Damn, thanks for the information about punk rock. And to think, a true punk like yourself managed to stop thrashing long enough to sign on to Slashdot "News for Nerds" and tell all of us. Get over yourself. The only punk that died in 1979 was Sid Vicious.
I hope that you're joking. Metallica understands P2P software, and knows that people use it so they don't have to pay for their music. You can call them greedy if you want, but they're not stupid.
I don't know what you mean when you say worldwide, but I like to think of it as including more than North America and Japan. I also don't know where you get your sales figures from. vgcharts.org says they have sold 2.15 million, which isn't including some of the sales from this month. It would probably be more apt to compare worldwide sales after Sony launches worldwide.
As far as picture quality, I don't think that there is much difference. I think it is even theoretically possible to output 1080P through component cables, although I am not sure how many TV's would accept this. One thing to keep in mind: I think I read an article somewhere that said that HDDVD/Blu Ray have a certain copy-protection scheme that would not allow you to output HD content via an analog source(Component Cables). In other words, there is a possibility that the movie studios will demand this new copy protection and the people who bought the HD-DVD attachment for the old 360 would be unable to play new HD-DVD's
Right, but the only truly meaningful statistics would come from Microsoft, and I don't see those figures coming out anytime soon. At this point I will take the "anecdotal" evidence of the multitudes on the internet saying their consoles broke over the experience of you and your friends. The fact that Microsoft extended the warranty also tends to support these "loudly complaining" bloggers.
Believe it or not, the PS3 is not even close to as expensive as the Neo Geo once you adjust for inflation. The Neo Geo came out for $650 in 1990. That's about $1020 in modern dollars. The $100 games would cost about $150 dollars today, if I remember right there were some that were even more expensive.
I don't know where you're getting your figures from about how it only costs marginally more to manufacture, usually people claim that the high manufacturing cost is a problem for Blu Ray, but lets assume that you are right. Why do DVD's cost more than VHS? Why do CD's cost more than cassettes? Why do hardcover books cost so much more than paperback? The reason is that only the medium is a commodity, the company has a virtual monopoly over the intellectual property stored on it. If you want to watch a movie, you have to pay what the maker of the movie wants to sell it for. Because it is a nice new technology, the manufacturer is pricing it higher than the old technology in order to make a profit. If people decide to buy something else or are content with the old technology, then they won't buy them and eventually the price will come down. Considering that the cheapest Blu Ray player is 600 dollars right now($500 if you snagged one of the few 20GB PS3's) , I would say that most people who bought them can probably afford to pay an extra 10 bucks per disc. If you like your old disc, or don't want to pay for a newer disc, then go for it. Some people feel that the high definition is worth an extra 10 dollars as evidenced by how well the disc is selling.
In what way is Blu Ray not necessary? The console is made to play on HDTV's. It plays high definition movies. Isn't this a good thing? The PS3 came out about 4 months ago and there are already games in the pipeline that don't fit on one DVD. Are you saying that these games should come out on multiple DVD's? At some point people are going to get sick of switching discs.
I don't know why you're watching on Youtube, but most of the stuff I watch is almost certainly copyrighted. I can get entire instructional videos for guitar that cost like 50 bucks to buy on dvd, or watch old music videos. I understand that some copyright holders allow their stuff to be placed on Youtube, but I'm assuming that most of them are not. Even the video of the lady punching the other lady in the face that I really like has a version where it is mixed with a Franz Ferdinand song. Any time there is a copyrighted song playing it is a violation. I think it is even a violation if an artist is covering the song because a friend of mine recently had his a Prince cover he did taken down.
The Dig was one of my least favorite Lucasarts adventures, but I really love them so that's not as bad as it sounds. I don't remember it being particularly short, but then again if you don't ever get stumped by puzzles most adventure games would probably come out short (excepting Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis). In those days, it wasn't easy to snag a walkthrough, and I remember occasionally calling up Lucasarts' pay-for hints line when I really got stuck. It cost a bit of cash, but it sure beat just having to give up on a game because of a particularly hard puzzle.
Hey I don't know if you noticed this, but as technology progresses, people build off the ideas of others. If it is similar enough, there will be a lawsuit. If not, we just have to listen to whiny fanboys. Competitors often adopt the features of others in order to compete more effectively. Take a look at Microsoft's controller lately? The placement of the buttons seems familiar, but they are so innovative that I can't remember where I have seen it before.
I know that the attitude on slashdot is that this is clearly unconstitutional, but it's not that simple. The constitution was written a long time ago before the invention of the internet and the HD-DVD. In other words, although the framers of the constitution were very smart people, they did not foresee this type of thing. It has to be "read into" the constitution. Many judges won't do that. They will think that such a law should be made by our elected representatives, which it was. Sure, they're all crooked, but we did elect them. It is going to be a very hard argument to make that somewhere in the constitution it says we have a constitutional right to have a computer program to break down copy protection. Sure, some people will use this thing to play HD-DVD's on their linux-based computer systems, but the vast majority of it will use it to infringe on copyrights. There are a ton of arguments on this site saying things saying that the program itself can't do anything illegal, or it can't do anthing without the codes. It's all seems great until you stand back and compare the amount of people who want to run HD Discs on their linux system to the amount of people who just want to download free videos. The law is not just theoretical, you have look at things practically. Is the MPAA a bunch of scumbags? Sure, but what about the people who think that they have a right to enjoy something that someone risked millions of dollars to make for free? I would never steal from a CD store, but I think nothing of downloading an album off the internet before it even comes out. When I watch MTV, or see which bands are selling tons of records, it seems to me that the only bands left are those whose fans aren't smart enough to download music off the internet. Hollywood is dumb enough as it is. We need to find a compromise.
At my college they paid to give us all free Napster (the legal version) to keep us from downloading illegally. It sort of sucked, had a limited selection, and the DRM was so f'ed up that it revoked my rights and no one at the company could figure out how to fix it.
Yeah but Sony and Microsoft will continue to make exclusive titles for their system, and the Wii's Gamecube 1.5 graphics might be acceptable this year given the novelty of the gameplay, but in 2 years when Sony and Microsoft are releasing 2nd and 3rd generation games that really take advantage of the hardware, it might be a different story. I think Sony has an excellent piece of hardware that is hard to program for, and it is going to take a while for the software to catch up.
I guess I don't see it the way you do. I would argue that for a $600 console with one exclusive title worth playing, it is selling pretty darn well. After they iron out the bugs and more titles start to come out, I think that they'll easily overtake Microsoft. Although the Blu Ray format is virtually worthless right now, as more people get HDTV's and more Blu Ray's are released the feature will be more valuable to consumers. The system is supposed to be able to last for a while. The 360 has been out for a year and they're already discussing releasing a new one in May with a bigger hard drive. Microsoft's Xbox came out after the PS2 and died out way before it. Although people keep saying that it is sitting on store shelfs, I still can't find one in my area (Manhattan), and every time Amazon gets a shipment they sell out immediately. I see posts all the time from people on the internet saying that their Walmart in the middle of nowhere has had them on the shelves for ages, and it really isn't surprising given the price point, but they are selling like hotcakes over here, and if Sony had twice as many of them, they would have sold them. Even if Nintendo does keep up these sales figures, it still won't have the graphics and gameplay that some people want. I don't think the 360/PS3 debate will become moot any time soon.
I don't know where you live, but just because you see PS3's sitting around doesn't mean they're sitting on store shelves everywhere. I live in New York City and they're very hard to find. The gamestop near me sells out shipments consistently. Maybe they're not selling well in some places, but shortages are still an issue that is slowing sales in some areas.
I took Econ 101 in 2002 with an up to date textbook and they seemed to think that for certain goods scarcity could drive demand. Sure, there might not be a backwards bending demand curve for commodities, but haven't you ever heard your girlfriend say something like, "It's nice, but everyone has it."
Where do you draw the line between journalism and making a tape of your friends breaking the law? Is everyone who posts on the web a journalist? Are they allowed to ignore subpoenas? Perhaps my posts on slashdot constitute a journalistic act. Perhaps I should be able to ignore subpoenas. What if I just want to post sweet tapes of my buddies destroying public property? Is that journalism?
Slashdot Mirror
Damn, thanks for the information about punk rock. And to think, a true punk like yourself managed to stop thrashing long enough to sign on to Slashdot "News for Nerds" and tell all of us. Get over yourself. The only punk that died in 1979 was Sid Vicious.
I hope that you're joking. Metallica understands P2P software, and knows that people use it so they don't have to pay for their music. You can call them greedy if you want, but they're not stupid.
I don't know what you mean when you say worldwide, but I like to think of it as including more than North America and Japan. I also don't know where you get your sales figures from. vgcharts.org says they have sold 2.15 million, which isn't including some of the sales from this month. It would probably be more apt to compare worldwide sales after Sony launches worldwide.
You should go buy an old xbox if you've never played Panzer Dragoon Orta. It might be the best Rail Shooter ever.
As far as picture quality, I don't think that there is much difference. I think it is even theoretically possible to output 1080P through component cables, although I am not sure how many TV's would accept this. One thing to keep in mind: I think I read an article somewhere that said that HDDVD/Blu Ray have a certain copy-protection scheme that would not allow you to output HD content via an analog source(Component Cables). In other words, there is a possibility that the movie studios will demand this new copy protection and the people who bought the HD-DVD attachment for the old 360 would be unable to play new HD-DVD's
Virtua Tennis 3 for PS3 is in 1080P.
Right, but the only truly meaningful statistics would come from Microsoft, and I don't see those figures coming out anytime soon. At this point I will take the "anecdotal" evidence of the multitudes on the internet saying their consoles broke over the experience of you and your friends. The fact that Microsoft extended the warranty also tends to support these "loudly complaining" bloggers.
Believe it or not, the PS3 is not even close to as expensive as the Neo Geo once you adjust for inflation. The Neo Geo came out for $650 in 1990. That's about $1020 in modern dollars. The $100 games would cost about $150 dollars today, if I remember right there were some that were even more expensive.
I don't know where you're getting your figures from about how it only costs marginally more to manufacture, usually people claim that the high manufacturing cost is a problem for Blu Ray, but lets assume that you are right. Why do DVD's cost more than VHS? Why do CD's cost more than cassettes? Why do hardcover books cost so much more than paperback? The reason is that only the medium is a commodity, the company has a virtual monopoly over the intellectual property stored on it. If you want to watch a movie, you have to pay what the maker of the movie wants to sell it for. Because it is a nice new technology, the manufacturer is pricing it higher than the old technology in order to make a profit. If people decide to buy something else or are content with the old technology, then they won't buy them and eventually the price will come down. Considering that the cheapest Blu Ray player is 600 dollars right now($500 if you snagged one of the few 20GB PS3's) , I would say that most people who bought them can probably afford to pay an extra 10 bucks per disc. If you like your old disc, or don't want to pay for a newer disc, then go for it. Some people feel that the high definition is worth an extra 10 dollars as evidenced by how well the disc is selling.
In what way is Blu Ray not necessary? The console is made to play on HDTV's. It plays high definition movies. Isn't this a good thing? The PS3 came out about 4 months ago and there are already games in the pipeline that don't fit on one DVD. Are you saying that these games should come out on multiple DVD's? At some point people are going to get sick of switching discs.
I don't know why you're watching on Youtube, but most of the stuff I watch is almost certainly copyrighted. I can get entire instructional videos for guitar that cost like 50 bucks to buy on dvd, or watch old music videos. I understand that some copyright holders allow their stuff to be placed on Youtube, but I'm assuming that most of them are not. Even the video of the lady punching the other lady in the face that I really like has a version where it is mixed with a Franz Ferdinand song. Any time there is a copyrighted song playing it is a violation. I think it is even a violation if an artist is covering the song because a friend of mine recently had his a Prince cover he did taken down.
The Dig was one of my least favorite Lucasarts adventures, but I really love them so that's not as bad as it sounds. I don't remember it being particularly short, but then again if you don't ever get stumped by puzzles most adventure games would probably come out short (excepting Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis). In those days, it wasn't easy to snag a walkthrough, and I remember occasionally calling up Lucasarts' pay-for hints line when I really got stuck. It cost a bit of cash, but it sure beat just having to give up on a game because of a particularly hard puzzle.
I think that Blu-Ray has some other forms of copy protection that they're not currently using called BD+ and ROM Mark or something like that.
Hey I don't know if you noticed this, but as technology progresses, people build off the ideas of others. If it is similar enough, there will be a lawsuit. If not, we just have to listen to whiny fanboys. Competitors often adopt the features of others in order to compete more effectively. Take a look at Microsoft's controller lately? The placement of the buttons seems familiar, but they are so innovative that I can't remember where I have seen it before.
I know that the attitude on slashdot is that this is clearly unconstitutional, but it's not that simple. The constitution was written a long time ago before the invention of the internet and the HD-DVD. In other words, although the framers of the constitution were very smart people, they did not foresee this type of thing. It has to be "read into" the constitution. Many judges won't do that. They will think that such a law should be made by our elected representatives, which it was. Sure, they're all crooked, but we did elect them. It is going to be a very hard argument to make that somewhere in the constitution it says we have a constitutional right to have a computer program to break down copy protection. Sure, some people will use this thing to play HD-DVD's on their linux-based computer systems, but the vast majority of it will use it to infringe on copyrights. There are a ton of arguments on this site saying things saying that the program itself can't do anything illegal, or it can't do anthing without the codes. It's all seems great until you stand back and compare the amount of people who want to run HD Discs on their linux system to the amount of people who just want to download free videos. The law is not just theoretical, you have look at things practically. Is the MPAA a bunch of scumbags? Sure, but what about the people who think that they have a right to enjoy something that someone risked millions of dollars to make for free? I would never steal from a CD store, but I think nothing of downloading an album off the internet before it even comes out. When I watch MTV, or see which bands are selling tons of records, it seems to me that the only bands left are those whose fans aren't smart enough to download music off the internet. Hollywood is dumb enough as it is. We need to find a compromise.
At my college they paid to give us all free Napster (the legal version) to keep us from downloading illegally. It sort of sucked, had a limited selection, and the DRM was so f'ed up that it revoked my rights and no one at the company could figure out how to fix it.
Well if you got a PSP at launch with firmware 1.5 you could do all sorts of fun stuff like run homebrew and "backups."
I thought global warming was caused by methane from cow farts.
Yeah but Sony and Microsoft will continue to make exclusive titles for their system, and the Wii's Gamecube 1.5 graphics might be acceptable this year given the novelty of the gameplay, but in 2 years when Sony and Microsoft are releasing 2nd and 3rd generation games that really take advantage of the hardware, it might be a different story. I think Sony has an excellent piece of hardware that is hard to program for, and it is going to take a while for the software to catch up.
I guess I don't see it the way you do. I would argue that for a $600 console with one exclusive title worth playing, it is selling pretty darn well. After they iron out the bugs and more titles start to come out, I think that they'll easily overtake Microsoft. Although the Blu Ray format is virtually worthless right now, as more people get HDTV's and more Blu Ray's are released the feature will be more valuable to consumers. The system is supposed to be able to last for a while. The 360 has been out for a year and they're already discussing releasing a new one in May with a bigger hard drive. Microsoft's Xbox came out after the PS2 and died out way before it. Although people keep saying that it is sitting on store shelfs, I still can't find one in my area (Manhattan), and every time Amazon gets a shipment they sell out immediately. I see posts all the time from people on the internet saying that their Walmart in the middle of nowhere has had them on the shelves for ages, and it really isn't surprising given the price point, but they are selling like hotcakes over here, and if Sony had twice as many of them, they would have sold them. Even if Nintendo does keep up these sales figures, it still won't have the graphics and gameplay that some people want. I don't think the 360/PS3 debate will become moot any time soon.
I don't know where you live, but just because you see PS3's sitting around doesn't mean they're sitting on store shelves everywhere. I live in New York City and they're very hard to find. The gamestop near me sells out shipments consistently. Maybe they're not selling well in some places, but shortages are still an issue that is slowing sales in some areas.
Dude, you have to be insane if you think Square is going to move Final Fantasy XIII to the Wii.
I took Econ 101 in 2002 with an up to date textbook and they seemed to think that for certain goods scarcity could drive demand. Sure, there might not be a backwards bending demand curve for commodities, but haven't you ever heard your girlfriend say something like, "It's nice, but everyone has it."
How about a truth in government bill?
Where do you draw the line between journalism and making a tape of your friends breaking the law? Is everyone who posts on the web a journalist? Are they allowed to ignore subpoenas? Perhaps my posts on slashdot constitute a journalistic act. Perhaps I should be able to ignore subpoenas. What if I just want to post sweet tapes of my buddies destroying public property? Is that journalism?