyone will run away with a market lead this time around, and I don't think Sony's consoles are popular because they did anything particularly well.... just released at the right time.
Slashdot Mirror
I bet all your friends love to talk about the TV reruns at the water-cooler too. Buying a game once it hits the discount rack also maximizes the number of people you'll find to play online... er if your game actually supported online play.
Playing Video games is more then just sitting in a dark room playing by yourself. Much of today's games, and more specifically today's consoles are based around multiplayer and beyond that a gaming community. Even if you only play single player adventure games the new crop of consoles brings the community aspect into it as well by allowing you to view your each others stats, and communicate with other gamers easily. Also many games are taking advantage of this new connectivity by creating new multiplayer experiences. For instance the Japanese RPG "Enchanted Arms" would normally be just a single player experience, but the game features an online option where you can pit the customized and leveled up members of your party against that of another gamer... Similarly Saint's Row which is an open ended GTA style game allows you to go online to create your own gang wars, etc.
With the added attention to the online and community aspects it becomes important to even casual gamers to own the game when it first comes out, much like seeing a TV show on the first night it airs, or seeing a movie the first week it opens. There an excitement about it and the community surrounding it is at it's peak. Some games will stay strong for quite some time, the Counter Strikes and Halos, etc. But most games will fizzle out after the first month or two, leaving you back to playing with yourself or constantly searching the servers hoping to find ANYONE to play with as opposed to when the game was recently released and you had your choice of opponents and could find others who you enjoyed playing with.
Entertainment is generally hollow unless you have someone to share the experience with, even if that form of sharing is recounting the experience to someone else after the fact.
In all seriousness I believe Nintendo would actually allow it. They really haven't blocked non-family content since the ESRB has been around and people have been able to get a better idea of the game content before they buy it through it's rating. Also have you seen the number of dating sims available for the DS that deal with "touching" not just in Japan but in the US too.
The biggest roadblock to "adult" Wii entertainment isn't Nintendo but retailers, your EBGames, BestBuys, and Walmarts refuse to carry any "AO" rated titles meaning if a company did release them they'd get very limited to almost non-existent exposure... in the US at least (most of the rest of the world is a bit less prudish).
I think the GP's point is that you can buy stock, and if you need/want you can resell it and get your money back give or take what has changed. The Money Sony "spent" on console losses cannot be re-sold, similar to advertising you can't un-advertise something.
You also have to consider that it takes quite a hefty amount of game and accessory sales to make that $300+ back. Licensing for 3rd party titles is about $8 a pop, and Sony has arguably the weakest 1st party support out of the three major players so most of their games sales will be for 3rd party games. Even if you consider accessory markup around the 40-60% area you can only sell so many controllers and AV cables before people don't need to buy any more. Blu-Ray movie licensing is probably nothing compared to that of games. They're probably banking on PS3's helping move the format and thus the players that they can make money on. Unlike Microsoft they don't have an online service that brings in money, they also don't have memory cards to bring in money, or a network adapter accessory, etc.
Thinking about it further this money spend really is more like advertising then anything else. They're just doing what they can to get the console out there, to start the word of mouth and get people interested and excited about it so that when there are more games available and the consoles are easier to track down, and Sony's losses per unit aren't as high, they'll sell more of them. It also boosts word of mouth and desire for the Blu-Ray movies which in turn boost sales of the Blu-Ray players that they can make money on. It almost works to their advantage to have so few units out in the wild because it buys them time to reduce the cost of manufacturing, drives up demand from the short supply and the console is still out there for people as a tangible object.
It could have been worse, they could have quoted the numbers HIGHER then what they actually had, then let people walk off with multiple consoles... I was screwed out of 2 stores this way one at 7am and one at 10am, nevermind the lies about how many they had but I would have got a console at both if they managed to follow their own damn rules.
Just because BluRay downscales doesn't mean it can downscale games as well. I'm sure the hardware has enough power to downscale in software but if it scales it's movies with software that doesn't necessarily mean it will have the resources availble to downscale a video while it uses them up to produce HD game resolutions.
Are we sure it's even downscaling the games? how do we know it's not just rendering them straight to 480p?
The reason I ask is because there is a possibility that the PS3 doesn't have any scaler at all, meaning it will only support resolutions that it's capable of rendering to. The Xbox 1 had a few HD games and it suffered from this exact same problem, it was never "fixed" because it was a shortcoming of the hardware that didn't include a scaler. Since it was incapable of rendering games to a 1920x1080 frame and didn't include hardware to scale games up or down games that could run in 720p would only display at a max of 480p on TVs that could run 1080i but not 720p.
There is further reason to believe that the PS3 doesn't include scaler hardware because only some games will output at their coveted 1080p resolution. Since it's fall update _ALL_ Xbox 360 games can output at that resolution if desired because the console can scale up from whatever the game is rendering at. This leads me to believe that the PS3 might not actually have hardware required to scale the image. If that's the case then this issue could only be fixed with a change to the hardware.
So does anyone know if there are any documents or other definitive evidence of, or absence of scaler hardware in the PS3?
1. It was announced that the Wii is not Region free all games are region locked on the Wii.
2. The Xbox 360 console does not region lock to games, but developers can choose to region lock their games, a lot of the Xbox 360 games (particularly those in japan that are not available in the US) are not region locked. (list1 list 2 )
3. The PS3 console also does not region lock to games using a similar scheme of developer choice as whether or not to lock their games.
It sounds like you've been misinformed.
You're right that HD-DVD is not Blu-Ray but HD-DVD is also not "just more layer on top of existing DVD format"
.1mm protective layer of of the substrate while HD-DVD is the same distance as traditional DVDs with .6mm of protective layer. being closer to the edge allows Blu-Ray's laser to view the data layer at a higher resolution and thus they can squeeze more data in there per layer. But with a thinner layer of substrate it leaves the disc more prone to physical damage which can also lead to lower production yields.
HD-DVD uses a blue laser just like Blu-Ray, the Video discs uses the same codecs as Blu-Ray. The biggest differences is the location of the data layer in the plastic substrate. Blu-Ray's is located closer to the edge with only a
HD-DVD has more in common with Blu-Ray then it does with DVD...
I was thinking it looked more like a Grill
Well it is a bit of a catch 22. The industry is male dominated because the games aren't designed with female interests and sensibilities in mind, games aren't designed with female interests and sensibilities because it's male dominated.
The only way to break the cycle is for someone to go out of their way to break it. Meaning some company somewhere and some females are going to have to place gender above skill and interest to work as a catalyst for change.
It's not that these female gamers aren't out there and it's not that there aren't female programmers out there. But if they want to start making these changes they're going to have to pick female developers even if they don't fit exact into the position you're trying to fill, they'll have to make the deal sweet enough that female developers who would normally go into a non-gaming industry would be enticed into joining the gaming industry. And most importantly (and this might be hard for some to grasp) they have to actually listen to their ideas once they've become part of the team.
My girlfriend is an avid gamer, I've heard her criticisms of modern games and to be quite honest it doesn't seem like it would be all that difficult for game developers to make today's games more attractive to female gamers. In fact most of it is quite simple and painfully obvious once you realize it. I have to believe these companies either aren't listening, or aren't really trying.
- A unified online profile that contains all of your stats and setting across all of your games - FREE
- The ability to access and modify that profile online bringing your console presence to the PC - FREE
- An online feedback system that links to your unified profile that allows you to avoid or prefer players allowing you to keep playing others you enjoy playing with and avoid others you don't enjoy playing with - FREE
- The ability to access a set of controls with the touch of a button at any time allowing you to adjust various console and profile settings, adjust custom soundtracks, send and receive messages, view information about your profile and the profiles of the gamers you're playing against, etc. - FREE
- The ability to set your preferred controls... axis inversion etc. and have it be used for every game - FREE
- The "TrueSkill [microsoft.com]" skill raking algorithm for match making online with people at your skill level - Part of the Pay service
- "Custom Soundtracks" that allow you to easily replace the in-game music with music from from a storage device, an iPod, or a networked computer - FREE
- Achievements which add replay value to games by suggesting goals and setting challenges that a gamer might not otherwise attempt - FREE
- Gamerscore derived from achievement that creates a sort of Meta-game that encompasses all games on their console - FREE
- The Xbox Live Arcade (which was started with the Xbox 1) for downloadable games and content delivery directly to the console - FREE
I don't know where people get the idea that these are all pay features. Most of these features aren't even part of the Xbox Live service... they're built into the Xbox 360's operating system.- A unified online profile that contains all of your stats and setting across all of your games
- The ability to access and modify that profile online bringing your console presence to the PC
- An online feedback system that links to your unified profile that allows you to avoid or prefer players allowing you to keep playing others you enjoy playing with and avoid others you don't enjoy playing with
- The ability to access a set of controls with the touch of a button at any time allowing you to adjust various console and profile settings, adjust custom soundtracks, send and receive messages, view information about your profile and the profiles of the gamers you're playing against, etc.
- The ability to set your preferred controls... axis inversion etc. and have it be used for every game
- The "TrueSkill" skill raking algorithm for match making online with people at your skill level
- "Custom Soundtracks" that allow you to easily replace the in-game music with music from from a storage device, an iPod, or a networked computer
- Achievements which add replay value to games by suggesting goals and setting challenges that a gamer might not otherwise attempt
- Gamerscore derived from achievement that creates a sort of Meta-game that encompasses all games on their console
- The Xbox Live Arcade (which was started with the Xbox 1) for downloadable games and content delivery directly to the console
Some of these ideas start on the Xbox 1, and PC but have been really fleshed out and turned into really solid, beneficial and most importanly universal features. None of these have been done on other consoles to my knowledge.You're incorrect in that the SIXAXIS only detects tilt, it does actually detect linear movement (in-fact the tilt sensing is most likely derived in software based on the linear movements detected by the sensors).
You are correct that the SIXAXIS wont even come close to offering the motion control features of the Wii, for the simple fact that the SIXAXIS requires you to hold it with both hands... I defy you to comfortably hold the SIXAXIS like a fishing rod, or a baseball bat... how about like a tennis racket, a golf club, or a gun? Could you hold it like you're pulling a lever or pushing an object? How about holding it and punching/blocking/dipping and diving like a boxer? There is more to motion control then steering a vehicle and the SIXAXIS misses out on most of it's not a controller shape that is meant to have motion control... Just because you stick a feature on to something doesn't mean you can use that feature well... Sony's controller design seems to be just shoving new features on to an old controller design where ever they seem to fit rather then actually thinking about how it would make good sense.
The fact that the Wii-Remote has rumble and audio feedback (FEEDBACK there's a novel idea!) is just icing on the cake towards the already useful motion controller... Further that by also adding positional pointing control similar to that of a light gun... AND the fact that the nunchuck adapter adds a whole 2nd set of motion sensors meaning it can interpret you hands independently. The SIXAXIS is the virtual equivalent of handcuffs in terms of how much motion you'll actually be able to input into the console. No matter how many sensors they shove in that controller It's pretty much useless because you have to use both hands.
I wasn't talking about HD-DVD players, I was talking about WMVHD-DVD players... which are completely different. They use normal DVDs and play these discs. It's essentially a derivative of the same codec being used on both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs, considering Sony and Toshiba have argued the price is due to the processors required for decoding I'm calling BS because the players that can decode that same content but on a regular DVD are less then half the price of the cheapest blue laster player... Blue Diodes aren't that expensive.
Contractors might not suggest it but Joe CEO writing the checks for a new corporate HQ might request it if he knew about it.
That begs the question: Why did the robot overlords in the Matrix farm humans; why not farm pigs? Certainly the matrix would have been a whole lot easier to program if it was just a giant mud pit. They also wouldn't have had to worry about Mr Uno... er Neo.
you must be new here... Since when has the RIAA or other artist-mafia groups made good sense? Since when have they even made enough sense to see that most of what they do is damaging to themselves as well.
Considering these people are so madly obsessed with the PS3 I wonder what will happen if that Best Buy gets a playable Kiosk in the next few days... meanwhile people can walk in and play it but they're stuck outside. They are coming a few stores near me already have the kiosks sitting there just sans-console.
I think that graphically even the best the PS2 can offer isn't enough for those of us spoiled with HDTVs, Xbox (particularly when played on an Xbox 360 console), Gamecube, and Xbox 360. It was expected though, FFIX was the last hurrah for the PS1, exemplifying it's best graphics but it still couldn't really stack up to the higher end games on the N64 or the Dreamcast, particularly paling against the upcoming PS2. It's also a shame that the PS3 probably wont be doing much to boost the graphics when running it in Backward Compatibility mode, seeing as that's rumored to be one of the many features Sony has given the ax. Even still it's a great game, and as it stands probably the best in the FF series.
Don't get me wrong I love the Dreamcast, IMO it still has some of the greatest games any console has ever offered. But Sega really didn't factor into it at that point. Consumers and Developers avoided it like the plague because of Sega's track record at that point, having earned little to no 3rd party support and subsequently dumping the Sega CD, 32X, and Saturn midlife people were expecting the same fate of the Dreamcast and it became a self fulfilling prophecy. It certainly didn't help that most of the 3rd party games that DID make it to the console were PS1 ports which in tern cause people to think it was more a competitor of the PS1 then it was of the PS2. As a result their sales in the first year weren't as much as the PS2 in the first couple of months even with the shortages.
The reason the Dreamcast was selling so hot after the PS2 was released was because it was already announced that it was over and they were going for $50 a pop new. Sony launched the PS2 in late 2000, Sega Announced that they were canceling the Dreamcast in January of 2001. Even thought it sold better then predicted even Sega knew it was little more then a last hurrah. More of a thanks to their hardcore fans so they went out on more of a high note instead of the painful death of the Saturn.
I love the Dreamcast but I didn't mention it because I don't think it really factored in at all. The further dwindling negative image Sega had built up over about 8 years leading up to the Dreamcast was just too great a force.. the Dreamcast was doomed for failure even if they were giving them away (and they practically were at the end).
There's a reason the PS2 has a larger catalog then the other consoles... The PS2 had over a year head start on the Xbox and Gamecube in the US, and closer to 20 months in Japan.
Consumers and game makers alike had the choice of: Buy/make games for PS2 or don't do anything at all. This is what Bushnell meant when he says it was a success based on timing.... Sony owned the market because they had no competition.
This kind of lead built on itself, companies made all of their games for the PS2 because it was the only console around, gamers all only bought the PS2 because it was the only console around, and then once Nintendo and Microsoft showed up it didn't matter because Sony already had an insurmountable install base, companies continued making all of their games for the PS2 because that's where the gamers were and gamers kept buying the PS2 because that's where all the games were. It had nothing to do with the ease of programming and everything to do with market share and the lack of options to consumers.
The tables are turned this generation, Basically MS and Sony find their positions swapped. MS has the market to itself and Sony and Nintendo are launching a year later. It's not exactly the same though, because many people were turned off by the $400 price tag of the 360, last gen consoles are still worth while (while the PS1 and N64 were showing their age when the PS2 rolled out) and based on the creeping market share by the Xbox and Gamecube by the end of the last generation people are more likely to wait to see what the PS3 and Wii have to offer. Even still a full year lead is a full year lead, and it would seem that Sony's tech while powerful isn't as far ahead of MS this generation as MS was ahead of Sony last generation, nor is Nintendo's new offering as boring as the GC was in terms of innovation.
I don't think anyone will run away with a market lead this time around, and I don't think Sony's consoles are popular because they did anything particularly well.... just released at the right time.
I was actually referring to the PS3... I agree that the Wii will leave buyers plenty entertained.