XBox 360

[Nathan]

Anyone hear about this yet? I guess its the next xbox. I dont know much about it, but im watching MTV right now it, and they are "revealing" it. This might even be a re-run, I rarely watch MTV, but its interesting to say the least.

[Repugnant Abomination]

They're revealing all the next generation systems at E3. Nintendo, sony and x-box will all be present.

[Nathan]

Apparently xbox got a jump on the competition then. It looked really cool, but I wonder what its going to be priced at. I only really play console systems for madden, and occasionally GTA. Maybe this new series of systems might change my mind, we shall see.

[Saint DH]

I haven't played ps2, or any game console for a very long time now. I don't plan on starting anytime soon either. Even with the arrival of these new game systems.

[buckeye]

Yeah whats funny is Xyos was featured as a professional gamer. For the record i know the ogres 1,2,3 (who play against him) and they say he's the biggest piece of shit ever. Xyos is good yes, really good, but nobody wants to play with him cause he's such a fucking pillow biter. More on him later when im sober, im fucked up the bouncer thought i was 21.

[Deadly Crescent Kick]

fuck the next x-box.

they took halo 2's plot and stretched it out over 2 games so we'd all have to buy fucking x-box 2.

[Ironic Mustache]

Dude do you have eyeliner on in that picture of you and Arty Lang?

[f3lix]

Bill Gates referenced that the new Xbox would be a home entertainment system that enables online surfing, messaging, all the shit that computers do. Price hints have been between 400-600 bucks. It should be quite incredible.

[MAGICLIT]

yes, quite.........

[Mr. Blonde]

Yeah it's just going to suck because H2 hasn't been out for long at all, only about 7 months or so. When are they planning on putting the xbox out for sale? Does anyone know if we'll be able to play old games on it?

November

And yes, I think you will be able to play old games on it, but as usual, you probably wont want to.

[the Butcher]

basically, microsoft is expanding their monopoly to a new degree that hasn't ever been done. they're making a system that can take the place of a shitton of entertainment equipment in the hopes that their product will become the be-all-end-all entertainment system. of course, they're microsoft, so they'll accomplish that quite easily.

[buckeye]

In this weeks edition of Time Bill Gates was quoted as saying...

"Note to the hard-core faithful: the next version of Halo will not, repeat not, be ready in time for the launch of Xbox 360. It will be part of the all-important second wave next spring. 'It's perfect,' 'The day Sony launches [the new PlayStation], and they walk right into Halo 3.'"

Brilliant if you ask me. Especially if they have a healthy supply of Xbox 360 at a lower price than the PS3.

We're assuming that the PS3 follows the path of the PS2, but this is allready wrong.

The PS2 came out first and grabbed market share, but the XBOX had an extra year for engineering and whatnot, so down the stretch the XBOX prooved to be the better machine. The PS2 had better software.

Now imagine if it was the other way around.

The PS3 will still have the best software - Halo is overrated, and Sony will devise of something better. Beyond Halo, Sony will have everything Microsoft has and much more.

But this time, the PS3 has more time to develop and use the latest technologies before making the commitment to go to market. It will blow the XBOX2 away.

I am going to wait for the PS3.

[StabMaster Arson]

Originally posted by DJ FC:
I am going to wait for the PS3.

word

Here we go:

PlayStation 3 announced for 2006

LOS ANGELES--Today saw the second of the big three console makers announce their next-generation platform. At its pre-E3 press conference, Sony Computer Entertainment gave the world its first look at the PlayStation 3, as it now is officially called.

The name was not unexpected, since Sony had been running an extensive teaser-ad campaign prepping the public for the PlayStation 3. The company had laid a blanket of posters around the Los Angeles Convention Center, site of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (aka E3). Bus stalls and billboards around the convention center proclaimed "Prepare for Chang3" in the distinctive PlayStation font with partial shots of the Dual Shock controller's square-circle-triangle-X buttons.

Sony also confirmed the PlayStation 3, will use Blu-Ray discs as its media format. The discs can hold up to six times as much data as current-generation DVDs. It will also support CR-ROM, CDR+W, DVD, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD+R formats. It also confirmed the machine would be backward-compatible all the way to the original PlayStation. It will also have slots for Memory Stick Duo, a SD slot, and a compact flash memory slot. It will also sport a slot for detachable 2.5 inch HDD somewhat similar the Xbox 360's.

Out of the box, the PS3 will have the capability to support seven Bluetooth controllers. It will also have six USB slots for peripherals--four up front and two in the back.

Sony also laid out the technical specs of the device. The PlayStation 3 will feature the much-vaunted Cell processor, which will run at 3.2 Ghz and feature 2.18 teraflops of performance. It will sport 256mb XDR main RAM at 3.2 Ghz, and have 256MB of GDDR VRAM at 700mhz.

Sony also unveiled the PS3's graphics chip, the RSX "Reality Synthesizer based on Nvidia technology. The GPU will be capable of 128bit pixel precision, 1080p resolution, some of the highest HD resolution around. It also has over 300 million transistors lager than any processor available commercially today. It was manufactured using the 90nm process with 8 layers of metal. The RSX is more powerful than two GeForce 6800 ultras, which would cost rough $1000 if bought today.

The PlayStation 3 will also sport some hefty multimedia features, such as video chat, internet access, digital photo viewing, digital audio and video. Sony Computer Entertainment head Ken Kutaragi introduced it as a "Super computer for computer entertainment."

[Nathan]

Wow, the specs for the xbox and the PS3 sounds quite similiar. I dont have the xbox 360 ones handy, but they both seem to be in the same ballpark. Im gonna have to wait all of this out and just see which pans out to be the best choice.. Im definetely looking to get a new system this fall/spring though.

[f3lix]

Xbox is likely to get better software support with their new Xbox 360, due to the success of the Xbox. It may come down to a battle of prices, too. Both of these machines are going to be damn expensive in comparison to the past couple.

[Deadly Crescent Kick]

Originally posted by Ironic Mustache:
Dude do you have eyeliner on in that picture of you and Arty Lang?

of course i do. you of all people should know that authentic ninjas wear eyeliner.



the specs on these nextgen console are giving a major nerdon.

of course, these motherfuckers are probably going to cost us an arm and a leg.

Wow, Nintendo is dead. Terrible backward-thinking, in a market where inovation and marketshare is everything; Nintendo will not last long.

A Video Match: The Nintendogs vs. Gangs, Thugs and Wars
By ROBERT LEVINE

Published: May 23, 2005

Yhe Electronics Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles last week, the demonstration booth for Nintendo seemed like an island of innocence amid the retorts of digitized gunfire.

While most game publishers showed sequels, sports simulations and shooting games based on grim tropes such as gang violence and World War II, Nintendo was promoting, among other games, Nintendogs. It lets players raise and train virtual pets on the Nintendo DS, the dual-screen hand-held game machine released last year.

Developed by Shigeru Miyamoto, who created the Mario Brothers and Legend of Zelda franchises, Nintendogs is exactly the kind of game the company is known for: addictive, odd and more than a little cute. Nintendo's Game Boy and DS systems dominate the market for hand-held games, and it just announced that it would introduce Game Boy Micro, a sleek, pocket-size machine, this fall.

But the focus at the expo was on the console business, where Nintendo lags. In part because of its image as a console for children, Nintendo's GameCube has only 20 percent of the market in the United States, trailing the PlayStation 2 from Sony by a large margin and the Xbox from Microsoft by a smaller one, according to the NPD group, a market research firm.

"It is not sufficient when it comes to market share," said Satoru Iwata, the president of Nintendo, speaking through a translator in an interview. "But market share is not everything; think about profitability."

For the last two fiscal years, Nintendo's operating margin has been about 25 percent, according to the company. Sony's games business is profitable, but Microsoft's has lost money.

Last week, Sony unveiled its PlayStation 3 and Microsoft showed off its Xbox 360, both of which will feature high-definition video and impressive processing power.

When Nintendo introduced its next console, the Revolution, it avoided talking about specifications, but implicitly conceded that the machine might be less technically impressive than its competitors.

"It has the power of a Ferrari, and they are talking about Saturn rockets," said Mr. Iwata, referring to the three consoles. "But we are traveling on earth."

Instead of superior technology, he said, Nintendo would set itself apart as it has in the past, with imaginative games. The company is the second-largest game seller in the United States, behind Electronic Arts. But that advantage could be hard to maintain as consumer tastes change. Over the last five years, Mario has lost market share to the thugs of Grand Theft Auto as the audience for video games has gotten older and the games themselves have moved into the mainstream of pop culture.

The Revolution will move Nintendo even farther away from the other two console makers. Both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 represent components of a parent company's master media plan. Sony's console, for example, will use the proprietary Blu-ray DVD format.

Nintendo is interested only in selling games, and the Revolution will need an extra attachment even to play regular DVD's. However, Revolution will play classic Nintendo games from the 80's and 90's that will be available for downloading, including Super Mario Brothers and Metroid.

"They're bobbing while everyone else is weaving," said Scott Steinberg, a vice president of Sega America, which makes games for all consoles. "They've always been about family entertainment, not just technology."

But even with its own popular titles, Nintendo will need support from such outside game makers. It will have to convince them that it can maintain enough market share to make their products viable. Some games, such as the 2K Sports series, are made only for PlayStation and Xbox.

"For a company like Activision, it's less about the market share and more about the economic model," said Kathy Vrabeck, president of Activision Publishing. The question, she said, was whether it made sense to release titles on a third console. "To date, on our older skewing titles for hardcore gamers, the answer is: yes, it is."

Hit games are crucial to console sales. "This is an industry where younger consumers aspire up," said Reggie Fils-Aime, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Nintendo of America, and any machine seen as a mere toy could be shunned. He pointed out that releases like "The Legend of Zelda" appealed to hardcore gamers in their 20's and 30's, some of whom played the early games when they were children.

"I think we were unfairly pigeonholed as a child's system, and I don't think we successfully challenged that," he said. He wants to expand Nintendo's market share by drawing in people who aren't traditional gamers with products that are not traditional games. One recent GameCube title, "Donkey Konga," came with a set of bongo drums that players had to hit in time to music and cues on-screen.

"They're really pushing innovation in game play," said J Allard, who oversees the Xbox business for Microsoft. "But they didn't reveal enough about Revolution for me to have an opinion."

In effect, Nintendo is betting that the games of the future will not demand more power than the Revolution delivers, according to Michael Pachter, a research analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities. "But I think they're wrong. It's a macho business." Even so, he said, he was impressed with the creativity of Nintendogs, which he described as brilliant.

It would seem that Nintendo's products are aimed at the child in all of us. At the end of the interview, Mr. Iwata took out a Nintendo DS running a product in development, in which math equations ran up the screen and players had to solve them quickly. The software will be able to track players' scores over the course of a day, week or month.

"My mother is playing with this now," Mr. Iwata said. "I think Nintendo is the only publisher in the world that is willing to make this kind of application."

[Deadly Crescent Kick]

anybody see the screenshots for gears of war?

holy shit, man.

and all of the screens you see for the 360 are rendered on an alpha version of 360. so all the games being previewed will look sweeter than what we see now!

but so far, gears of war looks like the only game that will be able to beat half-life 2 in the graphics dept.

[Ironic Mustache]

Poor Nintendo. Their monopoly has been not only been broken, but they've been left so far behind that it's not even funny.

The funny thing is this:

Gamers all know how fucked Nintendo is, yet somehow I still read articles that predict Nintendo to gain market share in this next generation.

Gain market share? What in the hell?

Their reasoning (which is terrible) went like this:

Microsoft is taking over the over-all entertainment aspect of console gaming; IE The Xbox 360 will do much more than game.

Nintendo is specializing in gaming.

PS3 is stuck in the middle and will die.

This looks good on paper, to say that the company that is stuck in the middle will die, whereas the company that focuses on gaming will live, but the fact of the matter (what they are all too ignorant to realize) is this:

Even if Sony doesn't focus on gaming as much as Nintendo, it will still be a better gaming machine because of how much farther ahead they are

Hell, even the XBox360 will offer better "gaming" than the specialized Nintendo. It doesn't take a genius to realize this.

[ May 25, 2005, 02:43 PM: Message edited by: DJ FC ]

[Ironic Mustache]

The "success" of the gamecube should have been enuogh to realize that.