Thanks for clearing up the false impression created by your vaguely-worded comments. You are clearly not to be grouped in with the large number of commenters here clinging to the notion that compression & optimization are somehow a free lunch.
I now understand that you recognize that DVD has significant limitations - the key point of this entire discussion. Though I'm still unclear about at what point you feel that Carmack went from technical innovator to luddite. If he's ...
Dude, c'mon already. Any developer who's thwarted by the limitations of DVD storage is automatically incapable of tight coding and optimization? You do realize that actual code accounts for a minority of the storage requirement, yes? You do realize that one cannot infinitely compress textures and other game assets, regardless of what MS would have you believe, yes? Ever see the crappy, over-compressed digital channels from providers like Comcast? Hardly "HD", is it? Why aren't...
"He stressed that the issue is merely a storage problem and has nothing to do with the power of the Xbox 360 hardware."
LOL! I can't even read that with a straight face; I wonder if he could say it with one :D
By that definition of "power", there must be no looming energy crisis - it's really just a scarcity of fuel, that's all.
You know, it's not like the storage device is part of the actual system HARDWARE or anything. :| But I ...
We've sold more consoles than anyone else! We're number one! I mean at least we're number two! Uh, we've sold more consoles in North America than anyone else. Uh, at least we're still outselling the PS3 in North America. Hmmm, well, at least we still sell more software for now.
Look, cute avatars! And streaming Netflix - you know, just like you can from your PC...
Yeah, well ... our dad can beat up your dad!
I'm glad you realize that you're simply offering more opinions rather than backing up any of your statements.
If you believe that fundamentally different capabilities don't fracture the user base, and don't force developers to make lowest-common-denominator choices, then you're free to have that opinion.
Did you even read the articles you linked to? "Look at Call of Duty 4 and Uncharted Drake’s Fortune, they didn’t require an install and ran fantastically wel...
These discussions usually become pointless "my-console-is-better-tha n-yours" drivel, but I'll answer a couple of your attempts to change the subject.
"Mass Effect developer Bioware wanted a HDD for downloadable content." Hey, you just made another good argument for how the lack of a standard HDD hurts the platform - good job. I was referring to Mass Effect suffering from interminable load times, which could have been minimized quite a bit by having a hard d...
I suppose it's inevitable, every time the glaring shortcomings of the 360 are pointed out, one quickly tries to change the subject to the PS3, or the Wii, or the one-armed man.
"What dev hasn't made a game because their is no guarantee their is a HDD?" Exactly, you'll never know what games haven't been made, or what a developer really wanted to do, but couldn't. Hell, if I was a 360 developer I'd probably also be real reluctant to invest time & effort into a game ...
Yes indeedee, time to trot out good ol' Choice from the stable. It's been said already - what about the choice of a reliable system, high capacity media, free online gaming, etc.?
Of all the unfortunate design decisions for the 360, most being directly attributable to the first-to-market-at-all-costs strategy, the lack of a standard HDD still sticks out. Some of us called it years ago: "What are they thinking? They're going to split the user base and gimp developers for ...
Strategyinformer.com, maybe. But I can´t believe it when sites like nex-gen.biz print such obvious PR fluff as this. Simply print word for word every unsubstantiated piece of PR spin, without any sort of editorial review or even common sense skepticism. Not a single number to support these claims of "double", nor any questioning of the relevance of "attach rates" that are always quoted only as life-to-date.
Jesus, why not just open up your site for the...
There clearly is a serious supply shortage with the 360, everyone knows this - a shortage of customers.
When they admit themselves that you can "walk into any given store and find the 360 in stock", then that tells you all you need to know.
I swear, these pronouncements from Microsoft are getting more frequent and more desperate. "We're number one in total worldwide sales... er, number two." "We're dominating the PS3 in worldwide sales... e...
"It is a shame that such a desirable and well made system has flaws of this magnitude."
:|
Yeah, a real shame that such a well made system is made so... poorly.
1) There are plenty of people who don't know jack about video, who probably didn't even hear about Blu-ray until the past year, and who think that DVD is "near-HD". Is that like near beer, or near pregnant?
2) Some people honestly think that we're just "that far" from practical digital distribution for the masses, and that everyone in every little town is itching to download movies to some massive hard drive on a PC parked near their television, as opposed to...
I remember crunching some numbers when 360 sales were around 10 million, and there was widespread skepticism of the official 3% defect rate being given out. It's interesting to do that again, now with sales reportedly around 17 million. The question I asked is this: "Given that no official numbers are available, how do simple statistics stand up to the available evidence - mostly anecdotal?" I agree with others that numbers from some optional warranty company have lots of inheren...
Gee, who would've predicted that? Someone who can't make an argument based on the merits of fact, who instead has to resort to trite name calling.
None of which has anything to do with the original topic, nor the obvious price that many consumers are paying for MS decisions. If you really (truthfully) can claim a functioning day-one system, then more power to you - enjoy it. Tick tock, tick tock...
You won't catch me praising Nintendo's selection of media, so let's not even try to use that to change the subject.
I guess it comes down to what people find most important. You, and many others, seem content with every choice MS makes, as long it fits their "market scheme", or helps them "win" some mythical competition. I, and many MORE others, would rather have the most capable and technologically reaching entertainment console with a longer-term value pro...
As THWIP and others have said, "MS did the right thing by going with a proven format..."
I agree completely with the points they list. But I would ask "right for whom?" Clearly, MS had to get to market first, before HD-DVD was ready, to have any chance of selling a significant number of systems this gen. But all of these decisions basically screw their own customers. It may have been "right" for MS to rush a product to market with poor design/tes...
Nothing like a semi-coherent rant to drive traffic to your little website.
And some of you people talk about this in-game XMB as if it's trivial. Have any of you ever developed software? I mean, use your imagination. What if the XMB structure is such that to introduce in-game XMB would immediately cause problems for 50% of the existing game library? Surely, adding this functionality will require some system resources, and hooks for invoking it from within any game, that weren...
"You gotta respect Toshiba regardless of how you put it."
Actually, they've apparently completely lost any remaining self-respect in the last 48 hours:
- We did nothing wrong
- It was bad luck
- Sony may still lose the HD format war
- The future is downloads anyway (we never really wanted to make an HD disc standard)
- We had the better product (our mom said so)
Now, I know that no one would ever submit a post to N4G with a misleading title, but as far as what's the "best platform"...
Nowhere does he say that the 360 is the better platform for contemporary games (nice creative paraphrasing there though, Bloodmask). I don't particularly care what is "best" for developers, or if Mr. Carmack is in a bit of a learning curve. While it may be true that console A is "better" than console B from a developer's stan...