Which is why Microsoft is covering the development costs and throwing in a bit extra as they always do when they go after titles that would never make financial sense on the xbox360 platform.
The reason why so many of those titles dont make sense on the Xbox360 platform is because most of the people who buy the 360 would never play such games. The reality is that the XBox brand appeals to a very narrow segment of the population.
This has been shown time and again a...
based on the 360's existing install base. Anyone remember Blue Dragon? Microsoft is funding the development, which means that Square Enix doesnt have to worry about whether it sells on the 360 or not. What's more, Microsoft can't be paying all that much since the 360 is getting a limited port (even Live features have not been guaranteed) rather than an full-on development effort.
Square has made it clear that they will only do the port to 360 after the full development for ...
... is to pay these developers to make the games for 360. These developers (who know that these games will never do well on the 360) and would typically not risk precious development $$ by making money for the 360. Why? Because the 360's install base is more or less limited to shooter fans. These developers would never recover their investment. However, Microsoft is happy to fund the development in the hope that it will broaden the 360's appeal.
This works out well for devel...
But the company management who don't properly fund the game's development.
Typically multi-platform title:
50-60 person team works for a couple of years developing on Xbox360. Once most of development is complete, a team of 5-10 port it to the PS3 in a few months. It's because the 360 came out first so developers were used to it and it has a larger installed base. Now that sales trend favor the PS3 you can expect development strategy to change.
You wrote:
"What would be wise is the inclusion of the 20gb drive in the arcade models. This would eliminate the ever so drawn out debate of no std hdd support for the 360. In essence, the arcade removes the memory card and instead get a 20gb hdd for the price of $279. The new 60gb sku already has a price point of $349 and the elite could get a minor price drop to $429."
1) It will not eliminate the debate unless Micrsoft allows developers to create games ...
It's complete nonsense that allowing installs will detract from other uses for the hard-drive. Does installing games on your PC keep it from running Microsoft Word properly? What's more, you can overwrite install data for games you no longer play without erasing game save data. From a technical standpoint theres no reason (or better yet, no excuse) to not have a standard hard-drive and enable game.
penny wise, pound foolish.
They tried to cut corners and ended up squandering the 1 year lead and actually spending more dealing with 33% RROD
But they can come back from it if they play it smart and give consumers a competitive value for money.
The 360 needs to be $300 and include wifi, online, and a web browser at a minimum (personally would like HDMI and 1080P DVD upscaling as well). Microsoft has the $$$ to do it. They just need to get their minds ...
Fact: Xbox360 does not allow USB keyboards for online gaming.
Fact: Xbox360 does not have 1080P upscaling for DVDs
Fact: Xbox360 cannot play 1080P Movies
Fact: XBox360 does not have an internet browser
Fact: You have to pay $50/yr to play Xbox360 games online
Fact: To do Wifi on Xbox360 you are foreced to use the $100 Microsoft brand one
Fact: To upgrade the hard-drive you are forced to use the really over-priced Microsoft brand one
Fact: Xbox360 can...
360: 3.7M
PS3: 5.0M
These are just facts. No commentary or opinions.
If you plan on keeping your machine for five years this is how it breaks down for current consoles.
_____________________________ _________________
Xbox360: $350 (new cheapest model)
Wifi Adapter: $100 (360 only accepts Xbox brand adapter)
Online: $250 ($50/yr x 5yr)
Total: $700
Other capabilties: DVD playback, media streaming
____________________________...
Here's what it should say:
given that ...
Wii @ $250: Free wifi & online (with web browser)
PS3 @ $400: Free wifi, online (with web browser), Blu-Ray, HDMI, etc
Therefore the following ...
360 @ $350: nothing included
... makes no sense. To play online for one year with wifi would cost a minimum of $150 more for a total of $500. The PS3 is $100 less, the Wii is $250 less. Whats more, the online fee is annual. Over fiv...
... given that ...
Wii @ $250: Free wifi & online (with web browser)
PS3 @ $400: Free wifi, online (with web browser), Blu-Ray, HDMI, etc
Therefore the following ...
360 @ $350: nothing included
... makes no sense. To play online for five years with wifi would cost a minimum of $150 more for a total of $500. The PS3 is $100 less, the Wii is $250 less. Whats more, the online fee is annual. Over five years, buying the 60GB 360 an...
2 - Still no built-in wifi?
Real price of the 20GB model for anyone who uses wifi at home.
$300 (clearance price) + $100 (wifi adapter) + $50 (annual fee)= $450
Adding wireless to the hardware costs a manufacturer less than $10. I can buy a wifi adapter on the internet for about $10-$15 but Microsoft made it so so that the 360 will only accept the one made by Microsoft that costs $100.
This pricing model is one of the reasons why hardware sales hav...
Microsoft should get rid of the core and send out refurbished hard-drives to everybody that already bought a core. They have a ton of them sitting around due to RROD.
If they do this they can allow developers to do mandatory hard-drive installs, which will enable better graphics and larger games.
Real price of the 20GB model for anyone who uses wifi at home.
$300 (clearance price) + $100 (wifi adapter) + $50 (annual fee)= $450
Adding wireless to the hardware costs a manufacturer less than $10. I can buy a wifi adapter on the internet for about $10-$15 but Microsoft made it so so that the 360 will only accept the one made by Microsoft that costs $100.
This pricing model is one of the reasons why hardware sales have been falling.
Peop...
So, yes, a price-cut would probably make a big difference if sony wants to catch the Wii.
2008 sales
PS3: 5.0M
360: 3.7M
360 needs a price cut and a big marketing campaign targeting a different group of customers.
... there are plenty of flaws that are easily spotted.
Here are a few:
-Some of the animation transitions are not smooth. For example, when the helghast come out of the troop carrier.
-The dust clouds under the tanks/troop carriers are the same brightness as dust clouds in open areas.
-The rag-doll physics are pretty good but in a couple of situations the bodies fall in unnatural positions (having said that it usually works pretty well)
-AI still n...
It's great that Sony made PS3 an open platform so we can run Linux and use any brand accessories but I wish they would enable atleast limited access to the GPU in Linux. I can understand they don't want people hacking the PS3 but even if they gave us limited access, where all requests run through the hyper-visor we could do amazing things.
I have reached my limit for responses to this article so I apologize for not being able to continue to clear things up for you guys on this ...
but at youtube resolution there's no guarantee that the textures and models are of high quality.